To J. D. Hooker   17 [June 1868]

My dear Hooker

What a man you are for sympathy. Your note has pleased us all greatly.— I was made “Eques” some months ago, but did not think much about it. Now by Jove we all do; but you in fact have knighted me!¹ I am glad you were at the Messiah:² it is the one thing that I sh^d like to hear again, but I daresay I sh^d find my soul too dried up to appreciate it, as in old days; & then I sh^d feel very flat, for it is a horrid bore to feel, as I constantly do, that I am a withered leaf for every subject except science. It sometimes makes me hate science, though God knows I ought to be thankful for such a perennial interest which makes me forget for some hours every day my accursed stomach.—

Frank was at the Messiah & he brought out, on coming home, such a string of “tremendous”, “awful”, “awfully grand” &c &c.— By the way Frank is beginning in some earnest Botany, & dissecting ovules &c & bewailing the difficulty of anatropous &c—primines, secundines &c— it drives him half mad, & I cannot help him—³

I wish you had told me how you get on with your address;⁴ I am fearfully interested on this head. I fear that there is no possibility of your coming here for a Sunday; but it is my firm conviction that the Down air would inspire you with some grand original thoughts & sublime sentences.

By the way I do not agree about “The Trumpet shall sound”;⁵ for I remember being struck with surprise & then with admiration at there not being at the words an overpowering blast of the Trumpet.

I have received the Duke of A. It is good news that M^rs. Hooker is recovering so well.⁶

Yours affectionately | C. Darwin