Leighlin Bridge, Sunday Morning
‘My dear Tyndall’
I am constrained to become a Sabbath breaker1 to respond to the calls of ‘friendship’, and notwithstanding your animadversions on the disparity of our situations, and the many inconveniences under which you labour, I possitively assure you that I have undergone many fatigues these three months endeavouring to reclaim the brutal conduct and crude, undigested minds of several of my pupils, who were first placed under the jurisdiction of some pharisaical2 dolt, whose alter-scraping evolutions became the shield of his stultified capacity. I had, moreover, to be very punctual as to my attendance at Mr Cullen’s3 every evening, and my calls every Saturday have been numerous; so that that disparity so much complained of by the pilgarlic in the County Cork,4 exists not between him and the poor waywarn Argyle5 in the County Carlow.
To be brief, had I committed no other crime than that of writing to my pupils on the Sabbathday, I entertain not the slightest doubt but the recording angel would drop a tear upon such fault and blot it out forever.6
Your graphic sketch7 of the romantic scenes of the County Cork, in which you have displayed so much of the imagery of fancy and the natural effusions of an enlightened genius, has filled my mind with thoughts elate: who can read your plain, unvarnished description of the curlew’s wild whistle, the roaring of old ocean’s waves, and the thundering of the hollow winds, without being struck with the sublimity of your gigantic mind? I cannot pass this subject over without introducing a few lines from the works of the inimitable Ovid:–8
‘You, though from heaven remote, to heaven will move
With strength of mind, and tread the abyss above;
And penetrate, with an interior light,
Those upper depths, which nature hid from sight.
Pleas’d you will be to walk along the sphere
Of shining stars, and travel with the year,
To leave the heavy earth and scale the height
Of Atlas, who supports the heavenly weight;
To look from upper light, and thence survey
Mistaken mortals wand’ring from the way.’
I presume to say that you will not deem me guilty of anything bordering on flattery in the preceding lines, as you know I am far above such fulsome conduct. Why I did so is, the meed of your merit deserves more than my humble pen can confer.
When I read the contents of your luminous epistle for your dearly beloved mother, her cheek became tinged by means of the sentimental glow that pervaded her whole frame, her eyes sparkled with joy and pourtrayed the gladness with which her heart was replete; then, then!! during her enthusiastic emotions, she exclaimed oh! my son, oh! my darling John, you are another Milton;9 and in conclusion she ordered me to solicit Mick Bergin10 to investigate the 47.E.B.’s,11 that we might form an idea of the County Cork folk, when they would be addressed for pen and ink: I acceded to her wishes, and what was Mick’s answer? It was, that when the people of the County Cork became acquainted with the ‘refined terms’, pen and ink, he would illustrate the Pythagorean theorem.12
Mr Butler was with me on Friday and after he had gone through his usual etiquette of examination he wrote a beautiful panegyric on me and my pupils.13 You shall hear again from me in the latter part of this month, or early in October. Inclosed I have transmitted to you another portion of my geometrical apostles.14
I am yours very truly | John Conwill
RI MS JT/1/11/3511
LT Transcript Only
a Sabbath breaker: 6 September 1840 was a Sunday.
pharisaical: legalistic, self-righteous, hypocritical (OED).
my attendance at Mr Cullen’s: Probably the farmer named Cullen who lived in the townland of Craan (one side of the road is in Craan and the other side is in the townlnad of Rathornan) about a mile outside Leighlin Bridge on the road to Milford. Conwill lived on the opposite side of the road in the townland of Rathornan but in a field or two from the road and almost on the banks of the River Barrow.
pilgarlic in the County Cork: a pilgarlic is a pitiable, lowly, or foolish person (OED); the recipient of this insult has not been identified but was probably mentioned in a missing letter from Tyndall.
poor waywarn Argyle: not identified.
the recording angel … blot it out forever: In Christian thought the recording angel is assigned by God with the reponsibility of recording an individual’s actions, both good and bad. Conwill here expresses the hope that his desecration of the Sabbath by writing to Tyndall would not be recorded as a sinful act.
Your graphic sketch: Tyndall had sent Conwill examples of his compositions, some of which are deposited in RI/JT8/1/2.
Ovid: Lines from Metamorphoses, XV.81–4 and 213–18, by the Roman poet Ovid (43 bc – 17 ad), describing the heavens according to the Pythagorean system.
Milton: John Milton (1608–74) was the foremost English poet and man of letters during the Commonwealth, a period of considerable religious and political upheaval. His best-known work is the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).
Mick Bergin: not identified.
the 47.E.B.’s: not identified, probably a transcription error by LT.
Pythagorean theorem: The theorem articulated by the Ionian mathematician Pythagoras (c. 570 bc – c. 495 bc) that relates to a right-angled triangle; the square of the hypotenuse being equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
a beautiful panegyric on me and my pupils: the school inspector’s report.
Inclosed … geometrical apostles: enclosure missing.
Please cite as “Tyndall0009,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0009