Life of Count Rumford. 499 



benevolent. They must be taught, and who is there in whom 

 they have confidence that will take the trouble to instruct 

 them ? They cannot learn from books, for they have not time 

 to read ; and if they had, how few of them would be able, from 

 a written description, to comprehend what they ought to know ! 

 If I write for their instruction, it is to the rich that I must 

 address myself, and if I am not* able to engage them to assist me 

 all my labours will be in vain." 



Again he writes : 



u Whenever I sit down to write, I feel my mind deeply im- 

 pressed with a sense of the respect which I owe, as an indi- 

 vidual, to the public, to whom I presume to address myself, and 

 often consider how blameable it would be in me, especially 

 when I am endeavouring to recommend economy, to trifle with 

 the time of thousands. 



" Too much pains cannot be taken by those who write books 

 to render their ideas clear, and their language concise and easy 

 to be understood. 



" Hours spent by an author in saving minutes, or even seconds, 

 to his readers, is time well employed." 



The Count had bestowed great pains and much time 

 in planning, constructing, and improving a gridiron grate, 

 with its appurtenances, for the use of those in narrow 

 circumstances. When, by many experiments, he had 

 satisfied himself with the exactness of his patterns, he 

 had castings taken from them by the best London 

 founders. Of these he made a present to the Carron 

 Company, at their works in Scotland, on his journey 

 there in the autumn of 1800. At the same time he 

 made a contract with the company to furnish the articles 

 at their warehouse in London at the lowest reasonable 

 price, that gentlemen might buy them by the dozen for 

 distribution to the poor. 



I have made these large extracts from the Count's 



