Wednesday night.
My Dear Tom.
Here I am a regular invalid, sitting by my lonely fire, clasped by my four walls and looked mutely down upon by the pictures which hang against them. I spent Sunday with Capt. Wynne at Pinner2 and think I got cold there. not through want of heat and comfort but through the fact of my breeches being lighter and the day being colder than ordinary. I am sometimes impatient to find this body of mine so easily put out of order, but this feeling is checked by the whispering of a higher wisdom which tells me that my duty is to make the most of my body such as it is, and not to tamper with so valuable an instrument. Today I have given up science, and tonight my wandering thoughts, like the dove of Noah seeking for a rest,3 alighted upon ‘Representative Men.’4 I have read the lecture on Plato,5 that one which at the commencement fastened upon me with paramount attraction – and still retains its hold of me. It was as fresh to me as when I first read it and in some respects clearer. I like Plato above all others: not that I will pretend to say that he was the greatest of men, but he is that man which comes nearest to the expression of my private constitution. I like his daring and I like his prudence, I like his abandonment and I like his control. That splendid figure of Emerson’s flashes over the man with penetrative radiance and reveals him fully to the mind that is able to realize its force and applicability ‘His strength is like the momentum of a falling planet and his discretion the return of its true and perfect curve.’6 I heard two sermons last Sunday from a very devoted man:7 I predicted the kind of sermons they would be by observing the sparkle of the man’s eye as he read the creed during a portion of the service. He delivered himself up wholly to his theme, his individuality seemed completely annulled and he became a mere organ-pipe through which the spiritual afflatus8 rendered itself audible. Such men have immense power and fascination; Still I never resign myself wholly into their hands. I go with them but I am not carried and I feel a certain quiet, perhaps egotistic, satisfaction in the thought that I possess a certain mastery over my enthusiasm, even at its highest points. This is the portion of Plato’s character in which I behold the magnified outline of my own; I look upon him wonderingly and say like the woman of Samaria9 – ‘Here is a man who can tell me all things that ever I did.’10 I respect action but the action of the world is low and vulgar; it is shaped by external motives. But Plato’s action is a tree built up by the inner and unknown forces of nature. I care but little for the man who cannot at intervals feel a great sobriety of soul which places him above the ordinary intoxications of society: this is only to be attained by reversion to that source from which Plato derived his strength; and Plato is to me admirable because he demonstrates the compatibility of this strength with the requirements of man as a social being.
Thursday:11 – I have been within all day. My candles are now lighted and I have shut out the gleam of the white snow which covers the street. I dont know whether you have written to me today for I have not been at the institution. You may have chastised me for that impudent letter of mine regarding Henry Hill12 but if so
‘Before the chastener humbly will I bow.’13 I trust still to be able to get down to you on Saturday. Francis was talking about going down but he has now decided the other way. It is now near post time & I will end
ever affectionately | John.
RI MS JT/1/T/943
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/300
[14 and 15 December 1853]: Hirst wrote ‘Dec. 14th’ at the top of this letter, though it was written over two days, ‘Wednesday’ 14 December and ‘Thursday’ 15 December (see n. 11).
Pinner: a village in the county of Middlesex, located in southeast England.
the dove of Noah seeking for a rest: a reference to Genesis 8:9. During the Great Flood, Noah sent out a dove to find land. The first time the dove was sent out, it found no land and thus no rest. The second time, the dove returned with an olive branch.
Representative Men: R. W. Emerson, Representative Men: Seven Lectures (London: George Routledge & Co., 1850) (see also letter 0400).
the lecture on Plato: the second essay in Representative Men (see n. 4), titled ‘Plato; Or, the Philosopher’. Plato (428/427–348/347 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher who wrote on subjects such as government, art, and metaphysics.
His strength is like the … true and perfect curve: Emerson, Representative Men, p. 34.
a very devoted man: not identified.
afflatus: ‘The communication of supernatural or spiritual knowledge’ (OED).
the woman of Samaria: a figure in the Gospel of John encountered by Jesus while travelling through Samaria. She believed Jesus was the Messiah and encouraged her town to believe the same.
Here is a man who can tell me all things that ever I did: John 4:29. The woman of Samaria spoke this line in reference to Jesus, who knew that in the past she had five husbands.
Thursday: 15 December.
that impudent letter of mine regarding Henry Hill: see letter 0853.
Before the chastener humbly will I bow: a misquotation of the line ‘Before the chastener humbly let me bow’ (L. Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt [London: John Murray, 1812], p. 109, II.lxxxviii.832). See also letter 0795, n. 2.
Please cite as “Tyndall0855,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on