sed away from an overdose, or a wrong dose, of
medicine given him through mistake, by the hands of the woman he loved
most.

At one time Tyndall attempted to swim a mountain-torrent; the stream, as
if angry at his Irish assurance, tossed him against the rocks, brought
him back in fierce eddies, and again and again threw him against a solid
face of stone. When he was rescued he was a mass of bruises, but
fortunately no bones were broken. It was some days before he could get
out, and in his sorry plight, bandaged so his face was scarcely visible,
Spencer found him. "Herbert, do you believe in the actuality of
matter?" was John's first question.

Both Tyndall and Huxley made application to the University of Toronto
for positions as teachers of science; but Toronto looked askance, as all
pioneer people do, at men whose college careers have been mostly
confined to giving college absent treatment.

Herbert Spencer avowed again and again that Tyndall was the greatest
teacher he ever knew or heard of, inspiring the pupil to discover for
himself, to do, to become, rather than imparting prosy facts of doubtful
pith and moment. But Herbert Spencer, not being eligible to join a
university club himself, was possibly not competent to judge.

Anyway, England was not so finical as Canada, and so she gained what
Canada lost.

* * * * *

Tyndall paid a visit to the United States in the year Eighteen Hundred
Seventy-two, and lectured in most of the principal cities, and at all
the great colleges. He was a most fascinating speaker, fluent, direct,
easy, and his whole discourse was well seasoned with humor.

Whenever he spoke, the auditorium was taxed to its utmost, and his
reception was very cordial, even in colleges that were considered
exceedingly orthodox.

Possibly, some good people who invited him to speak did not know it was
loaded; and so his earnest words in praise of Darwin and the doctrine of
evolution, occasionally came like unto a rumble of his own artificial
thunder. "I speak what I think is truth; but of course, when I express
ungracious facts I try to do so in what will be regarded as not a nasty
manner," said Tyndall, thus using that pet English word in a rather
pleasing way.

In his statement that the prayer of persistent effort is the only prayer
that is ever answered, he met with a direct challenge at Oberlin. This
gave rise to what, at the time, created quite a dust in the theol