Mr John Tyndall | Ordnance Survey Office | Youghal
Leighlin Bridge | April 30th, 1841.
My dear John
I received your letter1 and am happy to know you are in good health. I perceive from the letter you sent Mr Conwill,2 also from the one I received myself, that you have entered the knotty field of controversy with some bigot in Youghal3 who when he was not able for you at grammer should attack your religions creed. His first onset was an active one by placing in your hands Challoner’s Catholic Christian Instructed,4 one of the ablest and most sophistical productions on the popish side of the question. I read it myself twenty seven years ago. It was given to me with the fullest confidence of my becoming a convert to his reasoning, but so far from it having the desired effect that it confirmed me more strongly in my former belief than ever; for what was this popish champion striving to do – to make it appear that two and two made six, or – what is equivalent to it – that a piece of bread is the body of a man. He might as well, as the great Tillotson says, go about to prove that an egg is an elephant or that a musket bullet is a pike.5 I would advise you to get Doctor Jeremy Taylor’s Confutation of Transubstantiation6 or Carson on the same subject.7 You understand Euclid8 yourself, bring it to bear against it as Daniel MacFrony has done before you,9 for it is an outrage on common sense Mr Conwill says he will send you some jawbreakers for the Youghal bigot10 in his next letter to you on the whole I would much rather have your mind employed on something more useful to you, as it often creates very unpleasant feelings between man and man, and ends in a bottle of smoke.11 I have now a very unpleasant task to perform that of letting you know Edward Styles having lost the situation he held in the loan fund.12 When the books were examined, he was found a defaulter in the enormous sum of one hundred and seven pounds. At the same time there is but little blame attached to Ned, but all the blame laid at the children’s door. Now I think he should have minded his children’s conduct better than to allow them the handling of the people’s money and making a bad use of it. His son John13 – you know the sort he is – I met with him at a late hour in Nurney14 about 8 months ago with two blackguards along with him and three tame cocks in their hands. I checked John for his acts, the consequence was the whole pack was in fully cry at me nearly ever since. Ned and I have not spoken to each other since that period. Jas.15 Treacy has the situation, and indeed no man could get it that wanted it worse though I wont at present describe his situation. Still I am sorry for Styles though he does not deserve it from me.
John Kehoe16 that lived at the Bridge is dead and buried. We are all well at present and join in sending our love to you
I am your affectionate father | John Tyndall
Get Tillotson’s Discourse against Transubstantiation with Pool’s Dialogues.17 I am tired and the steel pen18 no good.
Jeremy Taylor’s Dissuasive from Popery,19 a first rate work.
RI MS JT/1/10/3219
LT Transcript Only
your letter: letter 0055.
the letter you sent Mr Conwill: letter missing.
controversy with some bigot in Youghal: This controversy was presumably discussed in the letter to Conwill. The ‘bigot’ may be Anthony Lebert mentioned in letter 0058.
Challoner’s Catholic Christian: see letter 0055, n. 8.
the great Tillotson … a pike: In his A Discourse against Transubstantiation (1684), John Tillotson (1630–94), the dean and later the archbishop of Canterbury, wrote ‘It might well seem strange if any man should write a book to prove an egg is not an elephant, and that a musket-bullet is not a pike’ (p. 2).
Doctor Jeremy Taylor’s Confutation of Transubstantiation: The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament Proved Against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation (1653) by the Anglican clergyman Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), who served as Bishop of Down and Connor.
Carson on the same subject: The Doctrine of Transubstantiation Subversive of the Foundations of Human Belief (Dublin: Tims, 1825) by Alexander Carson (1776–1844), who was ordained into the Presbyterian Church of Ireland but later became an independent and then a Baptist. Carson rejected the doctrine as incapable of proof and contrary to Common Sense.
Euclid: see letter 0017, n. 3.
Daniel MacFrony has done before you: Possibly Daniel Featley’s Transubstantiation Exploded (1638).
the Youghal bigot: see n. 3.
a bottle of smoke: a deceit or falsehood.
Edward Styles … loan fund: The fourth annual report of the Leighlin-Bridge Charitable Loan Fund, for the year ending 31 December 1840, names Edward Styles as clerk and John Styles as messenger, for which they received £25 and £5 respectively. No financial irregularities were reported. (Catalogue – Small Private Collections (1), Carlow County Archives Service, Document P2/0006.)
His son John: John Styles (b. 1830) was one of Tyndall’s cousins and the son of Edward and Mary (née Tyndall).
Nurney: a village about 3 miles east of Leighlin Bridge on the Tullow Road.
Jas.: James.
John Kehoe: not identified.
Tillotson’s Discourse … Pool’s Dialogues: A Discourse against Transubstantiation (1684) by John Tillotson (1630–94), who served as Archbishop of Canterbury (1691–4); A Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protestant (1667) by the Nonconformist minster Matthew Poole (1624–79).
steel pen: a pen with a steel nib, split at the tip like a quill (OED); see letter 0054.
Dissuasive from Popery: Taylor’s A Dissuasive from Popery was first published in 1664.
Please cite as “Tyndall0056,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0056