Queenwood Coll1 | Sept[em]b[e]r 16th 64
My dear John,
I was very much pleased to see your handwriting again;2 during the last two or three months your existence has been manifest to me only through indirect channels.
Did you see Joule’s letter in the July number of the Phil Mag.3 It is remarkable how distinguished men will bear resemblance to the weaker vessels of creation. It is no uncommon occurrence that correct ideas are uttered by men without the proper understanding of the same, or in other words, without that the consequences and working of said ideas is in the least appreciated by their authors. The utterance of a principle is undoubtedly something, but the working of the principle, its application in various cases, the statement of the legitimate deductions from it, is quite another, a much greater, in fact the thing. If Mr Seguin4 said something that sounds like the principle involved in the conservation of forces then it remains to be shown that he understood himself what he said.
The conversation (you refer to in your letter5) about the examinations of South Kensington6 have partly been forgotten by me; however, I think you proposed 3/6 per hour. This sum I shall only accept on the understanding that you have had your fair share in the transaction.
As soon as I can manage some time I shall translate a little of the book7 and let you see the specimen.
Poor Wright8 is getting better; He is going to Ryde9 for a short time and we will hope that it may do him good. This news was communicated to me by Mr Conwill10
Ever yours | H. Debus
11Mr. McLeod,12 the Assistant in Hofmann’s Laboratory,13 has sent also to me a copy of the declaration about the matter of science and religion.14 There have been orthodox, bigoted, pig headed, religions, bad and hypocritical, good and sincere men and women, to whom any of the above objections, either single, or combined with any other, might be given, and will be as long so the world stands. To find narrowminded bigotry amongst parsons, lawyer's and tradesmen is a common phenomenon and not to be wondered at. But to find a set of would be Philosophers putting their heads together for the sake of stifling free inquiry (for this it must be or their circular is absurd) is indeed quite a phenomenon. It would have been a phenomenon in the middle ages, how much more then in the 19th Century. Do the fools believe that they are about to stop the inquiring tendencies and the reasoning powers of the human mind with their declaration? Do they not know that it is a sin to circumscribe the greatest gift of God to man by their narrow notions; Is it not one of the noblest attempts of man to solve the riddles around him, say, life itself? The ink freezes in my pen when I behold the man with a piece of paper, crying so far and not further. How is one to explain it? Of many explanations one of all events holds good. The signer’s are not Philosophers, whatever else they may be. They give themselves a testimonium paupertatis15 that will last a good time. Now enough of my prattle
Ever yours | H. Debus
RI MS JT/1/D/31
Queenwood Coll: see letter 2051, n. 4.
your handwriting again: letter missing.
Joule’s letter in the July number of the Phil Mag.: J. P. Joule, ‘On the Dynamical Theory of Heat’, Phil. Mag., 26 (1863), pp. 145–7.
Mr Seguin: Marc Seguin.
your letter: letter missing.
the examinations of South Kensington: see letter 1926, n. 3.
a little of the book: not identified.
Wright: see letter 2051, n. 5.
Ryde: an English seaside town on the Isle of Wight.
Mr Conwill: John Conwill (1802–80) was Tyndall’s schoolmaster at the
National School at Ballinabranna from c. 1836. He was central in Tyndall’s early education
particularly with regard to mathematics (see G. Cantor and G. Dawson (eds), The Correspondence of John Tyndall, Volume 1: The Correspondence, May 1840–August 1843 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016)).
It is unclear if the following text, which is written on a separate sheet, is a postscript, enclosure, or a separate letter.
Mr. McLeod: Herbert McLeod (1841–1923), a British chemist who served as lecture assistant to August Wilhelm Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (1860–5), and later assistant to Edward Frankland (ODNB).
Hofmann’s: August Wilhelm Hofmann (1818–92), a German chemist who was the first director of the Royal College of Chemistry, London (1845–65) (CDSB).
declaration about the matter of science and religion: see letter 2104, n. 4.
testimonium paupertatis: proof of poverty, or involuntary admission of ignorance (Latin).
Please cite as “Tyndall2137,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on