Life of Count Rumford. 621 



" As for the rest, whatever were the sentiments of M. 

 Rumford for men, they in no way lessened his reverence for 

 God. He never omitted any opportunity, in his works, of ex- 

 pressing his religious admiration of Providence, and of proposing 

 for that admiration by others the innumerable and varied pro- 

 visions which are made for" the preservation of all creatures ; 

 indeed, even his political views came from his firm persuasion 

 that princes ought to imitate Providence in this respect by 

 taking charge of us without being amenable to us. 



" This rigorous observance of order, which probably was 

 prejudicial to the comfort of his life, certainly did not con- 

 tribute to prolong it. A sudden and violent fever removed 

 him from us in his full vigor, at the age of sixty-one. He died 

 on the 2ist of August, 1814, in his country-house at Auteuil, 

 where he was passing the summer. 



" The news of his obsequies reached us at the same time with 

 that of his sickness, so as not to allow his associates to offer at 

 his burial the accustomed tribute. But if such honors and such 

 efforts to extend fame and to make it lasting are ever needless, 

 they are so for a man who, by the happy choice of the subjects 

 of his labors, has known how to secure to himself alike the 

 esteem of the wise and the remembrance of the unfortunate." 



It is observable that Cuvier, though he was the inti- 

 mate and confidential friend of both parties, makes no 

 allusion to the unhappy relations between Count Rum- 

 ford and his wife. The reflection which he casts upon 

 the Count's ungracious manners does but balance the 

 similar allowance which Guizot admitted on the part of 

 Madame Lavoisier. 



The newspapers, journals, and magazines of Eng- 

 land made the usual recognition in their obituaries of 

 Count Rumford' s decease, and paid him, on the whole, 

 just tributes for the benevolent services and the scien- 

 tific discoveries which had divided between them his 

 thirty-eight years of life in Europe. In the Monthly 



