236 Life of Count Rumford. 



Round him the laborers throng, the nobles "wait, 

 Friend of the poor and guardian of" the State." 



The poet, referring in a note to the then recently 

 published Essays, says : " I hope the directors of the 

 interior government of this country will have the sense 

 and wisdom to profit from this most valuable and im- 

 portant work, whose truly philosophic and benevolent 

 author must feel a joy and self-satisfaction far superior 

 to any praise which man can bestow." In another note, 

 on the word " mercy " in his text, the poet says that 

 grace is "a distinguishing feature in all the Count's 

 plans for the relief of the poor, the idle, the abandoned, 

 and the wretched. The mode of conferring mercy and 

 apparent" kindness is not always rnild and merciful." * 

 The poet's high encomiums on Count Rumford are 

 the more observable, as in his numerous and elaborate 

 notes, covering more than half his pages, he delights 

 to launch his satires against the Royal Society and its 

 members, especially the Count's intimate friend, Sir 

 Charles Blagden. In another of his Poems; ' c The 

 Shade of Alexander Pope," Mathias, in a complimen- 

 tary allusion, makes a reference to the figure of the 

 Count which indicates the effect of labor and illness 

 on his health and former robustness. 



"Through air, fire, earth, how unconfined we range! 

 What veil has Nature ? and what works are strange ? 

 All mark each varied mode of heat and light, 

 From the spare Rumford to the pallid Knight." f 



As the Count returned to London from his frequent 

 long or short journeys, taken in behalf of his friends or 

 for the introduction and supervision of his own con- 

 trivances, his attention was always curiously and anx- 

 iously engaged by the clouds of smoke which hung over 



* Pursuits of Literature, Philadelphia Ed., p. 192. f Ib. p. 34. 



