Life of Count Rumford. 361 



committed himself with such devotion and zeal, to be 

 fully described in the next chapter, is assigned in the 

 following letter as the cause of his postponing his visit 

 to America. 



"LONDON, I4th March, 1799. 



" MY DEAR FRIEND, I will not attempt to describe the 

 painful disappointment I feel at being obliged to give up all 

 hopes of seeing you, and the rest of my dear friends in America, 

 this year. A small pamphlet which you will receive with this 

 letter [containing the proposals for the Royal Institution] 

 will acquaint you with the reasons that have induced me to 

 postpone my* intended voyage; and you will, I am confident, 

 agree with me in opinion, that I have done right in sacri- 

 ficing the pleasure that voyage would have afforded me to 

 the most important objects to which my attention has been 

 called. 



" I beg you would be so kind as to give my dear Mother the 

 earliest notice of this change in my plans, and that you would 

 at the same time endeavour to give her just ideas of the very 

 great importance of the undertaking in which I have been called 

 upon to give my assistance ; and show her how impossible it 

 was for me to refuse that assistance, especially as it was asked 

 in a manner so honourable to myself. And as the success of 

 the undertaking will be productive of so much good, and will 

 place me in so distinguished a situation in the eyes of the world, 

 and of Posterity, you will, I am persuaded, find little difficulty 

 in persuading her that I have done perfectly right, and in 

 reconciling her to the disappointment she will naturally feel at 

 not seeing me arrive in America at the time appointed. 



" You must give me leave to complain of you, my good 

 friend, for your silence. Several vessels have lately arrived 

 from Boston and have brought letters both for myself and for 

 Sally. But there were none among them from you. Why 

 should you not embrace the opportunity when you will be sure 

 to find me and my Daughter in London, to take a trip across 

 the Atlantic to see Great Britain ? You shall find a home and 



