8th May. 1863
My dear Clausius.
It gave me very great pleasure to receive your last letter,1 and to learn from it that my little book2 had interested you. There is no man in Europe whose opinion on such a matter I prize more highly than yours, and hence the gratification which your letter gave me.
I have delayed writing to you until I could send you my reply to the attack of Prof. William Thomson & Prof. Tait.3 I can assure you that I should be rejoiced to live in peace and friendship with those men. Nothing grieves me more than that two men of nearly the same age like Thomson and myself, engaged in pursuits which ought to make us friendly towards each other, should be found in hostile conflict. It is an awful waste of time and good temper. But there is no knowing how far this habit of imputing unworthy motives will proceed if it be not stopped in time. Ever since the publication of my work upon the Alps4 Thomson has been unsparing in his censures, but has never had the manliness or frankness to attack me openly. Even in his article in ‘Good Words’5 his attack, though manifest, is more like an insinuation than a fair open manly proceeding. His putting Tait forward6 & keeping in the background himself is quite characteristic, but he has for once mistaken his man.
His treatment of poor Mayer7 you will I think agree with me in regarding as perfectly inexcusable. I should be willing to grant him the excuse of ignorance of Mayer’s merit, but such an excuse he refuses to employ and hence lays himself open to the charge of treating Mayer unjustly.
Believe me I am most anxious to live in peace with Thomson and every body else. A man’s life is too short to have any part of it devoted to such controversy,8 but with some people forbearance is interpreted as timidity. It is very hard to deal generously with people who mistake your generosity for fear. It is now more than two years since Prof. Forbes wrote a pamphlet9 against my book on glaciers, but I was content to allow him to have the last word, though it has been in my power all this time to answer him successfully. For this forbearance on my part I am now taunted by his countrymen Thomson & Tait.
If you had time I wish you would look over the chapter ‘Moteurs’ in Seguin’s work “Sur l‘Influense des Chemins de Fer” (1839).10 He has uttered many truths, but I think his publications show him to be a very different man from Mayer. He is a man with a certain amount of insight; mixed with a large amount of confusion & error. Goodbye—kindest regards to your wife11 & believe me
always yours, sincerely, | John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/T/233
your last letter: letter 1998.
my little book: Heat as a Mode of Motion.
the attack of Prof. William Thomson & Prof. Tait: see letter 1986, n. 5. For Tyndall’s reply, see letter 1979, n. 3. Also see letter 2002 of this volume. Roland Jackson provides further commentary on this debate in Ascent of John Tyndall, pp. 176–7.
my work upon the Alps: see letter 2002, n. 23.
his article in ‘Good Words’: see letter 1986, n. 5.
his putting Tait forward: P. G. Tait, ‘Reply to Professor Tyndall’s Remarks on a paper on “Energy” in Good Words,’ Phil. Mag., 25 (1863), pp. 263–6. Also, although the original paper was co-authored, Tyndall clearly saw Thomson and not Tait as the driving force behind the essay, and said as much to Thomson (see letter 2002).
His treatment of poor Mayer: Tyndall refers here to Thompson’s charge that Mayer’s paper had ‘no claims to novelty or correctness’ (see letter 2002).
A man’s life is too short… controversy: this is somewhat ironic since Tyndall’s career was marked by a number of such controversies, many of which were of his own making. See the introductory essay to this volume for further commentary.
Prof. Forbes wrote a pamphlet: J. D. Forbes, Reply to Professor Tyndall’s Remarks in his work, ‘On the Glaciers of the Alps,’ relating to Rendu’s ‘Théorie des Glaciers’ (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1860).
Seguin’s work: see letter 1990, n. 1.
your wife: Adelheid Clausius.
Please cite as “Tyndall2006,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on