BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT RUMFORD 39 



"It does not appear to me that there is anything which human 

 sagacity can fathom within the wide-extended bounds of the vis- 

 ible creation which affords a more striking or more palpable proof 

 of the wisdom of the Creator, and of the special care he has taken 

 in the general arrangement of the universe to preserve life, than 

 this wonderful contrivance," 



that water forms the only exception to the universal law that all 

 bodies are condensed by cold. 



"If, among barbarous nations, the fear of a God and the prac- 

 tice of religious duties tend to soften savage dispositions and to 

 prepare the mind for all those sweet enjoyments which result from 

 peace, order, industry, and friendly intercourse, a belief in the ex- 

 istence of a Supreme Intelligence, who rules and governs the uni- 

 verse with wisdom and goodness, is not less essential to the hap- 

 piness of those who, by cultivating their mental powers, have 

 learned to know how little can be known" 



This sentence, from its style and mode of thought, its uncon- 

 scious arrogance and ostentatious modesty, is so characteristic of 

 its age that it could be dated with considerable certainty, even if 

 found on a loose leaf. The more thorough study of the nature of 

 the last hundred years has shown that the conception of the 

 "Great Architect of the Universe" given in the natural theology 

 of that day must be either abandoned as inadequate or enlarged 

 to a more comprehensive ideal of creative wisdom. Rumford is, 

 of course, wrong in thinking that water is the only exception to 

 the general rule that heat expands and cold contracts. Bismuth, 

 cast-iron, type-metal and most alloys expand on solidifying, and 

 this also is of benefit to mankind, for without this property it 

 would be impossible to make good castings. 



During the year Rumford spent in England he gave $5,000 to 

 the Royal Society of London, and a like sum to the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, the interest to be given every two 

 years as a premium to the person who made the most important 

 discovery or useful improvement on heat or light, "as shall tend 

 most to promote the good of mankind." The Rumford Medal of 

 the Royal Society has been regularly awarded every two years to 



