6 th Decr 18551
My dear Tom.
I am sorry to add to your troubles but I can do nothing else than send you the accompanying note from Chapman which reached me five minutes ago in company with your review.2 While urging some alteration of the latter he ‘admires its tone & ability’. Shorten Faraday if you can & lengthen the others if you can, and let the whole be 600 words shorter than at present. Leave out all you have said about me and mine. This will simplify your labour. May the gods grant you patience & good temper
Ever your | John
Kiss Anna for me and let the act calm your own spirits – Life is full of troubles – I have lost the last two days over a quibble.
J. Chapman | on my article in the | Westminster3
[enclosure]
8 King Wm St Strand | Dec 6. ’55.
My dear Sir,
I shall be glad if you will reduce the accompanying paper4 about 600 words, it is rather more than a page too long. – The part should be cut out of the notice of Faraday, which I am sorry to see so disproportionately long. It almost assumes the form of a separate article, and entirely prevents justice being done to the other books – especially to Arago and Grove. The notice of Faraday is moreover little likely to be understood by the majority of the readers of the Westminster; so much space being occupied the exposition should certainly have been of a more popular character. Having said this much, permit me to add that I admire the ability and tone of the paper throughout.
Faithfully yours | John Chapman
Professor Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/T/944
6th Decr 1855: The date is unclear. The LT Typescript suggests 6 or 7 December.
your review: Hirst began the review at Tyndall’s request on 4 November 1855 (Hirst Journal, RI MS JT/2/32c/1181). It embraced the 3rd volume of Faraday’s Researches on Electricity (London: Richard Taylor, 1855); Edward Sabine’s translation of François Arago, Meteorological Essays (London: Longman, 1855); a reissue of Evan Hopkins, On the Connexion of Geology with Terrestrial Magnetism (London: Richard Taylor, 1851); George Fellows Harrington, New Theory of Light (London: William Tyler, 1855); Edward Hughes, Reading Lessons. First Book (London: Longman, 1855); Robert James Mann, Lessons in General Knowledge (London: Longman, 1855); Julius Stockhardt, Familiar Exposition of the Chemistry of Agriculture (London: Henry Bohn, 1855); William Grove, Correlation of Forces, 3rd ed. (London: Longman, 1855); and Alexander Stephen Wilson, Unity of Matter (London: Samuel Highley, 1855). The review appeared under the heading ‘Science’ in Westminster Review, 65 (1856), 254 –71.
J. Chapman on my article: annotation added by Hirst.
accompanying paper: proof copy missing.
Please cite as “Tyndall1162,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on