PROSPECTUS

OF THE

AMERICAN SOCIETY

FOR THE

DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

1. GENERAL DESIGN OF THE INSTITUTION.

THE establishment of a National Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, has, for a length of time, engaged the attention of individuals in different parts of this country. In the course of the past year, measures were adopted in relation to this subject, of which the public has already been informed. The Institution has been duly organized; and the Executive Committee now respectfully submit to the consideration of their fellowcitizens, the following statement of its plan and objects:

It is the design of this Society to unite the efforts of literary, scientific, wealthy, and benevolent men, in diffusing useful knowledge, and in employing the arts of printing and engraving, in a way most likely to be interesting, salutary, and elevating to the popular mind.

There is in this country, it is believed, at the present time, a demand for the means of knowledge, which may with propriety be characterized as a NATIONAL DEMAND; a demand for useful knowledge from all classes of the people far exceeding the supply.

There are, however, in the vast resources of the literature of foreign countries, in the productions of eminent authors at home, and in the enterprise and spirit of our citizens, means amply adequate for the supply of this demand. From these resources the means of wholesome intellectual culture, and of individual and social improvement, may be brought into the circle of every family, and within the reach of every reader.

The materials for carrying out this design are abundant : - Delineations of the works of our Creator; the innumerable objects of interest in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; the history of the world; the varied scenes and events of past ages; the origin of nations; the growth of empires; the ruin of cities; the overthrow of kingdoms and thrones; narratives of voyages and travels over every sea and land; the civil and political circumstances; the intellectual, social, and domestic condition of

the great family of nations; the biography of the great and good; the progress of knowledge; the opening prospects of society; the discoveries of genius; the improvements in the useful and the ornamental arts; the wide range of science and philosophy, material, intellectual and moral; in short, the moving worlds of mind and matter, furnish inexhaustible materials for useful publications, adapted to improve and elevate the mind, and to promote the best social and moral interests of society.

In an undertaking of this nature, it were affectation, at this period, not to recognise the influence of the Christian religion, as the great source and the only preservative of all our blessings, individual and national. Its great truths and sanctions are the only foundation of sound morality, the only defence of public and private virtue, the only safeguard of the social and moral welfare of individuals and communities. Its principles can alone inspire that purity, charity, and order, which are essential to freedom, and without which our free institutions must come to an end.

It is, however, no part of the plan or design, to propagate particular religious doctrines or theories; but to disseminate such useful practical knowledge, as may not only instruct, but exert among all classes a pure and elevated moral influence in respect to individual duty, in the various relations of life.

It will always encourage the circulation of good books by whomsoever published. It will regard the author or publisher of a useful volume as a co-worker, and a public benefactor. And any individual who will employ the pen or the press in extending the influence of knowledge and virtue, will find in this institution a friend and ally.

It will be a primary object to interest the youth of our country; and to invite and facilitate their acquaintance with works of the most improving character, by issuing them in the best style and by the free use of valuable illustrative engravings. It is hoped through the instrumentality of the Society, to bring within the reach of the entire youthful population of the land, a rich variety of works, eminently calculated to expand and invigorate the mind, improve the heart, and lay the foundation of real worth of character.

2. IMPORTANCE OF SUCH AN INSTITUTION.

If we trace the progress of publications in the United States, since the commencement of the present century, in character, as well as amount, and observe the vast improvement in books of elementary instruction, and the happy adaptation in general of the style of American authors to popular use, it be doubted, whether in any age of the world, or in any country, such rapid and giant strides were ever before made, in developing the mental energies of a nation. Probably no other nation ever existed, in which the habit of reading was so nearly universal.

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The unparalleled circulation of newspapers and periodicals of every description, has awakened a taste and desire for more solid and extensive reading, which every successive supply will only serve to increase. The authors, editors, and teachers of this age and country, have done more, perhaps, to wake up the mind of an entire population, than any other set of men that ever lived; and American publishers and printers have never been surpassed in the energy and enterprise with which they have wielded the press.

Our hundred Colleges, our Academies, High Schools, and Lyceums, scattered over the whole land; our Public School System, the extension and improvement of the means of education in Primary and even Infant Departments; our tens of thousands of Sabbath Schools with their libraries, placing hundreds of thousands of volumes in the hands of our juvenile population, have exerted, and are still exerting, a most powerful influence through the whole community, in favour of intellectual and moral cultivation.

If we look forward but a few years, we must see that the great mass of mind, throughout our land, cannot rest satisfied with any ordinary supply of the means of knowledge. The desire for knowledge will constantly increase, and the more regular and systematic the supply, the more steady and ever increasing will be the demand.

In about twenty years, at the present rate of increase, our population will be doubled. Of course, if the means of intellectual improvement only keep pace with the increase of our numbers, we must, in that brief period, double the amount of all the publications now extant in the land, to say nothing of replacing the millions of volumes, which it is hoped will be worn out by careful use. And who can foretell the yet undiscovered progression, which the mind of such a community will make, in its demands for the means of knowledge?

In these circumstances, the question arises, what is to be the character and tendency of the incalculable amount of reading with which this nation must be provided during twenty years to come? and surely it is a question of momentous import. The destiny of our country, and the best interests of man, are dependent on the answer.

If the mind of this nation shall be well-informed, well-balanced, welldisciplined, and regulated by principles of virtue and piety, our glorious institutions will continue. But ignorance, immorality, and freedom, cannot

co-exist.

With such views as these, can we estimate too highly the importance of a National Institution, to aid in providing mental aliment for the people; in systematizing the various departments of knowledge of practical utility, and in issuing publications suited to the varied taste and capacity of different classes and ages, and which may be received with confidence by all, as well adapted to prepare the readers to discharge the duties of intelligent and virtuous citizens?