IS 
means of piintiug and disseraiuatiug 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 iu 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 
as familiar as a household word in every part of the civilized world. 
What, in comparison to this, are local monuments, pyramids of flint, 
statues of brass, or obehsks of marble ? These are seen bul by the 
few and are constantly subjected to the slow but sure de8tro}er, time; 
while the other is everywhere present, and is as enduring as civiliisa- 
tion itself. The operations of the universe are unlimited, and in the 
great book of nature, man has scarcely read more than the title-page 
or the preface. It was the saying of La Place, " What we know is 
nothing; what we do not know is immense; indeed every advance of 
knowledge but enlarges the sphere of our ignorance." How many 
problems of the highest interest are pressing upon us even in the line 
of biology. What is vitality ? Is it an unintelligent force of nature, 
hke that of attraction, producing crystalhzation, or an intelligent prin- 
ciple operating by the ordinary forces of nature, producing results 
indicating design and consequent intention ? Can dead matter be 
made alive under the influence of certain conditions without propaga- 
tion from parents— this is a question which cannot be solved a priori, 
and must wait the decision of refined experiments. It has been 
reduced to a fact that either every breath of air we inhale, that 
every portion of the earth's atmosphere, is teeming with the germs 
of hvmg organisms, or that dead matter may spring into hfc in accord- 
ance with the process of what is called spontaneous generation. In 
science every advance in the way of discovery gives us a his/her point 
of view for making excursions into the regions of the unknown, and 
the man of science, however extended his vision, however multiplied 
his resources, can never want for worlds to conquer. 
God has created man iu his own intellectual image, and graoiousl/ 
