Queenwood | Tuesday
My dear Tom.
Since my going to London2 has been a topic of speculation and of conversation I have constantly looked through the entanglement of circumstances to the prospect of your coming here to replace me; but I said in my heart I will not write to Tom on the subject. I will not disturb his thoughts until I see my way clear, notwithstanding my caution. I am afraid I have written you a little too soon.3 The enclosed note4 will let you know the exact state of matters at present. But when I think on the matter I am not inclined to regret my writing to you; for even should the matter be deferred to till January 1854 I am strongly disposed to allow myself the next six months to brush myself up in Latin and many other matters and probably to spend the said 6 months in Berlin.5 If however I put this notion into practice I should want you to let me have a little money. this if you were here I think you could manage to do – possibly I might not want it as I might be able to scrape a little together by writing but I like to prepare for possibilities. These are merely the speculations of the moment, but I almost think the gods offer me this breathing time for this express purpose of enabling me to make a little preparation for my future life. Wiedemann has placed me in great difficulty.6 I find that it will be hardly possible to get the memoirs7 out in time. I hope my last note8 did not reach you before you had completed the translation,9 for we want the whole of it. I am working hard at my lectures – On June the 3rd (a fashionable night) I am to give a lecture on some of the eruptive phenomena of Iceland10 and hope to be able to fulfil whatever expectations may be entertained regarding me. Besides this I have a course of 4 to give commencing in May.11 No more at present [from] | Your brain-stuffed brother | John
RI MS JT/1/T/896
[19 or 26 April 1853]: Hirst wrote ‘May 1853’ on this letter, likely reflecting when he received it in Paris (he travelled there on 22 April). As this letter was written on a ‘Tuesday’, and refers to letters 0746 and 0747, it was most likely written on 19 or 26 April.
going to London: Tyndall had been discussing his thoughts regarding his prospective employment options at both the LI and RI (see letters 0722; 0733; and 0746).
too soon: see letter 0746, n. 8.
enclosed note: most likely letter 0747.
6 months in Berlin: letter 0754 from Bence Jones nullified these plans.
great difficulty: he was taking too long to provide a translation (see letters 0713, n. 15; 0746; and 0735).
the memoirs: see letter 0698, n. 8.
my last note: see letter 0746.
the translation: see letter 0746.
eruptive phenomena of Iceland: J. Tyndall, ‘The Eruptive Phenomena of Iceland’, Roy. Inst. Proc., vol. 1, pp. 329–35.
in May: see letters 0717 and 0720.
Please cite as “Tyndall0752,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on