From J. D. Hooker 24 January 1863
Paris
Jany 24/63
Dr Darwin
I gave your letter to Naudin,1 who toute suite brought it back, 1 to be deciphered, 2 to be put into English 3d to be translated. however thanks to Bentham that did not take long,2 & so he took it home for his private eating, & will I hope give me an answer to take back to you—3 N. being stone deaf, I cannot do much business with him— I have had a long talk on tablets with him however,4 & with Decaisne too,5 both have much curious matter, but neither appreciate your book as they should, & will when they read it in its french garb I hope.6
Decaisne is writing a paper for the Institute on fruit trees, which will I doubt not contain much curious matter.7 Naudin says that he has discovered the physiological cause of change becoming specific; ie of vars. no longer breeding together.—8 good if true.— Decaisnes observations upon the absolute hereditary transmission of minute characters in some garden varieties of Lettuces &c are most curious— he has also good matter about permanence of types of fruits.9
Every thing here is quiet—gay & beautiful to the eye, industry activity & propriety meet the eye every where to an extraordinary degree where the vice, misery, & poverty of every large town are no where appears— you see more in half an hour of the best part of London than in the back slums of all Paris.
How dreadful the New York papers are, we see them here, & I read & moralize over them by the hour— I believe that a Republican is the worst form of govt. that can be given to a people, but perhaps the best they can make for themselves the mistake is to suppose that the Americans made it for themselves—they never did so; they accepted it from the hands of the few great men of that day, & so long as there was no struggle for existence it was never put to the test— when the struggle came they found out that what they accepted for a working theory, had not taken root enough in the hearts of the people to be upheld at any price.10 Lincoln’s Emancipation proclamation is the most damnable thing ever done.11 Really there is no bright spot in this sad sad world but in shops that sell Wedgewood ware, which I have been haunting with some success.12 As I know that you will listen to nothing from me after this I will shut up
Ever dear Darwin | Yrs affec | J D Hooker
I shall return in a day or two.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DBF: Dictionnaire de biographie Française. Under the direction of J. Balteau et al. 21 vols. and 4 fascicules of vol. 22 (A–Leyris d’Esponchès) to date. Paris: Librairie Letouzey & Ané. 1933–.
Decaisne, Joseph. 1858–75. Le jardin fruitier du Muséum ou iconographie de toutes les espèces et variétés d’arbres fruitiers cultivés dans cet établissement avec leur description, leur histoire, leur synonymie, etc. 9 vols. in 5. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, fils & Cie.
Decaisne, Joseph. 1863. De la variabilité dans l’espèce du poirier; résultat d’expériences faites au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de 1853 à 1862 inclusivement. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences 57: 6–17. [Reprinted in Annales des sciences naturelles (botanique) 4th ser. 20: 188–200.]
Denney, Robert E. 1992. The civil war years: a day-by-day chronicle of the life of a nation. New York: Sterling Publishing.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Jackson, Benjamin Daydon. 1906. George Bentham. London: J. M. Dent. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Naudin, Charles Victor. 1862. Cucurbitacées cultivées au Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle en 1862. Description d’espèces nouvelles et de quelques formes hybrides obtenues de plantes de cette famille. Annales des Sciences Naturelles (Botanique) 4th ser. 18: 159–208.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
JDH delivers CD’s letter to C. V. Naudin.
Neither Naudin nor Decaisne appreciates Origin.
Discusses Naudin on physiological causes of species formation;
Decaisne on plant heredity.
JDH on Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3940
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Paris
- Source of text
- DAR 101: 99–100
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3940,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3940.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11
