WCP5332

[1]

June 24/[18]69

Dear Darwin

A few lines just to say that we are back as yesterday-having come round by Stockholm, Upsala, Copenhagen, Hamburgh, Hanover Utrecht, Amsterdam, Hague, Leyden & Rotterdam, inspecting the Bot. Gardens & their museums throughout—I got very tired of it—thought it was excessively interesting—but the constant packing & moving got odious. Such lots [2] of people asked for you—Even at Amsterdam the Hague I found a young Frenchman busy making notes on the Pictures, so I pointed out the Dodo to him & he immediately asked me whether it was alluded to in Darwins last book on Animals & Plants, which he had read. Miquel¹ we staid 2 days with, in his House—so nice & pleasant: he has 4 very fine daughters such fine pleasant English [3] like girls—two of them will visit us in September—M. is quite a convert;—he is a very intelligent man, but in poor health. OErsted at Copenhagen² also talked heaps about you— he too is a very able man, & good naturalist.

We have good news of Willy³, who has been up to ^near the scene of the late murders in a Govt. steamer with Capt. Haultaine, the Defence Minister—Hector⁴ is looking out for a settlement for him— he is perfectly well & of course happy I —do hope he will take to a [4] settler's life— I am so sure it is the only thing that can suit him for the next 5 years— Hector truly says that he is ^many years younger than his age— Everyone is charmed with his manner & general conduct.

Miquel has been telling me how the Flora of Sumatra & Borneo are identical, & of Java quite different—just as Wallace shows for the plants animals.

How I wish I could join you in Wales, but it is impossible. I have a pile of letters that appalls myself, & I am [5] not easily frightened—plus a large unopened box of documents & pamphlets accumulated [1 word illeg.] during my absence. I too sometimes wish myself in a tomb—though I hold that the balance of life is always on the side of enjoyment, & that the bitterness of the bitterest loss is an insufficient measure of the enjoyment we had in the object lost.—

I am always rejoiced when you like Benthams⁵ addresses.

I read it all in mss, & modified some very heterodox passages about Insularity & its effects— you have hit—the flaw in the address— Indeed I do wish I could write another Essay on [6] Islands, & do not give up the hope— I think if Bentham had read Wallace's volumes he would have been more cautious—but he had no time— he however modified extensively what he had written on the strength of what I told him—that is to say he struck out several passages & put others more guardedly.—

Your offer to aid Andersson⁶ is a noble one:—I too have often gazed at the Cocos & Revillagigedos & others more [7] isolated still—there away—if Andersson gets a schooner he could do all.

I am woefully disappointed to hear of your health— is it the sequelle [sic] of your fall that you now suffer from?—

Now as to Beards, we never forget them & began to count—in Russia, but soon gave it up, as there was no exception to the rule of the Beard Moustachies & Whiskers being paler than the hair, usually ruddier also.

The Copenhagen & Stockholm Prehistoric Museums are perfectly wonderful, we have nothing at all like them for richness [8] of material & admirable instructive arrangement.— The Danish one is en suite with an Ethnographical Museum of the very highest value, extent, & beauty, which is now under rearrangement, & that again graduates into a collection of [3 words illeg.] an illustration of Danish Arts & customs, carried down to the present century. The Dutch Ethnographical & Antiquities collections are very far behind hand indeed—in every respect.

I was charmed to find my former visit to Leyden in 1845.! well remembered by Schlegel⁷ & the 2 or 3 survivors of the 10—12 naturalists I then knew there—but what an old man it made of me!f13

Ever y[ou]rs affec | J D Hooker [signature]