My dear Dr. Coxe
I am not to write to Mrs. Coxe – She has given me strict orders not to do so and it is my duty to obey – Therefore I submit though with the consciousness that her last note to me2 would deserve a better reply than it is in my poor power to write. The warm kindheartedness breathing through every line of that note was sufficient to render it precious to me, but the fact of its having been written by her on her bed of suffering converts it into a kind of sainted relic in my estimation, and I shall preserve it as such. I am a bad hand at praying in the accredited fashion – if I did pray it would be in a peculiar dialect of my own which would doubtless sound heathenish to the orthodox – but if a strong silent desire partake at all of the nature of prayer, then I may be said to pray for the speedy recovery of Mrs. Coxe. I can truly say that it has added something to the pleasure of my life to have made her acquaintance, and therefore on the most selfish grounds I am impelled to wish for the long and happy continuance of hers – I trust sincerely that each succeeding day will add to her strength and that she will soon be restored – to both of us – in the full enjoyment of her vigour.
There is a little matter which has often crossed my mind of late and concerning which I intended to write to you in due time. A note I received from Alick3 a few days ago has precipitated my intention. Alick is now far advanced in many respects as compared with his schoolfellows, new boys are continually streaming into a place like Queenwood and hence every class possesses its beginners which demand a large portion of the teachers attention. When therefore a boy has passed a certain limit, on account of the smallness of the number which stand on the same level he cannot have a great share of the teacher’s attention. A higher school is needed for such a boy and I believe it will soon be needed for Alick, – a school in which he would find boys above him and teachers who can devote all their attention to such boys.
Has the thought of sending Alick for a year or two to Germany4 ever crossed your mind? I believe what is now paid for him at Queenwood would amply cover his expenses in Germany. If the thought should ever occur to you do not forget that I have friends in Marburg, Berlin and elsewhere – men of intellectual eminence and moral worth, and that it will always give me the greatest pleasure to have their advice and invoke their assistance in behalf of Alick. I know that many of them would go some way to oblige me and I shall never ask them to do so with more earnestness than on Alick’s account. I do not presume to give advice, but should you be uncertain what to do perhaps this may enter into your calculations,– and now good bye – present my warmest remembrances to Mrs. Coxe, and I trust that her own hand will soon be able to announce the glad tidings of her perfect recovery.
Believe me | Most sincerely yours | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/1/261
LT Typescript Only
[31 October 1854]: LT suggested an approximate date of 31 October 1854, and this seems correct. In the letter, Tyndall refers to receiving a letter from Alick ‘a few days ago’, a letter he noted receiving ‘yesterday’ in his journal entry for 29 October (JT/2/13b/696).
her last note to me: letter missing. For the most recent reference to a letter from Mrs. Coxe see letter 0961, nn. 1 and 2.
Note … Alick: letter missing (see n. 1). Alexander Cumming, the Coxes’s nephew (see letter 0781).
sending Alick … to Germany: Tyndall and Hirst had been contemplating suggesting to Cumming’s family that he continue his education in Germany (see letter 0945, n. 14).
Please cite as “Tyndall0993,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on