430 Professor Tyndall [May 3, 10, and 17, 



which the Executive Government of the United States has been 

 pleased to propose to me." 



The climate of Europe did not seem to suit the Countess Sarah. 

 Possibly the simple tastes and habits of her childhood were too 

 deeply ingrained in her constitution to permit of her deriving any 

 real enjoyment from the outsided, and apparently noisy life, which 

 she was forced to lead in Munich and London. Be this as it may, 

 she returned to America, reaching the port of Boston on October 10th, 

 1799, " being then just twenty-five years of age." Rumford himself 

 remained in England with the view of realising what I have called 

 the greatest project of his life — the founding of the Royal Institution. 



His ideas on this subject took definite shape in 1799. They were 

 set forth in a pamphlet of fifty pages bearing the following lengthy 

 title : " Proposals for forming by subscription, in the metropolis of 

 the British Empire, a public institution for diffusing the knowledge 

 and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inven- 

 tions and improvements, and for teaching, by courses of philosophical 

 lectures and experiments, the application of science to the common 

 purposes of life." The introduction to this pamphlet is dated from 

 Rumford's residence in Brompton Row, March 4th, 1799. His aim 

 he alleges to be to cause science and art to work together; to 

 establish relations between philosophers and workmen ; to bring 

 their united efforts to bear in the improvement of agriculture, manu- 

 factures, commerce, and in the augmentation of domestic comforts. 

 He specially dwells on the management of fire, it being, as he thinks, 

 a subject of peculiar interest to mankind. Fuel, he asserted, cost the 

 kingdom more than ten millions steiling annually, which was much 

 more than twice what it ought to cost. Rumford knew human nature 

 well, and for the greater portion of his life knew how to appeal to it 

 with effect. In fact, the knowledge never failed him, though towards 

 the end irritability, due to ill-health and crosses of various kinds, 

 rendered him less able to apply the knowledge than when he was in 

 the blossom of his prime. As regards the success of his new scheme, 

 he urged upon the excellent men with whom he acted the necessity 

 of making the indolent and luxurious take an interest in it. Such 

 persons, he says, " must either be allured or shamed into action." 

 Hence, he urges, the necessity of making benevolence " fashionable." 

 It ought to be mentioned that Rumford at this time could count 

 on the sympathy and active support of a number of excellent men, 

 who, in advance of him, had founded a " Society for bettering the 

 condition and increasing the comforts of the poor." Rumford sought 

 the aid of the committee of this society. It was agreed on all hands 

 that the proposed new Institution promised to be too important to 

 permit of its being made an appendage to any other. It was resolved 

 that it should stand alone. A committee consisting of eight 

 members of the above society was, however, appointed to confer with 

 Rumford regarding his plan. To each member of this committee he 



