Darwin-Hooker Letters : Letter from J. D. Hooker to C. R. Darwin   [14 December 1862]

Hooker, Joseph Dalton

Darwin-Hooker Letters

<p style='text-align: justify;'>On Asa Gray’s letter; has written why he avoids alluding to the war.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Has read Max Müller [see <em class="doubleUnderline">3752</em>] – last part unphilosophical.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>On CD’s pigeon example, long-beaked and short-beaked pigeons <i>must</i> be either sterile or not <i>inter se</i>. There is "no such thing as Equality – hence no such thing as chance and Nat. Sel. is the sword of Damocles hanging over your head if you make a slip in your premisses."</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Has read note on <i>Lythrum</i> sent several weeks ago. Its consequences are of most prolific order to CD’s doctrine.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Kew has no wild gooseberries.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>JDH praises the <i>Saturday Review</i> reply [14 (1862): 589] to the Duke of Argyll’s bitter review of <i>Orchids</i> ["The supernatural", <i>Edinburgh Rev.</i> 116 (1862): 378–97].</p>