SOME FRIENDS OF LATER YEARS 297 



doubt that arguments or injunctions equally strong will 

 be urged by them if you attempt to extend your views 

 further than the exhausted Azores, originally scarce 

 worth the notice of a Botanist and now almost entirely 

 transferred to Kew Gardens by the indefatigable Masson. 



" From the complexion of all that has passed of late 

 in the conduct of your friends, I have no doubt that they 

 wish to force you to adopt the advice of Sardanapalus : 

 to eat, drink, and propagate. How you will like to be 

 married and settled in the country, as Joe Miller wish'd 

 the dog had been who flew at him and bit him, I know 

 not ; but that this fate is prepared for you somewhat 

 earlier than the natural period of renouncing an active 

 life is a matter of which I have no doubt. But, pressed as 

 you are, I advise you to submit and sacrifice if you can 

 your wish for travelling to the importunities of those who 

 think they can guide you, to a more serene, quiet, calm, 

 sober mode of slumbering away life, than that you pro- 

 posed for yourself. 



" Let me hear from you how you feel inclined to 

 prefer ease and indulgence to hardship and activity. 

 I was about twenty-three when I began my peregrinations. 

 You are somewhat older ; but you may be assured that 

 if I had listened to a multitude of voices that were raised 

 to dissuade me from my enterprise, I should have been 

 now a quiet country gentleman ignorant of a number of 

 matters I am now acquainted with, and probably have 

 attained to no higher rank in life than that of country 

 Justice of the Peace." 



But there was no permanent ill-humour between these 

 two worthy men. Hooker was but twenty-eight years of 

 age, and the most promising of the younger botanists. 

 He was a regular visitor at Spring Grove, when he was in 

 town ; just the man to attract Banks. Amiable and 

 intelligent, and an athlete over six feet in stature, his 



