1859-1863] DAWSON 209 



preserved. Now, I can fancy you holding up your hands Letter 143 

 and crying out what bosh ! To return to your concluding 

 sentence : far from being surprised, I look at it as absolutely 

 certain that very much in the Origin will be proved 

 rubbish ; but I expect and hope that the framework will 

 stand. 1 



I had hoped to have called on you on Monday evening, 

 but was quite knocked up. I saw Lyell yesterday morning, 

 lie was very curious about your views, and as I had to write 

 to him this morning I could not help telling him a few words 

 on your views. I suppose you are tired of the Origin, and 

 will never read it again ; otherwise I should like you to have 

 the third edition, and would gladly send it rather than you 

 should look at the first or second edition. With cordial thanks 

 for your generous kindness. 



J. D. Hooker to C. Darwin. Letter 144 



Royal Gardens, Kew, Nov. 7th, 1862. 

 I am greatly relieved by your letter this morning about 

 my Arctic essay, for I had been conjuring up some egregious 

 blunder (like the granitic plains of Patagonia). Certes, after 

 what you have told me of Dawson, 2 he will not like the letter 

 1 wrote to him days ago, in which I told him that it was 

 impossible to entertain a strong opinion against the Darwinian 

 hypothesis without its giving rise to a mental twist when 

 viewing matters in which that hypothesis was or might be 

 involved. I told him 1 felt that this was so with me when I 

 opposed you, and that all minds are subject to such obliquities ! 

 —the Lord help me, and this to an LL.D. and Principal of a 

 College ! I proceeded to discuss his Geology with the effrontery 

 of a novice ; and, thank God, I urged the very argument of 

 your letter about evidence of subsidence — viz., not all sub- 

 merged at once, and glacial action being subaerial and not 



1 Falconer, p. 80 : " He [Darwin] has laid the foundations of a great 

 edifice : but he need not be surprised if, in the progress of erection, the 

 superstructure is altered by his successors. . . ." 



3 Sir J. William Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S. (1820-99), was born at Pictou, 

 Nova Scotia, and studied at Edinburgh University in 1841-42. He 



was appointed Principal of the McGill University, Montreal, in 1855, 



a post which he held thirty-eight years. See Fifty Years of Work in 

 Canada, Scientific ami Educational, by Sir William Dawson, 1901. 



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