DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR: NOTES. 413 



scarcely suffice for this purpose." * In his fifth annual report he 

 maintains that "the idea ought never to be entertained that the 

 portion of the limited income of the Smithsonian fund which can 

 be devoted to the purchase of books, will ever be sufficient to meet 

 the wants of the American scholar." f I n h* 8 sixth annual report, 

 exhibiting the valuable contributions to knowledge which the Insti- 

 tution had already effected in the few years of its existence, he 

 remarks: "All the anticipations indulged with regard to it have 

 been fully realized ; and after an experience of six years, there can 

 now be no doubt of the true policy of the Regents in regard to it. 

 I am well aware however that the idea is entertained by some that 

 the system of active operations though at present in a flourishing 

 condition, cannot continue to be the prominent object of attention ; 

 and that under another set of directors other counsels will prevail 

 and other measures be adopted, and what has been done in establish- 

 ing this system will ultimately be undone." He presents however 

 the inspiriting and consoling reflection: "But if notwithstanding 

 all this, the Institution is destined to a change of policy, what has 

 been well done in the line we are advocating, can never be undone. 

 The new truths developed by the researches originated by the Insti- 

 tution and recorded in its publications, the effect of its exchanges 

 with foreign countries, and the results of its cataloguing system, can 

 never be obliterated: they will endure through all coming time. 

 Should the Government of the United States be dissolved, and the 

 Smithsonian fund dissipated to the winds, the l Smithsonian Con- 

 tributions to Knowledge' will still be found in the principal libraries 

 of the world, a perpetual monument of the wisdom and liberality 

 of the founder of the Institution, and of the faithfulness of those 

 who first directed its affairs. Whatever therefore may be the future 

 condition of the Institution, the true policy for the present, is to 

 devote its energies to the system of active operations. All other 

 objects should be subordinate to this, and in no wise be suffered to 

 diminish the good which it is capable of producing. It should be 

 prosecuted with discretion, but with vigor : the results will be its 

 vindication." J In his next annual report he reiterates: "A mis- 

 cellaneous and general library, museum, and gallery of art, (though 

 important in themselves,) have from the first been considered by 

 those who have critically examined the Will of Smithson, to be 

 too restricted in their operations and too local in their influence, to 

 meet the comprehensive intentions of the testator; and the hope 



* Smithsonian Report for 1850, pp. 186, 187, and 205 (Sen. ed.) pp. 178, 179, and 

 197 (H. R. ed.) 



t Smithsonian Report for 1851, p. 224 (Sen. ed.) p. 216 (H. R. ed.) 



J Smithsonian Report for 1852, pp. 233, 234 (Sen. ed.) pp. 225, 226 (H. R. ed.) 



