WCP5340

Down

Farnborough

Kent

March 26^th [1854]¹

My dear Hooker

I had hoped that you would have had a little breathing time after your Journal, but this seems to be very far from the case; & I am the more obliged (& somewhat contrite) for the long letter received this morning, most juicy with news & most interesting to me in many ways. I am very glad indeed to hear of the reforms &c in [the] Royal Soc[iet]^y.² With respect to the Club³, I am deeply interested; only two or three days ago, I was regretting to my wife⁴, how I was letting drop & being dropped by nearly all my acquaintances, & that I would endeavour to go oftener to London; I was not then thinking of the Club, which, as far as any one thing goes, would answer my exact object in keeping up old & making some new acquaintances. I will therefore come up to London for every (with rare [2] exceptions) Club-day & then my head, I think, will allow me on an average to go to every other meeting. But it is grievous how often any change knocks me up. I will further pledge myself, as I told Lyell⁵, to resign after a year if I did not attend pretty often, so that I should not at worst ^{only encumber} the Club temporarily. If you can get me elected, I certainly shall be very much pleased.— Very many thanks for answers about Glaciers. I am very glad to hear of the second Edit[ion]. so very soon; but am not surprised for I have heard of several, in our small circle, reading it with very much pleasure. I shall be curious to hear what Humboldt⁶ will say; it will, I sh[oul]^d think, delight him & meet with more praise from him, than any other book of Travels, [3] for I cannot remember one, which has so many subjects in common with him. What a wonderful old fellow he is. — I suppose you know that Sir H[enry]. Holland⁷ wrote the Quarterly Review⁸; but very probably he w[oul]^d not like this to be spread.—

What a very singular & striking coincidence is the result you mention in regard to the affinities of Noggerathus [Noeggerathus] & Salisburia; I know the latter by sight, & am astonished to hear that it is a Conifer.— Good Heavens what work there is in you, — , to hear of your 150 pages, 4^to [quarto], in smallish print, of Introduction⁹ is enough to make me shudder; though if it is in the least like the New Zealand Introduction¹⁰, it will be, I am sure, worth any amount of labour.—

By the way, I hope, when you go to Hitcham towards the end of May you will be forced to have some rest. I am grieved to hear that all the bad symptoms have not left Henslow¹¹; it is so [4] strange & new to feel any uneasiness about his health. —

I am particularly obliged to you for sending me Asa Gray’s¹² letter; how very pleasantly he writes. To see his & your cautions on the species-question ought to overwhelm me in confusion & shame; it does make me feel deuced uncomfortable. I cannot quite understand why you & he think so strongly that it is of no use arguing the question "does more harm than good to combat such views."—

It is delightful to hear all that he says on Agassiz:¹³ How very singular it is that so eminently clever a man, with such immense knowledge on many branches of Natural History, should write such wonderful stuff & bosh as he does. Lyell told me that he was so delighted with one of his ^(Agassiz) lectures on progressive development &c &, that he went to him afterwards & said ^{told him} "it was so delightful, that he could not help all the time wishing it was true".

I seldom see a Zoological paper from N. America, without observing the impress of Agassiz’s doctrine’s, — another proof, by the way, of how great a man he is —

I was pleased & surprised to see A[sa]. Gray’s remarks on crossing, obliterating varieties, on which, as you know, I have been collecting facts for these dozen years.— How awfully flat I shall feel, if I when I get my notes together on species &c &c, the whole thing explodes like an empty puff-ball.—

Do not work yourself to death

Ever yours most truly | C. Darwin [signature]

P. S. I almost forgot to say that I [6] will return all the Books, which I have of yours.— viz "the Plant",¹⁴ — "Wallace"¹⁵ — "Salt-Lake"¹⁶ on Wednesday next by carrier who shall book and pay them to Kew¹⁷ by Parcels Delivery to Kew on Thursday. Very many thanks for this most valuable loan, than which I do not know when I have had a more interesting set.— We have kept these books an unconscionable time.