A MEMOIR ON THE SCIENTIFIC CHARACTER AND RE- 

 SEARCHES OF JAMES SMITHSON, ESQ., F.R.S., 



By Walter R. Johnson, 



Corresponcling Secretary of Iho Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila. 

 dolphin, Member of the National Institute, &c. 



Eead before the National Institute, Wathington, D. C, April 0, 1844.* 



PRELIMINARY NOTE. 



In the many notices of Mr. SmithFon's bequest, and plans for establish- 

 ing an institution on its basis, which have either officially or otherwise been 

 brought before the public, no succinct account has, so far as the writer's 

 recollection serves, been offered of the scientific pursuits of Mr. Smithson 

 himself, — a very material omission, it is conceived, — and one which could 

 not fail to encourage, or at least excuse, the multiplication of schemes, for 

 carrying out the provisions of his will. A knowledge of the habits, pur- 

 suits and feelings of the testator, on the contrary, may relieve us from un- 

 certainty in the interpretation of his language, and the application of his 

 bequest. 



If the gratitude of posterity attaches to the memory of 

 Buccessful warriors who enlarge the boundaries of a nation's 

 pliysical domain, much more is it duo to him who opens the 

 fields of knowledge, invites ardent votaries to their cultiva- 

 tion, and thus promotes that nation's happiness, glory, and 

 prosperity. 



Under whatever form of government, in whatever social 

 condition, the man of practical benevolence seeks to give 

 his benefactions the character of intellectual blessings ; 

 whether, like Bridgewater, he aspires with lofty aim to un- 

 ravel the designs of creation, explain the final causes of 

 physical laws, and impress by written treatises, the lessons 

 of eternal truth on the matured understandings of men ; 

 whether, with the acute, discriminating and practical Girard, 

 he content himself with the humbler but not less honorable 

 office, of rescuing from ignorance, vice and degradation, the 

 homeless and friendless orphan ; whether, with Franklin, ho 

 found a library ; with Maclure endow an academy for re- 

 searches in natural science ; or, with Smithson, seek to 

 stimulate into activity the spirit of philosophical research ; 



* Philadelphia, Barret & Joues, Printers, 83 Carter's alley, 1844, 



123 



