i860.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 323 



rooms of the hospitable and genial Professor of Botany, Dr. 

 Daubeny, where the almost sole topic was the battle of the 

 ' Origin,' and I was much struck with the fair and unpre- 

 judiced way in which the black coats and white cravats of 

 Oxford discussed the question, and the frankness with which 

 they offered their congratulations to the winners in the 

 combat."] 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Sudbrook Park, Monday night 



[July 2nd, 1860]. 



MY DEAR HOOKER, I have just received your letter. I 

 have been very poorly, with almost continuous bad headache 

 for forty-eight hours, and I was low enough, and thinking 

 what a useless burthen I was to myself and all others, when 

 your letter came, and it has so cheered me; your kindness 

 and affection brought tears into my eyes. Talk of fame, 

 honour, pleasure, wealth, all are dirt compared with affection ; 

 and this is a doctrine with which, I know, from your letter, 

 that you will agree with from the bottom of your heart. 

 . . . How I should have liked to have wandered about 

 Oxford with you, if I had been well enough ; and how still 

 more I should have liked to have heard you triumphing 

 over the Bishop. I am astonished at your success and 

 audacity. It is something unintelligible to me how any one 

 can argue in public like orators do. I had no idea you had 

 this power. I have read lately so many hostile views, that I 

 was beginning to think that perhaps I was wholly in the 



wrong, and that was right when he said the whole subject 



would be forgotten in ten years ; but now that I hear that you 

 and Huxley will fight publicly (which I am sure I never 

 could do), I fully believe that our cause will, in the long- 

 run, prevail. I am glad I was not in Oxford, for I should 

 have been overwhelmed, with my [health] in its present state. 



Y 2 



