My dear Huxley
I am more pleased with the fact of your bearing me in mind than thankful for the ticket1 – No man wishes more sincerely that I do that your lectures may fill your own wishes to overflowing. I was sorry to hit Hunt so hard2 – and today walking through Cheapside the thought occurred to me – ‘What if you meet Hunt? – Will you shake hands with him & smile as if nothing had happened – You must act no such damned hypocritical part – You must tell the man that you have smitten him & if he takes it in good temper you may then give him your hand.’–
Poor Sir Henry,3 I was grieved to hear of his death.
I thought as I read that review of yours of Ehrenbergs works4 that on many points there is a great similarity of thought between us – Do not damn my impertinence for I verily believe I state the truth.– When I stand alone in the woods hear the birds chirping & see the trees sprouting I feel like a puzzled infant amid things which baffle my comprehension – I like to hear a man who instead of turning my stomach with dry theories of this universe is able to appreciate the difficulty of the problem and recognize the fluxional character of our knowledge regarding it. The dogmatist however gets astride his little arc and swears it is the whole 360 degrees – We know better –
But I wont bore you further | Goodbye | Ever yours | John Tyndall
18th April 1855
IC MS HP 1.17–18
thankful for the ticket: see letter 1043, n. 3.
I was sorry to hit Hunt so hard: Tyndall’s critical review of Elementary Physics: An Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy, new edn (London: H. G. Bohn, 1855) by Robert Hunt (keeper of the Mining Record Office and professor of mechanical science at the Royal School of Mines; 1807–87) had appeared in the Westminster Review, 63 (1855), pp. 551–8. Tyndall had reviewed an earlier edition of Hunt’s Elementary Physics in ‘Notices Respecting New Books’, Phil. Mag., 3 (1852), pp. 57–60.
Sir Henry: The geologist and paleontologist Henry de la Beche (b. 1796) who died on 13 April 1855. He had been the first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and also served as director of London’s Museum of Practical Geology.
review of yours of Ehrenbergs works: Huxley had reviewed Mikro-Geologie, 2 vols (Leipzig: Voss: 1854) by the German naturalist, paleontologist and microbiologist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795–1876) in the Westminster Review, 63 (1855), pp. 558–63.
Please cite as “Tyndall1071,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on