From Thomas Archer Hirst   March 19th 1854

Queenwood College. | March 19^th 1854

My dear John.

The scrap of verse you sent me¹ if not worth much in itself indicated that you had penned it for medicinal purposes. That you had been weary and were seeking some relaxation; or perhaps preparing yourself for a Red Lion dinner:² as such it was welcome. I shewed it to John Haas and he evidently enjoyed it Since my last letter³ I have given the last of my lectures out of Queenwood at Lymington.⁴ The audience was very respectable indeed, a ‘select one’ as it is called and it appeared pretty well satisfied It is a great satisfaction to be free once more and able to devote myself entirely to Queenwood duties I have had another eloquent letter from R. Carter Esq. accompanied by a Halifax Guardian which contains a report of his last lecture on the Geology of Halifax⁵ He is now in London I believe on Parliamentary business and may probably visit you. Herr Hansen has not been though I should be glad to see him. He is an intelligent young fellow as far as science is concerned, that is, he is pretty expert at experiment and possesses considerable information, more than he has digested I think. He is young yet and his ‘pretension’ is perhaps excusable. He was very kind to me in Göttingen and on the whole I rather liked him

I have had a letter from du Bois⁶ telling me that my Sirene⁷ will be sent to you very shortly. In it are two passages which refer to you and which I will copy. The letter is written in English.

‘I had a letter from Tyndall⁸ lately concerning a paper which I read at Belfast⁹ and did not want to have printed, and which nevertheless has been printed in the report – if you write him tell him Er soll sich darum keine graue Haare waschen lassen.¹⁰ I suppose I can bear it and nobody will prevent me in pointing out what that paper contains of erroneous statements.’

‘You ask for my opinion upon Tyndall’s paper on Animal Electricity¹¹ I have not yet had an opportunity of perusing it carefully, having only seen it once at the Royal Library.¹² So I would rather abstain from passing any judgment upon it, yet I must confess that I did not expect Tyndall to express himself so over skeptically with regard to my experimental results. He had perhaps better not volunteered his own opinion on certain points of controversy.’

When translated into honester English I take this to mean ‘I have read Tyndalls article and been somewhat surprised at his skepticism. But I have not studied his objections sufficiently to be able to refute them or to satisfy either myself or him that they are unfounded. I am consequently not very well pleased with the article.’

Du Bois is a good fellow personally considered a healthy, hearty man. But when talking to him I never could admire him as much as a scientific man. With regard to science I always missed that simple honesty of action, that undivided love of Truth which in his private character was more observable. I am afraid his investigations are somewhat tarnished with selfishness My ideal of a scientific man is that he should seek truth for its own sake and that the finding of it should be his sufficient reward. He should feel that scientific Truths are no man’s property, to be bought, sold & fenced in like acres of ground, but that like the landscape they belong to him who has an eye to see them. He should count himself fortunate in being permitted to discover such truths without seeking to found a personal claim to such discoveries

Judged by this ideal I am afraid du Bois and many others would be found wanting.

I like your scheme about Natural Philosophy for children¹³ I hope you will think more of it. Your reliance on simple statements of experience in teaching will not mislead you.¹⁴ In the end it is the most forcible of all arguments What will you do at Easter?

Yours affectionately | T.A. Hirst.

In last month’s ‘Household Words’¹⁵ is an article on School teaching¹⁶ which is worth reading.

RI MS JT/1/H/195

RI MS JT/1/HTYP/327–327a