From John Tyndall 5 February 1876
5th. Feby 1876
It is not the gift but the altar which sanctifieth the gift.1
And it is not the teapot but the fact that it is Charles Darwin’s teapot that gives it an immortal value in our eyes.2
I will not quit the subject of your postscript until light is let in on every cranny of the question.3
With warm thanks & strong affection, my dear Darwin yours | John Tyndall
Footnotes
Tyndall alludes to Matthew 23:19. ‘Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?’
CD had ordered a silver tea set as a wedding present (see letter to John Tyndall, 4 February 1876 and nn. 1 and 2, and second letter from John Tyndall, 5 February 1876).
See letter to John Tyndall, 4 February 1876 and nn. 3 and 4. Tyndall had been working on the problem of spontaneous generation.
Summary
JT will not quit the subject [of spontaneous generation] until light is let in on every cranny of the question.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10381
- From
- John Tyndall
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- John Hay Library, Brown University (Albert E. Lownes Manuscript Collection, Ms. 84.2 (Box 3, Folder 39))
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10381,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10381.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24
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