NATURE 



481 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 22> 1918. 



SIR JOSEPH HOOKER. 

 Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, 

 O.M., G.C.S.L, Based on Materials Collected 

 and Arranged by Lady Hooker. By Leonard 

 Huxley. Vol. i., pp. x + 546; vol. ii., pp. vi + 

 569. (London : John Murray, 1918.) 2 vols., 

 price 365. net. 



AMONG the books whose claim on our 

 attention is relatively inde|)endent' of acci- 

 dental considerations like timeliness or style, none 

 surpass in interest those that deal with revolutions 

 in human thoug'ht. Among revolutions of this kind 

 none have been more important than the one which 

 led to the replacement of the dogfma of specific 

 immutability by a more satisfying thesis. The 

 doings and sayings of the men whose minds first 

 proved receptive of this vivifying doctrine inspire 

 in scientific circles feelings akin to those induced 

 •elsewhere by hagiologic studies. 



The story of the life of Sir Joseph Dalton 

 Hooker, whom Prof. Bower happily designates 

 the "protagonist of evolution," is on this account 

 a contribution of great moment to the history of a 

 period and a movement already illustrated by those 

 of the lives of Lyell, Huxley, Wallace, and espe- 

 cially of Darwin. It rounds off in many ways in- 

 formation already available with regard to a notable 

 advance in human thought, and supplements the 

 material required for that ordered review of a 

 great scientific achievement much needed by the 

 present generation. "The imperfect conceptions 

 of some of its favourers " are as noticeable to-day 

 as they were to Hooker a generation ago; tliey 

 are only less inimical to a true understanding than 

 were the conceptions of many of its opponents a 

 generation earlier still. There is a distinction 

 between the situation then and the position now. 

 Sixty years ago imperfection of conception was 

 often the result of inability to appreciate what was 

 then a novel doctrine ; to-day this imperfection is 

 largely due to neglect to consult the writings in 

 which that doctrine was promulgated. 



Readers of Nature have already been supplied 

 (December 21, 191 1) with a sketch of the leading 

 features of Hooker's career, and a generation 

 earlier (October 25, 1877) with an appreciation, by 

 a singularly competent judge, of the work already 

 done by Hooker, and of the position he occupied 

 in contemporary opinion at the height of his 

 career. The tale, worthy of recapitulation though 

 it be, it is not necessary to repeat. The story is 

 fully given in two volumes, now published by 

 Mr. Murray, which should be even more interest- 

 ing to readers already acquainted with the leading 

 facts of Hooker's long and active life than to those 

 as yet unfamiliar with the subject. Among 

 Hooker's many gifts was the possession of a pleas- 

 ing style, and those to whom his published works 

 are known will find that this style is as effective 

 in the letters now made available and as happy in 

 his corresponde.nce with the young as in his 

 NO. 2547, VOL. lOl] 



epistles to the mature. All will welcome the in- 

 formed and penetrating estimate by Prof. Bower 

 of the position of Hooker as a philosophical 

 student. The work under notice is of further 

 value as a human document. It is no mere 

 chronicle of what Hooker did and how he did it. 

 Thanks to the labours of Lady Hooker and the 

 craftsmanship of Mr. Huxley, these volumes per- 

 mit the general reader to form some conception 

 of what Hooker was as a man. 



His innate modesty led Hooker to claim for 

 himself but one natural endowment, "le talent de 

 bien faire. " Even to the possession of this spur 

 to sustained effort he did not publicly confess until 

 it fell to him to acknowledge the receipt, in his 

 seventieth year, of the highest honour his scientific 

 fellow-countrymen could bestow. The same sim- 

 plicity marked his expression of the feeling evoked 

 by what he has termed the crowning- honour of his 

 long life, "as inestimable as unexpected," con- 

 ferred upon him, twenty years later, in circum- 

 stances of peculiar dignity, by the Swedish 

 Academy of Sciences. 



No enumeration of the honours of which Hooker 

 was the recipient — no recital of what he accom- 

 plished to merit them all — can explain the esteem 

 and respect in which he was held. The simple 

 nature which led him to regard praise with re- 

 pugnance made it impossible for Hooker to become 

 "popular" in the sense in which that term is 

 usually understood. With him, indeed, the intel- 

 lectual aversion induced a physical reflex. The 

 mere anticipation of the ordeal of appearance in 

 public led in his case to*actual illness, the effects 

 of which sometimes persisted when the ordeal was 

 over. But it was the mental dislike, not the bodily 

 inconvenience, that rendered so rare the participa- 

 tion by Hooker in. great debates. Where inter- 

 vention was plainly necessary Hooker never failed 

 his friends or their cause ; the " talent " the exist- 

 ence of which he admitted explains why such in- 

 tervention, when it did occur, proved so effective. 



We learn from this work how deeply Hooker 

 was indebted to his distinguished father. If not 

 exactly born in the purple, he certainly was made 

 to that purple he Wore so worthily. The develop- 

 ment of his natural aptitudes, the early provision 

 of opportunities for their independent exercise, 

 keen solicitude for his welfare, and Anxious care 

 for his interests — all were matters of paternal con- 

 cern. This regard Hooker repaid by a filial piety 

 as warm at the close of his life as it had been in 

 boyhood, and as it was when he served as his 

 father's tried coadjutor. Reverence for his father's 

 memory and regard for his father's fame gave 

 Hooker inward support during official controversy ; 

 led him to continue, after his own retirement, 

 publications his father had edited ; and prompted 

 him to undertake, at the age of eighty-five, a 

 finished study of his father's achievements. 



The capacity for comradeship and the self- 

 effacing consideration for others which marked this 

 relationship between father and son were natural 

 characteristics. The former was seen in that asso- 

 ciation with T. Thomson, begun at school, which 



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