February 12th 1842.
‘My dear Tyndall’
I return you my most ample thanks for the splendid eulogium conferred by you on me in your last luminous epistle.1 I assure you that the crow mentioned in the fable, never felt more nettled at the insiduous flattery of sly reynard,2 than I did at the beautiful line of demarkation drawn by you, between Hennessy’s capabilities and mine. Imagine not that I deem your praises insiduous: by no means. I always look upon any thing flowing from your pen as the emanation of a pure and unprecedented mind – I question not your sincerity towards me and I unequivocally proclaim that whenever I become the object of your encomiums, the most unbounded enthusiasm seizes my imagination, and that the galvanic battery3 with three hundred plates in operation could not add more to rouse my spirits at any time they may become dormant, than the vivid flashes of Tyndall’s pen. You are a strong reasoner on the human mind, and when I contemplate the view which you have taken of frail man, so far as Hennessy is concerned, there cannot be a question about the generality of your predictions. You have said that ‘time might teach him sense,’ and you have asked ‘when could he rival me at old Diophantus’. Now hearken – The other day a note was presented to me from Hennessy praying that I would condescend to remain in the school on last Saturday till two o’clock that he might communicate many strange occurrencies to me together with exculpating himself for his unparalleled ingratitude towards me. I remained, according to his importunities, and you may be certain that he approached me in the most crouching manner. I looked on the fellow with disdain and pity. What did he want? To be serious, he wanted the solutions to the Diophantine problems in Bonnycastle’s Algebra.4 I have refused him for some time in order that he might take a lesson from experience and hence learn to appreciate those who could ‘stand by him when in deep distress.’ I also apprised him that he should reward me with plenty of the ryno5 if I should yield to solve the questions – this he promised to do.
Your mother feels much elated at, and pregnant with, the hope of seeing you shortly. You know March is fast approaching – she likewise forms very sanguine hopes that the spirit will move your hostess to preserve you from the damnable bugs of Cork.6 I am sure the one that was about to attack you, intended to ape the frog which thought to swell itself to the size of an ox.7 Why, the nasty thing, if it did not attack you so soon it might, in some part of the night, take a few good pieces out of your hind quarter.
Wishing you all kinds of felicity | I remain your faithful teacher | Conwill
RI MS JT 1/11/3523
LT Transcript Only
your last luminous epistle: letter missing.
sly reynard: a cunning anthropomorphous fox in European folklore, who, in a story from the ancient Greek collection Aesop’s Fables, flatters a crow into singing, thereby dropping a piece of cheese from its beak.
galvanic battery: an electrochemical cell, named after the Italian physician Luigi Galvani (1737–98), which produces electrical energy from chemical reactions within it.
Bonnycastle’s Algebra: Either Introduction to Algebra (London: J. Johnson, 1782) or A Treatise on Algebra in Theory and Practice, 2 vols (London: J. Johnson, 1813) by John Bonnycastle (1751–1821), Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. On p. 132 of the former work Bonnycastle observed: ‘Diophantine problems are those that relate to the finding of square and cube numbers, &c. and are such as are generally capable of a great variety of answers’. On Diophantus, see letters 0054, n. 6 and 0060, n. 10.
ryno: money (OED).
the damnable bugs of Cork: see letter 0118.
frog which thought to swell itself to the size of an ox: In another story from Aesop’s Fables, a conceited frog attempts to inflate itself to the same dimensions as an ox, but bursts in the process.
Please cite as “Tyndall0123,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0123