13th May 1855
My dear Tom.
This is Sunday afternoon – almost evening – the bells are ringing for Church and the rain is drizzling heavily down and keeping me within doors – Thus imprisoned I will give my thoughts at last a quarter of an hour’s holiday by writing to you. I have nothing to say to you still the highest evidence of creative power theologians say is to produce something from nothing1 and I don’t see why I should not by my creative faculty – Still I can gossip at least – I conveyed to Du Bois your wish regarding a visit to you. The expense of the journey was evidently a barrier with him, but since he received your note he evinced symptoms of taking you at your word – I may possibly go along with him when he goes. Francis also talks of going down. So that you are threatened with a Wolkenbruch of visitors2 one of these fine days. I think the lecture of yesterday3 was one of the best which Du Bois has given to us – his utterance was better than hitherto. Last Wednesday I dined with an old gentleman named Goldsmid,4 some relative probably of the proprietor of Queenwood.5 He is a hearty good old fellow and not at all like a screw6 – his board was sumptuous, and the good old man had the kindness to give me a passable girl7 to take to dinner with whom I had a very affable & sparkling conversation. Since then the said lady’s father has invited me to dine with him so that thus I am dragged away from the magnets & molecules. There is a club here in connexion with the Royal Society which seems to be rather exclusive in its character – it is called the Philosophical Club8 – and last Friday I received an intimation that I had been elected a member of it. Stokes and I think Huxley was elected at the same time9 – but what surprised me greatly considering how much influence the man possesses Warren DelaRue was blackballed. Percy10 was also blackballed some time ago. My health is getting slowly and steadily better – I had the gravest apprehensions about it a few weeks ago and sometimes used to smile as I looked at my whole cheeks and aching bones in the looking glass – a kind of hopeless smile expressive simply of my resignation to the worst. I watched the effects of various aliments upon my system and I discerned a fortnight ago at Windsor that bitter beer seemed to do me harm, I thought it might do good. I tried it copiously – took a small bottle at 11o/c in the forenoon, a glass at dinner, a bottle after dinner, and found my downward progress arrested, and a sure & steady upward motion established. Some time ago I had fallen into the habit of having a chop11 at a confectioner’s and a cup of coffee afterwards instead of dinner – This I have soon abandoned, and will the most beneficial results – for I had an application12 from the association of Schoolmasters13 yesterday to deliver an address to the Society on the first of June. I have a lecture that day at the Royal Institution. Of course this alone if no other obstacle intervened (which then does) would prevent me from undertaking the thing – Say to Anna that if she has not received a certain article already it will come to her very soon.
John | Dont send me the coil until you hear from me again.
RI MS JT/1/T/601
to produce something from nothing: The prevalent, but much disputed, view that God created the universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) based on such texts as Genesis 1:1: ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’.
a Wolkenbruch of visitors: a deluge of visitors; literally a cloudburst.
the lecture of yesterday: Du Bois-Reymond’s fourth RI lecture ‘On Electro-Physiology’ was delivered on 12 May 1855.
Goldsmid: The Jewish financier Aaron Asher Goldsmid (1785–1860), who served as a manager of the RI.
the proprietor of Queenwood: In 1839 the socialist Robert Owen had leased the land on which Queenwood College was built from the financier Isaac Lyon Goldsmid (1778–1859), who owned the Tytherley estate and was the brother of Aaron Asher Goldsmid.
a screw: one who forces down (prices) by haggling; a stingy, miserly person (OED); an oblique reference to Shylock, the Jew, in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
a passable girl: not identified.
the Philosophical Club: Founded in 1847, the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society of London was a select dining club limited to 47 FRSs. The club’s aim was ‘to promote as much as possible the scientific objects of the Royal Society, to facilitate intercourse between those Fellows who are actively engaged in cultivating the various branches of Natural Science and who have contributed to its progress, to increase the attendance at the evening meetings, and to encourage the contribution and discussion of papers’ (T. G. Bonney, Annals of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society (London: Macmillan, 1919), p. 1). Tyndall was elected to the Club in 1856.
Huxley was elected at the same time: Huxley and Tyndall were among the five new members elected at the meeting of the Philosophical Club on 10 May 1855.
Percy: The Birmingham metallurgist John Percy (1817–89), who served as professor of metallurgy at the Government School of Mines.
a chop: a slice of meat, usually mutton or pork, including generally a rib, intended to be cooked and served by itself (OED). Chops were widely available in London coffee shops and other outlets.
an application: letter missing.
the association of Schoolmasters: A meeting of the United Association of Schoolmasters of Great Britain was held in St Martin’s Hall, Longacre, London on 1 June (London Standard, 2 June 1855, p. [4]).
Please cite as “Tyndall1085,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on