THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOVEKNMENT 45 



are, and if we had yours ditto ditto. I suppose that amongst 

 civilized peoples not engaged in warfares that distract their 

 attention from home affairs, the Government is pretty much 

 what the masses like — a part of themselves in fact — and I do 

 not believe in any abstract good or bad form of Government. 

 If we like an Aristocratic Govt., it is because we like that 

 form of the haphazard that settles the Govt, on birth. 

 You, on the contrary, like the haphazard of public election, 

 which is not the same thing as public voice, still less as public 

 opinion. What is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the 

 gander. The Celt wants, and should have, a totally different 

 form of Government from the Saxon, and if there was any 

 object in keeping up the Celt, then our Govt, should provide 

 a branch legislature suited to his (damnable) idiosyncrasies. 



I am utterly sick of the political nostrums prevalent on 

 both sides the Atlantic, and the everlasting peevishness 

 that springs out of our and the others' supposing that the 

 evils of our respective countries are due to the form of Govern- 

 ment that we severally enjoy — endure, I mean; Go to — I 

 am cynical. 



Have you read Darwin's last book, and what do you say 

 to Pangenesis ? I have gone deeply into the whole Philosophy 

 of the Subject — there then — 



Apart from the heavy scientific labours of this period the 

 last five years of the Assistant Directorship at Kew were a 

 time of pressure growing more and more intense. Not only 

 did the expansion and reorganisation of the Gardens increase 

 Hooker's own share of administrative work, but the gradual 

 failing of Sir William's power of application and prompt 

 decision threw yet more upon his shoulders- As he tells 

 Darwin (May 26, 1865) : 



My dear old Father piles duty on duty, and will neither 

 give in nor give up. I do admire his gallantry, and I do not 

 want to see him give up, but things do get into dreadful con- 

 fusion, and I shall have a heavy day of reckoning. 



In addition the death of his trusty Herbarium Clerk was 

 a serious loss. Meantime the departure of the Curator of 

 Pleasure Grounds gave an opportunity which he wished to 

 employ — 



