My dear Hooker

I cannot help it, I must thank you for your affectionate & most kind note.² My head will be turned. By Jove I must try, & get a bit modest. I was a little chagrined by review. I hope it was not Woodward. As advocate he might think himself justified in giving argument only one side. But the manner in which he drags in immortality, & sets the Priests at me & leaves me to their mercies, is base. He would on no account burn me; but he will get the wood ready & tell the black beasts how to catch me.— I will not say to soul that he is author.—³

It would be unspeakably grand if Huxley were to lecture on the subject, but I can see this is mere chance:⁴ Faraday might think it too unorthodox.⁵

I cannot help being sorry about H. C. Watson: he has helped me so kindly & liberally.⁶ I had a letter from him with such tremendous praise of my book, that modesty (as I am trying to cultivate that difficult herb) prevents me sending it you, which I sh^d have liked to have done, as he is very modest about himself.—⁷

You have cockered me up to that extent, that I now feel I can face a score of savage Reviewers.— I suppose you are still with the Lyells—give my kindest remembrances to them. I triumph to hear that he continues to approve.

Believe me | Your would-be-modest friend | C. D.