Life of Count Rumford. 409 



Bavaria. He adds some directions as to the mode in 

 which baths should be constructed, and recommends 

 them further as a means of harmless and useful luxury. 

 To increase the pleasure of a warm bath, he suggests 

 the burning of sweet-scented woods and aromatic gums 

 and resins in small chafing-dishes in the bathing-rooms, 

 by which the air will be perfumed with the most pleasant 

 odors. He adds : 



" Those who are disposed to smile at this display of Eastern 

 luxury would do well to reflect on the sums they expend on 

 what they consider as luxuries, and then compare the real and 

 harmless enjoyments derived from them with the rational and 

 innocent pleasures here recommended. I would ask them if a 

 statesman or a soldier going from the refreshing enjoyment of a 

 bath, such as I have described, to the senate or to the field, 

 would, in their opinion, be less likely to do his duty than a 

 person whose head is filled and whose faculties are deranged 

 by the use of wine ? 



" Effeminacy is no doubt very despicable, especially in a 

 person who aspires to the character and virtues of a man. But 

 I see no cause for calling anything effeminate which has no 

 tendency to diminish either the strength of the body, the 

 dignity of the sentiments, or the energy of the mind. I see no 

 good reason for considering those grateful aromatic perfumes, 

 which in all ages have been held in such high estimation, as a 

 less elegant or less rational luxury than smoking tobacco or 

 stuffing the nose with snuff." 



He pleads for the reconstruction in England of the 

 baths which the old Romans once established there, 

 and is enthusiastic in describing and commending the 

 vapor baths of the poor Russian peasants. 



Letters of the Count to friends in America, writ- 

 ten at this time, give evidence alike of his interest in 

 their personal service and of his desire to keep them 



