My dear Hooker

I sh^d. very much like to see Frank an F.R.S. before I die.² It appears to me very doubtful whether a father ought to propose a son: I did not do so (or put my name at all down) in the case of George, but then there was the additional reason of my not knowing mathematicks.—³ Will you be so kind as to tell me what you think on this head? Should you object to proposing him? I am sure that this w^d. please him much more than my doing so. But I forgot you are (I suppose) on the Council & cannot (I believe) back or propose a man.

Will you let me hear what you think & about the Council. Like an ass I did not keep list of Council.⁴

Forgive your old friend for troubling you.— | Ever yours | C. Darwin

P.S. I was delighted to get your note about Wallace—whom I pity much.— I have hardly ever wished for anything so much as to get him on the pension list.—⁵