WCP5331

Letter (WCP5331.5875)

[1]1

Down. Bromley Kent

Thursday 27th Sept[ember]/652

My dear Hooker3

I had intended writing this morning to thank Mrs. Hooker4 most sincerely for her last & several notes about you,5 & now your own note in your hand6 has rejoiced me. To walk between 5 & 6 miles is splendid, & with a little patience you must soon be well. I knew you had been very ill, but I hardly knew how ill, until yesterday, when Bentham7 (from the Cranworths8) called here & I was able to see him for 10 minutes. He told me, also, a little about the last days of your Father.9,10 I wish I had known your Father better; my [2] impression is confined to his remarkably cordial, courteous & frank bearing. I fully concur & understand what you say about the difference of feeling in the loss of a father & child. I do not think anyone could love a Father much more than I did mine11 & I do not believe three or four days ever pass without my still thinking of him, but his death at 84 caused me nothing of that insufferable grief, which the loss of poor dear Annie12 caused. And this seems to me perfectly natural, for one knows for years previously that one's Father's death is drawing slowly nearer & nearer; [3] whilst the death of one's child is a sudden & dreadful wrench.

What a wonderful deal you read: it is a horrid evil for me that I cannot read hardly anything, for it makes my head almost immediately begin to sing violently. My good women-kind13 read to me a great deal, but I dare not ask for much science & am not sure that I could stand it. I enjoyed Tylor14 extremely & the first part of Lecky;15 but I think the latter is often vague & gives a false appearance of throwing light on his subject, by such phrases, as "spirit of the age" "spread of civilization" &c.16 — I confine my reading to ¼ or ½ hour per day in skimming through the back volumes of the Annals & Mag[azines]. of N[atural]. H[istory].17 & find much that interests me. — I miss my climbing plants very much, as I could [4] observe them when very poorly. By the way Asa Gray18 approves of my paper on them.19 Did I ever tell you that I have put myself under Bence Jones,20 & I am sure he has done me good by rigorous diet. I have been half starved to death & am 15 lb lighter, but I have gained in walking power & my vomiting is immensely reduced. I have now hopes of again some day resuming scientific work, which is my sole enjoyment in life. —

I did not enjoy the "Mill on the Floss"21 so much as you, but from what you say we will read it again. Do you know Silas Marner: 22 it is a charming little [5]23 It is a charming little story if you run short & like to have it we c[ould]d send it by post.

We are now reading some American novels viz. Rutledge24 & Christine.25 The latter we c[oul]d lend you. We like them much but I think they are of too mild a nature for you, for I remember you were once awfully indignant at some novel I recommended. We have almost finished the first vol[ume] of Palgrave26 & I like it much; but did you ever see a book so badly arranged.27 The frequently [sic] of the allusions to what will be came told in the future are quite laughable. I know nothing about the Reader but hope soon to hear something from Wallace on the subject.28 [6] Did you read Miller's29 address to the chemical section at Birm[ingham].?30it seemed to me very good. I have not attempted Jamieson31 or Geikie32 or Frost & Fire;33 perhaps the latter may not be too strong a dose for Emma,34 who, however, is not very tolerant of science; Jamieson some day I shall certainly read to myself, & then there is Wallace's great paper,35 which will be a tough job. By the way I was very much pleased by the foot note about Wallace in Lubbock's36 last chapter.37 I had not heard that Huxley38 had backed up Lubbock about parliament.39 I suspect Lady L[ubbock].40 is very ambitious, & to the world how grand parliament & politicks appear. Did you see a sneer some time ago in the Times, about how incomparably more interesting Politicks [7] were compared with Science even to scientific men.41 Remember what Trollope42 says in ʺCan you Forgive herʺ43 about getting into parliament, as the highest earthly ambition.44 Jeffreys45 [sic] in one of his letters,46 I remember, says that making an effective speech in parliament is a far grander thing than writing the grandest History. All this seems to me a poor short-sighted view. I cannot tell you how it has rejoiced me once again seeing your hand-writing, my best of old friends.

Yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin47 [signature]

1
The document is numbered 275 in pencil in the top righthand corner.
2
The month year have been added as a later annotation.
3
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865-1885. President of the Royal Society 1873-1878.
4
Hooker (née Henslow), Frances Harriet (1825-1874). British botanist, translator and first wife of J. D. Hooker.
5
According to the Darwin Correspondence Project, Frances had written to Darwin on [17 August 1865], [21 or 28 August 1865], 6 September [1865], 13 September [1865], and 22 September [1865].
6
Hooker wrote to Darwin on [26 September 1865].
7
Bentham, George (1800-1884). British botanist. President of the Linnean Society 1861-1874.
8
Rolfe, Robert Monsey, 1st Baron Cranworth (1790-1868). British lawyer and Liberal politician, who twice served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He married Laura Carr (1807-1868) in 1850. Lord and Lady Cranworth were Darwin's neighbours; their residence was Holwood House in Keston, near Bromley, Kent.
9
Hooker, William Jackson (1785-1865). British botanist; first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1841-1865. His son, Joseph Dalton Hooker (see endnote 3) succeeded him to the Directorship.
10
Bentham (see endnote 7) presumably visited the Hookers at Kew shortly after Hooker's father died, on 12 August 1865.
11
Darwin, Robert Waring (1766-1848). English medical doctor and father of Charles Darwin.
12
Darwin, Anne Elizabeth (“Annie”) (1841-1851). Second child and eldest daughter of Charles and Emma Darwin, died aged 10 years.
13
Darwin's “good women-kind” would be his wife Emma (see endnote 34), and daughters Henrietta Emma (“Etty”) (1843-1929) and Elizabeth (“Bessy”) (1847-1926). Two other daughters died in childhood or infancy.
14
Tylor, Edward Burnett (1832-1917). British anthropologist and the founder of cultural anthropology.
15
Lecky, William Edward Hartpole (1838-1903). Irish historian.
16
Darwin probably refers to 1865 publications: Tylor, E. B. 1865. Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization. London: John Murray; and Lecky, W. E. H. 1865. A History of the Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe, 2 vols. London: Longman.
17
The full title of this journal is The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology being a continuation of the Annals combined with Loudon and Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History, London, Printed and published by R. and J. E. Taylor.
18
Gray, Asa (1810-1888). American botanist. Professor of natural history, Harvard University, 1842-1873.
19
Darwin explored the spontaneous revolving habit of stems and tips in many plant groups in order to obtain light and/or support and in what ways they may have been advantageous, appearing first as an essay [Darwin, C. 1865. On the movements and habits of climbing plants. Journal of the Linnean Society of London (Botany). 9: 1-118] and later as a book: Darwin, C. 1875. On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. 2nd ed. London: John Murray.
20
Jones, Henry Bence (1813-1873). British physician and chemist. Secretary of the Royal Institution 1860-1872.
21
The Mill on the Floss is the third novel by English novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880) in three volumes, first published in 1860.
22
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is the fourth novel by English novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880), published in 1861.
23
The page is numbered 275B in pencil in the top righthand corner. The letter is in Darwin's hand until this point. Presumably on account of his ill health mentioned previously in the letter, his wife Emma continued the letter, repeating the words “It is a charming little…”; Darwin resumed writing and completed the letter from the words “I have not attempted Jamieson or Geikie” (near the top of page 6).
24
Rutledge is the first novel by the American novelist Miriam Coles Harris (1834-1925), published in 1860.
25
Christine is the second novel by the American novelist Laura Curtis Bullard (1831-1912), published in 1856.
26
Palgrave, William Gifford (1826-1888). British Arabic scholar, traveller and diplomatist. Darwin refers to: Palgrave W. G. 1865. Personal Narrative of a Year's Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-1863). Vol. 1. London: Macmillan & Son.
27
In Hooker's letter to Darwin of 6 October 1865 (see WCP5302), he wrote that he could not get beyond the first volume of Palgrave (see endnote 26). The second volume was published in 1866.
28
In 1864, John Tyndall, Thomas Henry Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and others purchased the London-based magazine The Reader, and transformed it into an avenue for promoting modern science. The magazine’s run was short-lived however, as there were difficulties financially and with finding an audience. Two years after its termination in 1867, many of the same persons involved with The Reader wrote articles for a new journal, Nature, founded by the astronomer Norman Lockyer who had been a scientific editor for The Reader.
29
Miller, William Hallowes (1801-1880). Welsh mineralogist who laid the foundations of modern crystallography.
30
An abstract of Miller's address as president of the chemical section of the British Association meeting at Birmingham in 1865 was printed in The Reader, 23 September 1865, pp. 350-2. Miller had discussed the place of science in modern education and reviewed recent developments in chemistry (Report of the thirty-fifth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; held at Birmingham in September 1865, Transactions of the sections, pp. 22-7).
31
Jamieson, Thomas Francis (1829-1913). British geologist who studied sea level and glacial isostasy during the Quaternary period. The reference is probably to Jamiesonʹs study of glaciated rocks and marine sediments above sea level in Scotland that expounded his theory that isostatic post-glacial rebound occurs in areas once covered by ice sheets that have now melted, reducing the load on the upper layers of the earth's mantle, which rebound back towards their equilibrium levels. See Jamieson, T. F. 1865. On the history of the last geological changes in Scotland. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. 21: 161-203.
32
Geikie, Archibald (1835-1924). British geologist and historian. His 1865 book Scenery of Scotland viewed in connexion with its physical geology (London & Cambridge: Macmillan and Co.) detailed the history of the topography of the country. At this time the Edinburgh School of Geologists, of which he was to become an influential member, were advocating the importance of denudation in the configuration of land surfaces, particularly the erosion of valleys by the action of running water.
33
Campbell, John Francis (1821-1885). British author and scholar who specialised in Celtic studies. He travelled extensively throughout the Scottish Highlands and Islands recording West Highland tales, songs and anecdotes, recorded in Campbell, J. F. 1865. Frost & Fire: Natural engines, tool marks and chips: with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller, 2 vols. Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas.
34
Darwin (née Wedgwood), Emma (1808-1896). Wife and first cousin of Charles Robert Darwin.
35
Darwin refers to Wallace, A. R. 1865. On the Phenomena of Variation and Geographical Distribution as Illustrated by the Papilionidae of the Malayan Region. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 25: 1-71.
36
Lubbock, John (1834-1913). British archaeologist, politician, philanthropist and polymath.
37
Darwin refers to Lubbock, J. 1865. Pre-Historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. London: Williams & Norgate, in which Lubbock introduced a Darwinian-type theory of human nature and development.
38
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895). British biologist and author, known as "Darwin's Bulldog".
39
John Lubbock spoke in support of Thomas Henry Huxley at the famous 1860 Oxford evolution debate and a friendship developed which may have influenced Lubbock's interest in politics. He was elected as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Maidstone, Kent in 1870, again in 1874 and for London University in 1880.
40
Lubbock (née Horden), Ellen ("Nelly”) Francis (1835-1879). Daughter of a clergyman and first wife of John Lubbock (from 1856-1879; see endnote 35).
41
Darwin may be referring to an article in The Times, 11 September 1865, that reported on a meeting of the statistics and political economy section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held at Birmingham (referred to in the article as the ʺBritish Association for the Promotion of Scienceʺ). The author of the article wrote: ʺIt is curious to see the avidity with which every opportunity is laid hold of to quit the passionless domain of pure science, and to plunge into the stormy hemisphere of politicsʺ.
42
Trollope, Anthony (1815-1882). British novelist and civil servant.
43
Trollope, A. 1865-1865. Can You Forgive Her?, 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall. This is the first of the six Palliser novels by Trollope, which follows three parallel stories of courtship and marriage and the decisions of three strong women.
44
Darwin probably refers to the character of Alice Vavasor in Can You Forgive Her?, and her engagement to her cousin George, who aspires to be a Member of Parliament (see endnote 43).
45
Jeffrey, Francis, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850). British judge and literary critic. With Sydney Smith and others, he founded the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and was its first editor. The review was not limited to literary criticism but became the accredited organ of moderate Whig public opinion.
46
According to the Darwin Correspondence Project, in 1853 Darwin had read: Cockburn, H. 1852. Life of Lord Jeffrey, with a selection from his correspondence, 2 vols. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, but the particular letter referred to here is not identified.
47
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP5331.5875)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2020-03-08]

Please cite as “WCP5331,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 9 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5331