14 Rue Du Cirque Paris.1 | 10th, July 1855.
My dear Mr Faraday
I repeated your question2 ‘what remembrance is there of Arago?’3 yesterday to a friend, and the reply was that there is no remembrance. He left so many opponents behind him in the Academy4 that all unity of action is destroyed, and the sum collected was too small for what was proposed.5 I was at the Academy yesterday, and conveyed your sentiments of affection to Biot. He enquired very kindly after you – He was kind enough to place me in a good position, from which as he remarked I might see ‘les personages’.6 At the end of a seat near me I saw a fine looking old man, and noticed that many of the members, on passing him squeezed him silently by the hand, while tears appeared in the eyes of some of them. The old man appeared to have been smitten by some calamity with which his friends sympathised – I learned afterwards that it was Thenard7 that he had lost his son quite recently and had suffered a second heavy domestic affliction some time before. It was the first day of his appearance since his son died. Regnault was president and once he said that the ‘parole’ was with M. Le Prince de Canino–8 ‘Le Prince de Canino n’existe pas’ responded the person addressed – ‘Monsieur Bonaparte s’il vous plait’9 I do not know whether it is that the title is abolished or that Lucien’s republican tendencies caused him to disavow it. At the conclusion of the meeting I felt great pleasure in making the acquaintance of Prof DelaRive who is here with his wife.10 He will remain here for eight or nine days and then proceed to London. I had never seen him before but his kind frank countenance agreed with the image that I had previously formed of him. I find in Wartmann an exceedingly agreeable companion: he and I walked together for several hours yesterday – we were at Versailles11 on Sunday with Wheatstone. From all I can see Wartmann is not only well instructed in science but possesses qualities of heart which are pleasant and refreshing to those who require something more than the mere culture of the brain. He gave me a curious picture of the strifes and heartburnings existing among the scientific men of Paris. I could not help comparing this life of ambition, this grasping at and feverish longing after the honours of the world, with the quiet of your existence, and I hope I derived profit and strength from the comparison. Arago appears to have been unfortunate in this respect, and from all I can gather regarding him he appears to have lacked that stability of soul, that reliance upon higher things than mere worldly renown, which I think ought to make the true philosopher. I read some time ago his life of Ampère12 and I could not help thinking at the time that he was incapable of appreciating fully Ampère’s character. The latter appeared to me to possess qualities in a high degree which in Arago were at least rudimentary. LeVerrier I am told moves through the Academy as through a vacuum – he has no connexion with anybody. Thus do we find this august body split up into antagonisms which are scarcely worthy of ordinary illeducated citizens. Thenard is one of those whom all parties respect – the universal sympathy evidenced yesterday was a proof of this. He has in fact pursued science for the love of science, and has not used it merely as a stepping stone to worldly advancement.
While I write Wheatstone, Edmond Becquerel13 and other members of the section are in the next room and Wheatstone’s voice rings in my ears: He talks as if he were inspired being apparently carried quite beyond his own control. He evidently rates pretty highly those honours and marks of recognition and I am inclined to think that he pays in some measure the inevitable penalty, and often has an uneasy mind. Foucault has set up his pendulum in the Exhibition:14 I saw him this morning for the first time: he has an arrangement of electromagnets underneath the pendulum by which its power is sustained, and the time of oscillation indefinitely prolonged. The fortnight I spent in Normandy was of immense value to me since my railway campaignings15 I have not felt a greater infusion of physical energy than during that tour. I still continue very strong and hope to be able to keep my mind tranquil and consequently my health good while I remain at Paris. I shall endeavour to get back at the end of the month as indeed I long to be at my work again.
Thank you very much for communicating my request to Anderson16 – He sends me my letters regularly, and now with kindest remembrances and best wishes for the health and happiness of Mrs Faraday Miss Barnard and yourself
Believe me | most faithfully Yours | Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/12/4034–6
Faraday Correspondence, 4:3004
Typed Transcript Only
14 Rue Du Cirque Paris: see letter 1101, n. 11.
your question: presumably contained in a (missing) letter from Faraday. ‘Heard from Faraday and wrote to him’ (Journal, 10 July 1855: RI MS JT/2/13c/777).
remembrance … of Arago: François Arago had died on 2 October 1853.
the Academy: The Académie des Sciences, founded in 1666, was the foremost scientific society in France.
the sum … proposed: Soon after Arago’s death a committee of eminent people, principally scientists, had been formed in order to erect a monument to his memory.
les personages: people of importance, of high rank (French).
Thenard: The renowned chemist and teacher Louis Jacques Thénard (1777–1857). His wife, Jeanne Victoire, née Humblot-Conte, had died on 27 April 1855, and his thirty-four year old son Henri had also died earlier in 1855.
M. Le Prince de Canino: The biologist and ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (1803–57), was a nephew of the Emperor Napoleon I.
Le Prince de Canino n’existe pas … Monsieur Bonaparte s’il vous plait: The Prince of Canino doesn’t exist, Mr. Bonaparte if you please (French). The prince thus expressed his wish to be known simply as Mr. Bonaparte.
his wife: Auguste de la Rive’s first wife had died in 1850. On 24 May 1855 he married Louise-Victoire-Marie, née Fatio.
Versailles: The Palace of Versailles was the highly ornate chateau with extensive formal gardens built originally for Louis XIV. As one contemporary noted, ‘no excursion to Paris would be considered complete without having paid it a visit; for it truly is a structure in which all the sumptuous luxury of a period renowned for its magnificence has been profusely lavished’ ([F. G. Bush and T. A. Day], The Excursionist’s Guide; or, Three Days in Paris (London: T. Bosworth, [1850]), p. 19).
his life of Ampère: F. Arago, ‘Eloge d’Ampère Prononcé lors de la Séance Publique de l’Académie des Sciences le 21 Août 1839’, in J. A. Barral et al, Oeuvres Complètes de François Arago, 16 vols ( Paris: Gide et J. Baudry, 1854), vol. 2, pp, 1–116.
Edmond Becquerel: see letter 1042, n. 6.
Foucault has set up his pendulum in the Exhibition: the pendulum, which demonstrated the earth’s rotation, was mounted in the Palais de l’Industrie; see letter 1052, n. 3.
my railway campaignings: Tyndall was referring to his work as a railway surveyor, principally in Yorkshire, 1844–7.
my request to Anderson: A note to Charles Anderson, presumably contained in the missing letter, mentioned in n. 2, above.
Please cite as “Tyndall1105,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on