1 868.] 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



IOI 



appears to me most striking and excellent. How you must 

 rejoice at all your bothering labour and anxiety having had 

 so grand an end. I must say a word about myself ; never 

 has such a eulogium been passed on me, and it makes me 

 very proud. I cannot get over my amazement at what you 

 say about my botanical work. By Jove, as far as my 

 memory goes, you have strengthened instead of weakened 

 some of the expressions. What is far more important than 

 anything personal, is the conviction which I feel, that you 

 will have immensely advanced the belief in the evolution of 

 species. This will follow from the publicity of the occasion, 

 your position, so responsible, as President, and your own high 

 reputation. It will make a great step in public opinion, I feel 

 sure, and I had not thought of this before. The Athenceum 

 takes your snubbing * with the utmost mildness. I certainly 

 do rejoice over the snubbing, and hope [the reviewer] will 

 feel it a little. Whenever you have spare time to write again, 

 tell me whether any astronomers f took your remarks in ill 

 part ; as they now stand they do not seem at all too harsh 

 and presumptuous. Many of your sentences strike me as 

 extremely felicitous and eloquent. That of LyelFs " under- 

 pinning," % is capital. Tell me, was Lyell pleased ? I am so 

 glad that you remembered my old dedication. § Was Wallace 

 pleased ? 



* Sir Joseph Hooker made some 

 reference to the review of ' Animals 

 and Plants ' in the AthencEum of 

 Feb. 15, 1868. 



f In discussing the astronomer's 

 objection to Evolution, namely that 

 our globe has not existed for a long 

 enough period to give time for the 

 assumed transmutation of living be- 

 ings, Hooker challenged Whewell's 

 dictum, that astronomy is the queen 

 of sciences — the only perfect science. 



X After a eulogium on Sir Charles 



Lyell's heroic renunciation of his 

 old views in accepting Evolution, 

 Sir J. D. Hooker continued, " Well 

 may he be proud of a superstructure, 

 raised on the foundations of an in- 

 secure doctrine, when he finds that 

 he can underpin it and substitute 

 a new foundation ; and after all is 

 finished, survey his edifice, not only 

 more secure but more harmonious 

 in its proportion than it was before." 

 § The ' Naturalist's Voyage ' was 

 dedicated to Lyell. 



