To J. D. Hooker   21 May [1868]

My dear Hooker

I know that you have been overworking yourself, & that makes you think that you are doing nothing in science. If this is the case (which I do not believe) your intellect has all run to letter-writing, for I never in all my life received a pleasanter one than your last.— It greatly amused us all.¹

How dreadfully severe you are on the little Duke;—I really think too severe; but then I am no fair judge, for a Duke in my eyes is no common mortal, & not to be judged by common rules!² I pity you from the bottom of my soul about the Address—³ it makes my flesh creep; but when I pitied you to Huxley, he w^d not join at all, & would only say that you did & delivered your Insular-Flora-Lecture so admirably in every way that he would not bestow any pity on you.— He felt certain that you would keep your head high up.—⁴ Nevertheless I wish to God it was all over for your sake.— I think from several long talks that Huxley will give an excellent & original Lecture on Geograph. Distrib. of Birds.⁵ I have been working very hard, too hard, of late on Sexual Selection, which turns out a gigantic subject, & almost every day new subjects turn up, requiring investigation & leading to endless letters & searches through books.⁶ I am bothered, also, with heaps of foolish letters on all sorts of subjects. But I am much interested in my subject & sometimes see gleams of light.— All my other letters have prevented me indulging myself in writing to you; but I suddenly found the Locust-grass yesterday in flower & had to despatch it at once. I suppose some of your assistants will be able to make the genus out, without great trouble.⁷ I have done little in experiments of late; but I find that mignonette is absolutely sterile with pollen from same plant.⁸ Anyone who saw stamen after stamen bending upwards & shedding pollen over the stigmas of the same flower would declare that the structure was an admirable contrivance for self-fertilisation.— How utterly mysterious it is that there sh^d be some difference in ovules & contents of pollen-grains (for the tubes penetrate own stigma) causing fertilisation when these are taken from any two distinct plants, & invariably leading to impotence when taken from the same plant! By Jove even Pan. won’t explain this. It is a comfort to me to think that you will be surely haunted on your death-bed for not honouring the great God Pan.—⁹ I am quite delighted at what you say about my book & about Bentham.¹⁰ When writing it, I was much interested in some parts, but latterly I thought quite as poorly of it, as even the Athenæum.¹¹ It ought to be read abroad for the sake of the booksellers; for five editions have come or are coming out abroad!—¹² I am ashamed to say that I have read only the organic part of Lyell, & I admire all that I have read as much as you.¹³ It is a comfort to know that possibly when one is 70 years old one’s brain may be good for work.

It drives me mad & I know it does you too, that one has no time for reading anything beyond what must be read: my room is encumbered with unread books.—

I agree about Wallace’s wonderful cleverness; but he is not cautious enough in my opinion.¹⁴ I find I must (& I always distrust myself when I differ from him) separate rather widely from him all about Bird’s nests & protection; he is riding that hobby to death.—¹⁵ I never read anything so miserable as Andrew Murray’s criticism on Wallace in the last no^r of his Journal: I believe this Journal will die & I shall not cry: what a contrast with the old Nat. Hist. Review.—¹⁶ I am very sorry to hear how uncomfortable M^rs Hooker is.—¹⁷ poor women— good Lord how wretched my wife used to be¹⁸

Farewell— it has done me good scrawling to you— Your’s affectionately | C. Darwin