SUBSTITUTE FOR DR. GRAHAM 193 
confidence of all the family under circumstances very trying 
to both parties, was reward in full for me. However, after 
due pondering on the affair and casting up the pros and cons, 
I determined to write and accept it, gratefully, for to accept 
it as if I really did not want money, would have been implying 
a falsehood on my part, and appearing proud to her. After 
all her feelings ought more to be regarded than mine, much 
tried as she has been, poor -thing, and it will be a gratifica- 
tion to her to suppose that she has repaid me in part at 
any rate. 
The matter was set in train ; Robert Brown gave him 
a strong recommendation, and Professor Graham privately 
invited his help for the forthcoming course of lectures, with 
promise of support for the succession to the chair. The invita- 
tion was forwarded to him, for he was then in Paris, on February 
3. It seemed the first and sure step to the professorship. 
' The " Golden Durham " of Botany,' exclaims Lady Hooker 
to her father, ' the object for twenty years of his father's 
aspirations, is now, without Joseph's seeking, apparently 
put within his reach.' It would be very hard work to lectm^e 
for three months in addition to writing at the Antarctic Flora, 
but ' he loves labour,' she adds, ' and can turn off much work, 
and really takes such a pleasure in strenuous exertion, as a 
descendant of yours ought to do ; to say nothing of his dear 
father and of my beloved mother's share in his parentage.' 
The Admiralty letter granting a month's leave of absence for 
travel abroad enjoined him ' not to enter the service of any 
foreign Power : this will not apply, 'tis to be hoped, to the 
service of Professor of Botany in Edinburgh ! ' 
At the advice of his father and Robert Brown, and especially 
of his grandfather, he accepted the proposal, albeit lecturing 
was not to his taste, though he might ' like it better upon trial.' 
He was by no means inclined to become a botanical or any 
other professor, and but for Dawson Turner's advice would 
have declined the Edinburgh chair if it came his way. There 
was more in this reluctance than mere dislike : and he took 
his grandfather into his confidence before resolving to proceed 
and overcome it as best he might. 
