With this2 Mrs E.3 sent me 6 postage stamps – I sent them back saying that I felt sure you would not permit me to take them. Your letter4 was a pleasant one to me – I quite agree with the old Woman at Wovendens5 as to the punishment you deserved. It was altogether a pretty incident and prettily described. – Poor January!6 – I had him before me almost as vividly as if his body were here – Remember me kindly to all, especially to Jimmy for although the little fellow appears to have forgotten me he is still very fresh in my memory. – But I wont tell sentimental lies, I don’t believe that Jimmy has forgotten me. I will write to London for Shortrede and have it kept till you call for it7 – This east wind is back again and I feel it – yesterday I strained my kidneys jumping up stairs and to-day I must walk with a stoop – I shall be better tomorrow. My muscles are not as strong and tensile as they used to be, and I am beginning to be able to sympathize with those weaklings who were a puzzle to me in my days of vigour. n’importe the trees are budding and I shall soon be in bloom and flower also –. I write this in the intervals between my experiments – I have not followed that subject further but I think the fact is a very remarkable one – I intend to look at it again when I have time – you might certainly make a pretty problem out of it,8 but you shall have plenty of such problems at a future day. Your hat was sent from here,9 Debus met the coachman to whom you gave directions, upon his return but he was on another coach and so could not speak to him. All these are little Wovenden matters on a small scale. – I hope you have seen Miss Carter10 and that you remember well every word she has spoken to you – Blessed is the man that inclineth his heart unto wisdom!11 Now it is drawing near post time Tom so if I dont cease writing I shant get this off tonight – I shall therefore bid you good bye my boy. The prospectus which I send you is far from being after my heart – I will have a better one written in due time12 – Our terms now are 40, 50, & 60 according to the age, and there are some extras done away with – I feel a sweet joy on looking at our boys sometimes they are so free, healthy and happy. Its a pity that I am not a father, surely nature intended me to be one – This is to me a blessed proof that my feelings are still un-withered13 – but now good bye
John.
RI MS JT/1/T/894
[Enclosure]
Thomas Morris to Thomas Archer Hirst 24 April 1852 0624encl
22, Hardman St. Bedford St. | Hulme, Manchester April 24 1852.
Dear Sir,
Your note of the 16th inst. has been forwarded to me.14 As the ‘Lecturer’ is strictly confined to lectures, it would be unnecessary to preface with any sketch of your visit, the lecture delivered by you at Queenwood College.
I shall be glad to receive your MS. at the above address, for perusal, prior to my forwarding it to Mr Ward, Dewsbury, printer.15
Yours truly | Thos. Morris16
T.A. Hurst
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/194
LT Transcript Only
[25 April – 3 May]: Hirst noted on this letter that he received it in May 1852. Tyndall wrote on or after 25 April (that is, after receiving the enclosed letter of 24 April). Hirst wrote to Tyndall on 4 May (Hirst Journal entry); this missing letter was probably Hirst’s reply to this Tyndall letter; if so, the latest date of this letter is 3 May.
With this: as the letter has no salutation, the beginning is missing. ‘This’ probably refers to the enclosed letter from Thomas Morris.
Mrs E. … stamps: Anne Edmondson. How the postage stamps might relate to the enclosed letter is unclear.
Your letter: Tyndall initially answered letter 0619, but this letter also replied to 0621 from Hirst.
agree … you deserved: see letter 0619.
Poor January!: Hirst had spent time with January Searle during his visit to Yorkshire. He recorded incidents in his Journal (for example, 14 and 19 April) that showed, in his mind, that January’s wife was difficult. Perhaps he had communicated such matters to Tyndall.
I will write … you call for it: as he intended, Hirst paid a second visit to Queenwood (20–3 May), just before departing England for Germany.
that subject ... out of it: Hirst had suggested that Tyndall’s experimental investigation might lead to an interesting mathematical problem (see letter 0619).
your hat was sent from here: Hirst had enquired after his Swiss hat in letter 0621. It would seem that he had left it behind at Queenwood, just as he had left his money belt behind in Manchester (see letter 0619).
Miss Carter: Sarah Carter.
hope you have seen … remember well … his heart to wisdom: Tyndall alluded, ironically, to Sarah Carter’s orthodox theological views, which she often expressed dogmatically to Hirst and Tyndall. ‘Blessed is the man … wisdom’ has the cadences of a biblical quote, but is a Tyndall conflation of texts.
The prospectus ... due time: Hirst had requested a prospectus for Queenwood in letter 0619. Tyndall did not send the final version, he explained in June, because it was too expensive to post to Germany (letter 0631).
my feelings are still un-withered: this may be an allusion to Hirst’s accusation, made a year previously, that Tyndall’s emotions were rusty from lack of use (see letters 0482 and 0484).
Your note ... forwarded to me: Hirst probably enclosed the note (missing) with letter 0619 (of the same date) to Tyndall; Tyndall posted it to Manchester with a copy of the lecture.
your MS … the printer: the lecture was published as ‘On Study and Students’, Monthly Literary and Scientific Lecturer, 3 (June 1852), pp. 168–74 (from Brock and MacLeod, Hirst Journals, 6 April 1852, n. 296).
Thos. Morris: Thomas Morris was editor of the magazine (see n. 15).
Please cite as “Tyndall0624,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0624