From Juliet Pollock   June 11th 1864

59 Montagu Square W.¹ | June 11^th 1864

My dear M^r. Tyndall

Not without the fear you spoke of last night—of boring a friend by dwelling on a subject of deep interest to oneself—I write to express myself a little upon the delight of the R.I. and upon your discourse² which ended them. I must really thank you for the quantity of interest you have added to our life in so many ways. I must tell you, now that the season is over, how much the hours spent at the R.I. have done—how much of the highest and most lasting kind of gratification they have given to us; and how I have found this kind of gratification stretch and grow with growing years. When I look back to the time of your first lectures I am sensible of improved powers in myself while listening to you & I am grateful for the higher appreciation which I bring to your themes and to the treatment of them.

While such feelings grow we are still young; for I suppose antiquity is the arrest of progress. You stimulate the thoughts, the imagination and all the intellectual powers of your pupils and I believe all who are worthy to be called so, must rejoice in improvement under your influence.

I felt very strongly the beauty of your closing passages and if you have undergone fatigue in our service it is something for you to know that the labour has been spent upon not ungrateful soil, and so I subscribe myself—

ever truly & gratefully yours | Juliet Pollock

RI MS JT/1/P/171