Royal Institution of Great Britain [stamped]
My dear Mr Dean,
I have no doubt that I have to thank your kindness for the little pamphlet on “Effective Primary Instruction”,2 which I hope soon to be able to give myself the pleasure of reading. It is a strange country this England of ours—and must in the matter of education be dealt with after strange methods. No continental model will suffice us. We must learn the conditions of the question by actual experiment; and if this is earnestly persisted in, the problem will yield as sure as any other problem in experimental science. That it will be persisted in your actions prove, and the encouragement of your example in this respect will continue after you have ceased to write pamphlets on Effective Primary Instruction.
Ever yours | John Tyndall | 13th Jan. 1857.
Private (permission to publish granted through RI)
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/319
Mr Dean: Richard Dawes (1793–1867), Dean of Hereford, an educationalist concerned with improving secondary schools in England (ODNB). Dawes was Rector and Headmaster of King’s Somborne near Queenwood, where he originally met Tyndall, before being translated to Hereford in 1850.
little pamphlet on “Effective Primary Instruction”: Dawes published this address as Effective Primary Instruction: The Only Sure Road to Success in the Reading-Room, Library, and Institutes for Secondary Education (London: Groombridge & Sons, 1857).
Please cite as “Tyndall1317,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on