From Thomas Archer Hirst   Oct. 24th / 52

Mittel Strasse N^o 5.- | Berlin- | Oct. 24^th / 52

My dear John –

Owing to some mistake I received the letters of Introduction¹ only yesterday and immediately made use of two Dove and Magnus Du Bois is not at home, and Reiss I have posponed. You know how much I value letters of introduction, it would be superfluous to thank you, I should as soon think of thanking myself, though I felt far from indifferent towards this new proof that our interests are common – As you seem to be in doubt what my precise object is here² I will say a word about it. It is almost entirely mathematical and Physico-Mathematical Lejeune Dirichlet and Steiner³ here almost alone give me stuff enough to work over, they are two such men as I shall find no where else and Mathematics as ever remains steadily my object, and I find it all satisfying Physics is of no value much unless I can experiment myself; this I could do here I know, but not without sacrificing Mathematics, which I will not – If I have any ‘pure force’ in me I suppose in its own good time it will manifest itself, sufficient for the day is the duty thereof, If I am not some day a Mathematician it shall be because said force is not there –

Lejeune Dirichlet is a fine fellow, I made his acquaintance immediately on arriving in Berlin. He is an able and at the same time a hearty, good natured man, we suit each other well, I often go smoke a cigar with him and sometimes spend an evening with he and M^rs Dirichlet;⁴ she by no means suits me so well, she is (or has been) a handsome woman, as intelligent perhaps as I have met, speaks remarkably good English, and has a good acquired taste for literature Nevertheless she is too prickly, too intellectual, for an evening’s ‘tounge-fence’⁵ she is as interesting a woman as one can readily meet, but one could never fall in love with her, all that gentleness, that maternity: that – you know all about it – well all that fails – She is accustomed to being praised, she assumes a kind of dignity, and as she feels that she cannot get it from me, but that she must rub against me; she I fancy takes some interest in me, I am a kind of experiment for her – you understand me? How different is Dirichlet himself, his honest, warm hearted treatment of me has done my heart good. I had scarcely been with him half an hour before I felt what kind of a rare man I had to deal with; he never meets me without crying, ‘Nun wann sehen wir uns wieder?’⁶ He is lecturing on ‘Die Theorie der Kräfte, welche im umgekehrten Verhältniss des Quadrates der Entfernung wirken, mit Anwendungen auf Electricität, Magnetismus und die Bestimmung der Gestalt der Erde’⁷ Moreover I have attacked Latin once more very fiercely, for my study it is absolutely necessary, I can already with difficulty read Newtons Principia for myself. Dirichlet sent the son of the late celebrated Mathematician Jacobi to give me lessons in Latin, he himself I regret to say is a jurist for he is a fine young fellow: of Steiner I must speak another time. Another fine mathematician here was Eisenstein,⁸ his works have principally appeared in Crelle’s Journal⁹ and had been praised by all, I expected great satisfaction from his acquaintance One morning I set off to see him took Dickinson with me thinking he would be the likeliest to give him private lessons. I asked the maid who opened us the door if D^r Eisenstein was at home when she gave me the following startling answer ‘D^r Eisenstein liegt jetzt als Leiche’¹⁰ It was indeed true, consumption¹¹ had carried him suddenly off, at the very opening of a brilliant career he had to die.

So careful of the type she seems,

So careless of the single life:¹²

A letter¹³ from poor little Booth yesterday completely upset me, I have written three or four letters¹⁴ to day making all arrangements in my power for him and since then it seems as if a weight had fallen from my shoulders. (see next page)¹⁵

<Handwritten page missing; next portion of letter is LT Transcript Only>

He has been continually growing weaker and weaker, yet with a heroism I have never before seen he has denied all help and gone regularly to his daily work to earn his and his poor mother’s bread, until now though he still continues he can hardly crawl home. He has written me a heart-wringing letter,¹⁶ there is not one attempt at effect in it – nay, he has hidden much; it is a tale plainly and gently told, yet with a terrible earnestness in every line. You shall judge for yourself. ‘I can measure its (his disease) progress¹⁷ from week to week by my increasing difficulty of breathing, and general physical weakness. I am still able to go to my work at Dean Clough,¹⁸ but I feel that the time is coming, – and soon – when I shall be compelled to give it up. I know what you will say, my dear Friend; that I ought to have given it up before now. But I think when you consider it rightly, that you will not condemn the course I have taken. Did I see a chance of recovering my health by so doing, I would stay at home from this moment, and apply to you for the assistance you so freely and generously offer: for I could then live on in the hope that at a future time I might be able in some shape or other to return your kindness, or at least to imitate it when the opportunity came, and thus repay what I might consider as a debt I owed to humanity. But I have given up all hope of getting better, and such being the case I consider it my duty to work on as long as ever I can, and then if it be my fate at last to live a parasite on my friends, I shall at least have the consolation of knowing that so long as my power to do so lasted, I continued to earn my right to a place in the world, by contributing to it my share of labour. But as I said, I feel now and then depressed in spirits, and my resolution wavers a little. Sometimes too I indulge in delusive hopes of recovery, especially when I look at my dear mother with her broken health and increasing infirmities which – poor soul! – she vainly strives to conceal from me. It is frightful to think I shall have to leave her – her, whose existence has been enfolded with mine till I have become to her as a part of herself…… Roby, from whom I could not, if I wished, conceal my circumstances and state of health, has repeatedly urged me to stay at home, and has kindly offered me assistance as you have done. I told him how I had promised to apply to you if ever I really needed it, but that in such case of necessity I should not refuse it from either. I confess to you, Tom, that I should feel less hesitation in receiving it from you than him. But I cannot give my reason here, for I am only a bungler in giving expression to my thoughts, and on this point above all others I would not be misunderstood. It is not however that I should have anything to say depreciatory of Roby. That his friendship for me through a long series of years has ever been of the warmest and most disinterested kind I have had ample proof, and I hope that I know how to value it – Instead of being gloomy and depressed I ought rather to feel joyously thankful that God has given me two such friends as you and he. May His blessing rest upon you both!’

Such a letter does not leave one word for me to tell you; I have written back as I said, and made arrangements that what he requires in the way of money be regularly sent him. Roby tells me how on his road home he has had to rest on the wet grass for fatigue. I have told him to stop at home from the moment of receiving my letter and I know he will obey me. As far as little personal attentions are concerned I know Roby will look after him well. Brave little fellow! As long as there is a breath in him he shall not want, and if there be yet hope for him he shall try it and to do that shall have every external care removed for him. For the present I have put it into the hands of an uncle of mine¹⁹ in the neighbourhood who I know will willingly advance me any sum. I have given him instructions simply to enclose £5 when I order him in an envelope. Thus it will cripple nobody at present, and it will be something for me to work for when the time comes. I have tried to realize his condition, staring death there so calmly, so bravely in the face, and crawling with unflinching determination into its very jaws. ‘I will work till the last’. I declare, John, nature has made of me such a spoilt child that I found it almost impossible to realize such a grim reality.

And your letter²⁰ too, John, was a pure pleasure to me, it was long since I had had such a one from you, and as I was reading it the thought struck me ‘Is it possible that a few practical letters from him had made me uneasy?²¹ Silly fellow, I don’t know what it was, nor I do not care. John is as strong and healthy as ever, and as long as he lives will be so’. Bravo, John, devote a Sunday now and then to the Gods and _____²² | Tom.

Grüsse Heinrich herzlich! Bald schreibe Ich ihm.²³

<Handwritten letter resumes>

Dickinson lives with me in a little palace of a lodging he is a good warm hearted lad, honest as daylight and surprises me sometimes with unconscious, healthy deep-remarks. He will be no sham. – He desires to be remembered kindly – Write him a line some time. –

D^r Tyndall- | Queenwood College- | Stockbridge | Hampshire²⁴

RI MS JT/1/H/174

RI MS JT/1/HTYP/214-216