My dear Tom.
Your letter2 has reached me and been read by me within the last quarter of an hour. It has stirred up my feelings and while they are loose I will write to you instead of waiting for a wet Sunday. Your reference to poor Anna3 brought tears to my own eyes, and I divined before you mentioned it that you could never have written thus without tears. It is sad, very sad, and still not without its own high and holy uses. ‘Whom god loveth he chasteneth’4 says the eastern seer and I believe it is true that the best qualities of the human heart would lie latent if sorrow did not call them forth. But all I have to say upon this subject you have already woven into your experience and I will therefore say no more. With regard to the money it is a matter of supreme indifference to me whether it comes now or at some future day, but I should be most gratified if it never came at all. When balancing accounts with the world it is an item which never entered my leger: it was to me just so much money that I had spent upon myself, for which I had my equivalent and which was therefore dismissed altogether from my thoughts. Well I am willing to act as your banker, and when you need money you have only to write to me.
I thought of you this morning as I put aside my journal, and laughed at the prospect of the impression which its perusal will produce on
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you at some future day. It will doubtless interest you to learn how I had fallen in love, and doubly interest to observe how I had got out of it again!5
My lectures are over:6 and I believe successfully over. Last Friday week was my evening, when Professor Lissajous made his experiments on acoustics while I expounded them.7 There was a fine audience and they all appeared delighted. The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland,8 the Marquis of Lansdowne,9 Lord Wrottesley the President of the Royal Society, and numbers of ‘that ilk’ were present. Duboscq was there and took charge of his own lamp,10 which however he did not manage with any thing like the promptness which I have attained myself. I was thus at times forced to extemporize, and fill up chasms which had not been anticipated. This was observed by many, and manifestly took their fancy. The lecture was received enthusiastically and a vote of thanks passed by acclamation to Lissajous and Duboscq. Last Friday Faraday lectured;11 and I took charge of the electric lamp and made the experiments while he spoke. His allusions to me were extremely kind. ‘His friend Tyndall, for we were friends and helped each other (applause) would take charge of the lamp.’ At the conclusion when thanking them for their patience and attention he added ‘and I know you all thank Tyndall in your hearts.’ It falls to the lot of few to have such a noble affectionate scientific father as your friend John possesses in Faraday. Indeed I know of no material advantage which I could set for an instant in competition with the friendship of that unspoiled and beautiful soul. I may say that the experiments in his lecture passed off admirably. The working of the lamp was excellent; my head was clear and my hand steady and Faraday was never more fresh and vigorous in his life.
This is the day of the Handel Festival12 at the Crystal Palace.13 The weather is glorious beyond description. I believe I might have been there in company with some young and beautiful people but I have a few experiments to make for a little party tomorrow which require preparation to day. I sometimes think of you when matters appear to shine upon me, God knows how gladly I would spare half of my sunshine to abolish your shade. Neither am I without my own drawbacks: I have been sometimes greatly broken down, and I have noticed an invariable connexion between this breaking down and the nature of my sleep. If I sleep well I am always strong next day—if ill—which is often the case the avenger is sure to come.
I hope to see you in Paris long before the 15th. of July: I hope to be able to get away by the first of next month. It would give me the greatest pleasure to be the guide of Verdet in London, for he is a man for whom I entertain a solid esteem. I will take care to prepare whatever letters I think may be of use to him.
Did I tell you that my connexion with the examinations of the Artillery and Engineer candidates has terminated. They offered me ₤25 for the examinations and I declined it.14
And now my dear Tom I bid you for the present good bye. God bless you my dear fellow—give my kindest love to Anna
Ever affectionately yours | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/640
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/500–1
[15 June 1857]: the date is not on the original letter but is given as such on LT’s typescript, and Tyndall referred to the Handel Festival, the first day of which occurred on 15 June 1857 (see n. 11).
Your letter: letter 1402.
Your reference to poor Anna: Hirst had discussed Anna’s illness and how she felt about it, and the prospect of her not recovering.
‘Whom god loveth he chasteneth’: Hebrews 12:6
I had fallen in love,... I had got out of it again!: Tyndall had fallen in love with one of the daughters of Maria Drummond, either Mary or Emily (see letter 1405). In June 1857 Tyndall’s journal entries show that he was undecided and conflicted about his feelings for Miss Drummond (Journal, JT/2/13c/939–42).
My lectures are over: Tyndall had finished lecturing at the RI for the season, and would travel in the Alps during the summer.
my evening, when Professor Lissajous made his experiments on acoustics while I expounded them: on 5 June 1857, Tyndall presented a Friday Evening Discourse at the RI, ‘On M. Lissajous’ Acoustic Experiments’, an abstract of which is in Roy. Inst. Proc., 2 (1854–8), pp. 441–3. In December 1856, Lissajous suggested to Tyndall that he take part in the lecture (see letter 1310).
Duke and Duchess of Northumberland: Algernon Percy (1792–1865), 4th Duke of Northumberland, a British naval commander and explorer, Fellow of the Royal Society, and President of the Royal Institution from 1842 to 1865; and his wife Eleanor Percy (née Grosvenor, 1820–1911), Duchess of Northumberland (ODNB).
Marquis of Lansdowne: Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (1780–1863), 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, a British statesman (ODNB).
his own lamp: with Léon Foucault in 1851, Duboscq developed the first commercially manufactured electric lamp, which he controlled during the current lecture’s experiments.
Last Friday Faraday lectured: on 12 June 1857, Michael Faraday gave a Friday Evening Discourse at the RI titled, ‘On the Relations of Gold to Light’, closing lectures for the season. An abstract of this lecture was published as ‘On the Relations of Gold to Light’, Roy. Inst. Proc., 2 (1854–8), pp. 444–6.
Handel Festival: the first of a series of celebrations to mark the centennial of the death of the German but London-based composer George Handel (1685–1759), held at the Crystal Palace on 15, 17, and 19 June 1857.
Crystal Palace: the iron and glass structure erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and later rebuilt in south London. See J. A. Auerbach, The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
I declined it: see letters 1375 and 1376.
Please cite as “Tyndall1404,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on