ri»k7scratr an % 0 - l '| ,h l le ' SUre *? submit tllis hypothesis to the 
when it v^ y j” Ch . 1 '/f‘* U,red P revi °os to acceptance; and 
understood how vast and how important were the 
o,j;iTr, ‘'f mU fi t ''j 81 ! 11 . fr ° m such acceptance, many were 
had llt ntf 0,1 ^ e J aelUS1Ve I h -°Pe that this skilful lecturer 
t H • - y 0t succeeded ln making his meaning understood. 
o i' lla TT the task of comin S to any decided conclusion 
about the whole matter was avoided 
Whatever g^und there might seem for this expectation in 
addrt ril 1 ap0l ° g f C tone of the dosing portion of the 
nnfn A "° lon ? er be a,ly excuse fol ’ entertaining so 
unfounded an opinion ; since in the subsequent lecture in the 
f F -r Tr f de * Manchester, and in the prefaces to the first 
n ° a " d to , the recently-issued seventh thousand of this 
pamphlet, the author applies himself succesfully to the task of 
clearing away all ambiguity ; and shows that he entirely adheres 
have h^ X (E.° n ‘ ° f ] ' ,S VieWS agai " St Which most exce P t i°ns 
It is very evident, however, that Professor Tyndall feels acutely 
the nature of the opposition which he has evoked. He assures us 
that the address was not any expression of passing feeling evoked 
by the cheers of his audience, but that the whole was the re- 
sult of cool and careful preparation. “In the solitudes” (of 
the Swiss mountains) “ I worked with deliberation, endeavouring 
(he says) even to purify my intellect by disciplines similar tS 
those enjoined by the Catholic Church “ for the sanctification 
ot the soul. * 
^ hat these measures of discipline were can be easily sup- 
, yt ns com parison ; and it is perhaps scarcely consistent 
with the honour which, in a certain sense, we owe to all men to 
regard so thoroughly earnest an advocate of his opinions with the 
eelings which are sometimes expressed. We may think him en- 
gaged (according to a felicitous comparison of his own in reference 
to another person) in sowing intellectual thistle-down f, but such 
a conviction should call forth other and far different emotions 
tn our minds to those above referred to. 
„ c The , Pr0feSS 1 ° r is rather severe on his critics. He says that 
Irom fair and manly argument, from the tenderest and" holiest 
sympathy on the part of those who desire my eternal good, I 
pass by many gradations, through deliberate * unfairness, to a 
spirit of bitterness which desires with a fervour inexpressible in 
wor s my eternal ill.” I trust in the analysis of his opinions 
ere given he will have no occasion to complain either of “ bitter- 
Preface to first thousand, p. xxxiv 
i 2 
t Page viii. 
