From J. D. Hooker 5 September 1868
Royal Gardens Kew
Sept 5 /68.
Dear Darwin
A Mr A. J. Gower, HRH Consul at Nagasaki Japan called on me today, & I had an hour’s chat with him—1 He knows all about the Ainios, & is going back to their part of Japan—2 I have given away all the copies of your queries regarding expression:3—if you think it worth the while you can send one to Mr Gower (I told him possibly you would) 9 Via della Madonna, Leghorn, whither he goes on Monday & thence to Japan in a month— He will take Tylor’s & Lubbock’s books with him,4 & make observations: it was he who had to restore the Ainio Skulls stolen by Col: Vyse & the collector, Whiteley. some years ago.5
I did see the “Tiger” & was much amused.6 The Pall-Mall rather nettled me, partly because it was right, but more because it evidently sought out the weak point—to display smart criticism, The comparison of Religion to Science, & calling both opinions, & nothing more, was too absurd. & made no allusion to the rest of the address.7 It was also unfairly stated— I did not call all Natural Theology false (whatever I thought)8 nor do all Brit. Ass. addresses, as a matter of course, wind up with religion & science.9
Owen is indeed an awful ass; there was a lie, direct or indirect, in every paragraph of his article, & yet even this does not rile me with Owen— A man who can so deceive himself, as to believe that no fraud of his own is too gross to be seen through, as long as it is his own, is surely beyond exciting pity or contempt or any other human passion.10 I shall meet him just the same, & be hugely tempted to broach the subject bluntly to him. Was it you who told me that Carlyle called his smile “Sugar of lead”.11
Asa Gray’s come straight to lodgings which I have taken for them here. she will be knocked up he thinks— it will be jolly to go to Down with them12—but I doubt her standing the excitement; I fear she is either over exciteable or melancholic. the latter I suspect.13
Have you seen the Pall Malls inuendo apropos of the Cathedral Anthem at Norwich & me— it is all bosh.— Dr Buck, the organist—, gave it out of a real compliment—to me & I am sure I accepted it as such & enjoyed it extremely though I must confess I at first thought myself a huge egotist to suppose it was intended for me:—it was lovely & the Pall Mall may be d—d.14
Ever Yrs aff | J D Hooker.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bickmore, Albert S. 1868. The Ainos, or hairy men, of Saghalien and the Kurile Islands. [Read before the Boston Society of Natural History, 4 March 1868.] American Journal of Science and Arts 2d ser. 45: 361–77.
Chambers: The Chambers dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers. 1998.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dupree, Anderson Hunter. 1959. Asa Gray, 1810–1888. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Foreign Office list: The Foreign Office list. London: Harrison & Sons. 1852–1965.
Hoare, J. E. 1975. Mr. Enslie’s grievances: the consul, the Ainu and the bones. [Read 17 December 1975.] Japan Society of London Bulletin 78 (March 1976): 14–19.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1868. Address of the president. Report of the thirty-eighth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Norwich, pp. lviii–lxxv.
Tylor, Edward Burnett. 1865. Researches into the early history of mankind and the development of civilization. London: John Murray.
Summary
Has met A. J. Gower, Consul at Nagasaki, Japan, who knows all about the Ainus. JDH has given away all the copies of CD’s Queries about expression.
Nettled by Pall Mall Gazette review of BAAS address [see 6342].
Owen is indeed an ass. Carlyle’s comment on Owen’s smile.
The Asa Grays at Kew.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6349
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 102: 233–4
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6349,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6349.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16