JOHN TYNDALL 243 
This gave him command of a magnificent laboratory 
with which to pursue his investigations. Faraday was 
then Director of the Institution, so that for the next 
fourteen years the two men were brought into close 
relations. A more delightful situation for a scientific 
investigator can hardly be imagined. It was in 1851 
and 1852, just as this career of work in London was 
beginning, that Tyndall became acquainted with 
Spencer, who, as already observed, was about his own 
age, and with Huxley, who was five years younger. 
This was the beginning of friendships of the most 
intimate sort; the mutual respect and affection be- 
tween the three was always charming to contemplate. 
On all sorts of minor topics they were liable to differ 
in opinion, and they never hesitated a moment about 
criticising or attacking each other. The atmosphere 
of the room in which those three men were gathered 
was not likely to be an atmosphere of monotonous 
assent; the enlivening spice of controversy was seldom 
far away; but the fundamental harmony between them 
was profound, for all cared immeasurably more for 
truth than for anything else. It was no small intel- 
lectual boon in life, no trifling moral support, for either 
of those men to have the friendship of the other two. 
Of Tyndall’s original scientific work, an important 
part related to the explanation of the causes and nature 
of the motion of glaciers. His contributions to this 
difficult and important subject were of the highest 
value. These investigations led him to visit the Alps 
almost every year from 1856 until the close of his life, 
though long before the end the views set forth by him 
in 1860 had come to be generally accepted. The ex- 
plorations in the Alps gave Tyndall a fine opportunity 
