22 JAMES SMITUSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 



of science,* but it is said that a disagreement with the coundl of the so- 

 ciety on account of the non-acceptance of one of his papers probably led 

 liim to abandon the idea. This circumstance is of importance as indicat- 

 ing the bent of his mind and the mode in which he proposed to benefit 

 mankind. The difficulty referred to, however, undoubtedly led him to 

 give broader scope to his plan, and to choose a trustee for his endow- 

 ment who would be hampered by no conventional or traditional restric- 

 tions, and who would understand and carry out his purposes in the most 

 liberal and practical manner.t 



It is peculiarly gratifying to Americans to remember that the first 

 award made by the Council of the Royal Society of the Copley medal, the 

 most honorable within its gift, was to our own countryman, Benjamin 

 Franklin, who was adjudged to be the author of the most important 

 scientific discovery. On this occasion the president of the society stated 

 that the council, ''keeping steadily in view the advancement of science 

 and useful knowledge, and the honor of the society, had never thought 

 of confining the benefaction within the narrow limits of any particular 

 country, much less of the society itself." 



As this was the spirit of the leading scientific organization in existence, 

 of which Smithson himself was an active and honored member, he well 

 exemplified its liberal principles by transferring his foundation of a great 

 establishment for the ''increase and diffusion of knowledge among men'^ 

 from London to the city of Washington. 



Smithson received a large estate from his half brother, Colonel Ilenry 

 Louis Dickinson, in trust for the benefit of the son of this brother as^ 

 well as of his mother. To this nephew, to whom he was probably 

 attached, or because he had derived a large part of his fortune from his 

 father, he left his whole fortune. Contingent on the death of this young 

 man, he made the remarkable provision of an establishment in the United 

 States which has secured for him the distinction of being a benefactor of 

 manliind. 



* The charter states that the Eoyal Society was founded for the improvement of 

 natural knowledge. This epithet n a <uraZ, Dr. Paris remarks, "was intended to imply 

 a meaning of which very few persons are aware. At the period of the establishment 

 of the society the arts of witchcraft and divinations were very extensively encouraged, 

 and the word natural was therefore introduced in contradistinction to aupematuraU* 

 Hooke, the president, declared, in 1663, that " the business and design of the Royal 

 Society was to improve the knowledge of natural things, and all useful arts, manufac- 

 tures, meohanick practises, engynes and inventions by experiments — (not meddling 

 with divinity, metaphysics, moralls, politicks, grammar, rhetorick, or logick.)" 



Dr. WoUaston had made a gift of £1,000 to the Royal Society, the interest of which 

 was to be annually applied towards the encouragement of experiments. 



t " Our countrymen do not believe that America is more advanced in knowledge and 

 refinement than Europe; but they know that, with slight divergencies, both hemi- 

 spheres are in this respect nearly abreast of e.ach other. And they know that, both 

 being yet far from the gqal, their generous transatlantic rivals start unencumbered by- 

 many old prejudices and social trammels which we cannot here escape from."— (Tait'a 

 Edinburgh Magazine, 1832, p. 234.) 



