432 PEBSONALIA : 1898-1906 



To F. Darwin 



July 18, 1902. 



I can imagine nothing that would greet my declining 

 years with anything approaching the pleasure of having the 

 letters dedicated to me, and I do heartily thank you and 

 Mr. Seward for thinking of me. I do feel as if it would add 

 years to my life. 



The first page of the book bears these words : 



DEDICATED, WITH AFFECTION AND BESPECT, TO 



SJB JOSEPH HOOKEB 



IN KEMEMBEANCE OF HIS LIFELONG FKIENDSHIP WITH 

 CHARLES DARWIN 



* You will never know how much I owe to you for your constant kindness 

 and encouragement.' Charles Darwin to Sir Joseph Hooker, Sept. 14, 1862. 



The revival of the Darwin interest was intensified by the 

 inauguration of a Darwin statue in the Oxford Museum on 

 June 14, 1899. This, the work of Mr. Hope Pinker, was the 

 gift of Professor Poulton to the University. Hooker attended 

 the ceremony, and spoke, being asked 



to give some little account of that long and intimate friend- 

 ship with which he affectionately honoured me. Of course 

 I can do little more than repeat what I said at Shrewsbury, 

 except you can give me a hint as to any other topic. (To 

 F. Darwin, June 7, 1899.) 



This speech (a report of which appears in The Tims of 

 the following day) he prefaced with an apology for possible 

 distortions of memory, for * Narrators of an advanced age 

 are proverbially oblivious and too often victims of self-decep'ion 

 in respect of what they think they remember.' Beginning 

 with the parallelism of their early careers and their common 

 friendship with Lyell, he told in much fulness the history oi 

 the origin and growth of their friendship, especially in the 

 * inaccessible house ' at Down ; his first sight of the sketch 

 of Darwin's theory ; and his retort to the friends of a later 

 day who asked why he had not shaped all his own researches 

 upon the lines of that illuminating sketch : It was confidential. 



