276 Life of Count Rumford. 



we resume -again the light relations given to us by the 

 American girl about her court life, and her frequent 

 misunderstandings with her father, we must think of him 

 as weighed down by many heavy cares which might at 

 times make him irritable and unsympathetic with a 

 country maiden's fancies. The Count also at this 

 period encountered much opposition in the exercise of 

 his office, and began to feel with some severity the force 

 of the jealousy turned against him as a foreigner invested 

 with so many intermeddling functions. The excursions 

 which were to his daughter but the pleasurable incidents 

 and interchanges of an unemployed life were sought for 

 by him as means and intervals of relief from over-work, 

 which, while engaging his zeal and activity, made serious 

 breaches upon his health, and more than once threatened 

 him with fatal disease. 



We have a pleasing reference to the intimacy which 

 existed between Count Rumford and that complacent 

 Scotch cosmopolite, Sir John Sinclair, in the published 

 correspondence of the latter. He introduces a letter 

 which he received from Rumford, written just after the 

 temporary subsidence of this war alarm, with the follow- 

 ing comment : 



" From similarity of pursuits I had contracted [in London] a 

 cordial friendship with Count Rumford, a well-known native of 

 America. He was a man of an ardent mind, which enabled him 

 to conquer many difficulties ; and by his inquiries regarding the 

 proper application of heat he introduced many useful discoveries 

 which will find their way to many countries, even where the 

 name of the inventor may remain unknown. 



" Among a number of communications the following is one 

 of the most important, as it exhibits the distinguished philosopher 

 placed at the head of an army in a foreign country, yet anxious 

 to withdraw, from active life, and to resume the more pleasing 

 employment of scientific investigation: 



