252 Life of Count Rumford. 



fer of the funds, caused chiefly by the capture of a 

 vessel on board of which were the necessary legal docu- 

 ments, of course deferred the proper and decisive action 

 of the Academy in recognizing, as they appreciated, 

 Count Rumford's noble endowment. Compared with 

 the gifts which previously to that time had been made 

 by individuals to Harvard College, and by Dr. Frank- 

 lin to provide medals for scholars in our public schools, 

 and a loan fund for the encouragement of worthy me- 

 chanics, which latter provision remains still accumu- 

 lating to be appropriated, as it never yet has been, 

 according to the wishes of the donor, Count Rum- 

 ford's donation had a character of munificence. The 

 members of the Academy regarded it as the most 

 helpful and encouraging recognition which their Insti- 

 tution had received during the sixteen years of its ex- 

 istence. The correspondence of our few learned and 

 scientific men, who were then pursuing their high aims 

 under great disadvantages, recognizes with enthusiasm 

 and congratulation this auspicious incident, and finds 

 in it an impulse and a motive for activity and zeal 

 in its work. 



The Academy had been instituted and incorporated 

 in the year 1780, midway in the war of our Revolution, 

 amid all the distractions and exactions of that trying 

 period. While the whole community was burdened by 

 taxation and the exorbitant prices of the articles of 

 prime necessity, and while it might seem that the 

 thoughts and time of all intelligent men would have 

 been engrossed by giving to public affairs all the interest 

 they could spare from their private concerns, a few 

 men of cultivated and generous minds devised the plan 

 of this Institution. It is a very singular fact, that all 



