From William Frederick Pollock   26th. December 1857

S^t. Julian’s | Sevenoaks | 26^th. December 1857

My dear Tyndal¹

You were so kind as to call a few nights since² to ask about us—We were out, driving with Forster,³ and we are sorry to have missed seeing you—Now I can tell you authentically where we are—and that is—here—a sentence which would be thought full of a deep transcendental meaning, if it was found in the writings of a German metaphysicker⁴—but which to you, as chiefly a physicker, is only intended to mean what it does mean—& from me, as neither, perhaps if possible means rather less—The category of place—if you believe in place, that is—& can conceive an absolute here, more easily than some philosophers can an absolute—being thus disposed of—I may now proceed to that other perplexity—Time—which whether you may take it to be a function of Space—or that of Time—in a differential series to be taken as integrated between limits from a central zero to a plus and minus infinity as truly both ways—yet does assert itself in gross and palpable forms in clocks, calendars, histories, astronomical cycles, and other tangibilities and substantialities—and cannot wholly be disregarded in these mundane existences of ours—and so tell you that we came here the day before yesterday—& shall remain as I suppose until Thursday or Friday next—So that on Saturday, we may perchance see you meeting as juveniles round Faraday’s Lecture Table—Meanwhile here & now we are—far more cheerful than I could have expected—and in the midst of a country looking perhaps more green than it should do in Christmas week—The boys⁵ well & enjoying the outdoor & indoor recreations of the place—Walter the other day came to his mother in much indignation at a Scientific Glossary⁶—in which he had found ‘Solid—see Fluid’ and then turning to the F’s—‘Fluid not Solid’—which as he justly complained left him not much wiser than before—Then he framed quite by himself his own definition of a fluid as ‘stuff that you can’t make a hole in’—which is really as good a one as could be given in so few words—as stating one of the most obvious consequences of perfect mobility among the particles—The said Walter sends his love—Mrs Pollock desires her kindest regards—and I will wish you a merry Christmas & a happy new year—& so farewell—

Yours truly | W. F. Pollock

RI MS JT/1/P/230

RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/1928