SUBSTITUTED FOE DE. GEAHAM 193 



confidence of all the family under circumstances very trying 

 to both parties, was reward in full for me. However, after 

 due pondering on the affair and casting up the pros and cons, 

 I determined to write and accept it, gratefully, for to accept 

 it as if I really did not want money, would have been implying 

 a falsehood on my part, and appearing proud to her. After 

 all her feelings ought more to be regarded than mine, much 

 tried as she has been, poor thing, and it will be a gratifica- 

 tion to her to suppose that she has repaid me in part at 

 any rate. 



The matter was set in train ; Eobert Brown gave him 

 a strong recommendation, and Professor Graham privately 

 invited his help for the forthcoming course of lectures, with 

 promise of support for the succession to the chair. The invita- 

 tion was forwarded to him, for he was then in Paris, on February 

 3. It seemed the first and sure step to the professorship. 

 ' The " Golden Durham " of Botany,' exclaims Lady Hooker 

 to her father, ' the object for twenty years of his father's 

 aspirations, is now, without Joseph's seeking, apparently 

 put within his reach.' It would be very hard work to lecture 

 for three months in addition to writing at the Antarctic Flora, 

 but * he loves labour,' she adds, ' and can turn off much work, 

 and really takes such a pleasure in strenuous exertion, as a 

 descendant of yours ought to do ; to say nothing of his dear 

 father and of my beloved mother's share in his parentage.' 

 The Admiralty letter granting a month's leave of absence for 

 travel abroad enjoined him ' not to enter the service of any 

 foreign Power : this will not apply, 'tis to be hoped, to the 

 service of Professor of Botany in Edinburgh ! ' 



At the advice of his father and Eobert Brown, and especially 

 of his grandfather, he accepted the proposal, albeit lecturing 

 was not to his taste, though he might 'like it better upon trial.' 

 He was by no means inclined to become a botanical or any 

 other professor, and but for Dawson Turner's advice would 

 have declined the Edinburgh chair if it came his way. There 

 was more in this reluctance than mere dislike : and he took 

 his grandfather into his confidence before resolving to proceed 

 and overcome it as best he might. 



