1867.] 



'REIGN OF LAW/ 



6l 



not to have known how great the distinction was, for in June 

 1868 he wrote to Sir J. D. Hooker : — 



" What a man you are for sympathy. I was made " Eques " 

 some months ago, but did not think much about it. Now, by 

 Jove, we all do ; but you, in fact, have knighted me." 



The letters may now take up the story.] 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, February 8 [1867]. 



My dear Hooker, — I am heartily glad that you have 

 been offered the Presidentship of the British Association, for 

 it is a great honour, and as you have so much work to do, 

 I am equally glad that you have declined it. I feel, however, 

 convinced that you would have succeeded very well ; but if 

 I fancy myself in such a position, it actually makes my blood 

 run cold. I look back with amazement at the skill and taste 

 with which the Duke of Argyll made a multitude of little 

 speeches at Glasgow. By the way, I have not seen the 

 Duke's book,* but I formerly thought that some of the 

 articles which appeared in periodicals were very clever, but 

 not very profound. One of these was reviewed in the Satur- 

 day Review f some years ago, and the fallacy of some main 

 argument was admirably exposed, and I sent the article to 

 you, and you agreed strongly with it. . . . There was the 

 other day a rather good review of the Duke's book in the 



ship. Faraday, Herschel, and 

 Thomas Moore have belonged to 

 it in this way. From the thirty 

 members a chancellor is elected by 

 the king (the first officer of this 

 kind was Alexander v. Humboldt) ; 

 and it is the duty of the chancellor 

 to notify a vacancy in the Order to 

 the remainder of the thirty, who 



then elect by vote the new member 

 — but the king has technically the 

 appointment in his own hands. 



* 'The Reign of Law,' 1867. 



t Sat. Review, Nov. 15, 1862, 

 'The Edinburgh Review on the 

 Supernatural.' Written by my 

 cousin, Mr. Henry Parker. 



