To J. D. Hooker   4 October [1871]¹

My dear Hooker

I am very sorry to hear of all your great anxieties about your mother & sister.² God knows they are enough by themselves, without being festered by that odious wretch, Ayrton. I heard formerly about his monstrous conduct with respect to you & M^r Smith &c; & I wish I knew what he has now been doing.³ We shall meet sometime, & then you must tell me.— I most truly sympathise with you. Real sorrow & vexation with indignation & contempt make a mixture enough to harrow any man’s soul.—

With all your troubles you have written me a very pleasant letter.— I am quite delighted that you think so highly of Huxley’s article.—⁴ I was afraid of saying all I thought about it,—as nothing is so likely as to make anything appear flat. I thought of, & quite agreed with your former saying that Huxley makes one feel quite infantile in intellect— He always thus acts on me.— I exactly agree with what you say on the several points in the article; & I piled climax on climax of admiration in my letter to him—⁵ I am not so good a Christian as you think me, for I did enjoy my revenge on Mivart.— He i.e. Mivart has just written to me as cool as a cucumber, hoping my health is better &c.—⁶ My head, by the way, plagues me terribly, & I have it light & rocking half the day.—

Farewell dear old friend, my best of friends— I hope things will go better with you,—though I fear all that can be hoped for your mother is less suffering— | Farewell | Yours affect^y | C. Darwin