AMERICA'S INFERIOR POSITION 



was born in one of the villages near Boston. His 

 precocious genius and dominating ways aroused 

 enmity against him; and when the War of the 

 Revolution broke out and he started to raise a 

 company of militia, he was literally driven over to 

 the British side. He fled to England to become, 

 at twenty-four, Under-Secretary of State, and at 

 twenty -seven a member of the Royal Society. 

 Knighted, his keen love of adventure took him to 

 the Continent, then drifting towards one of the East- 

 ern wars. Entering the service of the King of Ba- 

 varia, he was made Count Rumford for his genius as 

 an administrator. He was virtually prime-minister ; 

 and, for a time, when the King had fled, it was he 

 who ruled. In a single day he banished mendicity 

 from the most beggar -ridden nation in Europe. 

 When he returned to England, just a century ago, 

 he conceived the plan of a great institution whose 

 chief object should be the diffusion of knowledge 

 and of the benefits of science among the people. 



The result was the Royal Institution. It has 

 scarcely held to the ideals of its founder. Its 

 chief features are its courses of lectures. Each 

 year, the most notable men of England and the 

 Continent are drawn upon to sketch in an en- 

 tertaining way the latest steps of the sciences. 

 Travellers and inventors come, too; there are 

 courses for young folk ; there is a splendid library, 

 >* 353 



