362 LIFE AT DOWN. .^TAT. 33-45. [1854. 



your own fame. I wish I was in every way more worthy of 

 your good opinion. Farewell. How pleasantly Mrs. Hooker 

 and you must rest from one of your many labours. . . . 



Again farewell : I have written a wonderfully long letter. 

 Adios, and God bless you. 



My dear Hooker, ever yours, 



C. Darwin. 



P.S. — I have just looked over my rambling letter; I see 

 that I have not at all expressed my strong admiration at the 

 amount of scientific work, in so many branches, which you 

 have effected. It is really grand. You have a right to rest 

 on your oars ; or even to say, if it so pleases you, that " your 

 meridian is past ; " but well assured do I feel that the day of 

 your reputation and general recognition has only just begun 

 to dawn* 



[In September, 1854, his Cirripede work was practically 

 finished, and he wrote to Dr. Hooker : 



" I have been frittering away my time for the last several 

 weeks in a wearisome manner, partly idleness, and odds and 

 ends, and sending ten thousand Barnacles out of the house 

 all over the world. But I shall now in a day or two begin to 

 look over my old notes on species. What a deal I shall have 

 to discuss with you ; I shall have to look sharp that I do not 

 'progress' into one of the greatest bores in life, to the few 

 like you with lots of knowledge."] 



