496 Life of Count Rumford. 



the purity of my motives ; and in the present state of society, 

 when so few who have leisure can bring themselves to take 

 the trouble to read anything except it be for mere amusement, I 

 can hardly expect to engage attention. I may write, but what 

 will writing avail if nobody will read ? My bookseller, indeed, 

 will not be ruined as long as it shall continue to be fashionable 

 to haveyfW libraries. But my object will not be attained unless 

 my writings are read, and the importance of the subjects of my 

 investigations is felt. 



" Persons who have been satiated with indulgences and luxu- 

 ries of every kind are sometimes tempted by the novelty of an 

 untried pursuit. My best endeavours shall not be wanting to 

 give to the objects I recommend, not only all the alluring 

 charms of novelty, but also the power of procuring a pleasure as 

 new, perhaps, as it is pure and lasting. 



" How might I exult could I but succeed so far as to make 

 it fashionable for the rich to take the trouble to choose for them- 

 selves those enjoyments which their money can command, in- 

 stead of being the dupes of those tyrants who, in the garb of 

 submissive, fawning slaves, not only plunder them in the most 

 disgraceful manner, but render them at the same time perfectly 

 ridiculous, and fit for that destruction which is always near at 

 hand, when good taste has been driven quite off the stage. 



" When I see, in the capital of -a great country, in the midst 

 of summer, a coachman sitting on a coach-box dressed in a 

 thick, heavy great-coat with sixteen capes, I am not surprised to 

 find the coach-door surrounded by a group of naked beggars. 



u We should tremble at such appearances, did not the short- 

 ness of life and the extreme infirmity of the human character 

 render us insensible to dangers while at any distance, however 

 great and impending and inevitable they may be." 



Again he writes : 



" In justice it ought always to be remembered that my object 

 in writing is, professedly, to be useful, and that I lay no claim 

 to the applause of those delicate and severe judges of literary 

 composition who read more with a view to being pleased by fine 



