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its settled policy; and no better proof can be afforded of the efficiency of the managers of this great enterprise than that the literary is made subordinate to, and considered the servant of, the scientific department.

We regret that it is not in our power to afford space for a detailed description of the various scientific pursuits which are prosecuted in the Institution, by competent persons, with an ardor that only science can inspire. The following facts, gleaned from the report of 1856, and not embracing the subsequent labors of the Institution, will afford a faint idea of the accomplishments of an Institution which a large number of visitors suppose to be only a national show-shop :

A Library has been established, containing nearly 50,000 articles; a museum has been collected, the most extensive in the world, as regards the natural history of the North American Continent; a cabinet of apparatus has been procured, through the liberality of Dr. Hare, and other means of original research and illustration in the principal phenomena of chemistry and natural philosophy; lectures have been delivered annually, by some of the most distinguished men in science and literature, before large audiences; an extensive series of original papers on various branches of science has been published and distributed at the expense of the Institution, which has also rendered aid in preparing them, by advances from its funds, and the use of its library, collections, and influence; natural history explorations have been made at the expense of the government, but principally at the instance and under the scientific direction of this Institution, which have done more to develop a knowledge of the peculiar character of the western portions of this continent than

all previous researches on the subject; a system of exchange is now in successful operation, connecting in friendly relations the cultivators of literature and science in this country with their brethren in every part of the old world. A large amount of valuable material has been collected with regard to the meteorology of the North American continent, and a system of observations organized which, if properly conducted in future, will tend to establish a knowledge of the peculiarities of our climate, and to develop the laws of the storms which visit particularly the eastern portion of the United States during the winter. A series of original researches has also been made in the Institution in regard to different branches of natural history, and also to portions of physical science particularly applicable to economical purposes.

In leaving this branch of our theme, we desire to record our thanks to the Secretary and the scientific corps of the Institution for valuable aid, rendered with marked courtesy, in the preparation of this volume. For a detailed and accurate statement of the various objects of interest in the Institution, the reader is referred to a pamphlet prepared by Mr. W. J. Rhees, and sold by the attentive janitor.

The grounds surrounding the Smithsonian were laid out by A. J. Downing, who, at the time of his death, was devising an admirable system of improvements, which has not been subsequently prosecuted with much energy. A monument to his memory, erected by the American Pomological Society is placed conspicuously near the Institution, bearing the following inscriptions.

On the north side :

THIS VASE

Was erected, by his Friends,

IN MEMORY OF

ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING,
Who died July 28, 1852, aged 37 years.

He was born, and lived,

And died, upon the Hudson River.

His life was devoted to the improvement of the national taste in rural art,

an office for which his genius and the natural beauty amidst which he lived had fully endowed him.

His success was as great as his genius; and for the death of few public men.

was public grief ever more sincere.

When these grounds were proposed, he was at once
called to design them;

but, before they were completed, he perished in the wreck of the steamer Henry Clay.

His mind was singularly just, penetrating, and original.
His manners were calm, reserved, and courteous.
His personal memory

belongs to the friends who loved him;

his fame to the country which honored and laments him.

On the west side :

I climb the hill from end to end:
Of all the landscape underneath
I find no place that does not breathe
Some gracious memory of my friend.

"T is held that sorrow makes us wise;
Yet how much wisdom sleeps with thee,
Which not alone had guided me,
But served the seasons that may rise!

And doubtless unto thee is given
A life that bears immortal fruit,
In such great offices as suit
The full grown energies of Heaven.

And love will last as pure and whole
As when he loved me here in time,
And at the spiritual prime

Reawaken with the dawning soul.

On the south side :

"The taste of an individual,

as well as that of a nation, will be in direct proportion to the profound sensibility

with which he perceives the beautiful in natural scenery."
Open wide, therefore,

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the doors of your libraries and picture-galleries,
all ye true republicans !

Build halls where knowledge shall be freely diffused among men,
and not shut up within the narrow walls of
narrower institutions.

Plant spacious parks in your cities,

and unclose their gates as wide as the gates of morning to the whole people.

[Downing's Rural Essays.

On the east side:

"Weep no more,

For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,
Sunk though he be beneath the wat'ry floor.
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high

Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves."

Upon the pedestal of this monument there is an inscription which states that it was erected in September, 1852, by the American Pomological Society.

Nearer to the building is a sarcophagus, which Capt. J. D. Elliott, U. S. N., under the supposition that it formerly contained the mortal remains of the Emperor Alexander Severus, took great pains to obtain; and bringing it to the United States in the frigate Constitution, made a formal tender of it, through the officers of

the National Institute, to General Jackson, as a fitting receptacle for the body of that illustrious President.

The following correspondence took place, and the proposition proving distasteful to General Jackson, the sarcophagus remained for a long period in the basement of the Patent Office, and is now exposed to the inclemency of the atmosphere in the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution :

NAVY YARD, PHILADELPHIA, April 8, 1845.

GENTLEMEN: The interest which the National Institute has been pleased to take in the eventual bestowment of the remains of the Honorable Andrew Jackson, in the sarcophagus which I brought from abroad and deposited in your Institute, makes it my business now to commucate to you a copy of his letter of the 27th ultimo, lately received on that subject. With sentiments so congenial to his strict republicanism, and in accordance, indeed, with the republican feelings common to ourselves, he takes the ground of repugnance to connecting his name and fame in any way with imperial associations. We cannot but honor the sentiments which have ruled his judgment in the case, for they are such as must add to the lustre of his character. We subscribe to them ourselves; and while we yield to their force, we may still be permitted to continue our regard to the enduring marble, as to an ancient and classic relic, a curiosity in itself, and particularly in this country, as the first of its kind seen in our western hemisphere. From it we would deduce the moral, that while we would disclaim the pride, pomp, and circumstances of imperial pageantry, as unfitting our institutions and professions, we would sedulously cherish the simple republican principles of reposing our fame and honors in the hearts and affections of our countrymen. I have now, in conclusion, to say, that as the sarcophagus was originally presented with the suggestion of using it as above mentioned, I now commit it

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