To J. D. Hooker   [3 September 1845]¹

My dear Hooker

I had not heard of your grandfather’s death: coming at the time it did, it must have been an additional blow, when you were involved in all the disagreeable annoyment about the Professor’s Chair.— I shall be most anxious to hear of the result, but I shall no doubt see it in the Papers & you will have just then a multitude of letters to write.

I sh^d. like to hear, sometime whether you had other competitors besides M^r. Balfour. I do not think you have sufficiently plumed yourself on the high honour (& assuredly it is so) of being elected at your age to so great a Chair. I think there is the smallest possible chance of the good things of this life, making you fat & idle, as has too often happened in your new University.

I hope & suppose you will spend your summers in England, so that we may not be quite separated. Many thanks for your invitation to Kew; but as soon as my wife can move, we shall go into Staffordshire, & I do not now like to leave her. I heartily wish Kew & Down were not so remote.—

I will return the Astrolabe² (which I have only very slightly skimmed) the Boston Journal,³ —Red-Sea Conferæ⁴ —and L’Espece⁵ (NB. please allow my pencil marks to stand) I will retain, for I have as yet made no progress in Webb & Berthelot.⁶ I will send my Journal in some future packet. Are you really sure you can spare Cosmos:⁷ I am very anxious to read it, & till knowing whether worth while not anxious to buy it. I beg you not to think of sending it, without you & any others in your family are sure they have quite done with it. I shall indeed be proud of the Antarctic Flora, as you are so kindly determined to give me a copy.—

By the way, I have never thanked you for your sharp-sighted corrections of the two sheets: I fear I sh^d. have overlooked several of them.— I abide by Pernety, as in an old French Edition it is so spelt: it is also spelt Pernety.—⁸

I am very glad that Forbes has one such thorough apperciator as you: I fancied I was bold enough in upheaving & letting down our mother earth, but Forbes beats me hollow, without any proof to speculate on Ireland & Portugal having been once connected: it staggers me. All this boldness is undoubtedly the direct consequence of Lyell’s Principles.—

I shall be particularly interested to see what you make out of species taking each others places along the shores of S. America: I was particularly interested with similar facts in the Birds &c: Do the representative species actually join on a neutral territory? Are both species, or one, rare in such neutral territories? It is a curious & to my mind very interesting subject.—⁹

With my most hearty wishes for your success, ever my dear Hooker Your’s | C. Darwin