74 8 Proposals for Forming 



under a necessity of returning soon to Germany, I had 

 not leisure to pursue it farther at that time ; and I was 

 obliged to content myself with having merely thrown 

 out a loose idea, as it were by accident, which I thought 

 might possibly attract attention. 



After my return to Munich, I opened myself more 

 fully on the subject in my correspondence with my 

 friends in this country, and particularly in my letters to 

 Thomas Bernard, Esq.,* who, as is well known, is one 

 of the founders and most active members of the Society 

 for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Com- 

 forts of the Poor. 



* Extracts of letters written by Count Rumford to Thomas Bernard, Esq., 

 from Germany : — 



" Munich, 28th April, 1797. 



" I feel myself very highly honoured by the distinguished mark of esteem 

 and regard which the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor has con- 

 ferred on me ; and I beg leave, through you, to return the Society my respectful 

 and grateful acknowledgments. 



" This flattering proof of the approbation of those most respectable persons 

 who compose the Society will tend very powerfully to encourage me to perse- 

 vere in those endeavours to promote the important objects they have in view by 

 which I first obtained their notice and esteem. 



" I am very sanguine in my expectations of the good which will be done by 

 this Society : they will, however, be able to do much more by examples, by 

 models that can be seen and felt, than by any thing that can be said or written." 



"Munich, 13th May, 1798. 



" The rapid progress you are making in your most interesting and laudable 

 undertakings affords me a high degree of satisfaction. It proves that I was 

 not mistaken when I concluded that, notwithstanding the alarming progress of 

 luxury and corruption of taste and of morals in England, there is still good sense 

 and energy to be found, even in the highest classes of society, where the influx 

 of wealth has operated most powerfully. Go on, my dear sir, and be assured 

 that, when you shall have put doing good m. fashion, you will have done all that 

 human wisdom can do to retard and prolong the decline of a great and power- 

 ful nation that has arrived at, or passed, the zenith of human glory." 



"Munich, 8th June, 1798. 



"I have received your letter from Brighton of the 12th ult. You can hardly 

 imagine the high degree of pleasure and satisfaction which I feel at your success 

 in your most laudable undertakings. Go on, my dear sir, and be assured that 

 you will contribute more essentially to the revival of taste and morals, of energy, 



