To J. D. Hooker 17 January [1875]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Jan 17th
My dear Hooker
I have been more astonished at your note received this morning even that at your last. It is grand about Galton.— It was very bold of you to venture to remonstrate about the Ordnance survey.2 It will indeed be a horrid shame if he is sent there to breed quarrels & trouble. By Jove, if you set to work you could turn out d’Israeli himself.—3
Your attack on Murray & Smith is superb. My thirst for vengeance is now quite satisfied: I always feared that they never would hear what gentlemen thought of the conduct of the Review.4 I feel now like a pure forgiving Christian!
I forgot in my last note to tell you that I wrote a formal letter (my women wd not let me send a savage one) to Mr Mivart, just enumerating his offences, as my reason for never speaking to him again.5 I did so, because it would have been so disagreeable to have met him on doubtful terms. He has taken no notice of my letter, & this was his best course. How he will pitch into me anonymously whenever he can.—
Farewell you best of friends | Ch. Darwin
P.S. | Mr Romanes was greatly pleased by your reception of him.—6
I shall copy part about Murray, & send it off to George.7
Footnotes
Bibliography
[Mivart, St George Jackson.] 1874b. Primitive man: Tylor and Lubbock. [Essay review of the works of John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor.] Quarterly Review 137 (1874): 40–77.
Summary
Astonished at JDH’s success versus Galton
and his attack on Murray is superb. Has written a formal letter to Mivart enumerating his offences.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9821
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 95: 372–3
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9821,” accessed on 1 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9821.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23