J.D. HOOKER TO CHARLES DARWIN.
Kew, Monday.

Dear Darwin,

You have, I know, been drenched with letters since the publication of your
book, and I have hence forborne to add my mite. I hope now that you are
well through Edition II., and I have heard that you were flourishing in
London. I have not yet got half-through the book, not from want of will,
but of time--for it is the very hardest book to read, to full profits, that
I ever tried--it is so cram-full of matter and reasoning. I am all the
more glad that you have published in this form, for the three volumes,
unprefaced by this, would have choked any Naturalist of the nineteenth
century, and certainly have softened my brain in the operation of
assimilating their contents. I am perfectly tired of marvelling at the
wonderful amount of facts you have brought to bear, and your skill in
marshalling them and throwing them on the enemy; it is also extremely clear
as far as I have gone, but very hard to fully appreciate. Somehow it reads
very different from the MS., and I often fancy I must have been very stupid
not to have more fully followed it in MS. Lyell told me of his criticisms.
I did not appreciate them all, and there are many little matters I hope one
day to talk over with you. I saw a highly flattering notice in the
'English Churchman,' short and not at all entering into discussion, but
praising you and your book, and talking patronizingly of the
doctrine!...Bentham and Henslow will still shake their heads I fancy...

Ever yours affectionately,
JOS. D. HOOKER.