John Tyndall D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S.

Six Lectures on Light

In a work published in 1850, De Tocqueville says: “It must be confessed that, among the civilized peoples

of our age, there are few in which the highest sciences have made so little progress as in the United States.”
… De Tocqueville evidently doubts the capacity of a democracy to foster genius as it was fostered in the
ancient aristocracies. “The future,” he says, “will prove whether the passion for profound knowledge, so
rare and so fruitful, can be born and developed so readily in democratic societies as in aristocracies.”
… In America there is a willingness on the part of individuals to devote their fortunes, in the matter
of education, to the service of the commonwealth, which is probably without a parallel elsewhere: and
this willingness requires but wise direction to enable you effectually to wipe away the reproach of
De Tocqueville. Your most difficult problem will be not to build institutions, but to discover men.

John Tyndall- Lecutures on Light - 1878 -


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- Lecture I - 1878 - Text -

- Lecture II - Text -

- Lecture III - Text -

- Lecture IV - Text -

- Lecture V - Text -

- Lecture VI - Text -

- Summary and Conclusion - Text -


Representative Figures -


Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Figure 9.

Figure 26.

Figure 27.

Figure 36.

Figure 38.

Figure 40.

Figure 41.

Figure 42. and 43.

Figure 44.

Figure 46.

Figure 50.

Figure 52.

Figure 55.

Figure 57.

Figure 58.




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- Tyndall on Germs - 1876 - Text -

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