To Juliet Pollock   9th March 1859

9^th March | 1859

My dear M^rs. Pollock,

Your letter¹ is just like you—you have always been my kind & warm friend and you are so now!

Nothing could be nicer than the spirit in which this kind deed² has been done, nothing more grateful to the feelings of a man like myself than the manner in which it has been communicated to me.

I have been thinking of you very much of late, and nearly a year ago you were in my thoughts in connexion with the same subject.³ As we and Walter⁴ sat together watching the performance of M^r Spedding⁵ in the archery ground you little knew the soil upon which some of the words which then fell from you at that time were falling.

It would have been perhaps well for me if I had then and there asked your counsel on the subject which occupied my thoughts, I thought of doing so often afterwards, but I finally thought it better and manlier to keep it to myself.

I do not know whether I shall speak of it even now, but if I should require your advice on a matter which affects me personally very deeply, though it is of absolute unimportance to the rest of the world, I want to know whether you feel sufficient interest in me to listen to a round unvarnished tale of half an hour’s duration, and to give me the benefit of your advice afterwards.

It is a question which requires the consideration of a lady, and I think I could tell it better to you alone; you can repeat it to M^r. Pollock afterwards—but it is a matter which must rest sacred between ourselves. I want simply to check my own conduct, to see whether what my feelings tell me to be right is right—I want to act truly and to avoid acting unkindly if I can.

Ever yours | John Tyndall.

RI MS JT/1/T/1132

RI MS JT/1/TYP/6/1952