To Thomas Archer Hirst¹

My Dear Tom,

Here’s a bit of speculation – perhaps a few sketches such as the enclosed² can be disposed of somehow or other, will you enquire about it? Try the Peoples Journal, Howitts³ or any other you think likely. a note somewhat in the following style may accompany the manuscript.

Dear Sir. I am requested by a friend at present studying in Germany to enquire whether a series of sketches of German University life somewhat similar in style to the enclosed would be acceptable to you – In case of negative, you perhaps be good enough to return this manuscript. T.H.

I dont know how it reads, it was written under disadvantages, being the product of bits & scraps of time snatched from my investigations. I am driven to this course because I see the probability of my remaining in Germany longer than I anticipated or else give up an investigation which promises to be of great interest. Professor Knoblauch and myself are experimenting on magnetism, in my last note to Jimmy I said we had as yet obtained no safe result – We have since obtained one, and this threatens a very beautiful theory which has obtained considerable celebrity for its propounder.⁴ He will be dreadfully angry no doubt and will do all in his power to overturn us, but in this he will assuredly fail Tom, for Nature is on our side, and we shall limit ourselves strictly to declaring what she has confided to us. You see this will draw us into a discussion and it will be unpleasant to be obliged to run away before the thing is complete.

It will be necessary to preserve a copy of the manuscript beside you. Jimmy will help you to make it – I know he will.

Give me your opinion. Suppose I continue these sketches whether you dispose of them or not, how many subscribers do you think you and Jimmy could procure towards a book of 150 or 200 pages. I have a good many acquaintances here & there and by this means I may be enabled to accomplish something.

In case all else fails and you imagine that the thing is worth reading for really, I dont know, just write to M^r Edmonson Queenwood and obtain from him the address of D^r Charles Mackay. Send the manuscript to the latter with a note like the following: –

Dear Sir

The enclosed has reached me from my friend John Tyndall. He is engaged at present in a series of magnetic investigations which will detain him in Germany longer than he anticipated. Would you oblige me by a short answer to the following question? do you know of any periodical where a few sketches of German University life somewhat in the style of the enclosed would be received? I have tried the People’s Journal and one or two more. Your acquaintance with literary matters will I dare say enable you at once to decide whether the proposition is likely to be entertained by any body or not.

I am D^r Sir | Very faithfully [yrs] | T.H.

Now boy, how are you getting on? Have you turned Turk, Jew, or Mahommedan,⁵ since you last wrote me – you will be welcome to me in any guise. I should not be at all surprised if some fine day now lapped comfortably up in the carpet bag of futurity you should astonish the world by a volume entitled Travels of a Gentleman in Search of a Religion! and doubtless the matter will read very prettily, and you yourself will look back upon it with a feeling somewhat similar to mine sometimes when I call to mind a certain day on which I followed a hunt in Ireland and had to save myself from positive starvation by eating maggotty blackberries – Oh it is very pleasant to look back upon, and looks exceedingly well on paper – but the actual thing itself! As I have nothing better to say I will send you a little poem from Goethe, entitled Mason Logic,⁶ translated I believe by Carlyle. You have read it perhaps.

The Mason[’s] ways are

A type of existence

And his persistence

Is as the days are

Of men in this world.

The future hides in it

Good hap and sorrow

We press still thorow

Naught that abides in it

Daunting us, – onward!

And solemn before us

Veiled the dark portal

Goal of all mortal –

Stars silent o’er us

Graves under us silent.

But heard are the voices

Voice of the sages

The world and the ages

Choose well your choice is

Brief and yet endless;

Here eyes do behold you

In Eternity’s stillness

Here is all fullness

Ye have to reward you

‘Work and despair not’.

I’m making up my mind to be a thorough miser when I return to England. miser I wont say. but a downright money getter – I will rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of carefulness till my purse is full to the throttle – I wish [to heaven] my friends were considerate and would pay me what they owe me⁷ – I should then be able to push on a little longer, no one could have a better opportunity than I have at present, and here I must quit before half its advantages are reaped – no matter

We press still thorow | Nought daunting us – onward⁸ | J. Tyndall

On second thought Tom dont send the thing to Charles Mackay till you hear again from me.⁹

The accompanying¹⁰ has lain for some days beside me – The more I look into the matter the more firmly I find myself bound to this investigation, and therefore the more likely that my stay in Marburg will be prolonged. you have within a note to M^r Carter.¹¹ I must tell you what it is lest you should be angry with me – It is to ask him whether in case I should require it he would trust me with the loan of twenty pounds for 6 months. If he does not he is not a good fellow for nearly ten times the sum of my money lay for a long time in his hands and I gave him very little trouble about it. I should not however be disappointed even should he refuse me. – I think for popular reading the enclosed sketch might be altered with benefit but I’ll let it go as it stands. Kiss Jimmy for me – and if you see Ada¹² soon tell her that I continue to love her very dearly.

J.

We¹³ publish in the German Journals¹⁴ of February, and I will send an English version of the matter to the Philosophical Transactions.¹⁵

RI MS JT/1/T/525