278 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



nent design of his bequest is the promotion of abstract science. In 

 this respect the Institution holds an otherwise unoccupied place in 

 this country; and it adopts two fundamental maxims in its policy; 

 first to do nothing with its funds which can be equally well done 

 by other means ; and second to produce results which as far as pos- 

 sible will benefit mankind in general." * 



Congress naturally with a prevailing tendency to the literary, 

 the showy, and the popular, had (after eight years of dilatory con- 

 troversy) directed in its organizing Act (sec. 5,) the erection of a 

 building " of sufficient size, and with suitable rooms or halls for the 

 reception and arrangement upon a liberal scale, of objects of natural 

 history, including a geological and mineralogical cabinet, also a 

 chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the necessary 

 lecture-rooms." By the 9th section of the Act, the Board of Re- 

 gents were authorized to expend the remaining income of the endow- 

 ment " as they shall deem best suited for the promotion of the pur- 

 pose of the testator." Out of an annual income of some 40,000 

 dollars, the Regents in full accord with their Secretary (whose care- 

 fully elaborated programme they officially adopted December 13 r 

 1847,) succeeded in creditably inaugurating all the objects specified 

 in the charter ; and at the same time in establishing the system of 

 publication of original Memoirs, to which Henry justly attached 

 the first importance. . 



An incident in itself too slight to produce a visible ripple on the 

 current of Henry's life, is yet too characteristic to be here omitted. 

 Dr. Robert Hare having in 1847 decided upon resigning his 

 Professorship of Chemistry in the Medical Department of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, (the largest and best patronized in the 

 country,) the vacant chair was tendered by the Board of Trustees to- 

 Professor Henry. His friend Dr. Hare himself used his influence 

 to induce Henry to become his successor ; particularly dwelling on 

 the large amount of leisure afforded for independent investigations.. 



knowledge that man has found his greatness and his happiness, the high superi- 

 ority which he holds over the other animals who inhabit the earth with him; 

 and consequently that no ignorance is probably without loss to him, no error 

 without evil." (Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, 182-1, vol. xxiv. or new series, voU 

 viii. p. 54.) ] 



* Smithsonian Report for 1853, p. 8. 



