Berlin 12th. Aug. 1853.
My dear Tom.
I have discussed with Magnus once or twice the feasibility of my going to Paris –
He is going – and I think on the whole it will be most prudent to visit it while he is there. He knows everybody – all the instrument makers &c. So that I cannot hope to reap so much profit from a visit if I go there alone. I shall therefore leave Berlin in 7 or 8 days, so that I may allow myself a week or so on the Harz Mountains1 breathing the pure fresh air – this I find is very needful for me. I am sometimes discouraged by this head of mine and feel half reconciled to throw this weary weed of a body into its trench and let it rot at once. Sometimes I am strong enough but a days effort of thinking is sufficient to bring me down and to set my head in confusion – the mountain air I think is the only medicine for me, and the effect his journey has had upon Debus, coupled with my own remembrance of what it has done for me heretofore induces me to hope much from it.
“There is freshness in the mountain air
And life that bloated ease can never hope to share”2
Now I want you to write to me immediately and to let me know Dickinson’s address. I want the little fellow to look out for a lodging for me. Perhaps you or Haas would be able to name a hotel where I might remain until I should fix upon a lodging. Dickinson I know will be of great assistance to me. I shall write to you before leaving Berlin and request you to send me some money so that it may meet me at Dickinsons by the time I arrive. But I trust you will send me an immediate reply to this.
I wrote to you a day or two ago but handed the letter3 to Prof. Helmholtz who is going to England but who wont reach London until Wednesday next. I wrote to Heinrich4 at the same time – today I received his last letter5 and a pleasant cheering one it is – It is more than I deserve from him. But Heinrich is kind hearted and now that I am far away from him will look leniently upon the faults and defects of his friend. He knows me well as well almost as you do. indeed were I to judge from his last letter alone he knows me better. I had a letter6 from Dr. Pritchard7 of Clapham8 a few days ago trying to engage me to give his boys9 two lectures a week – Two sons10 of Sir John Herschell11 & one of the Astronomer Royal12 would be among my audience. I declined it for the present – I want to get some work done and will shut out every thing calculated to divert me from this object.
Faraday writes to me with extreme kindness13 – it is a pleasure to be connected with him – He is a man one can trust – He is not only a man of science but a man of heart, honesty and truth, which between you and me Tom are better than all science. I hope you wont be offended with the shocking letter14 I sent you by Helmholtz. Good bye.
Affectionately | John
When you receive this send the first halves of two five pound notes to Marburg wait a few days as before and send the second halves directed to Knoblauch for me so that I may have them on my arrival or better still send me the 1st halves here and the 2nd can go to Marburg.
RI MS JT/1/T/568
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/258–258a
Harz Mountains: mountains located in central Germany.
There is freshness … hope to share: lines from the narrative poem Lord Byron (1788–1824), Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt (London: John Murray, 1812), p. 23, I.xxx.349–50.
the letter: letter 0793.
Heinrich: Heinrich Debus. Letter missing.
his last letter: letter missing.
a letter: letter missing.
Dr. Pritchard: Charles Pritchard (1808–93), an astronomer and the headmaster of Clapham Grammar School (1834–62), which he founded. In 1849, he joined the Royal Astronomical Society, later becoming the society’s president in 1866 (ODNB).
Clapham: Pritchard, who advocated for educational reform and the importance of science education, founded the Clapham Grammar School to put his ideas into practice (ODNB; see n. 8).
his boys: students at Clapham Grammar School (see n. 8).
Two sons: most likely Sir John Herschel’s youngest two sons, Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836–1903) and John Herschel (1837–1921).
Sir John Herschell: misspelling of Sir John Frederick Herschel.
the Astronomer Royal: Sir George Biddell Airy (see letter 0698, n. 16) was head of the Royal Observatory Greenwich from 1835 until 1881. Hubert Airy (1838–1903), one of his sons, would have been the correct age to attend grammar school (ODNB).
Faraday … extreme kindness: letter 0792.
the shocking letter: letter 0793.
Please cite as “Tyndall0795,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on