356 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



ministry at the altar of science, to be occupied so largely with the. 

 drudgery and the routine of merely administrative duties. True 

 though it be, that talents adapted to such functions are very much- 

 more common and available than those which form the successful 

 interrogator of Nature, who that knows by what exertions Smith- 

 son's wise endowment was rescued from the wasteful dissipation of 

 heterogeneous local agencies and objects by what heroic constancy, 

 and through what ordeals of remonstrance and misconception, of 

 contumely and denunciation, the modest income of the fund (hus- 

 banded and increased by prudent management) was yearly more 

 and more withdrawn from merely popular uses and interests, and 

 more and more applied to its truest and highest purpose, the foster- 

 ing of abstract research, the founding of a pharos for the future, 

 the "increasing and diffusing of knowledge among men," who 

 that knows all this, can say that Henry was mistaken in his de- 

 votion, or that his ripest years were wasted in an unprofitable 

 mission?* But in addition to this vast work, accomplished as 

 probably no one of his scientific compeers would have had the forti- 

 tude and the indomitable persistence to carry through, his personal 

 contributions to modern science (as has been shown) have through- 

 out been neither few nor unimportant. 



One remarkable circumstance relating to Henry's directorship of 

 the Smithsonian publications (which have had so wide a distribution 

 and influence) f must not be here passed over. Having himself, 



*"But it is not alone the material advantages which the world enjoys from 

 the study of abstract science on which its claims are founded. Were all further 

 applications of its principles to practical purposes to cease, it would still be 

 entitled to commendation and support on account of its more important effects 

 upon the general mind. It offers unbounded fields of pleasurable, healthful, and 

 ennobling exercise to the restless intellect of man, expanding his powers and 

 enlarging his conceptions of the wisdom, the energy, and the beneficence of the 

 great Ruler of the universe. From these considerations then, and others of a 

 like kind, I am fully justified in the assertion that this Institution has clone 

 good service in placing prominently before the country the importance of original 

 research, and that its directors are entitled to commendation for having so uni- 

 formly and persistently kept in view the fact that it was not intended for 

 educational or immediately practical purposes, but .for the encouragement of the 

 study of theoretical principles and the advancement of abstract knowledge." 

 (Smithsonian Report for 1859, p. 17.) 



t"The number of copies of the Smithsonian Contributions distributed, is 

 greater than that of the Transactions of any scientific or literary society ; and 

 therefore the Institution offers the best medium to be found for diffusing a 

 knowledge of scientific discoveries." (Smithsonian Report for 1851, p. 202.) 



