162 THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE : PERSONAL 
would be inherited by some one who could make a good use 
of them. 
Plans for the future are first outlined in a letter of February 
3, 1840, written from St. Helena. 
One of your last questions to me on leaving Chatham 
was : * What do you think of doing on your retm'n ? ' 
To this, if I remember right, I gave an indirect answer from 
not knowing the service 1 was bound for. As I know, from 
your aifection to me, you would like a good reply, now that 
I can form an opinion, I shall give it honestly. The Naval 
Service generally is very bad for a Naturalist ; the par- 
ticular branch, however, in which I serve, is very good. 
Though there is not such a scope for the Botanist as I could 
desire, there is a splendid opportunity of improving myself 
as a general Naturalist. I am very fond of the lower orders, 
though farther than studying them here, and perhaps aiding 
in their future publication, I never intend to follow them 
up nor any other branch but botany. 
Gaiety of any kind has still less charms than ever for 
me. Even at sea, I am quite happy drawing Mollusca in 
the Captain's cabin, and I only wish that 1 had more books 
and were drawing plants. If ever on my retm-n I am enabled 
to follow up botany ashore, I shall live the life of a hermit, 
as far as society is concerned ; like Brown perhaps, with- 
out his genius. 1 If I have to serve again on board ship, it 
will be in a service like this, congenial to my taste and 
pursuits, and not in the regular King's Service. The sea 
agrees with me, and I am very happy on it, as long as I can 
work. I am never sick, nor have been so since leaving 
Chatham. This hot weather is my only and bitter enemy, 
and from it I suffer very much, in several ways. 
What I said of my hfe and prospects, my dear father, 
is, of course, strictly private. I am quite happy where I 
1 To this comparison his father replied : ' I am neither surprized nor sorry 
that you have no taste for the gaieties of life ; but neither do I wish you to 
turn " hermit." If you are no more of a hermit than Brown, indeed, I shall 
not complain. That is, whether you know it or not, he is really fond of Society 
and calculated to shine in it : and to my certain knowledge, never so happy as 
when he is in it. But he has unfortunately sceptical notions on religion, which 
often make life itself a burden to him : and which bring him no comfort in the 
prospect of eternity. I really wish that he wore now in this house that he 
might see what is the death-bed of a Christian ' (the elder Hooker). 
