Morning journal and courier., 1884-11-12
PROF. TYNDALLsS EARLY EXPE-
 RIENCES.
His Terrible Foil q Civil Engineer and His student Life in Germany.

| From the Pal Mall Gazette
 Last night, at the BiIkbeck Institute, Pro- l lessor Tyndal1 delivered an address based on 1 the experiences of his life. He said: It l might prevent some young Birbeckians from considering their fate specially hard, or from
 being daunted, because from 8 very low level they had to climb very steep hill, when | tell you that, on quitting the ordnance sur I vey in 1843, my salary was little under \ twenty shillings a week. have often won 1 dered since at the amount of genuine happi- ! ness which a young fellow of regular hab- 1 it's, not caring for either pipe or mug, may ! extract even from pay like that. Then came a pause, and after it the mad time of the railway mania, when I was able to turn to account the krc-ladge had gained upon the, 1 ordnance survey A Staffordshire, Cnesh- l ire, Lancashire, Durham and Yorkshire, ! more especially in the last, l was in the thick | of the fray It was time of terrible toll. 1 The days work in the field usually began and ended with the days light, while frequently \ in the ofice and more especially as the aw | fuI 3Oth of November-the latest date at | which plans and sections of projected lines \ could be deposited at the board of trade drew near, there was little difference between \ day and night every hour of the twenty four | being absorbed in the work of preparation. | Strong men were broken down by the strain and labor of that arduous time. Many l pushed through and are still among us in TO- | bust vigor; but some collapsed, while others ! retired with large fortunes, but with intel \ lects so shattered that instead of taking their | places in the front rank of English states | men, as their abilities entitled them to do, ! they sought rest for their brains in the quiet | lives of country gentlemen.
 l In my own modest sphere I well remem- TSa1l jxrod | from five minutes sleep on 8 deal table, | with Cabbage and Callet's Logarithms" \ under my head for a pillow On certain \ day, under grave penalties, certain levels I had to be finished, and this particular day ! was one of agony to me- The atmosphere l seemed filled with nocking demons, laughing
 at the vanity of my efforts to get the work I done. My levelling slaves were snapped and my theodolite was overthrown by the t storm. When things at their worst a \ kind of anger often takes the place of fear | It was so in the present instance. I pushed l doggedly on, and just at nightfall, when l barely able to read the figures on my level ling staff, I planted my last "bench-mark2 | on a tombstone in Haworth churchyard. ! Close at hand was the vicarage of MT. Bronte, 1 where the genius nursed which soon af- l terward burst forth and astonished the world.
 It was a time of mad unrest-of down. I right monomania. In private residences and | public halls, in London reception rooms, in ! hotels and the stables of hotels, among gyp- l sies and costermongers, nothing was spoken ] of but the state of the share market, the prospects of projected lines the good fortune ! of the ostler or potboy who, by a lucky | stroke of business, had cleared ef0, 900. I High and low, rich and poor, joined in the I reckless game. During my professional connection with railways I endured three ! weeks misery. It was not defeated ambi- tion; it was not a rejected suit: it was not | the hardship endured in either office or field; I but it was the possession of certain shares 1 purchased in one of the lines then afoat. 1 The share list of the day proved the winding l sheet of my peace of mind. I was haunted l by the Stock Exchange. I became at last so | savage with myself that went to my bro | kers and put away, without gain or loss, the | shares accursed thing. ! When railway work slackened I accepted | in 1S47, post as master in Queenwood col { lege, Hampshire-an establishment which is still conducted with success by a worthy l principal. At the time here referred to ! had emerged, from some years of hard labor, the fortunate possessor of two or three hun | dred pounds. By selling my services in the dearest market during the railway madness, the sum might, without dishonor, have been | made large one; but respected ties which | existed prior to the time when offers became | lavish and temptation strong. did not put | my money in napkin, but cherished the de- sign of spending it in study at German un- l iversity. I had heard of German science, \ while CarlyIe's references to German philoso- | phy and literature caused me to regard them | as kind of revelation from the gods. Ac- ! cordingly, in the autumn of 1S4S, Frankland | and started for the land of universities, as ! Germany is often called.
 Our place of study was the town of Mar | burg, in -Cassel, and very picturesque l town Marburg is. It chambers pleasantly up ! the hillsides and falls as pleasantly toward I the Lahn. On May day, when the orchards ! are in blossom, and the chestnuts clothed 1 with their heavy foliage, Marburg is truly l lovely. My study was warmed by a large ! stove. At first I missed the gleam and spar kle from flame and ember, but soon became
 accustomed to the obscure heat. At six in ! the morning small milch-brod and cup of | tea were taken to me. The dinner hour was | 1, and for the first year or so dined at ho-
 tsl. In those days living was cheap in Mar l burg. Dinner consisted of several courses,
 roast and boiled, and finished up with sweets
 and desserts. The cost was pound month ! or about eight pence per dinner. l usually I limited myself to one course, using even that
 in moderation, being already convinced that | eating too much was quite sinful and all ! most rninous, as drinking too much By | attending to such things I was able to work l without weariness for sixteen hours day.
 My going to Germany had been opposed by some of my friends as quixotic, and my life
 there might perhaps be not unfairly thus de-
 scribed. I did not work for money; was 1 not even spurred by 'Ethe last inf1rmity of
 noble minds" had been reading Fiehte
 and Emerson, and Carlisle and had been in
 feeted by the spirit of these great men, Let
 no one be persuaded that they were not great
 men. The Alpha and Omega of their teach
 ing was loyalty to duty. Higher knowledge
 aud greater strength were within reach of the
 man who unhinchingly enacted his best in-
 sight. It was noble doctrine, though it 1 might sometimes have inspired exhaustinp
 disciplines and unrealizable hopes.
 At all events it held me to my work and in the long cold mornings of the German ! winter, defended by a Schlafrock lined
 with catskin, I usually felt freshness and
 strength-a joy in mere living and working derived from perfect health-which was something different from the malady of self righteousness. I concentrated my chief att tention upon mathematics, physics and chem 1 istry. Professor Stegmann gave me the sub ject of my dissertation when I took my de-
 gree Its title in English was, "On 8 Screw Surface with Inclined Generatrix, and on the
 Conditions of Equilibrium on such Surfaces. D I I resolved that if I could not without the slightest aid, accomplish the work from be- ginning to end, it should not be accomplished l at all. Wandering among the pine woods, and pondering the subject, I became more and more master of it; and when my disser-
 tation was handed in to the Philosophical Faculty it did not contain thought that was not my own Continuing to work strenuous ly but happily till the autumn of 1850, I then came to England. But soon returned
 to Germany. To those Marburg days look 1 back with warm affection, both in regard to | nature and to man.
 1 To Berlin went in the beginning of 1851. 1 Professor Magnus had made his name famous I by physical researches of the highest impor- tance From him and from Clausius, Wiede-
 mann and Poggendorff, I received every mark
 of kindness, and formed with some of them enduring friendships. Helmholtz was at this 1 time in Konigsberg. He had written his re- nowned essay on the Conservatism of Ener- 1 gy." In his own house had the honor of an
 interview with Humboldt. He rallied moon
 having contracted the habit of smoking in Germany, his knowledge on this head being { derived from my little paper on a water jet,
 where the noise produced by the rupture of s