142 The Smithsonian Institution 



upon him by the Board was the preparation of a program 

 of organization, which was presented on December 8, 1847, 

 and in its essential features adopted on the i3th. By this 

 " Plan of Organization " and the brief essay in which it was 

 explained and illustrated, the future character of the Institu- 

 tion was determined. It was shown that the Institution is not 

 a national establishment in the sense in which institutions 

 dependent on the government are so, and that its operations 

 ought to be mingled as little as possible with those of the 

 government, and its funds applied exclusively and faithfully 

 to the diffusion of knowledge among men ; that the bequest 

 is intended for the benefit of mankind in general, and that its 

 influence ought not to be restricted to a single district or even 

 nation ; that the terms "increase" and "diffusion" of know- 

 ledge are logically distinct, and should be literally interpreted 

 with reference to the will ; that the increase of knowledge 

 should be effected by the encouragement of original re- 

 searches of the highest character and its diffusion by the pub- 

 lication of the results of original research, by means of the 

 publication of a series of volumes of original memoirs ; that 

 the operations of the Institution should not be restricted in 

 favor of any particular kind of knowledge, though if prefer- 

 ence is to be given to any branches of research, they should 

 be to the higher and apparently more abstract, to the dis- 

 covery of new principles rather than of isolated facts. 



These were, in brief, the principles announced in this mas- 

 terly treatise. 



In the second part of the program propositions were 

 made in regard to the promotion of certain interests pre- 

 scribed in the plan adopted by Congress: the accumulation 

 and care of collections of objects of nature and art, the de- 

 velopment of a library, the providing of courses of lectures, 

 and the organization of a national system of meteorological 

 observation. 



