From J. D. Hooker 13 July 1865
High Force Inn | Middleton Teesdale
July 13/65.
Dear old Darwin
Your letter gladdened me as your hand writing always does, though the account of your state is anything but gladsome1 Thank Mrs Darwin very much for her part.2 This is just the place for my wife who gains ground rapidly, but loses it, or much of it, every now & then & is bloodless for a time. nevertheless, when weak,3 Neuralgia does not attack her here, as at Kew, & she walks several miles, & eats like a Trojan.
This is a wonderfully pretty place, especially the banks of the river. the moors are loathsome & the hills low broad rockless treeless & contemptible.4 I am studying the moraines all day long with as much enthusiasm as I am capable of after laying in bed till 9 eating heavy breakfasts & looking forward to dinner as the summum bonum of existence.5
I am reading Lubbock very carefully, it is excellent; most excellent, so well written sagacious & discriminating.6 How well & wisely he treats C. Lewis’ blunder & hastyness & the errors of others too.7 The Savage chapters are tantalizing for their brevity & incompleteness.8 Why did you not mention Lyells apologetic pages in your letter—to me—9 I suppose because the subject was most distressing— reason enough, for so it is— I am not satisfied with his apology at all— it is not handsome at all, & from an old Prince of science to a young aspirant, is not liberal I think. I am not surprised at Lubbock having been riled up originally: but cannot alter my opinion of the note,10 1. that the accusation is too broad & loose (exaggerated I fear), & 2. the latter paragraph is a bitter sarcasm though wholly unintentionally so I quite believe— Do consider it. he first accuses Lyell of extracting whole sentences without acknowlegdment & then attributes the denial of the robbery to a regretted inadvertence! i.e. Lyell first robs, then prearranges a fib to hide it, before he is accused mind you—& lastly when accused regrets his wilful uncalled for fib, as an inadvertence! by Jove if this is not a climax of villainy what is? all an ignorant bye-stander could say is, that his conscience is of a piece with his conduct. I am taking an ignorant byestanders view of the case— of course I know well that Lyells conduct has in justice no such interpretation.— I hope Lubbock will take no more notice of the affair, it is not worth it, & never was. worth anything beyond a mere assurance that he was first, though apparently second in the field.11
I know a little of Tylors brother— he is an FGS. & FLS. that Edward Forbes’ big heart embraced. The family are gas fitters &c &c, hardware tradesmen most wealthy & respectable, once quakers if not now quakers.12 I never saw this author. I am so glad you like the book.13 it is to me the most interesting since your orchid work14 that I have read, & like it I can always dip back with gusto, & be refreshed.
I have read vol: 2 of Leckie (not vol 1 yet) & am extremely interested & instructed.15 The next holiday I get I must read Buckle,16 of which I have only read part of vol 2. I am also reading Tom Payne who I think has been pretty largely plundered by Grey & Colenso.17
We have the Benthams here & my cousin Inglis Palgrave.18 I have not begun Giffords book19 regularly, but dipped here & there. it seems awfully conceited, vague & meagre of accurate topographical or scientific information, & very diffuse, but wonderfully clever as a literary composition. & no doubt full of valuable historical matter— he is a queer fellow, eccentric like all his Grandfather’s grandchildren; with brains enough for us all if he would put them to work systematically.20
I had the most enjoyable dinner I ever sat down to out your home or perhaps Lubbocks at Frank Palgraves the other day, the guests being Jowett Maurice & Gifford.— Browning & Stanley came afterwards.21
Can you afford to subscribe to the Palestine Exploration fund.22 I am deeply interested in the proper expenditure of the money & with Spottiswood Grove & some other good men I hope to see it well worked.23 I have given £3.3 (annually) for 3 years.
Herbert Spencer observations on umbellifer are utterly wrong—his reasoning partially right.24 How very odd, that the Antirrhinum case occurred to me as to you; I think that part of his reasoning, all or in great part wrong.25 he makes too little of Insect agency in shaping flowers, & of hereditary influence— too much of light air & unconquerable love of symmetry in the plant— still there is much in the line of argument. He sends me the proof sheets to comment on.26 I have not seen them since— he did not know that you had taken up the modifying effects of insect agency in impregnation as a general law, that is.27
I have not seen Nat Hist. Review which will not pay, is all but defunct I hear! & cannot go on beyond the year.28
Oliver is working at African plants & his lectures29
Ever yrs affec | J D Hooker
My Charlie has taken hooping cough at school, he returns on 19th. which puts all our arrangements out as we must keep him apart, which is difficult during Willys holidays.30
Footnotes
Bibliography
Allan, Mea. 1967. The Hookers of Kew, 1785–1911. London: Michael Joseph.
Britten, James. 1917. In memory of Daniel Oliver (1830–1917). Journal of Botany 55: 89–95.
Buckle, Henry Thomas. 1857–61. History of civilization in England. 2 vols. London: John W. Parker & Son.
Colenso, John William. 1862–79. The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined. 5 vols. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green.
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Desmond, Adrian. 1994–7. Huxley. 2 vols. London: Michael Joseph.
Desmond, Ray. 1999. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, traveller and plant collector. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1865. Moraines of the Tees Valley. Reader 6: 71.
Howarth, Osbert John Radcliffe. 1931. The British Association. A retrospect 1831–1931. Centenary (2d) edition. London: British Association.
Jackson, Benjamin Daydon. 1917. [Obituary notice of Daniel Oliver.] Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 129: 53–7.
Lecky, William Edward Hartpole. 1865. History of the rise and influence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe. 2 vols. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green.
Lewis, George Cornewall. 1862. Historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients. London: Parker, Son, and Bourn.
Moore, James Richard. 1979. The post-Darwinian controversies: a study of the Protestant struggle to come to terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morlot, Charles Adolphe. 1859. Etudes géologico-archéologiques en Danemark et en Suisse. [Read January 1859.] Bulletin des séances. Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles 6: 263–328.
Oliver, Daniel. 1868–77. Flora of tropical Africa. 3 vols. London: L. Reeve and Co.
Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.
Paine, Thomas. 1794. The age of reason: being an investigation of true and fabulous theology. Paris: printed by Barrois. London: sold by D. I. Eaton.
Palgrave, William Gifford. 1865. Narrative of a year’s journey through central and eastern Arabia (1862–63). 2 vols. London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.
Post Office directory of Northumberland: Post Office directory of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Northumberland, and Durham. London: Kelly and Co. 1858.
Spencer, Herbert. 1864–7. The principles of biology. 2 vols. London: Williams & Norgate.
‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria’: On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria. By Charles Darwin. [Read 16 June 1864.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 8 (1865): 169–96. [Collected papers 2: 106–31.]
Tylor, Edward Burnett. 1865. Researches into the early history of mankind and the development of civilization. London: John Murray.
Summary
Studying moraines.
On Lubbock’s book [see 4860], and Lyell’s apology. Recapitulates whole affair.
W. E. H. Lecky [Rise of rationalism in Europe (1865)] and other reading.
Spencer’s observations are wrong on umbellifers, his reasoning partially right.
Natural History Review is all but defunct.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4873
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Middleton-in-Teesdale
- Source of text
- DAR 102: 30–3
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4873,” accessed on 3 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4873.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13