Life of Count Rumford. 497 



writing than to acquire information. If those who are quick of 

 apprehension are sometimes tempted to find fault with me for 

 being too particular, they must remember that it is not given to 

 all to be quick of apprehension, and that it is amiable to have 

 patience, and to be indulgent." 



When Lord Brougham, as quoted on a previous 

 page, satirized the Count for giving such particular 

 directions about the proper way of eating Indian pud- 

 ding, his Lordship must have overlooked a passage 

 in this Essay even more to his purpose as an illus- 

 tration. After the Count has described most elabo- 

 rately how stewpans and saucepans should -be shaped, 

 how their rims should be turned and their handles 

 riveted, he adds : " There should be a round hole 

 about a quarter of an inch in diameter, near the end 

 of the handle, by which the saucepan may occasionally 

 be hung upon a nail or peg, when it is not in use. The 

 cover belonging to the saucepan may be hung up on 

 the same nail, or peg, by means of the projection of its 

 rim." 



The Count, of course, realized that one of the effects 

 of the introduction of his improvements in household 

 and kitchen utensils would be to render unsalable 

 many manufactured articles then in the market, and 

 to excite the opposition of self-interest among many 

 artisans. So he writes : 



" However anxious I am to promote useful improvements, 

 and especially such as tend to the preservation of health and 

 the increase of rational enjoyments, it always gives me pain 

 when I recollect how impossible it is to introduce anything new, 

 however useful it may be to society at large, without occasion- 

 ing a temporary loss or inconvenience to some certain indi- 

 viduals whose interest it is to preserve the state of things 

 actually existing. 

 32 



