Life of Coiint Rumford. 293 



have been a ridiculous spectacle in a New England 

 country town, and their garb, which would have made 

 them a jeer, would have been a severer infliction than 

 their poverty. 



The matters referred to in the long epistle are recog- 

 nized in the correspondence which follows. 



"WOBURN, March 26, 1798. 



" MY DEAR COUNT, I have been waiting in expectation, 

 from time to time, that I should soon have it in my power to 

 announce to you the full and complete negotiation of your most 

 liberal donation to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 

 which has been delayed the longer as we did not very readily 

 find the precise mode of making the transfer where the original 

 certificates (as in this case) were lost. However, the business 

 is finally completed, and the Academy is in the full possession of 

 your generous donation of five thousand dollars, three per cent 

 Stock of the United States, a donation the most liberal and im- 

 portant of any that this Society has ever realized. And notwith- 

 standing you may not have heard (as you might justly expect) 

 much from us during the transfer, yet I do assure you that this 

 event has not been marked with silence here. 



" There is a committee of the Academy appointed to address 

 you upon this pleasing occasion, and I hope erelong we shall 

 have the renewed pleasure of transmitting to you some fruits 

 of your solicitous endeavors to investigate a subject so difficult, 

 and, at the same time, so important to mankind. It rather 

 seems a mystery that the philosophy of Fire and Light, the 

 most effulgent agents in nature, should be the most difficult to 

 see into and investigate. 



" Your much esteemed Essays are now republishing by Mr. 

 David West, of Boston. This book, besides the great utility 

 of the various subjects it treats of, is highly valued for the style 

 in which it is written, and has been recommended by some of 

 our professors in languages as the best sample for imitation of 

 any extant. 



