To Thomas Archer Hirst1

Marburg

My dear Tom

I’m almost afraid to tell you how precious your letter2 was to me lest you should strive to make the next equally so and thus spoil it by conscious endeavor. It spun out of you with far greater freedom than I can hope to attain in the production of this. It is strange that the intellect by long looking at one object should lose the power of seeing others clearly. In the domain of natural science, which to me has ever been a secondary domain I was never more at home than at present, but as a compensation my insight on subjects which I deem of still higher importance is comparatively dim. This I know is only temporary, the day I know will come when I shall be able to make use of natural science as the handmaid and expositor of this higher insight; but until that day comes you must bear with my feeble outflow as a writer. I will now take a dash at your letter and run through it as quickly as its temptations will allow me; when a little boy on my way to school I have often lurked among the birds nests and primroses, and here in a moral sense I may possibly do the same.

I’m glad you did not send that piece further than the People’s Journal,3 indeed the editor has passed an opinion on it to which I could not subscribe. That there was some truth in it I admit: but it was not well knitted together. It lacked that spontaneity which is the elemental grace of all composition; it was harsh and disjointed and so I am very glad that it has not appeared. With regard to the Leader your plan is excellent, but my time in Germany is now so short which you have already learned,4 and I have so many other matters on hand, that it is not probable that I shall be able to turn my thoughts to this subject. I’m rejoiced to see such a paper, I breathe more fully in the hope that I shall one day be able to lay myself at full length in its columns, unswathed by the cramping trammels of conventionality. My dear Tom, these small annoyances are at bottom healthful exercises. I am troubled with the same disorder myself. I should shrink at being pushed prominently forward by a friend, I should much rather that this were done by a foe for then the spirit of defiance would come to my aid and relieve me of all embarrassment. At no time is a man so free to utter a fair thought as when he knows it is not expected from him. This consciousness is the greatest meddler and busybody that I know, the greatest drawback to the full overflow of the soul. Dont shrink from these little encounters my boy, use them rather, it is possible to make them profitable. Do not at all be afraid of being misinterpreted, no man was ever judged by his words. Were you to sit silent as a Sphinx in Egypt for a thousand years there is an instinct in human nature which would penetrate you. People are not so thickheaded as not to be able to discern when silence flows from backwardness and hesitation and when from stupidity, a thousand winged messengers flutter about your personality and declare the fact without asking your leave. What man, you dont know how wide that little organized germ now beginning to unfold in Halifax5 may spread itself. Too much intercourse would undoubtedly be prejudicial, you will yourself know what are the wholesome proportions.

It is really refreshing to see such a cotton spinner as Smith. He has however taken up a perilous task, To write books and to govern a cotton factory in the manner it ought to be governed at one and the same time is no easy matter. I have no doubt I shall read his book6 with deep interest. Such as he prove the wisdom of Carlyle’s plan to choose men from the twenty seven millions. There is a noble implication in this proposal, and that is, a doubt in the agencies of education, and a reliance upon the productions of nature. Here is a man who waters no narrow hotbed or parterre but scatters the refreshing element over the nation at large and whereever a healthy plant exists he gives it a chance. He recognizes the odour of the wild wood blossoms, and the strength of the oak’s untutored arms: all ability at bottom is a natural gift to which education gives architectural proportions. ‘But behanged to them at present!’7 Bravo! my boy, there is more philosophy in the exclamation than you are yet aware of. Phillips likes you, does he? well for that very reason I like him; he is a decent fellow – greet him for me with brotherly kindness. Somehow or other I feel a community with all your designs there in Halifax. You did perfectly right in promising all the assistance in my power to give to your projected periodical;8 that £75 is a substantial looking fact, quite a refreshing fact indeed. I should be glad to subscribe also but in the language of Peter and John I am forced to exclaim ‘silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee.’9 With regard to your kind proposal as regards Mr Carter I must say Tom that the thought of spending 8 hours a day measuring and plotting is not very inviting: besides I dont think Carter could afford one any thing worth accepting. I will throw myself into some private school or other till I have time to look around me, dont be afraid my boy, I shall come out [with] some thing. Your coming to Germany has often occurred to me, it will be impossible to remain until you come, but I will so arrange matters in England that I may accompany you and see you comfortably installed: make your mind easy on this subject, it will be nicely managed. I believe I have never given you any advice one way or the other upon this matter, having as great a faith in your ability to decide as other people; but this I do know, that long before you came to visit me it was a settled thing in my mind that you should come; I had counted the cost and found that it might be met, on this point I can only say that your unexpected good fortune has deprived me of the deepest gratification that my life could taste; and I now say without fear of consequences, careless of your upbraiding should these consequences disappoint you, that it would be deliberate moral suicide on your part to neglect the cultivation of those powers which God has given you; to my view you would have a far better chance of trotting safely over Mahomets cobweb10 into paradise, had you gone like Judas and hung yourself upon a rotten string.11

Phillips’s thought is ‘holy and wholesome’12 It appears that such must be our means of advance in England, as government is too feeble and too cowardly to take the initiative. Our poverty in our educational respect is an object of astonishment among Germans. I cannot express strongly enough my sense of the value of such an institution as that spoken of by Phillips;13 but the means, the means – it will cost money! ‘Lamentably without an object Tom’ most lamentably ‘consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin’.14 It would be difficult for me perhaps to set down a tangible object, appreciable to a prudent man, and of sufficient importance to justify the loss of time and money which my sojourn in Germany has caused. Miss Carter asked me once ‘and pray Mr Tyndall what is all this study for, what object have you in view?’ I was gravelled15 instantly, I knew I could not satisfy her and that any attempt to do so would have rendered me ridiculous, I therefore contented myself with saying that I had no object or something of that kind, do you want a special answer look round you and see, is there not opportunity enough for a strong man to exert himself: give me the strength only and if I don’t find opportunity why then I shake salt on my tail and transmute me into a fossil cocksparrow! My object here then is to gather a little force, well knowing that the world affords opportunity enough for its special applications. Had I in my wanderings met a little girl sufficiently near my ideal I might on her account have been a little more definite and prudential, but I must defer the exercise of worldly wisdom till such comes in my way.

I received the Truth Seeker, but dont know what to think of Dr Lees. Sometimes a free and beautiful utterance breaks out upon you as if truth had met a smooth spot in the Doctor’s intellect and was reflected faithfully; but the next moment you find yourself in a cross light. His subject seems to be illuminated by glares, like a landscape by sheet lightning – It flashes and he sees a part, flashes again and he sees another, but there is a gap of unimaginable darkness between, which the Dr. fills as he can. Over teetotalism he screams like a frightened plover that would guard its young, his energy at times approaches ferocity. A strong argument of his, if I recollect aright, is, that alcohol is an artificial product, exactly in the same sense however is the Doctor’s shirt an artificial product, fermentation is brought about by the arrangement of chemical forces, the shirt is due to mechanical – in the latter case, inertia, friction, adhesion, &c are cunningly taken advantage of, but the Dr nevertheless is silent on the subject of cotton spinning. My poor Nep! I have given you a hard knock all unconsciously,16 I hope it will be of service to you and make you lie closer to your feelings in future. I must say that I had a dim suspicion that the review was yours, ‘can it be the N E P. of Tidmarsh?’ I asked as I saw the initials. I will just take two antithetical specimens from the thing, one of which I like, the other I dont like. I find experimental wisdom here ‘How often does it happen that in the forthcoming crop we expect the speedy growth, the rankness &c of our weedy species’17 I take this as expressing the same idea as Emerson when he says ‘every body knows what a strong moral girdle is required to supply the place of a superstition’18 again ‘Think of the terrible significance of that word and if custom or indifference have not turned your heart to stone it will bleed indeed’.19 There is a kind of wire-drawn agony in this sentence which does not please me. Such a sentence ought to be the fresh flower of a feeling, deeper than that which it would insist upon – it strikes me however that the heart of the writer was by no means suffering from the effects of ph<1-2 words missing> when he penned it.

You are now able to estimate the value of that mighty thing called ‘common sense’ and the sagacity of the plan proposed by Volney20 to decide on the merits of all religions namely the gathering together of an indiscriminate horde of ‘peoples, nations, and languages’ and laying the matter before them, ‘common sense’ as its preachers use it appears to me to be uncommon nonsense, for to pronounce upon the subjects which they refer to this faculty presupposes, as you say, culture. There are instincts almost infallible, common to the ignorant and to the uncultivated, and as long as a man abides by these he is safe, but the decisions of common sense are those of deliberate judgment and entirely out of the range of these instincts if rude and undeveloped. There are many subjects of human experiences upon which at the present moment I would not pronounce an opinion, nay I have one or two articles of faith which I could if called upon by no means sufficiently defend, but my inability I know arises from the withdrawal of my intellect from the contemplation of such subjects and not from any lack of intrinsic evidence, A wise remark of Dr. Lees here occurs to me, speaking of Macaulay he says ‘His psychological experience must be the limit of his belief in human nature’.21

Thank Jimmy for me. I am proud of the confidence of both of you, though I dare say there are people in the world who would think that I ought to be ashamed of myself.

Your little sonnet pleases me exceedingly, the ruling thought is a very fine one.

‘Were life upon they banks but like thy course

So void of strife, so full of silent force’.22

That is an ideal worth striving after, and involving many conditions physical and moral for its attainment. My own experience induces me to share in the word physical, for example, I have had no exercise since I left Switzerland, and have been working daily in an unwholesome atmosphere, namely that of Nitrous acid this escapes from the galvanic battery which I use in this magnetic investigation.23 One day I had been experimenting with 20 cells and the fumes were very strong, at night I could scarcely breath or speak. I walked up and down for three hours in the fresh air to recover my respiration, and next morning I spat blood for the first time in my life, the effects of the acid had settled in the lungs and small of my back – the spine had been affected. I usually experimented with 6 or 8 cells the vapour from which is small and I am so used to it I dont perceive it; but I can see the effects of all this – I am in a worse condition to realize the above ideal than I should have been had I attended to physical conditions and drank the fresh air oftener. But for all this there are sanitary measures in store, and I will wrestle you for a pound on my return in England!

There is scarcely a remark in your letter which pleases be better than that which alludes to your class at the Mechanics Institute.24 Why you had only one pupil when you were here, ‘verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed you shall say to yonder mountain “remove” and it shall obey you’.25 Why by the Lord there is no stupidity that can withstand the force of a man if he be brave and patient. Your remark on this subject argues a deep knowledge of it; by holding fast to the view you have expressed I was enabled at Queenwood to make my occupation a delight when teachers of 10 times my experience were complaining. Some people set about education in a ram-down-cartridge kind of way: stuffing their unfortunate pupils with crudities without ever once enquiring after their powers of digestion, or struggling to promote a healthy appetite – not a doubt of it Tom, not a doubt of it – I have said the same twenty times in our teachers meetings ‘It will flow out unknown to him in every action.’26 To every one of your remarks regarding ‘selfexpansion’ I most cordially subscribe. It is only another way of stating the aphorism of Solomon ‘What thou doest do it with thy might’27 and this is impossible without a certain exclusiveness; dig one ridge deep and well before you commence another. There is some difficulty with words to draw a distinction between this mode of cultivation and onesidedness but they are heaven-wide asunder.

I conclude my dear Tom by praying the gods to prosper you and the little band to which you belong. That is what I call cooperation, the cooperation which leaves me free and yet at the same time binds me to you all irrestibly, a cooperation in whose services I can apply my whole force not because it is the demand of certain stipulated conditions, but because it is the dictate of my own will and pleasure; could we but spread the leaven how miserable would our conventionalities appear; then would society first feel the sublime truth of our great teacher ‘to faith all things are possible’.28

Tyndall

RI MS JT/1/HTYP/7578

LT Transcript Only

[mid–late May 1850]: written after letter 0401 (see that letter (n. 1) and n. 4 below).

your letter: letter 0398.

that piece further than the People’s Journal: see letter 0392, n. 2 and letter 0398.

you have already learned: Tyndall assumed that Hirst already knew when he would be leaving Germany; that is, that Hirst had received letters 0400 and 0401.

that little organized germ … in Halifax: probably Hirst’s new circle of G. S. Phillips and his friends. In letter 0398 Hirst expressed hesitations about participating in the group.

his book: cited letter 0398, n. 12.

But behanged to them at present!’: quotation not identified.

projected periodical: see letter 0398 for the plans to establish a journal to rival the Leader and Truth-Seeker.

‘silver and gold … I give I thee’: Peter gave something better than money: Acts 3:6, ‘then Peter said, silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk’.

Mahomets cobweb: Islamic oral traditional maintains that during the Hijra, Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina, he and his companion Abu Bakr were relentlessly pursued by Quraysh soldiers and took refuge in a cave. Legend holds that Allah commanded a spider to weave a web across the cave’s opening, which caused the Quraysh to pass by, thinking that the cave was uninhabited.

Judas and hung yourself upon a rotten string: accounts of Judas Iscariot’s death vary. Matthew 27:3-10 holds that he committed suicide by hanging, while Acts 1:18 describes how he fell headfirst into a field and ‘burst asunder’. Augustine harmonized these differing accounts to suggest that Judas hanged himself, but the rope rotted, causing his body to fall and burst open. Tyndall could be referring to Augustine’s interpretation.

‘holy and wholesome’: perhaps an allusion to the liturgy for All Saints Day, which quotes 2 Maccabees 12:46: ‘It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead’.

an institution … by Phillips: see letter 0398 concerning Phillips’ desire to establish a People’s College after the German model.

‘consider ... do they spin’: Matthew 6:28, ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin’.

gravelled: perplexed or puzzled (OED); or perhaps the word is ‘gavelled’, i.e. gavelled into silence.

My poor Nep!: under the pseudonym, N.E.P., Hirst had published a review of Carlyle’s first Latter Day Pamphlet (cited letter 0398, n. 20). Tyndall criticised the review in letter 0400, wrongly thinking that it had been written by Caliban.

‘How often … weedy species’: quotation not identified.

‘every body knows … superstition’: R. Emerson, ‘History’, Essays (London: James Fraser, 1841), p. 29.

Think ... bleed indeed’: quotation not identified.

plan proposed by Volney: Constantin François Volney (1757–1820), French philosopher, historian, and politician, who argued that history would end with the final union of all religions by recognition of common, underlying truths (Les Ruines, ou méditations sur les révolutions des empires, 1791).

‘His psychological … human nature’: quotation not identified.

‘Were life … silent force’: see end of letter 0398 for Hirst’s ‘little sonnet’, of which these are lines 5–6.

galvanic battery … magnetic investigation: Tyndall’s work with galvanic batteries stemmed from his research with Knoblauch on diamagnetism (see letter 0395, n. 22).

your class at the Mechanics Institute: in letter 0393 Hirst had lamented that he had only one student. In his last letter (0398) he reported that attendance had increased to 20.

‘verily I say … obey you’: Matthew 17:20, ‘And the Lord said, “If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove”’. This is the closest of many similar biblical sources.

It will flow … every action: source not identified. It could be a paraphrase of a sentiment from Carlyle or Emerson.

‘What thou doest do it with thy might’: Ecclesiastes 9:10, ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’.

‘to faith all things are possible’: Mark 9:23, ‘Jesus said unto him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”’.

Please cite as “Tyndall0402,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0402