Queenwood College | Nov. 26th/53
My dear John
I shall be busy tomorrow and as I wish to say a word I must scribble it tonight. I have been in a state of anxious expectation all the week, and was pleased in no small degree to receive your letter1 this morning. You have exactly done what I was hoping all the week you would do. That is shewn the limits of your esteem for medals, and your independence of all such things Depend upon it that refusal of yours will be more to your honour than had you gained undisputed possession of the medal.2 If you die before me (which of course you will) I shall make my own use of that letter of yours to Mr Christie.3 It was a brave manly letter John and a terrible rebuke to the Council of the Royal Society4 if they were not too thick skinned to feel it. To see you praised and successful is of course pleasant to me but it is when you meet such cases as these that I am most proud of you. It is true that as you proceed such difficulties will decrease for every one you overcome in the way you have now done, will but lift you out of the sphere of all such. I hate to have to contradict any good news that I may have prematurely circulated, but I had as much pleasure today in telling Edmondson that you were to receive no medal as I had in telling him that it had been awarded to you. I let your letter tell its own tale and even little George5 was reconciled. Go on and prosper says
T.A. Hirst.
RI MS JT/1/H/186
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/292
your letter: letter 0836.
the medal: the Royal Medal (see letter 0815, n. 3).
that letter of yours to Mr Christie: see letter 0828 (see also letter 0837).
the Council of the Royal Society: see letter 0816, n. 7.
little George: most likely George Cumming, a student at Queenwood with whom Tyndall had a good relationship.
Please cite as “Tyndall0840,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on