Volume I Part 30 (2/2)

1853]

My dear Fox,

Here we are in a state of profound idleness, which to me is a luxury; and we should all, I believe, have been in a state of high enjoyales and ives much ennui to children away from their ho like a slave with Mr Sowerby at drawing forit till when I knew I should be at leisure I was extreet your letter I had intended a couple ofjobation to kno you were, when I erton, who told me you ell, and, as usual, expressed his ad, and the nu children, which you kept on your land Eleven children, ave Maria! it is a serious look-out for you Indeed, I look at hts of professions, etc If one could insure nify so ration, professions will sobear is hereditary weakness I particularly like to hear all that you can say about education, and you deserve to be scolded for saying ”you did not by

I like it very well, on the sahbour, Sir J

Lubbock, likes Eton, viz, that it is not worse than any other school; the expense, WITH ALL ETC, ETC, including so expenses, etc, is from 110 pounds to 120 pounds per annum I do not think schools are so wicked as they were, and far more industrious The boys, I think, live too secluded in their separate studies; and I doubt whether they will get so e of character as boys used to do; and this, in ood of public schools over small schools I should think the only superiority of a sularity in their work, which your boys perhaps get at your hoet atboys so early in life from their home

To return to schools My main objection to them, as places of education, is the enorh perhaps it is only fancy) that I can perceive the ill and contracting effect onin which reasoning and observation come into play Mere memory seems to be worked I shall certainly look out for soer boys I was talking lately to the Dean of Hereford, who takes ly this view; and he tellson this plan; and that Dr Kennedy at Shrewsbury is going to begin vigorously to lad to hear that you approved of my cirripedial volume

I have spent an almost ridiculous amount of labour on the subject, and certainly would never have undertaken it had I foreseen what a job it was I hope to have finished by the end of the year Do write again before a very long time; it is a real pleasure to me to hear from you

Farewell, with my wife's kindest remembrances to yourself and Mrs Fox

My dear old friend, yours affectionately, C DARWIN

CHARLES DARWIN TO WD FOX Down, August 10th [1853]

My dear Fox,

I thank you sincerely for writing to me so soon after your most heavy misfortune Your letter affected me so much We both most truly sympathise with you and Mrs Fox We too lost, as you o, a most dear child, of whom I can hardly yet bear to think tranquilly; yet, as you must know from your own most painful experience, time softens and deadens, in a rets At first it is indeed bitter I can only hope that your health and that of poor Mrs Fox may be preserved, and that tiain, as the happy family, which, as I can well believe, you so lately formed

My dear Fox, your affectionate friend, CHARLES DARWIN

[The following letter refers to the Royal Society's Medal, which arded to him in November, 1853:]

CHARLES DARWIN TO JD HOOKER Down, Novest , I opened first one from Colonel Sabine; the contents certainly surprised h the letter was a VERY KIND ONE, somehow, I cared very little indeed for the announcement it contained I then opened yours, and such is the effect of warmth, friendshi+p, and kindness from one that is loved, that the very saloith pleasure till et the pleasure of your letter Such hearty, affectionate sympathy is worth more than all the ain, my dear Hooker, I thank you I hope Lindley (John Lindley, 1799-1865, was the son of a nurseryh whose failure in business he was thrown at the age of twenty on his own resources He was befriended by Sir W Hooker, and employed as assistant librarian by Sir J Banks He seems to have had enormous capacity of work, and is said to have translated Richard's 'analyse du Fruit' at one sitting of two days and three nights He became assistant-Secretary to the Horticultural Society, and in 1829 was appointed Professor of Botany at University College, a post which he held for upwards of thirty years

His writings are nudo to introduce the natural systeht ”all the weight of his teaching and all the force of his controversial powers to support it,” as against the Linnean systeht in the earlier part of his career Sachs points out (Geschichte der Botanik, 1875, page 161), that though Lindley adopted in the main a sound classification of plants, he only did so by abandoning his own theoretical principle that the physiological ian is a measure of its classificatory value) will never hear that he was a coainst me; for really it is almost RIDICULOUS (of course you would never repeat that I said this, for it would be thought by others, though not, I believe, by you, to be affectation) his not having the ht to propose hiood, dear, kind fellow you are, nevertheless, to rejoice in this honour being bestowed on me

What PLEASURE I have felt on the occasion, I owe almost entirely to you

Farewell, my dear Hooker, yours affectionately, C DARWIN

PS--You may believe what a surprise it was, for I had never heard that the iven except for papers in the 'Transactions' All this willthe second volume

CHARLES DARWIN TO C LYELL Down, February 18th [1854]

My dear Lyell,

I should have written before, had it not seeo on to Teneriffe, but now I aress is certain; not that I have much of any sort to say, as you may well believe when you hear that I have only once been in London since you started I was particularly glad to see, two days since, your letter to Mr Horner, with its geological news; how fortunate for you that your knees are recovered I ah I had fancied it great It reallyup and down those steep valleys And what a pleasant party on your return froht which I felt when exa volcanic islands, and I can remember even particular rocks which I struck, and the smell of the hot, black, scoriaceous cliffs; but of those HOT smells you do not seem to have had much I do quite envy you How I should like to be with you, and speculate on the deep and narrow valleys

How very singular the fact is which you reater round the circumference than in the middle of the island; do you suppose the elevation has had the for OFTEN struck with the greater abruptness of the strata in the LOW EXTREME outerreat ht ofexactly the width of any dikes at the top and bottoreat cliff (which was done by Mr Searle [?] at St Helena), for it has often struck me as VERY ODD that the cracks did not die out OFTENER upwards I can think of hardly any news to tell you, as I have seen no one since being in London, when I was delighted to see Forbes looking so well, quite big and burly I saw at the Museuold ore from North Wales Raood deal of New Red Sandstone into Perether with the Labyrinthodon No doubt you see newspapers, and know that E de Beaumont is perpetual Secretary, and will, I suppose, be o's place in the Observatory There was a ical Society, at which Prestwich (judging froht forward your exact theory, viz that the whole red clay and flints over the chalk plateau hereabouts is the residuuards ourselves, we have no news, and are all well The Hookers, soht with us, and, to our extreht, Henslow came down, and was ood to see so composed, benevolent, and intellectual a countenance