Life of Count Rumford. 579 



the scientific works of her eminent husband. (Paris, 

 1805.) 



I translate again the words of Guizot. 



" Among the guests of this home, the sharers in its ele- 

 gant hospitality, came M. de Rumford. He was then in the 

 service of the King of Bavaria, and enjoyed in public a splendid 

 scientific popularity. His spirit was lofty, his conversation was 

 full of interest, and his manners were marked by gentle kind- 

 ness. He made himself agreeable to Madame Lavoisier. He 

 accorded with her habits, her tastes, one might almost say 

 with her reminiscences. She hoped to renew, to a degree, 

 her state of happiness. She was married to him on the 22d [a 

 discrepancy of date] of October, 1805, happy to ofFer to a 

 distinguished man a great fortune and the most agreeable 

 existence. 



" Their characters and temperaments were incompatible. 

 Youth alone finds it easy to forget the loss of independence in 

 the bosom of a tender affection. Delicate questions started up 

 between them. Their keen sensibilities were tried. Madame 

 de Rumford, on her remarriage, had formally stipulated, in the 

 contract which she had made, that she should be called Madame 

 Lavoisier de Rumford. M. de Rumford, who had consented 

 to this, found it to be disagreeable to him. She persisted, as 

 she wrote in 1808 : c I have regarded it as an obligation, as a 

 point of religion, not to drop the name of Lavoisier. Trusting 

 the pledge of M. de Rumford, I should have been satisfied with 

 that, and should not have made it one of the articles of my 

 civil contract with him, had I not wished to put on record a 

 token of my respect for M. Lavoisier, and a proof of the gen- 

 erosity of M. de Rumford. It is my duty to hold to a deter- 

 mination which has always been one of the conditions of our 

 union ; and I have at the bottom of my heart a profound con- 

 viction that M. de Rumford will not disapprove of me for it, 

 and that on taking time for reflection he will permit me to con- 

 tinue to fulfil a duty which I regard as sacred.' 



" This hope, however, was deceptive. After some domestic 



