lxvi MEMOIR. 
Dr. J. D. Hooker to H. W. Bates. 
“Kew, May 13th, 1863. 
‘* My DEAR BATES, 
‘Do not be disconcerted by Gray’s doubts as to your statements : 
it is a way he has got of abusing everybody.* Luckily he overdoes it 
so prodigiously that, oddly enough, he has never made an enemy thereby! I 
never heard him speak well of any human creature, and never knew him to 
do a man a really bad turn; indeed, he is a strange compound. I never 
doubted for a moment your statement, nor have I heard of its being doubted 
except by J. E. Gray, as you tell me. It might at some future time, if the 
report is circulated, be good to draw up a short statement for the Axzals of 
Nat, Hist., but not as a reclamation, and with no allusion to having been 
doubted. A man must lose in some one’s eyes by letting it be known that 
he has been doubted. 
‘‘The amount of novelty is quite what I should have expected. Above 
all things, my dear Bates, I am sure I need not advise you to take all these 
attacks of the museum men with Zerfect good part, and show neither feeling 
nor even dislike to have your statements contradicted as rudely as they like. 
According to my experience there is no other way of meeting and confound- 
zag your opponents. It is extremely difficult to establish a footing in 
London scientific society ; it is all along of the law of the struggle for life! 
You are instinctively regarded as an interloper, and it must be so in the 
nature of things. Do, I entreat you, smile at their sneers, and tell them 
good-humouredly that ‘time will show.’ Your position is now critical ; you 
have published a book far above the méfer of a host of entomologists. 
That they cannot attack; they can attack numerous statements and you 
must allow them their little day. Let them suppose they will carry their 
mole-hill, and do you take to the mountain; in good time they will find you 
have got above them after all. To get employment especially, nothing is so 
essential as a character for never being offended, which, after all, is true 
dignity. 
‘‘But there is no use blinking this fact, that to establish your position 
will take several years of good, hard, unremunerative scientific writing. You 
have no competitors in your line; you have laid an undeniable foundation for 
rising to the top of the tree, but your position is most critical at this moment. 
Singleness of purpose, equanimity, and, above all, a character for good 
humour under (but not indifferent to) all attacks, will raise you socially and 
scientifically to what you should be, and I am sure will be, respected and 
loved by all, and especially by those who now care nothing for you personally, 
and envy your success. Above all things, remember that entomologists are 
a poor set, and it behoves you to remember this in dealing with them. It is 
their misfortune, not their fault; deal then kindly with them and their 
feelings, and they will soon own your superiority. Remember no man can 
afford to have one enemy of /zs own making, and the weaker your collabora- 
teurs are the easier they are made enemies of. 
‘* Ever sincerely yours, 
“Jos. D. HOGEHES 
* Cf. Darwin's Life and Letters, ii., 243. 
