3 Cite D’Autin Wednesday
My dear Tom
At this moment you are preparing for Salisbury.2 I wish you a strong voice and sufficient obstinacy of heart to get through your task manfully. I felt a little angry with Edmondson for asking you to engage in such a thing so soon, but this feeling vanished in the reflection that come what may you will be the gainer, even should you fail to satisfy yourself. I have derived profit from my experience in the same line though these experiences were not always agreeable. I regard the matter as an experiment upon yourself and experiments you know are not always successful; but this should not deter us from making them, for without experiments we should be without results. Even should you fail, which I confess I do not fear, you must put the fact behind you. It must not damp you and discourage you but whatever dissatisfaction you may feel must be converted into fuel for future and victorious efforts.
My stay in Paris will not be long. I will cut it shorter than I at first intended. Magnus is off to Berlin this morning.3 I will start on Monday or Tuesday. Many of the Savants4 are absent but I have also seen a good many. I have met your friend Verdet twice and have agreed to breakfast with him on Friday morning. I see Wertheim very often. Magnus he and I dined together at Saint Germain5 on Sunday. It was a glorious day and the look out from the terrace was magnificent. The sun flooded the landscape with gold and kissed tenderly the topmost branches of the chesnut as he sank below the horizon. Monday evening I spent at Soleils6 and saw some splendid experiments. I made the acquaintance of Pasteur Moigno7 and others there. I have been through the Cabinet of the College de France8 with Regnault & Lenarmont.9 today I dine with Despretz10 at a hotel11 in the city. If I remained I might make many more acquaintances, but I have got almost as much as I can at present digest. So some time next week I hope to see you and Heinrich12 and take a look at Queenwood in its present vigor. At first I was almost bewildered by the magnificence of the apparatus in the various cabinets, but I soon mastered this feeling and fell back upon my old conviction that the man himself is the principal thing. My health still continues good and I long to turn it to some account. You have seen Dubois.13 I should not be surprised to find that I have made him my enemy. I gave him high praise in that article that I wrote in Berlin;14 but my friendship for him could not of course induce me to commit myself so far as to defend his views.15 At the end of the article I expressed a wish that the matter might be placed upon surer foundations than it possesses at present,16 and I should not wonder if the doubt I expressed excited the hostility of Dubois.
I should like to have been present at the reading of Brewster’s paper,17 but feel very tranquil about it. There is something sweet and pacifying in the conviction that a man stands upon the truth of nature. This is a rock against which the efforts of man will break in vain. Matteucci, I have been told, has attacked me here and Moigno has defended me. I know nothing further of the matter than what Moigno himself told me, and I do not trouble myself about it. These wrestlings must be left to the decision of time and I have patience enough to await this decision. I made an attempt today to find some diagrams for Queenwood18 but failed. I know there are such but it is difficult to find where. It is good and wholesome at times to plunge into the world and meet your fellows face to face. I have done so, and now I long to withdraw myself and listen alone to the whisperings of nature, for this is the grand fountain of human power. I must try and shut out the world for a time and get some work done. I am afraid however my mission for some time will be rather destructive than productive. this animal electricity falls in with my experiments upon molecular influences19 and I do not think it will stand the test [5 words illeg]. If it does I shall be its loyal defender, for my desire is even in the demolition of error is to arrive at truth.
Friday
I spent a pleasant evening with Despretz, we dined alone had a small glass of burnt brandy at a coffee house20 and roamed through the streets for an hour or two. On my return home I found a note from Bence Jones21 waiting for me, he had arrived at Paris. I found him at his hotel. He is gone to Vichy22 to inspect the baths and will be back tonight. He wants me to go to Folkstone23 and spend a week with him there. the beautifulness of the place and the sea bathing are both temptations; but my strongest inducement is the fact of his having repeatedly asked me to his house in London, whereas all my visits there have been flying ones. I fear he will conclude that there is some private reason which prevent me from accepting his invitations. I shall however endeavour to get to Queenwood. I wish you would get that large box of mine nailed up for me. and if you think it too unwieldly get it cut in two. do this for me like a good fellow.
Heinrich’s warm hearted letter 24 is in my pocket. I will soon either write to him or stand before him face to face.
as ever | Your affectionate | John
Seal the enclosed25 and send it to the post for me.
RI MS JT/1/T/922
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/267–268
[14 and 16 September] 1853: LT dated this letter to 14 September. However, part of it was written on a Friday, likely 16 September. Tyndall did not make any journal entries after 9 September until his last day in Paris (Journal, JT/2/13b/623). In this letter, he mentions that he will leave Paris on Monday or Tuesday, likely 20 or 21 September. As letter 0802 was written on a Thursday, likely 9 September, and details his arrival in Paris, it is unlikely that this letter was also written at the same time, dating it to the following week.
preparing for Salisbury: Hirst gave a lecture at Salisbury on Electricity and Magnetism on 14 September (see Hirst, ‘Journals,’ 11 and 18 September 1853).
Magnus … Berlin this morning: Tyndall likely decided to leave Paris early because Magnus was leaving for Berlin (see letter 0802, n. 9).
Savants: learned or scholarly individuals highly distinguished in their fields (OED).
Saint Germain: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a neighbourhood in Paris known for attracting intellectuals.
Soleils: the workshop of Henri Soleil (d. 1879), son of French optical instrument maker Jean-Baptiste François Soleil (1798–1878). Soleil was a producer of scientific and optical instruments, and published a number of articles on crystal optics during the 1850s and 60s (P. Brenni, ‘19th-Century French Scientific Instrument Makers XIII: Soleil, Duboscq, and Their Successors’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 51 [1996], pp. 7–16).
Pasteur Moigno: François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno.
College de France: a well-known institution of research and higher education located in Paris, France.
Lenarmont: most likely M de Lenarmont, who performed experiments on conduction (Jackson, ‘Tyndall and Diamagnetism’, p. 23, n. 154).
Despretz: César-Mansuète Despretz (1791–1863), a physicist and chemist notable for his work on thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluids (J. Wisniak, ‘César-Mansuéte Despretz’, Revista CENIC Ciencias Químicas, 40:1 (2009), pp. 47–55).
a hotel: not identified.
Heinrich: Heinrich Debus.
Dubois: Emil du Bois-Reymond.
that article … in Berlin: see letters 0754, n. 9; 0780, n. 5; and 0800, n. 2.
my friendship … defend his views: Tyndall discussed his stance on the dispute between du Bois-Reymond and Matteucci in his journal entry of 21 August (Journal, JT/2/13b/613–4) (see also letter 0800).
At the end … at present: near the end of his article on animal electricity, Tyndall noted the ‘extreme caution necessary to the successful prosecution of researches upon this subject’ (J. Tyndall, ‘Rise, Progress, and Present Condition of Animal Electricity’, p. 107; see letter 0754, n. 9 for full reference).
Brewster’s paper: not identified. It is possible the paper was read but not published.
diagrams for Queenwood: see letters 0796; 0799, n. 4; and 0800, n. 33.
my experiments … molecular influences: see J. Tyndall, ‘On Molecular Influences, Part I: Transmission of Heat through Organic Structures’, Phil. Mag. 6:37 (1853), pp. 121–38; and J. Tyndall, ‘On the nature of the force by which bodies are repelled from the poles of a magnet; to which is prefixed, an account of some experiments on molecular influences’, Phil. Mag. 10:66 (1855), pp. 257–90.
a coffee house: not identified.
a note from Bence Jones: letter missing.
Vichy: a city in central France, known for its thermal springs.
Folkstone: see letter 0780, n. 19. Rather than spending a week at Folkestone, Tyndall noted in his journal entry of 30 September that he only spent two days (JT/2/13b/624).
Heinrich’s warm hearted letter: letter missing.
the enclosed: not identified.
Please cite as “Tyndall0803,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on