PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 287 



honest submission to the controlling Act of Congress, he made - 

 as honest avowal of his desire and of his endeavor to have that 

 legislation modified. Hampered by provisions he deemed un- 

 wise and injurious, he yet skilfully managed to reconcile 

 contestant interests, and to secure the. entire confidence and 

 concurrence of the Regents. Henceforth his purpose and his 

 effort were to be directed to the unique object of encouraging 

 and fostering the development of what has so flippantly been 

 designated " useless knowledge ; " and merging self in the com- 

 munity of physical inquirers and collaborators, to become the 

 high-priest of abstract investigation ; — prepared to lend all prac- 

 ticable assistance to that small but earnest band of nature- 

 students, vi^ho inspired by no aims of material utility, seek from 

 their mistress as the only reward of their devotion, the higher 

 knowledge of truth.* 



Of the two distinct objects of endowment specified by Smith- 

 son's Will, — " the increase— and the difusion—of knowledge," 

 Henry forcibly remarked : " These though frequently con- 

 founded, are very different processes, and each may exist inde- 

 pendent of the other. While we rejoice that in our country 

 above all others, so much attention is paid to the diffusion of 

 knowledge, truth compels us to say that comparatively little 

 encouragement is given to its increase.'f There is another 

 division with regard to knowledge which Smithson does not 

 embrace in his design; viz. the application of knowledge to use- 

 ful purposes in the arts. And it was not necessary he should 

 found an institution for this purpose. There are already in 

 every civilized country, establishments and patent laws for the 

 encouragement of this department of mental industry. As soon 

 as any laranch of science can be brought to bear on the necessi- 



* Henry has finely said : "Let censure or rirlicnie fall elsewliere, — on 

 those whose lives are passed without labor and without objt^ct ; hut let 

 praise and honor be bestowed on him who seeks with unwearied patience 

 to develop the order, harmony, and beauty of even the smallest part of 

 God's creation. A life devoted ^exclusively to the study of a sincle insect, 

 is not spent in vain. No animal however insignificant is isolated ; it 

 forms a part of the great system of nature, and is governed by the same 

 general laws which control the most prominent beings of the organic 

 world." {Siiiitlisoninn Report for 1855, p. 20.) 



t Swainson the Naturalist, the conntryman and friend of Smithson, has 

 very pointedly marked this r^copnized distinction. "The constitution of 

 the Zoological Society is of a very mixed nature, admirably adapted 

 indeed to the reigning taste. It is more calculated however to diffuse 

 than to increase the actual stock of scientific knowledge." (Discourse on 

 the Studij of Natural History, Cabinet Cyclopaedia. 16mo. London, 1834, 

 part iv. chap. i. sec. 221, p. 314.) And again: "It is very essential 

 when we speak of the diflfnsion or extension of science, that we do not 

 confound these stages of development with discovery or advancement; 

 since the latter mnv be as difiwrent from the former as depth is from, 

 shaUowueas." (Same work, part iv. chap. ii. sec. 240, p. 343.) 



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