LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



they could do, for which they received a warm dinner and pay- 

 ment. Everything possible was done for their comfort and con- 

 venience. The workrooms were well ventilated and lighted, and 

 pains were taken to give the edifice an air of elegance as well as of 

 neatness and cleanliness. In the passage leading to the paved 

 court was an inscription in letters of gold upon a black ground 

 "No alms will be received here." Count Rumford gives his theory 

 of philanthropy in the following words: 



"When preceptsfall^ habits may sometimes be successful. To 

 make vicious and abandoned people happy, it has generally been 

 supposed, first, to make them virtuous. But why not reverse this 

 order! Why not make them first happy, and then virtuous! If 

 happiness and virtue be inseparable, the end will be as certainly 

 obtained by the one method as by the other; and it is most un- 

 doubtedly much easier to contribute to the happiness and com- 

 fort of persons in a state of poverty and misery than by admoni- 

 tions and punishment to reform their morals." 



The House of Industry was chiefly devoted to the manufacture 

 of clothing for the army and for sale; from the cording and spin- 

 ning of flax, hemp, cotton and wool to the finished garment; and 

 work of a sort suited to his capacity was found for every one, from 

 the aged and infirm to the youngest. 



Especial attention was given to training the children in habits 

 of industry. Even with them Rumford carried out his plan of 

 avoiding the use of force. Every child was given his dinner and 

 his three kreutzers a day, whether he worked or not, but the chil- 

 dren who refused to work were compelled to sit on a bench and 

 watch their companions working, until they cried for something 

 to do. Then they were given light spinning-wheels, and promoted 

 and publicly rewarded as they became more skilful. Twice a day 

 they attended school in the same building. 



The financial success of the House of Industry was largely due 

 to the system of keeping accounts devised by Rumford, very 

 much like those now in use in modern manufactories. "Lead us 

 not into temptation" was a verse of Scripture the inspiration of 

 which he never doubted, and he was strongly of the opinion that 



