Life of Count Rumford. 495 



" The Emperor of China, the greatest monarch in the world, 

 who rules over full one third part of the inhabitants of this 

 globe, condescends to hold the plough himself one day in every 

 year. This he does, no doubt, to show to those, whose ex- 

 ample never can fail to influence the great bulk of mankind, 

 how important that art is by means of which food is provided. 



" Let those reflect seriously on this illustrious example of 

 provident and benevolent attention to the wants of mankind, 

 who are disposed to consider the domestic arrangements of the 

 labouring classes as a subject too low and vulgar for their 

 notice. 



" If attention to the art by which food is provided be not 

 beneath the dignity of a Great Monarch, that art by which 

 food is prepared for use, and by which it may be greatly econo- 

 mised, cannot possibly be unworthy of the attention of those 

 who take pleasure in promoting the happiness of mankind." 



Not wholly insensible to the flippant badinage with 

 which portions of his economical projects were treated 

 in some quarters, nor to the impatience with which his 

 prolixity and minuteness of detail in very homely coun- 

 sels were received by many, the Count remonstrates 

 with dignity, while he still keeps to his own chosen 

 method. He says he is willing to be judged by the 

 more intelligent of his readers, and feels that they will 

 appreciate his motive in mingling abstruse philosophical 

 researches and the results of profound meditation with 

 the explanation of most humble and ordinary subjects. 

 He says : 



" I am not unacquainted with the manners of the age. I 

 have lived much in the world, and have studied mankind 

 attentively ; I am fully aware of all the difficulties I have to 

 encounter in the pursuit of the great object to which I have 

 devoted myself. I am even sensible, fully sensible, of the 

 dangers to which I expose myself. In this selfish and sus- 

 picious age it is hardly possible that justice should be done to 



