Mon cher Monsieur
Je vous ai fait envoyer vendredi dernier trois nouvelles feuilles de ma traduction. Je désire instamment que vous y jetiez un coup d’œil pour me les renvoyer ensuite, pour attendre les bonnes feuilles imprimées.
Je vous remercie de la confiance que vous mettez en moi, et vous pouvez être sûr que je l’ai méritée. Il est impossible de mettre plus de soin, plus de patience, plus d’amour aussi à un travail quelconque que j’en ai mis à traduire votre admirable ouvrage. Plus je relis ma traduction, plus j’avance, et plus je suis content; je vous dirai même franchement que je me fais un titre de gloire de ma lutte avec votre texte anglais, lutte dans laquelle je crois être resté vainqueur, sauf quelques imperfections que je conquerrai par des [1 word illeg].
Je terminerai mon travail cette semaine; et je vous prie instamment de m’indiquer courrier par courrier ce que je dois ajouter comme appendice à ce que contient déjà le volume anglais. Faut-il faire imprimer la [1 word illeg] de [1 word illeg]; les lettres à Mr. Thomson et Joule, ]etc, etc.
Répondez-moi bien vite, car nous n’avons plus que quelques instants pour achever.
Recommandez bien mes Mondes à mes amis, pour assurer de plus en plus leur succès. J’avais espéré que l’excellent docteur Carpenter continuerait son abonnement, mais il m’a averti qu’il ne le pouvait pas. Au reste le succès a dépassé mes espérances et je suis content. Grâce au Monde la première édition de La Chaleur considérée comme une forme de mouvement sera bientôt épuisée quoique tirée à deux mille exemplaires, et nous en ferons promptement une autre. Je compte sur un très grand succès.
Pourrait-on avoir le texte des deux leçons faites par vous [à] Osborn.
Aura-t-on pour les traduire au fur et à mesure les douze leçons d’optique que vous devez commencer bientôt.
A vous de cœur | l’abbé F. Moigno | 1er février 1854 | 2 rue d’Erfurt
My dear Sir,
Last Friday I sent you three new pages of my translation.1 I urge you to glance them over straight away and then send them back to me, so we can proceed to the good printed copies.
I thank you for the trust that you are placing in me, and you can be certain that I have earned it. It would be impossible to put more care, more patience, more love into any kind of work than what I have done to translate your admirable book.2 The more I read over my translation, the more I progress and the more I am satisfied. I will tell you frankly that I take pride in my struggle with your English text; a battle in which I believe I will remain the winner, except against a few flaws that I will [conquer] through [1 word illeg].
I will finish my work this week, and I urge you to tell me, post by post, what I add as an appendix to the existing contents of the English volume. Should the note about [1 word illeg] of [1 word illeg] be printed; the letters to Mr Thomson and Joule, etc, etc.
Answer me quickly because we only a short time to complete it.
Please recommend my Mondes3 to my friends, to further ensure its success. I was hoping that the excellent Dr. Carpenter4 would continue his subscription, but he warned me that he could not. As for the rest, our success has been unbelievable, and I am happy for it. Thanks to the Mondes, the first edition of Heat considered a mode of motion5 will soon run out, despite printing two thousand copies, and we will soon be doing another print run. I am expecting a huge success.
Could we have the text of the two lessons that you did in Osborn?6
Will we have, to translate them one by one, the twelve lessons on optics7 that you will surely be starting soon?
Yours truly | Father F. Moigno | February 1st 1854 | 2 Erfurt Street
RI MS JT/1/M/103
Last Friday I sent you three new pages of my translation: probably a reference to Moigno’s translation of Heat as a Mode of Motion. See letters 1978, 1990, 1996, and 1999.
translating your admirable book: the French translation of Tyndall’s Heat as a Mode of Motion appeared as J. Tyndall, La chaleur considérée come un mode de mouvement, trans. F. Moigno (Paris: Étienne Giraud, 1864).
my Mondes: see letter 1978, n. 1.
Dr. Carpenter: William Benjamin Carpenter (1813–85), a prominent physiologist and devout Unitarian who dedicated much of his intellectual life to advocating for the compatibility of science and religious belief. He had many friends among the scientific community. Although in his youth his views on natural law had been viewed as theologically suspect, he rose to become one of the most eminent men of science of his day. He was awarded the RS’s Royal Medal in 1861, was elected FRS, succeeded Faraday as Lecturer at the RI, and was appointed Registrar of the University of London in 1856. From 1869 he was a prominent member of the Metaphysical Society. While he was on friendly terms with Huxley and Clifford, he and Tyndall did not enjoy a friendly relationship (ODNB).
the first edition of Heat considered a mode of motion: see n. 2.
two lessons that you did in Osborn?: probably a reference to the lectures that Tyndall gave at Obsorne House to the Royal family. See letters 2052, 2055, and 2056.
the twelve lessons on optics: Tyndall delivered ‘Twelve Lectures On Experimental Optics’ at the RI from 19 January to 25 February 1864 (Roy. Inst. Proc., 4 (1862–6), p. 157). Moigno may not have known that Tyndall had already given this lecture series.
Please cite as “Tyndall2068,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on