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the evil, and enabling the establishment to devote its whole energies 

 to the advance of science, the evident design of the testator. New- 

 York at present is the wealthiest, most powerful, and influential city 

 of the Union, and is destined in the future to be more so. But do 

 not be offended with me if I say in perfect candor and with the desire 

 of doing good, that it has done less than any other city, in proportion 

 to its means, to advance science. More than 75 years ago, Boston 

 established the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which, an- 

 nually ever since, has given to the world the result of original labors 

 in the way of new discoveries. 



Philadelphia before the revolution, under the auspices of Franklin, 

 established the American Philosophical Society, which has still a vig- 

 orous existence, and continues to annually send its transactions to 

 foreign societies in exchange for theirs. New-York, also, more than 

 50 years ago, commenced to establish a Philosophical Society, which 

 expired, however, in giving birth to a single memoir by De Witt 

 Clinton on the importance and value of such an establishment. It is 

 also true that among so many people there have been some who have 

 been zealously devoted to science, and have done honor to it and the 

 world, such as a Redfield (I speak only of the dead), who established 

 the laws of storms, and a Torrey, who devoted an unobtrusive, indus- 

 trious and productive life, to the advance of chemistiy, mineralogy, 

 and botany. Boast not of wealth, nor of refinement, while original 

 powers of intellect, the choicest gift of heaven to man, is at a discount 

 among you. I appeal to the millionaires of this city, if any one of 

 them is desirous of perpetuating his name and of living in the memory 

 of mankind long after he has departed this life, to endow, connected 

 with the Park Museum, a College of Discoveries, with the additional 

 means of printing and disseminating over the world the results of its 

 labors. I refer him to the effects which are being produced in regard 

 to the name of James Smithson, a scion of one of the noble houses of 

 England, who rightfully anticipated that through the endowment of 

 his institution his name would live in the history of mankind when the 

 titles of his proud ancestors were extinct or forgotten. Every year a 

 publication is issued from this institution, filled with an account of new 

 discoveries made under its auspices, which is distributed to more than 

 2,000 foreign institutions. This publication, bearing the name of 

 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, thus renders the name of the 

 founder ubiquitous with continual repetitions, until now, it has become 



