The Smithsonian institution : documents relative to its origin and history / edited by William J. Rhees.

Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Smithsonian institution : documents relative to its origin and history / edited by William J. Rhees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    949/1042 (page 929)
    is one of the most important duties of a wise and paternal government. To teach religion is the business of the chureh. The lower and the higher branches of science may be safely confided to the schools. But to enlighten our industry, to instruct us how to establish and defend our liberties' to continue the education of manhood, in all ranks of the community, is the business of Government. The press is the instrument ordained of God for these purposes. Di- rected by private interest it caters for a morbid intellectual appetite—floods the land with putrid waters—and buries useful knowledge under infinite accumulations of rubbish. We wish to put a press under the control of men in whom there is the spirit of excellent wisdom, that they may teach us. We are told that it would be unlawful to take money from our national treasury for this purpose. Lawful or un- lawful, it cannot be had there. But by the favor of God and James Smithson, a little fund has been provided for the diffusion of knowledge among men, which, by accumu- lation, now amounts to $757,298. It is about to* be alien- ated from its holy purpose, or applied in a way which keeping the promise to the ear, breaks it to the hope. I propose that the people shall reclaim their money and demand that it should be expended in the support’of a bureau of national instruction, which shall speak to us in two annual volumes of industrial and political science. The plan is simple, feasible, efficient. It opens no flood-o-ates of expenditure, and leaves little room for contingencies. It puts the machinery of the Smithsonian Institution under the control of the incorruptible sages of our country. It offers reward to useful talent, but furnishes no sinecures for idleness. It would eflect_ the object of Mr. Smithson re- deem. the faith of the jnatmn, and accomplish the wish of . blJ the]mcrease diffusion of knowledge among men. These two volumes would do more for human han- LikeSfbthan t a ! -thei abundance cast ^to the Treasury.” Like the mustard in the parable, they are small seeds but let them take root, and they would send out “ boughs to the tt tuen? bS *£ SZjTS?r- Truth “ knoweth,. 69