96 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



scholars. After due deliberation it received the almost unanimous 

 approval of the scientific world. With faith and sturdy perse- 

 verance, he adhered to the plan and steadily resisted all attempts 

 to overthrow it. 



In the thirty-two years during which he administered the great 

 trust, he never swerved from his first purpose ; and he succeeded at 

 last in realizing the ideas with which he set out. But it has taken 

 all that time to get rid of the incumbrances with which Congress 

 had overloaded the Institution. In this work Professor HENRY 

 taught the valuable lesson to all founders and supporters of colleges, 

 that they should pay less for brick and mortar and more for brains. 

 Under the first orders imposed upon him by Congress, he was 

 required to expend $25,000 a year in purchasing books. By wise 

 resistance he managed to lengthen out the period for that expendi- 

 ture ten years; and a few years ago he had the satisfaction of 

 seeing Congress remove from the Institution the heavy load by 

 transferring the Smithsonian library to the Library of Congress. 

 The fifty-eight thousand volumes and forty thousand pamphlets of 

 rare scientific value which are now upon our shelves, have added 

 greatly to the value of the national library; but their care and 

 preservation would soon have absorbed the resources of the Smith- 

 sonian. When Congress shall have taken the other incumbrance, 

 the national museum, off the hands of the Institution by making 

 fit provision for the care of the great collection, they will have done 

 still more to realize the ideas of Professor HENRY. 



He has stood by our side in all these years, meeting every great 

 question of science with that calm spirit which knew no haste and 

 no rest. At the call of his Government he discovered new truths 

 and mustered them into its service. The twelve hundred light- 

 houses that shine on our shores, the three thousand buoys along our 

 rivers and coasts, testify to his faithfulness and efficiency. 



When it became evident that we could no longer depend upon the 



