Queenwood Sunday
My Dear Francis,
What you have been pleased to call your ‘miserable scrawl’2 was a very pleasing scrawl to me – I write these reviews exactly as I feel concerning them and your note gratified me inasmuch as it proved that a unity of feeling subsists between us on these topics3 – Might I beg of you to present my sincere thanks to Mr Huxley for his great kindness4 – If any fellow ever had reason to congratulate himself upon kind treatment most assuredly I have.
I scarcely know what to make of Feilitsch,5 it is hardly suited for an abstract, I will send you a summary of his results6 by tomorrow’s post and then you can exercise your discretion upon them. – I imagine from what you say regarding the ‘bulletin’7 that you would shoulder a rifle with [great] good will against Louis Napoleon8 – It is wise to prepare for the gentleman.
believe me dear Francis | most truly yours | John Tyndall
StBPL T&F, Authors’ letters
[14 or 21 December 1851]: the comments on reviews (n. 3) and the reference to Francis’s ‘miserable scrawl’ (n. 2) suggest that this letter was written in reply to 0589 of mid-December, and that it was thus written in mid-late December. However, the references to Huxley, Feilitzsch and Louis Napoleon are not in direct response to letter 0589, therefore there must be a missing letter from Francis written at about the same time as letter 0589. The relationship to letter 0589 makes a late December date likely, although we cannot rule out January 1852. Tyndall would not have written this letter on Sunday 28 December as he breakfasted with Francis in London that day before returning to Queenwood (JT/2/13b/556). That leaves 14 and 21 December. (There are reliably dated references to Feilitzsch in February 1852 (see n. 5 below), but we consider that this letter refers to a different, unidentified Feilitzsch manuscript.)
your ‘miserable scrawl’: in letter 0589 Francis had apologised for his ‘scrawl’. It is possible, however, that in the missing letter, Francis also apologised for a ‘miserable scrawl’.
I write … these topics: Tyndall had been relieved by Francis’s assurance that reviewers had a duty to be honest and that he shared Tyndall’s estimation of Hunt (letter 0589).
thanks ... great kindness: kindness in signing Tyndall’s RS certificate. Tyndall had already thanked Huxley for being willing to sign his FRS nomination certificate in early December (letters 0581 and 0582). Here, he sends thanks for his actual signing.
Feilitsch: it is unclear to what paper Tyndall alludes. He wrote a short summation of a pamphlet by Feilitzsch for publication in the March 1852 number of the Phil. Mag. (see letters 0599, 0602, 0603, all February 1852), but the context here suggests that this letter is earlier and refers to an earlier paper; in which case Francis shared Tyndall’s misgivings and chose not to publish. Perhaps, though, this letter dates from January 1852.
send you ... his results: probably with letter 0591.
the ‘bulletin’: voting papers associated with the plebiscite (see n. 8).
against Louis Napoleon: Louis Napoleon initiated a coup d’état on 2 December 1851. He seized power after failing in his campaign to have the Constitution, which barred the president for running for a second term, amended in his favour. He held a plebiscite on the new constitution on 20–1 December.
Please cite as “Tyndall0590,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 10 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0590