To J. D. Hooker 4 October [1871]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Oct 4th
My dear Hooker
I am very sorry to hear of all your great anxieties about your mother & sister.2 God knows they are enough by themselves, without being festered by that odious wretch, Ayrton. I heard formerly about his monstrous conduct with respect to you & Mr Smith &c; & I wish I knew what he has now been doing.3 We shall meet sometime, & then you must tell me.— I most truly sympathise with you. Real sorrow & vexation with indignation & contempt make a mixture enough to harrow any man’s soul.—
With all your troubles you have written me a very pleasant letter.— I am quite delighted that you think so highly of Huxley’s article.—4 I was afraid of saying all I thought about it,—as nothing is so likely as to make anything appear flat. I thought of, & quite agreed with your former saying that Huxley makes one feel quite infantile in intellect— He always thus acts on me.— I exactly agree with what you say on the several points in the article; & I piled climax on climax of admiration in my letter to him—5 I am not so good a Christian as you think me, for I did enjoy my revenge on Mivart.— He i.e. Mivart has just written to me as cool as a cucumber, hoping my health is better &c.—6 My head, by the way, plagues me terribly, & I have it light & rocking half the day.—
Farewell dear old friend, my best of friends— I hope things will go better with you,—though I fear all that can be hoped for your mother is less suffering— | Farewell | Yours affecty | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Huxley, Leonard, ed. 1918. Life and letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, OM, GCSI. Based on materials collected and arranged by Lady Hooker. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. 1871b. Mr. Darwin’s critics. Contemporary Review 18: 443–76.
Summary
Sorry to hear of JDH’s troubles;
pleased he thinks so highly of Huxley’s article [see 7977].
Huxley makes CD feel infantile in intellect (as JDH once said of himself). CD is not so good a Christian as JDH thinks, for he did enjoy his revenge on Mivart.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7984
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 94: 207–8
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7984,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7984.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19