Monday.
My dear Francis,
I send you back Magnus du Bois2 will reach you tomorrow. I have sent it through Bence Jones lest his corrections and mine should clash. du Bois name is not to appear3 as he does not wish it. I have been pondering upon your note4 of the 15th where you say you are almost used up – you must not let this thought get possession of you. I know nothing in this life more necessary for a man than courage and there are inexhaustible sources of courage in the world. Our difficulties are great by our own sufferance in most cases. Shake them away man like dewdrops from the mane of the lion.5 Dont let fear get possession of your heart – the old bible says that it is the worst counsellor.6 Things are not so cloudy. [The harm] is chiefly within us and we magnify our afflictions – courage I say again! I can hardly conceive of a man being overwhelmed except when a Railway embankment or something of the kind falls upon him. You must not suffer yourself to be overwhelmed. It will never do – the darkest cloud is in motion and will soon vanish and let the sun appear once more. When I am in difficulty I get into a rage and find it often of service to me – it lifts me across the obstacle and places me at the other side. You must not faint. Swear valiantly that you will beat down your difficulties and they will instantly hide their diminished heads.
ever yours sinc[ere]ly | J Tyndall
RDS 27/27
[18 April 1853]: Tyndall enclosed the promised article by Emil du Bois-Reymond in letter 0749. He mentioned that it was to be included in next month’s magazine and the article appeared in the May edition of Phil. Mag (see letter 0749, n. 2). Tyndall noted here that he was responding to Francis’s ‘note of the 15th’, which is presumably a response to Tyndall’s letter of 14 April (see letter 0745). As this letter is dated ‘Monday’, 18 April is a reasonable estimate of the date.
I send you back Magnus du Bois: Tyndall is returning manuscripts from Heinrich Magnus and Emil du Bois-Reymond. Magnus’s manuscript was presumably for the Scientif. Mem. that Tyndall was editing with Francis (see letter 0745, n. 4), while du Bois-Reymond’s was for the Phil. Mag. (see letter 0749, n. 2) and was also being examined by Bence Jones (see letter 0754).
not to appear: see letter 0749, n. 4.
your note: letter missing.
mane of the lion: ‘Fortunes dire weight, the patron’s cold distain | Shook off like dew drops from the lion’s mane’. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, vol. 5 (London: John Murray, 1831), p. 453.
worst counsellor: not identified.
Please cite as “Tyndall0750,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on