SPEECHES AT THE RECENT TYNBALL BANQUET. 657 



the manner in which you have proposed this toast ; I would thank 

 with equal warmth an assembly which, in intellectual measure, is, 

 probably, as distinguished as any of the same size ever addressed by 

 man, for the way in which they have received it ; and I would extend 

 my thanks to my friends of the Department of Science and Art, for 

 their spontaneous kindness to an old colleague, who for many years 

 lent his humble aid to the department in diffusing sound scientific 

 knowledge among the masses of the people. My own scientific edu- 

 cation began late. It had, of necessity, to be postponed until after I 

 had reached the age of seven or eight and twenty. Notwithstanding 

 this drawback, in learning, teaching, and working in the laboratory, I 

 have been permitted to enjoy a spell of thirty-nine years. In 1850, 

 during a flying visit from Germany to England, I stood, for the first 

 time, in the bright presence of Faraday. In February, 1853, I gave 

 my first Friday evening lecture in the Royal Institution ; and three 

 months afterward, on the motion of Faraday, the old chair of Natural 

 Philosophy, which had been filled at the beginning of the century by 

 Thomas Young, was restored, and to it I was elected. It causes me 

 genuine pleasure to think that I shall be succeeded in that chair by so 

 true and so eminent a man of science as Lord Rayleigh. 



It is not my intention to overburden you with egotism to-night ; 

 but, casting an earnest glance back upon the past, a few words seem 

 due from me to the memory of one or two of the group of good men, 

 no longer with us, with whom I was so intimately associated. Re- 

 garding Faraday, I will confine myself to stating that years have not 

 altered my estimate of the beauty and the nobleness of his character. 

 He was the prince of experimental philosophers ; but he was more 

 than this in every fiber of his mind he was a gentleman. It is, how- 

 ever, of two of our honorary secretaries that I wish now to speak ; 

 premising that, for the first seven years of my life in the Royal Insti- 

 tution, the post of honorary secretary was held by a cultivated and 

 very worthy gentleman, the Rev. John Barlow. From 1860 to 1873 

 that is, for a stretch of thirteen memorable years I had the happi- 

 ness of working hand in hand with Dr. Bence Jones. Never in my 

 experience have I met a man more entirely and unselfishly devoted to 

 the furtherance of scientific work. I hardly like to mention the fol- 

 lowing incident, because it furnishes but a scanty measure of his de- 

 votion. On one occasion I was in need of funds to carry out some ex- 

 periments of a delicate and costly character. Bence Jones came to me, 

 and after some hesitation for he knew that money was likely to raise 

 a difficulty between us he said, with earnestness : " Dear Tyndall, 

 behave as my friend ; do me the favor and the honor of devoting this 

 to your investigation. There is more, if you need it, where that came 

 from." He handed me a check for 100. Had I asked for 1,000, he 

 would have given it to me, and the world, as far as he was concerned,, 

 would have been none the wiser. Bence Jones was a strong man, and 



VOL. XXXI. 42 



