Saturday, 18th. Apr 1857.
My dear Mr Faraday
For some time past the thought of writing to you on a subject of some importance to myself has occurred to me at intervals, and while in the country lately I was only prevented from doing so by the fact of having other matters to deal with which left me no time for writing.
When I concluded my last course of lectures1 I felt so weary that I looked with some dismay on the course to come after Easter, and did I not know that a change of arrangement at the time would be practically impossible, I should certainly have endeavoured to transfer the burden to stronger shoulders. I am now comparatively rested, but still I think I ought to endeavour to make some other arrangement for years to come.
Far even as they fall below the standard which I should like them to reach, I find 19 lectures to one audience to be a work of such labour that I would willingly shorten it if possible. They consume half the year in delivery, and an additional portion of the year in thinking of them, thus leaving me a comparatively small amount of time, and no great stock of strength for original research. If I thought that the labour of lecturing would sufficiently diminish with practice, I should hardly write thus; but four years experience2 warns me that the respect which I feel to be due to our audience would prevent me from ever dealing lightly with the lectures, and would always urge me to seek after matter suited to their taste and comprehension.
Under these circumstances I am inclined to think that it would be better for me, and I hope also better for science, if I occupied a position as regards the number of lectures to be given, and the remuneration to be derived from them, similar to that occupied by Mr. Brand3 during his connexion with the Institution.4 And if you see nothing objectionable in a proposal to this effect, I should be very thankful to you if, at the proper season, you would have the kindness to lay it before the Managers.5
Believe me | dear Mr. Faraday | Yours most faithfully | John Tyndall
[in Faraday’s hand] read to the Managers on (I think) the 27th May following MF | Managers' attention drawn to it again 15th Feb 7 1858. MF
RI MS JT/1/TYP/12/4068–9
Faraday Correspondence, 5:3272
Typed Transcript Only
my last course of lectures: Tyndall’s ‘Eleven Lectures on Sound’ (see letter 1308, n. 7).
four years experience: Tyndall began working as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the RI in 1853.
Brand: William Thomas Brande (1788–1866), an English chemist, who in 1812 succeeded Humphry Davy as the chair of chemistry at the RI (ODNB).
the Institution: the RI.
the Managers: When Faraday read this letter to them on 27 May 1857 the Managers were: John George Appold (1800–65), Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783–1862), Benjamin Bond Cabbell (c.1782–1874), Thomas Davidson (1817–85), Warren de la Rue (1815–89), George Dodd (1808–81), Charles Fellows (1799–1860), Henry Holland (1788–1873), John Carrick Moore, William Frederick Pollock, James Rennie (1781–1867), Joseph William Thrupp (1799–1873), John Webster (1795–1876), James Parke (1782–1868, 1st Baron Wensleydale), and Charles Wheatstone. See ‘Annual Meeting, Friday May 1 [1857]’, Roy. Inst. Proc., 2 (1854–8), pp. 421–2.
Please cite as “Tyndall1377,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on