DISCOUESE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 281 



assured success ; the vindication and the unpretentious triumph of 

 "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 its leading advocates to control the action of the Regents, 

 even to the neglect and abandonment of all the other interests 

 indicated by the statute. * 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 books will 

 ever be 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 are 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."| 



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

 means at command were insufficient to support worthily either a 

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

 though slowly formed of only really valuable scientific works, and 

 this largely by exchanges with the Smithsonian publications, § in 



* See "Supplement," Note K. 



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

 quired, consisting of the past volumes of the transactions and proceedings of all 

 the learned societies in every language. These are the original sources from which 

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

 drawn." {Smithsonian lieport for 1847, p. 139 of Sen. ed.— p. 131 of H. Rep. ed.) 



X Smithsonian Report for 1851, p. 224 (of Sen. ed.)— p. 210 (of H. Rep. ed.) 



§"It is the intention of the Regents to render the Smithsonian library the 

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

 country, and this it will be enabled to accomplish by means of its exchanges, 

 which will furnish it with all the current journals and publications of societies, 

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

 may offer. The Institution has already more complete sets of Transactions of 

 learned societies than are to be found in the oldest libraries in the United States." 

 (Smithsonian Report for 1855, p. 29.) 



