REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 



of this act I was requested by one of the Regents to prepare a sketch 

 of such an institution as I deemed that of Smitbson ought to be, with 

 reference at once to the requirements of Congress, and the brief, 

 though comprehensive, phrases of the will. After devoting careful 

 attention to the expressions of the bequest, and being acquainted 

 with the character of the founder, I could not entertain the slightest 

 doubt that it was the intention of the latter to establish a cosmopol- 

 itan institution, which should be alike a monument of his own 

 fervent love of science, an efficient instrumentality for promoting 

 original researches and rendering a knowledge of their results 

 accessible to inquiring minds in every part and age of the world. 

 I accordingly advised the adoption of the plan set forth in the first 

 section of the programme presented to the board in my report for 

 1847,* a plan which is principally designed to increase knowledge 

 by instituting researches and assisting in various ways men of talents 

 and acquirements to make original investigations in all departments 

 of scientific inquiry, as well as to diffuse the knowledge thus obtained 

 by presenting, free of cost, to all the principal libraries and public 

 institutions of the world copies of a series of volumes containing the 

 results of the investigations instituted. 



Previous to the presentation of these views, one of the Regents 

 had reported in favor of making immediate provision for a library, a 

 museum, a gallery of art, and other local objects, in connexion with 

 a system of lectures to be delivered in different parts of the country; 

 while another Regent had presented an eloquent appeal in favor of a 

 great library composed of books in all languages and on all subjects. 



In reviewing these and other plans of organization which had been 

 previously advocated, it will scarcely be denied by an unprejudiced 

 mind that, for the most part, they were such as to exert a merely local 

 influence, and which, if they embraced means for the diffusion of 

 popular knowldge, neglected the first and essential condition of the 

 bequest, viz.: the increase of knowledge — in other words, the advance- 

 ment of science or the discovery and promulgation of new truths. 

 On the other hand, the plan of organization presented in the first 

 section of the report for 1847 is that of a living, active, progressive 

 system, limited in its operations only by the amount of the income; 

 calculated to affect the condition of man wherever literature and sci- 

 ence are cultivated, while it tends in this country to give an impulse to 

 original thought, which, amidst the strife of politics and the inordi- 

 nate pursuit of wealth, is, of all things, most desirable. 



* See programme of organization, page 8 of this report. 



