want to know the amount of slavery that will, under the contract, be inflicted on me.
I take it for granted that I should occupy no other position than that habitually accepted by such men as Emerson, Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Wendell Holmes. I should not, of course, dream of becoming a traveling lecturer in England, and I should as little dream of doing so in America if the constitution of society were not such as to render the work of lecturing not unworthy of your own best men.
The best men in England, be it remembered, would engage in nothing of the kind.Between the time of his first visit to Europe, in 1862, and the time, ten years later, of Prof. Tyndall's coming to this country, my brother had made several visits abroad, and his acquaintance with Tyndall had ripened into friendship. In 1871, when he was in England establishing the International Scientific Series (of which the first volume was prepared by Tyndall), he received from him much friendly counsel and important aid, and, in fact, in a letter of June 23, 1871, from my brother, I find it stated that—
The next letter bearing upon the subject shows that plans for his lectures here were on foot, and that he had asked Prof. Henry to arrange the times and places for him. This is quite in keeping with English reverence for institutions, and Prof. Henry stood for the Smithsonian Institution.
My Dear Youmans: You will have your kindness toward me tested by Prof. Henry in regard to the coming lectures. I wrote to him saying that I knew you would help me, and he has written to me to say he would call upon you.
He proposes five cities (and perhaps others) in which to lecture—I have expressed my willingness to give a course of six lectures in each at the rate of three a week. Two things render it desirable that the number should not exceed three a week. Firstly, I must keep up my physical vigor, and the night subsequent to a lecture is only too likely to be a sleepless one. Secondly, it is above all things desirable to make sure of the experimental arrangements the day before the lecture. . . .
| Yours ever, |
| John Tyndall. |
The revelation given in the next letter of Prof. Tyndall's mental state concerning the commercial resources of Boston is too characteristically English to be omitted:
