SCIENCE AND THOUGHTS 59 



with the Royal Institution. Not more than three or 

 four have been equally well received. At the conclusion 

 there was a loud and long-continued outburst of applause ; 

 this subsided ; but the feelings of those present had not 

 quite discharged themselves, and, like what we call the 

 residual discharge of electricity, a second general rumble 

 occurred. As for me, who, it must not be forgotten, 

 stirred up his mind to the performance, I feel quite 

 bright by the reflected radiance, I am like a little glass 

 bead silvered within and set in the sunshine, com- 

 placently radiating from a little reflected sun pictured 

 on my own surface. With this very pretty figure I 

 leave you to muse pleasantly, as of course every wife 

 does, on the solid triumph achieved by my friend your 

 husband. — Believe me, always yours, 



John Tyndall. 



This immediate and remarkable success owed 

 something, we may be very sure, to the manner, 

 as well as to the matter, of the discourse. Already 

 he had acquired the great art of lightly handling 

 weighty subjects. Something, too, of his success 

 may be attributed to the extremely youthful 

 aspect of the speaker. Professor Ray Lankester, 

 writing to me after Lord Avebury's death, says 

 of him : " He was a friend of my father's, and 

 I knew him forty-five years ago. He had, when 

 he was thirty, so juvenile an appearance that he 

 was sometimes mistaken for a young under- 

 graduate or even a schoolboy ! In early days 

 he was a great feature at the Red Lion's dinner 

 at the British Association, and used to keep the 

 whole thing alive by his wonderfully humorous 

 speeches. I think his versatility as a naturalist 

 (let alone his business capacity) was his most 

 remarkable quality, and in all he dealt with 

 his work was up to a high level of excellence. 

 Prehistoric man, ants and other insects, forms 



