1883. 

 COUNT RUMFORD* 



ON a bright calm day in the autumn of 1872 that 

 portion of the year called, I believe, in America 

 the Indian summer I made a pilgrimage to the modest 

 birthplace of Count Eumford. My guide on the occasion 

 was Dr. George Ellis of Boston, and a more competent 

 guide I could not possibly have had. To Dr. Ellis the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences had committed 

 the task of writing a life of Eumford, and this labour of 

 love had been accomplished in 1871, a year prior to my 

 visit to the United States. In regard to Rumford's 

 personal life, Dr. Ellis's elaborate volume constitutes, 

 if I may so speak, the quarry out of which the building- 

 materials of these lectures are drawn. The life of such 

 a man, however, cannot be duly taken in without ref- 

 erence to his work, and the publication by the American 

 Academy of Sciences of four large volumes of Eumford's 

 essays renders the task of dealing with his labours 

 lighter than it would have been had his writings been 

 suffered to remain scattered in the magazines, journals, 

 and transactions of learned societies in which they origi- 

 nally appeared. 



The name of Count Rumford was Benjamin Thomp- 

 son. For thirty years he was the contemporary of 



* From a short course of lectures delivered in the Royal 

 Institution. 



94 



