To J. D. Hooker 6 August [1871]1
Haredene | Albury | Guildford.
Aug 6th | Sunday
My dear Hooker
I was going to have written to you today, & now I have received your long letter.2 We have a spare bed-room, though a poor one.— Can you come here on Sat & spend next Sunday? or the following Sunday? You must come to Gomshall & Shere Stn. on S.E. Ry.— The station is 3 miles from this House.—3
I have read with greatest interest Thompson’s address: but you say so exactly & fully all that I think, that you have taken all the words from my mouth; even about Tyndall.—4 It is a gain that so wonderful a man, though no naturalist, shd. become a convert to evolution: Huxley, it seems, remarked in his speech to this effect.—5 I shd. like to know what he means about Design.— I cannot in the least understand, for I presume he does not believe in special interpositions.6 Herschel’s was a good sneer. It made me put in the simile about Raphael’s Madonna, when describing in the Descent of Man the manner of formations of the wondrous ball-and-socket ornaments; & I will swear to the truth of this case.—7 I am sorry to hear about Mrs. Hooker’s hand.—8
Ever yours | C. Darwin
You know the oak-leaved var. of the common Honeysuckle: I cd. not persuade a lady that this was not the result of the Honeysuckle climbing up a young oak-tree!— Is this not like the Viola case?9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
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.
Thomson, William. 1871. Presidential address. Report of the 41st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Edinburgh (1871): lxxxiv–cv.
Summary
Has read Thomson’s address with "greatest interest", but JDH has said exactly what he [CD] thinks of it.
Herschel’s was a good sneer. It made him add the Raphael Madonna simile in Descent [2: 142].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7898
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Haredene, Albury Surrey
- Source of text
- DAR 94: 202–3
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7898,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7898.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19