To Joseph Hooker¹    24 October 1865

Botanic Garden of Melbourne, 24. Oct. 1865

Accept, dear Dr Hooker, the assurance of my deep sympathy in your affliction, and rest convinced that I profoundly participate in the grief which the loss of such a father as yours has brought over your house.² His letter by the mail before last was as usual plastic, beaming with hope, full of youthful scientific ardour. Indeed I cannot yet realize the idea, that I shall see no lines from his beloved hand any more. I above most others shall feel the loss most keenly, because an almost paternal kindness & an affectionate solicitude characterized Sir Wiliams numerous letters and all his actions to me. I entertained from the liveliness of his actions the hope that he would still for years be our guiding star, and that he would leave us not otherwise than a centenarian. I trust his transit to a better world was that of serene tranquillity, to which the consciousness will have contributed of having left widely his footprints on the sand of time & the consolation of seeing his glorious labours continued by an illustrious son & a promising nepos.

Your adored fathers death has thrown me in such an abyss of sadness, that I would vainly strive to write on what must at this moment appear subjects insignificant to the loss the botanical world has sustained. Sir William will be a marvellous example of what one man in science may achieve. He will rank with the few select remarkable sages, such as Humboldt, Linné, Cuvier.

With profound condolence

I, am dear Dr Hooker,

your

Ferd. Mueller