From John Tyndall 16 April 1873
Royal Institution of Great Britain
16th April 1873
My dear Darwin
Your excellent letter reached me on Saturday last.1 You will doubtless set the matter before Huxley effectually in your own gentle way;2 but for my part the idea of ‘entreatis’ would not have occured to me. It is his clear and bounden duty to do what we wish him to do: his duty to himself: his duty to his wife and children: his duty to us and to the world.
Compare his case with that of Faraday, the most delicate minded man that ever lived, the most Sensitive to the touch of anything questionable in the way of money. He accepted a pension of £300 a year. Now I take it that we can measure Huxley’s merits as well as the prime minister of the day could measure those of Faraday;3 and I also take it that what is done by his most intimate friends ought to raise less scruple in his mind than anything that could be done by the taxpayers of England.
I wish with you that Mrs. L.4 had not subscribed—It suggests the idea of an effort, which ought to be entirely absent from the movement. | Heartily yours | John Tyndall
Footnotes
Bibliography
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
It is Huxley’s "duty to do what we wish him to do – his duty to his wife and children, his duty to us and to the world". Shares CD’s wish that Mrs [Henry] L[yell?] had not subscribed – it suggests the idea of an effort.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8860
- From
- John Tyndall
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Royal Institution
- Source of text
- DAR 106: C13–14
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8860,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8860.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21