35(j MI'MORIAL or - JOSEPH HENRY. 



ministry at the altar of science, to b tcupied so largely with the 



drudgery and the routine of merely administrative duties. True 

 though it be, that talents adapted to such functions are very much 

 more common and available than those which form the successful 

 interrogator of Nature, who that knows by what exertions Smith- 

 son's wise endowment was rescued from the wasteful dissipation of 

 heterogeneous local agencies and objects — by what heroic constancy, 

 and through what ordeals of remonstrance and misconception, of 

 contumely and denunciation, the modest income of the fund (hus- 

 banded and increased by prudent management) was yearly more 

 ami more withdrawn from merely popular uses and interests, and 

 more and more applied to its truest and highest purpose, the foster- 

 ing of abstract research, the founding of a pharos for the future, — 

 the "increasing ami diffusing of knowledge among men," — who 

 that knows all this, can say that Henry was mistaken in his de- 

 votion, or that his ripest years were wasted in an unprofitable 

 mission?* But in addition to this vast work, — accomplished as 

 probably no one of his scientific compeers would have had the forti- 

 tude and the indomitable persistence to carry through, his personal 

 contributions to modern science (as has been shown) have through- 

 out been neither few nor unimportant. 



One remarkable circumstance relating to Henry's directorship of 



the Smithsonian publications (which have had so wide a distribution 

 and influence)! must not be here passed over. Having himself, 



*"l'.ut it is not alone the material advantages which the world enjoys from 

 the study of abstract science on which its claims are founded. Were Ml further 

 applications of its principles t<> practical purposes to cease, it would still be 

 entitled to commendation and support on account of its more important effects 

 upon the general mind. It offers unbounded fields of pleasurable, healthful, and 

 ennobling exercise to the restless intellect of man, expanding his powers and 

 enlarging his conceptions of the wisdom, tin- energy, and tin- beneficence of the 

 great Ruler of the universe. From these considerations then, and others ol a 

 like kind, r am fully justified in the assertion thai this Institution tins done 



I I service in placing prominently before tin' country the importance of original 



research, and that iis directors are entitled t mmendation for having so uni- 

 formly inn! persistently kept in view the fact that it was not. intended for 



educational or inn liately practical purposes, but tor tin- encouragement of the 



study of th 'ctical principles and the advancement of abstract knowledge." 



{Smithsonian Report tor Is;,:!, p. 17. ) 



f'The number of copies of the Smithsonian Contributions distributed, is 

 greater than that of tin- Transactions of any scientific or literary society; and 

 therefore the Institution offers the best medium to he found lor diffusing a 

 knowledge of scientific discoveries." [Smithsonian Report for 1851, 11. 202.) 



