To William Branwhite Clarke   5 March 1878

5./3/78.

It is to me a source of sadness, dear & reverend Sir, to hear from our excellent friend, Dr Woolls, that you suffer from protracted illness; and I can imagine, how you, with your active mind and energetic intelligence feel the bondage of a sick-room. Let me hope, that your strong constitution will overcome the illness, and that with renewed health you will enjoy life again with all the more happiness. At all events, you have loving descendents, surrounding you & tending to your wants. When I am ill, I feel this want of family-ties most keenly, for no one cares about me here, and since I was expelled by intrigues & nepotism out of my little principality, founded & built up by me, no one here comes near me any more, except they want anything from me. Exception to this ingratitude is here of the rarest occurrence. Of course I am quite homeless since 5 years, when my house was also taken from me, and as my last property was sacrificed to keep the wreck of an once illustrious Department afloat, no one takes any wordly¹ interest in my fate, though a little aid from the united colonial governments might have brightened up my future.

But why troubling you, my venerable friend, with this? only because I am so sure of your sympathy as you are certain of mine.

May providence long yet prolong your valuable life for the benefit of science & your family.

Ferd. von Mueller²

What did you think of my poor lecture on the scientific works of divines?³