j REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



geometer who directed them; they have been put in motion nearly 

 as the body is by a soul of which it knows nothing; the rest of the 

 world has even less perception of the genius which presided over the 

 enterprise, and enjoys the success it has attained only with a species 

 of ingratitude." 



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 ex- 

 ercise to the* restless intellect of man, expanding his powers and 

 enlarging his conceptions of the wisdom, the energy, and the benefi- 

 cence 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 done good service 

 in placing prominently before the country the importance of original 

 research, and that its directors are entitled to commendation for 

 having so uniformly 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. 



Smithson declares his bequest to be for the increase of knowledge 

 and the diffusion of this among men, being well aware that a single new 

 truth added to the general stock must affect man for good in all times 

 and all places. We doubt not that when the importance of the 

 abstract speculations of science is more generally and more justly 

 appreciated, individuals who are favored by Providence with those 

 peculiarities of mind which fit them for the advancement of science 

 will be set apart as the priests or interpreters of nature, and be 

 furnished liberally with the means necessary to benefit their fellow men 

 by the discovery of new principles. The grand philosophical vision of 

 the father of modern science, which has waited so long for its ful- 

 filment, will then be realized, "by the union and co-operation of all 

 in building up and perfecting 77 that House of Solomon, (as Bacon 

 quaintly termed it,) "the end of which is the knowledge of causes 

 and of the secret motions of things, and the enlarging of the bounds 

 of human empire to the effecting of all things possible." 

 2 



