Queenwood Sunday. 1853
My dear Huxley,
Many thanks for your valuable letter.2 I write now to let you know that the disability you mention3 no longer exists, as I have been invited to give a course of 4 lectures at the R.I.4 this year. All these things appear to be guided by the gods – with perhaps a little help from my sublunary5 friends. At all events it seems as if I had nothing to do but to resign myself to the kind offices of gods and men and that all goes well.
I am not at all impatient, and if I thought remaining in my present position6 for a year or two would make matters better in the end I should be perfectly content to stop here. I have chosen a subject which will enable me to discharge a battery of chemistry upon them, and fortunately for me the lectures dont come off till towards the end of the Session7 and I am thus allowed time for preparation. I lecture at the London8 on the 16th.,9 and am endeavouring to chasten the chaos of my brain into some kind of harmony. The subject is naturally a dry one and I must contrive to infuse a little sap into it. I find the letter bag is gone and I must run after it. Good bye
ever Yours faithfully | John Tyndall.
IC HP 8:11
RI MS JT/TYP/9/2858a
Typescript Only
[6 March] 1853: as this was a response to Huxley’s letter of 25 February (see n. 2), Tyndall was to give the named lecture (see n. 9) on 16 March, and Huxley responded with a congratulatory message on 7 March (see letter 0729), this was most likely written on 6 March.
your valuable letter: see letter 0721.
disability you mention: Huxley mentioned in letter 0721 that there would be a necessary delay in Tyndall taking a position at the RI, as he would first be required to give a series of lectures in order to qualify for a professorship.
R.I.: See letters 0717 and 0720. Tyndall also noted the receipt of the offer from the RI in the entry to his journal on 22 February (JT/2/13b/601). In the typescript LT inserted a superscript X here and noted: ‘On Air and Water’. R. I. May 21, 28, June 4, 11.
sublunary: terrestrial; of, in, or belonging to this world (OED).
my present position: at Queenwood College.
the Session: the teaching term.
the London: LI.
on the 16th.: First mentioned in letter 0722, n. 4. In the typescript LT inserted a superscript X here and noted: 1st London Institution lecture: March 16. 53 ‘On certain Points connected with the transmission of Heat through bodies.’
Please cite as “Tyndall0726,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on