rces of delight which never tire. Even the optical delusion, by
which the motion of the earth from west to east appears to the eye as
the movement of the whole firmament from east to west, swells the
conception of magnificence to the incomprehensible infinite."

When one of his friends expressed a hope that we should hereafter know
more of the brilliant stars around us, Mr. Adams replied: "I trust so. I
cannot conceive of a world where the stars are not visible, and, if
there is one, I trust I shall never be sent to it. Nothing conveys to my
mind the idea of eternity so forcibly as the grand spectacle of the
heavens in a clear night."

To a letter addressed to him by the Secretary of State, by direction of
the President, requesting him to communicate the result of his
reflections on the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Adams made the following
reply:

"QUINCY, _October 11, 1838_.

"SIR: I have reserved for a separate letter what I proposed to say
in recommending the erection and establishment of an Astronomical
Observatory at Washington, as one and the first application of the
annual income from the Smithsonian bequest, because that, of all
that I have to say, I deem it by far the most important; and
because, having for many years believed that the national character
of our country demanded of us the establishment of such an
institution as a debt of honor to the cause of science and to the
world of civilized man, I have hailed with cheering hope this
opportunity of removing the greatest obstacle which has hitherto
disappointed the earnest wishes that I have entertained of
witnessing, before my own departure for another world, now near at
hand, the disappearance of a stain upon our good name, in the
neglect to provide the means of increasing and diffusing knowledge
among men, by a systematic and scientific continued series of
observations on the phenomena of the numberless worlds suspended
over our heads--the sublimest of physical sciences, and that in
which the field of future discovery is as unbounded as the universe
itself. I allude to the continued and necessary _expense_ of such
an establishment.

"In my former letter I proposed that, to preserve entire and
unimpaired the Smithsonian fund, as the principal of a perpetual
annuity, the annual appropriations from its proceeds should be
strictly confined to its annual i