Sunday.
My dear Mrs Pollock,
I do not know whether Mr Barlow has written to you but lest he has not I write to say that on Tuesday morning at half past 10 o’clock I shall be making those experiments on ice, and a few on other subjects for a little party. If you could join us it would give me great pleasure to see you—but if not my promise to yourself personally still remains. A stray remark from somebody leads me to imagine that you are at Richmond2—if so this will hardly reach you in time. I hope this glorious weather has an invigorating effect on you. It will on me as soon as I escape from London, but I believe not before. I hope the little man3 is doing well, and I look forward to the time when we shall be playfellows. I have just been looking into Mrs Crosser’s Memorial of her Husband4—One of the most pleasant parts of the book is that where the love of his mother for her ‘little Andrew’5 breaks out so refreshingly. I thought of you, and of your theory of heaven, and its local proximity to the baby.6 By the way it is quite unorthodox in you to fix heaven there. We have one ordinate towards the determination of its position in space, and that is a line perpendicular to the earth’s surface at Jerusalem*.7 If we had a second ordinate we should determine the place exactly. At present we know its direction merely, but the intersection of the second line would give its position. Mr Pollock8 I am sure will feel much pleasure in explaining these terms to you; and he will also assure you of the mathematical truth of what I say. Do not show this to any pious people, for they, unfortunately, are for the most part totally impervious to mathematical reasoning.
always yours sincerely | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/1895
LT Typescript Only
[14 June 1857]: the date is given by the reference to Juliet’s new baby (see n. 6) and Tyndall’s journal entry for Saturday 13 June 1857 (see n. 4). Tyndall’s ‘escape from London’ is likely a reference to his leaving London for Europe on 1 July to study the glaciers of the Alps.
Richmond: Richmond Park, the largest of London’s Royal Parks established in the seventeenth century.
little man: Walter Pollock, for whom Tyndall seemed to have a special affinity.
Mrs Crosser’s Memorial of her Husband: not identified. Possibly a Mrs. Cooper, see Tyndall’s entry in his journal for 13 June 1857, ‘worked some, and read Mrs Cooper’s memorial of her husband’ (Journal, JT/2/13c/941).
‘little Andrew’: not identified.
the baby: Maurice Pollock, third son of Juliet and William Frederick Pollock, born 28 March 1857.
at Jerusalem*: in the original letter, this asterisk does not include a corresponding footnote.
Mr Pollock: William Frederick Pollock.
Please cite as “Tyndall1401,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on