Queenwood College | Novr 15th /53
My dear John
I have just perused your long letter1 with very great pleasure. Carlyle mentions somewhere an old King who liked to consult his Barons first when they were sober and next when they were drunk.2 After profiting by many a letter written by you in a sober state I have enjoyed much this one written confessedly under the influence of a glass of brandy. Only fancy a fellow under the influence of Brandy asking in a solemn manner What is reflection? is it not a mere tinkling cymbal? It reminded me of four lines in Hafis:3
Frage nicht: ‘Welch einen Nutz
Schafft die Trunkenheit?’
Vom Verstande, wenm du trinkst,
Bist du rein befreit.4
Not that I assert you were drunk, but drunk or sober you have interpreted my reflexional philosophy5 all wrong. I’ll set thee right some day face to face thou old tipler,6 meanwhile chew it well for I still mean what I said, and did not mean to excuse my laziness. There were other sentences in thy letter for which I could have hugged thee. Especially that about Faraday, I have often thought about the remarkable proof offered in your case to our old precept that like gravitates to like and I have just as often rejoiced about the sweet reward which the Gods are granting to thee thou hardworking son of a mother. I don’t think you would have written that sentence without the Brandy although you might have felt it just as much. I thank the Brandy for it. You dont give me particulars sufficient to give my decided opinion about the offered situation under Government.7 At present I feel inclined to say refuse it and stick to investigation like Faraday. at the same time circumstances might render a divergence from Faradays footsteps advisable; in any case I shall not be afraid of the decision you come to. I will write you no speech for the 30th of November8 because I dont feel able to tell you what you ought to say. As to you being tempted to mingle in the ways of the world it made me smile. The dinner bell has rung I must run. For the next 5 weeks I see more work before me than I can satisfactorily get through, so spare me your reproofs if I should send short letters.
Yours affectionately | T.A. Hirst
RI MS JT/1/H/184
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/285
your long letter: letter 0827.
an old King … sober and next when they were drunk: Hirst was likely referring to Carlyle’s discussion of William Rufus (1056–1100), King of England from 1087 to 1100, and his Barons who would debate ‘everything, as Tacitus describes the Ancient Germans to have done, two times: once sober, and once what he calls “drunk,” – not dead-drunk, but jolly round their big table’ (T. Carlyle, Latter-day Pamphlets [London: Chapman & Hall, 1850], p. 262).
Hafis: also spelled Hafiz, the pen name of Shams al-Din Muhammed (1320–89/90), a famous Persian lyric poet (M. Hillman, ‘Hafiz: Shams al-Din Muhammed’ in F. Magill [ed.], Dictionary of World Biography: The Middle Ages, 10 vols [London: Routledge, 1998], pp. 417–20).
Frage nicht … Bist du rein befreit: German. ‘Ask not: “What is the benefit of drunkenness?” | From understanding reason, when you drink, | you are purely exempt, released’ (for German see ‘CXLIV.’, in G. F. Daumer [ed.], Hafis: Eine Sammlung persischer Gedichte [Hamburg: Hoffman und Campe, 1846], p. 86).
my reflexional philosophy: see letter 0827, n. 15.
tipler: misspelling of tippler, ‘a habitual drinker of intoxicating liquor (implying more or less excess, but usually short of positive drunkenness)’ (OED).
the offered situation under Government: see letters 0824, n. 1 and 0827, n. 19.
speech for the 30th of November: in letter 0825 Tyndall said that the Royal Medal would be officially presented on 30 November.
Please cite as “Tyndall0829,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on