Saturday 10th. April 1858.
My dear Tom.
The very day that I received your note1 I sat down to write to you, but something stopped my hand, and what I wrote remains still in my drawer. It gladdened me very much to hear of the improved state of your health. I sometimes think that if a man lived a life ‘according to Reason’ as Fichte would say,2 that his health might be preserved much more vigorous than is usually the case. I wonder would cod liver oil be good for me!
Since I heard from you I have been down in the Isle of Wight,3 but was peculiarly unfortunate as regards the weather. I reflected on your proposal about Fontainebleau,4 but found it out of the question, though the temptation was indeed strong. The only part of your note that does not please me is that where you extinguish my hope of having you along with me in the summer. I had fully calculated upon another campaign with you. By the way Tom do you intend to make Paris your residence always? I am afraid you live a far too lonely life there, and are perhaps shirking a contact with the world which is sure to be demanded of you at last. On last Tuesday you would not guess where I found myself:—sitting in a little room, at the top of a house within reach of the sea roar, with a gentleman with black hair & black beard at my side, watching him fill his own pipe, then fill one for me, then put my pipe in his mouth, light it well, and transfer it to my lips. The man was Alfred Tennyson! Eight years ago I heard you read some of his poetry in some corner of St Martin’s Court.5 I little thought at that time what 8 years would bring forth.
I am very glad to find that you have made the acquaintance of Chasles.6 You will be a great Mathematician Tom. If you were here I should be strongly tempted to read the Differential & Integral Calculus7 again under your guidance. And now good bye. Many claims are pulling me. Col. Wynne8 I deeply regret to say is sent off to China9
ever yours affectionately, John
RI MS JT/1/T/643
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/510
your note: letter 1503.
‘according to Reason’ as Fichte would say: a reference to a lecture from the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) entitled ‘Life According to Reason’, Fichte is considered one of the founding figures of post-Kantian German Idealism.
Isle of Wight: Tyndall visited Alfred Tennyson several times at his island home Farringford House (see letter 1506 and Journal, JT/2/13c/1064–69).
Fontainebleau: see letter 1458, n. 3.
St Martin’s Court: a pedestrian alley in central London.
made the acquaintance of Chasles: in letter 1503, Hirst recounted to Tyndall that he met the French mathematician Michel Chasles while attending a course of his lectures in Paris.
Differential & Integral Calculus: probably A. de Morgan, The Differential and Integral Calculus (London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1842); or perhaps S. F. Lacroix, Elementary Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus (Cambridge: J. Deighton and Sons, 1816).
Col. Wynne: George Wynne.
sent off to China: see letter 1490, n. 6. In his journal entry for 5 April 1858, Tyndall wrote: ‘a card from Colonel Wynne bearing the following to me most sorrowful inscription “Dear Tyndall” Good bye, I embark for China tomorrow, I am so sorry to miss you”. It smote my heart like the tidings of the death of a dear friend’ (Journal, JT/2/13c/1065; this is also letter 1504).
Please cite as “Tyndall1507,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on