From J. D. Hooker 7 April 1868
Royal Gardens Kew
April 7/68.
Dear Darwin
I am going to North Wales with Huxley on Thursday— will you lend me the Duke’s Reign of Law: which I want to understand if I can, & would take with me.—1
Thanks for your note, I get more & more unhappy about the address as the time draws on.2 Nothing on earth would induce me to do a thing so damned indelicate as to force such a position on an unwilling soul.— Science might go to the Devil before I would do so, by an enemy even. You see I am working up myself to the starting point—
I have often thought of History of great steps in Botany, but it would take a deal of reading, & I have no time for any—& then when we come down to later years I should offend every body.—3 And after all, should a President’s address be a “Scientific thesis”. I think not.— Who ever consulted such addresses, or regarded such as authorities?
Smith will supply the Euryalias & notes— he is again very poorly with palpitations of heart &c.4
I saw Woolner yesterday— he is to let me know when he goes to Down.5
Ever Yr affec | J D Hooker
Footnotes
Bibliography
Campbell, George Douglas. 1867. The reign of law. London: Alexander Strahan.
Summary
Goes to N. Wales with Huxley.
Wishes to borrow Duke of Argyll’s Reign of law.
The BAAS Presidential Address [Rep. BAAS 38 (1868): lviii–lxxv] – his unhappiness about it; history of botany requires too much reading.
Smith will supply notes on Euryale.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6099
- From
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Kew
- Source of text
- DAR 102: 208–9
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6099,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6099.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16