COUNT RUMFORD. 119 



and relief. The expense thus incurred is small compared 

 with that incidental to beggary and its concomitant 

 thieving. Thompson's hope and confidence never for- 

 sook him. He faced, unquailing, problems from which 

 less daring spirits would have recoiled. He held, un- 

 doubtingly, that " arrangement, method, provision for 

 the minutest details, subordination, co-operation, and a 

 careful system of statistics, will facilitate and make 

 effective any undertaking, however burdensome and 

 comprehensive." Such a statement would surely have 

 elicited a " bravo ! " from Carlyle. In Thompson, flexi- 

 ble wisdom formed an amalgam with despotic strength. 

 With skill and resolution the objects of public benevo- 

 lence must, he urged, be made to contribute as far as 

 possible to their own support. The homeliest details 

 did not escape him. He commended well-dressed 

 vegetables as a cheap and wholesome aliment. He 

 descanted on the potato, he gave rules for the con- 

 struction of soup-kitchens, and determined the nutritive 

 value of different kinds of food. During his boyhood 

 at Woburn he had learnt the use of Indian corn, and 

 at Munich he strongly recommended the dumplings, 

 bread, and hasty pudding made from maize. Pure 

 love of humanity would, at first sight, seem to have 

 been the motive force of Thompson's action. Still, 

 it has been affirmed by those who knew him that he 

 did not really love his fellow-men. His work had for 

 him the fascination of a problem above the capacities 

 of most men, but which he felt himself able to solve. 

 It was said to be the work of his intellect, not of his 

 heart. In reference to him, Cuvier quotes what Fon- 

 tenelle said of Dodard, who turned his rigid observance 

 of the fasts of the Church into a scientific experiment 

 on the effects of abstinence, thereby taking the path 

 which led at once to heaven and into the French Acade- 



