104 DAKWINIAN INTEKESTS 



Darwin replied (August 80) : 



I have seldom been more pleased in my life than at hearing 

 how successfully your lecture went off. Mrs. H. Wedgwood 

 sent us an account, saying that you read capitally and were 

 listened to with profound attention and great applause. She 

 says when your final allegory began ' For a moment or two 

 we were all mystified, and then came such bursts of applause 

 from the audience. It was thoroughly enjoyed amid roars 

 of laughter and noise, making a most brilliant conclusion.' 

 I am rejoiced that you will publish your lecture, and felt sure 

 that sooner or later it would come to this ; indeed it would 

 have been a sin if you had not done so. I am especially 

 rejoiced, as you give the arguments for occasional transport 

 with such perfect fairness ; these will now receive a fair share 

 of attention, as coming from you, a professed Botanist. 



Hooker's response includes a description of the President's 

 address, and the aim it had in view. 



Kew : Tuesday, September 4, 1866. 



Dear old Darwin, — I am very proud of your letter. 

 I thought I might have exaggerated the effect I produced on 

 my audience, and did not like to think too much of it. I do 

 now pray to be another ' single speech Bobinson ' ! I wish 

 you could have heard Huxley's eloge, it pleased me so 

 immensely, and was so much better than all the applause. 

 I had set my head, heart and mind on gaining yours, Grove's, 

 Huxley's, Tyndall's and the Lubbocks' (especially Lady 

 L's !) good opinion, I cared little for other people's. I have 

 not seen Tyndall since, nor heard how he liked it. He came 

 up to me in the forenoon, evidently most anxious for my 

 success, and questioned me about it. When I told him that 

 it was a written discourse and that I intended to read it, 

 his countenance fell and I saw he was cut. He turned away 

 first, but came back and with great delicacy and loving-kind- 

 ness gave me some hints, to learn passages by heart, &c. 

 (I had done this copiously already), and to put myself en 

 rapport with the audience, &c, &c. I saw in short that he 

 prognosticated a dead failure, and I spared no pains that 

 afternoon in preparing myself to succeed in his eyes. I hope 

 I did. 



