From J. D. Hooker 16 June 1868
Kew
June 16/68.
Dear Old Darwin
I will send you the name of the grass anon: it is gone to Genl. Munros.1
Wheatstone told me that you have the Prussian order of merit;2 the only scientific distinction of the kind that I ever thought worth a fig— My dear old friend I do rejoice from the bottom of my heart & congratulate Mrs Darwin & your family a thousand thousand times I rejoice out of love for you & yours, & I rejoice out of hate to the French Academy, who will now feel confoundedly small.3 I thought it almost too good news to be true when I heard it.
I went to the Handel festival yesterday & heard the Messiah—4 It reminded me of the organ at Oxford,5 for several of the choruses went “up & down my back” & the Hallelujah was tremendous I never heard such music. & yet I had disappointments, the acoustics of the building are irremediably bad.— the finest solos were contemptible compared with the unsurpassable grandeur of the Chorus music. & “The Trumpet shall sound” grievously disappointed me, I expected a blast that was to wake the dead, & make my flesh creep off my bones, & leave me an unaffined skeleton—whereas the delicate trumpet solo, however beautiful, was too small a voice altogether— I had a musical companion with me, who kindly interpreted all with the score, & I avow I was “greatly awakened”,—I had always believed I would rather have been a great composer than any thing else, & I shall now die in that belief.
I was at dear old Ward’s funeral on Wednesday.6
My wife is making a capital recovery, & baby is all right.7
Ever my dear “eques bene meritus”8 | Your admiring & affect | J D Hooker.
I sent D. of Argyll last week.9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Calendar: A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821–1882. With supplement. 2d edition. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994.
Campbell, George Douglas. 1867. The reign of law. London: Alexander Strahan.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Will get name of grass [see 6243] from Gen. William Munro.
Has heard from Charles Wheatstone that CD has Prussian Order of Merit. Rejoices because it is the only distinction worth a fig.
Went to Handel festival; heard Messiah.
Went to poor old N. B. Ward’s funeral.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6247
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 102: 216–17
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6247,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6247.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16