Hooker's own good resolutions of keeping out of the turmoil of life, and
devoting himself to pure science, seems to indicate in its tone
something of the stress of the time when it was written:--]

Jermyn Street, December 19, 1860.

My dear Hooker,

What with one thing and another, I have almost forgotten to answer your
note--and first, as to the business matter...Next as to my own private
affairs, the youngster is "a swelling wisibly," and my wife is getting
on better than I hoped, though not quite so well as I could have wished.
The boy's advent is a great blessing to her in all ways. For myself I
hardly know yet whether it is pleasure or pain. The ground has gone from
under my feet once, and I hardly know how to rest on anything again.
Irrational, you will say, but nevertheless natural. And finally as to
your resolutions, my holy pilgrim, they will be kept about as long as
the resolutions of other anchorites who are thrown into the busy world,
or I won't say that, for assuredly you will take the world "as coolly as
you can," and so shall I. But that coolness amounts to the red heat of
properly constructed mortals.

It is no use having any false modesty about the matter. You and I, if we
last ten years longer, and you by a long while first, will be the
representatives of our respective lines in this country. In that
capacity we shall have certain duties to perform to ourselves, to the
outside world, and to science. We shall have to swallow praise which is
no great pleasure, and to stand multitudinous basting and irritations,
which will involve a good deal of unquestionable pain. Don't flatter
yourself that there is any moral chloroform by which either you or I can