166 THE EOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. III. 



closed on that form which was so lately animated by every 

 virtue, and whose only wish was to make me happy. 



Is there anything which can now afford me any consola- 

 tion ? Yes, she is not lost, but gone before ; but still it is 

 hard to have all our schemes of happiness wrecked when 

 our bark was within sight of port. When we were pro- 

 mising ourselves more than common felicity it struck 

 upon a rock ; my only treasure went to the bottom, and I 

 am cast ashore friendless and deprived of every comfort. 

 My poor dead love had been as well as usual during the 

 two or three last months, and even on the dreadful evening 

 (Christmas Eve) she spoke with pleasure of the approach- 

 ing event. My spirits were elevated to so uncommon a 

 pitch by the birth of a lovely daughter, that they were by 

 no means prepared for the succeeding scene ; and they 

 have been so overwhelmed that I sometimes hope it may 

 be a dream out of which I wish to awake. The little 

 infant is well, and I have called it Catherine, a name which 

 must -ever be dear to me, and which I wish to be able to 

 apply io some object whom I love ; for, though it caused 

 the. death of my hopes, it is dear to me as being the last 

 precious relic of her whom everybody, who knew her, 

 esteemed, and I loved. I must now bid adieu to every 

 comfort and live only for the sweet babes. Oh ! 'tis hard, 

 very hard ! 



THOMAS GARNETT. 



In the summer of 1799 Count Rumford wrote to 

 Dr. Grarnett, to whom he was then an entire stranger, 

 for information regarding the nature and economy of 

 Anderson's Institution and the plan of the lectures 

 given there. This led finally to the proposal that Dr. 

 Grarnett should become the first lecturer at Rumford's 

 new Institution in London. 



On October 15 Dr. Grarnett informed a special 



