My dear Sir
I have reflected on the subject of your note1 and the wish to do this before writing to you is the cause of the tardiness of my reply. The best proof that I can give of my estimation of the counsel which you have already given to me is that I should, in the present instance also, permit myself to be influenced in a great degree by your advice. I will now state the two opposing aspects of the question as they present themselves to my mind.
It is certainly an object with me to obtain a position which would make my mind easy on matters of personal finance:2 this object would be attained at Toronto, and besides this, as you remark, an honourable sphere of action would open to me. On the other hand there would be the withdrawal of those stimulating influences to which you referred in one of your earliest letters3 to me, and which habitually spur a man to action. There would be the separation from England and from the valued friends which now surround me. But as regards science the gravest point appears to be the change from the field of experiment to that of observation. Both are, as you say, alike handmaids of knowledge, but my adherence to the former has opened possibilities to me now which I could not relinquish without regret. There is I believe a wide field opening before the experimentalist of the present day, and it is not perhaps a blameable ambition to desire to contribute something in this field to the maintenance of the scientific fame of this country among the nations of Europe. The thought may be a dream – the dream may be exploded by the failure of working power with which I am sometimes threatened; but still the hope is sufficiently strong to enable me cheerfully to forego for the sake of it many of the agremens4 which in the opinion of most render life enjoyable.
A man is not a constant quantity – his power and courage ebb and flow, and there are times when I confess the desire of a more solid and less anxious position than that which I now occupy lays hold of me. But I believe my healthiest moments are those when I can look the trials of life fearlessly in the face, and make up my mind to accept even poverty, if necessary, sooner than swerve from the vocation in which I believe I can labour with most effect – namely the advancement of exact scientific knowledge by the method of experiment.
Had time permitted I should gladly have consulted Bunsen and Magnus upon this subject. I have but one object in view, the attainment of that position in which I should have most opportunity to pursue my own researches. If Canada afforded me such an opportunity I would cheerfully go there. But in the present instance I fear the advantages offered, which are doubtless considerable, would have to be purchased by the sacrifice of many of the hopes and aims which the hard study of the last 7 years has engendered.
These are my feelings with regard to the point in question. But there are others associated with them which are a source of the purest pleasure to me. I trust that you will never have occasion to think worse of me than you now think – I trust you will never find me doing any thing to discredit the good opinion which you have so kindly expressed regarding me. When I cast my thoughts back on the rather unusual incidents of my life, the part you have acted in helping me to carve my way is not absent from my remembrance; and my hope is that the kindness then manifested, and again so strikingly evidenced in this your last letter to me, may see reason to perpetuate itself, and that I shall long have occasion to rejoice in the possession of your good will.
Believe me | most faithfully yours | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/2/7/50–2
LT Typescript Only
the subject of your note: the offer of the directorship of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the University of Toronto; see letter 1074. Tyndall subsequently asked the advice of Hirst (see letters 1080 and 1081) and others before refusing the offer.
matters of personal finance: Tyndall was offered a salary of £450 per annum at Toronto, with the possibility of earning a further £150 per annum. By contrast, his salary at the RI was £200 per annum in addition to which he would have received payment for his lectures at the LI and also for his contributions to the Phil. Mag., the Westminster Review and to the reading books edited by Edward Hughes. A few months later he received (at least) £50 for his examining on behalf of the Board of Ordnance (see letter 1098). In total his income in 1855 was about £400 per annum.
one of your earliest letters: volume 3, letter 0559.
agremens: delights (French).
Please cite as “Tyndall1075,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on