To J. D. Hooker 21 [December 1859]1
Down Bromley Kent
21
My dear Hooker
Pray give my thanks to Mrs. Hooker for her extremely kind note, which has pleased me much.—2 We are very sorry she cannot come here, but shall be delighted to see you & Willy 3 (our Boys will be at home) here in 2d. week of January or any other time.— I shall much enjoy discussing any points in my Book with you.—
I think the copy of your Introduction for Wallace had better go to Stephens’.—4 Will you send me a copy? I hate to hear you abuse your own work. I on the contrary so sincerely value all that you have written. It is an old & firm conviction of mine, that the naturalists who accumulate facts & make many partial generalisations are the real benefactors of science. Those who merely accumulate facts, I cannnot very much respect.
I had hoped to have come up for the Club tomorrow, but very much doubt whether I shall be able.5 Ilkley seems to have done me no essential good. I attended the Bench on Monday & was detained in adjudicating some troublesome cases 1 hour longer than usual, & came home utterly knocked up & cannot rally.—6 I am not worth an old button.
It is curious about Revue Horticole.7
Many thanks for your pleasant note. | Ever yours | C. Darwin
I feel confident that for the future progress of the subject of the origin & manner of formation of species, the assent & arguments & facts of working naturalists like yourself are far more important than my own Book: so for Gods sake do not abuse your Introduction.
P.S | I have this minute received another most interesting letter from you with Asa Gray’s—but I am feeling so sick that I cannot read Gray’s—8
Yours remarks are excellent—specially about explaining too much, yet I cannot yet see my error.—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bonney, T. G. 1919. Annals of the Philosophical Club of the Royal Society written from its minute books. London: Macmillan.
Naudin, Charles Victor. 1852. Considérations philosophiques sur l’espèce et la variété. Revue Horticole 4th ser. 1: 102–9.
Wallace, Alfred Russel. 1905. My life: a record of events and opinions. 2 vols. London: Chapman & Hall.
Summary
Delighted JDH coming to Down. They will discuss Origin. JDH’s remarks that theory explains too much are excellent, yet CD cannot see his error.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2591
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 115: 28
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2591,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2591.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7