DISCOURSE OF \V. B. TAYLOR. 281 



assured success : the vindication and the unpretentious triumph oi 

 "the just man tenacious of purpose." 



The most formidable of the specialist schemes both in Congress 

 and elsewhere, was that of the Library faction, which prosecuted 

 with remarkable zeal and energy, threatened by the acknowledged 

 ability of it- leading advocates to control the action of the Regents, 

 even to the neglect and abandonment of all the other interests 

 indicated by the statute. 51 In Henry's judgment the Institution 

 should possess simply a working library, an auxiliary for those 

 engaged in scientific research, a repertory well supplied with the 

 published Proceedings and Transactions of learned Societies, but 

 which so far from aiming at an encyclopaedic or a literary character, 

 should be mainly supplementary to the large National Library 

 already established at the Capital. f "The idea ought never to be 

 entertained that the portion of the limited income of the Smith- 

 sonian fund which can be devoted to the purchase of book.- will 

 ever he sufficient to meet the wants of the American scholar. On 

 the contrary it is the duty of this Institution to increase those wants 

 by pointing out new fields for exploration, and by stimulating other 

 researches than those which arc now* cultivated. It is a part of that 

 duty to make the value of libraries more generally known, and their 

 want in this country more generally felt." J 



Processes of Divestment. — Henry's declaration that the moderate 

 means at command were insufficient to support worthily either a 

 Library, or a Museum, alone, was early justified. The Library 

 though slowlv formed of only really valuable scientific work-, and 

 this largely by exchanges with the Smithsonian publications, § in 



-See "Supplement," Xote K. 



t"To carry on the operations of the first section a working library will Ik- re- 

 quired, [sisting of He' past volumes of the transactions ami proceedings of all 



tli,- learned societies in every language. These an- tie- original sources from which 

 the most important principles of tie' positive knowledge of our day have been 

 drawn." I Smithsonian Report for 1847, \<. 139 of Sen. ed.— p. 131 of II. Rep. i d. 



^Smithsonian Report for 1851, p. U-'l of Sen. ed. —p. 210 (ol II. Rep. i a. 



;-It i- the int.aite.n of tie- Regents to render the Smithsonian librarj the 

 most extensive and perfect collection of Transactions and scientific works in this 



country, and this it will i nabled to a, mplish by means of it. exchanges, 



which will furnish it with all tie- current journal- and publications of socii 

 while the separate series may be completed indue time as opportunity and means 

 may offer. Tie' Institution has already more complete sets of Transactions of 

 learned societies than are to >,.. found in the oldest libraries in the United states." 

 {Smithsonian Report for 1855. p. -"' 



