822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with him. " Do you believe in matter ? " was a question which 

 he propounded just as we were about to bid one another good- 

 night after a day's continuous talking. Ever since a nervous 

 breakdown in 1855, over my second book, talking has told upon 

 me just as much as working, and has had to be kept within nar- 

 row limits ; so that persistence in this kind of thing was out of 

 the question, and I had to abridge my stay. Once more the like 

 happened when, after the meeting of the British Association at 

 Liverpool, we adjourned to the Lakes. Gossip, which may be 

 carried on without much intellectual tax, formed but a small ele- 

 ment in our conversation. There was almost unceasing discussion 

 as we rambled along the shore of Windermere, or walked up to 

 Rydal Mount (leaving our names in the visitors' book), or as we 

 were being rowed along Grasmere, or when climbing Loughrigg 

 on our way back. Tyndall's intellectual vivacity gave me no 

 rest, and after two utterly sleepless nights I had to fly. 



I do not think that on these occasions, or on any other occasion, 

 politics formed one of our topics. Whether this abstention re- 

 sulted by accident or whether from perception that we should 

 disagree, I can not say possibly the last. Our respective leanings 

 may be in part inferred from our respective attitudes toward 

 Carlyle. To me, profoundly averse to autocracy, Carlyle's polit- 

 ical doctrines had ever been repugnant. Much as I did, and still 

 do, admire his marvelous style and the vigor, if not the truth, of 

 his thought so much so that I always enjoy any writing of his, 

 however much I disagree with it intercourse with him soon 

 proved impracticable. Twice or thrice, in 1851-'52, 1 was taken 

 to see him by Mr. G. H. Lewes ; but I soon found that the alter- 

 natives were listening in silence to his dogmas, sometimes ab- 

 surd, or getting into a hot argument with him, which ended in our 

 glaring at one another ; and as I did not like either alternative I 

 ceased to go. With Tyndall, however, the case seems to have been 

 different possibly because of greater tolerance of his political 

 creed and his advocacy of personal government. The rule of the 

 strong hand was not, I fancy, as repellent to Tyndall as to me ; 

 and, indeed, I suspect that, had occasion offered, he would not 

 have been reluctant to exercise such rule himself. Though his 

 sympathies were such as made him anxious for others' welfare, 

 they did not take the direction of anxiety for others' freedom as the 

 means to their welfare ; and hence he was, I suppose, not in pro- 

 nounced antagonism with Carlyle on these matters. But divergent 

 as our beliefs and sentiments were in earlier days, there has been 

 in recent days mutual approximation. A conversation with him, 

 some years since, made it manifest that personal experience had 

 greatly shaken the faith he previously had in public administra- 

 tions, and made him look with more favor on the view of State- 



