JAMES SMITIISON AND HIS BEQUEST. 3 



possessors by iuheritance, let tlie trust of James Smithson to the United 

 States of America be faithfully executed by their representatives in Con- 

 gress, let the result accomplish his object, 'the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men,' and a wreath of more unfadiug verdure shall 

 entwine itself in the lapse of future ages around the name of Smithson, 

 than the united hands of tradition, history, and poetry have braided 

 around the name of Percy through the long perspective in ages past of 

 a thousand years." 



The Duke of Northumberland provided a liberal education for his son 

 James, who i>ursned his studies at Oxford University, where he became 

 attached to Pembroke College, distinguished for having among its 

 fellows the learned Blackstone, the eloquent Whitfield, and the cele- 

 brated Ur. Samuel Johnson. Uere the young student was noted for 

 diligence, application, and good scholarship, and attracted marked at- 

 tention by his proficiency in chemistry. His vacations were i)assed in 

 excursions to collect minerals and ores which it was his favorite occu- 

 l)a(i()n to analyzo. At Oxford ho received the )mi)ul8e for scientillc 

 research wliicli charaxjterized all his future life, and the ardent desire not 

 only to advance knowledge himself but to devote in after years his whole 

 fortune to pro\'ide means by which others could prosecute this high and 

 noble i)nrsuit. 



He was graduated at Pembroke College on the 2Gth of May, 178G, as 

 James Lewis Macie,* by which name he seems at that time to have 

 been known, and which he retained for about fourteen years, when he 

 ado])ted that of James Smithson.! 



Smithson never married, and as a man of wealth had ample op- 

 portunity lor leisure or the indulgence of mere personal gratification. 

 But idleness and i)leasure were not compatible with the spirit and ardor 

 of the young student of chemistry. He diligently pursued his investi- 

 gations, and his ambition to become associated with the votaries of 

 science induced him to seek membership in the Royal Society of London. 



" Tiie Koyal Oociety of London," says Arago, " enjoys throughout the 

 whole kingdom a vast and deserved consideration. The ijhilosophical 

 transactions which it publishes have been for more than a century and 

 a half the glorious archives in which British genius holds it an honor to 

 deposit its titles to the recognition of posterity. The wish to see his 

 name inscribed in the list of fellow-laborers in this truly national col- 

 lection beside the names of Newton, Bradley, Priestley, and Cavendish, 

 has always been among the students of the celebrated universities of 

 Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, and Dublin, the most anxious as well 

 as legitimate object of emulation. Here is always the highest point of 

 ambition of the man of science." 



* So given in the Oxford Catalogue. In the Philosophical Transactions and the 

 Gentleman's Magazine the name is given as James Louis Macie. 



t His second jiaper in the Philosophical Transactions, 1802, is by James Smithson. 

 Sir Davics Gilbert, in his eulogy of him in 1830, calls him James Lewis Smithson. 



