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		<title>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin - Day 119 of 188</title>
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Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker.
Down, November 5th [1853].

My dear Hooker,

Amongst my letters received this morning, I opened first one from Colonel
Sabine; the contents certainly surprised me very much, but, though 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 [...]]]></description>
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<h5>Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker.</h5>
<p>Down, November 5th [1853].</p>

<p>My dear Hooker,</p>

<p>Amongst my letters received this morning, I opened first one from Colonel
Sabine; the contents certainly surprised me very much, but, though the
letter was a <em>very kind one</em>, somehow, I cared very little indeed for the
announcement it contained.  I then opened yours, and such is the effect of
warmth, friendship, and kindness from one that is loved, that the very same
fact, told as you told it, made me glow with pleasure till my very heart
throbbed.  Believe me, I shall not soon forget the pleasure of your letter. 
Such hearty, affectionate sympathy is worth more than all the medals that
ever were or will be coined.  Again, my dear Hooker, I thank you.  I hope
Lindley (John Lindley, 1799-1865, was the son of a nurseryman near Norwich,
through 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&#8217;s &#8216;Analyse du
Fruit&#8217; 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 numerous:  the best known being perhaps his
&#8216;Vegetable Kingdom,&#8217; published in 1846.  His influence in helping to
introduce the natural system of classification was considerable, and he
brought &#8220;all the weight of his teaching and all the force of his
controversial powers to support it,&#8221; as against the Linnean system
universally taught 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 importance of an organ is
a measure of its classificatory value.) will never hear that he was a
competitor against me; for really it is almost <em>ridiculous</em> (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 medal
long before me; I must feel <em>sure</em> that you did quite right to propose him;
and what a good, dear, kind fellow you are, nevertheless, to rejoice in
this honour being bestowed on me.</p>

<p>What <em>pleasure</em> I have felt on the occasion, I owe almost entirely to you.</p>

<p>Farewell, my dear Hooker, yours affectionately,<br />
C. Darwin.</p>

<p>P.S.&#8211;You may believe what a surprise it was, for I had never heard that
the medals could be given except for papers in the &#8216;Transactions.&#8217;  All
this will make me work with better heart at finishing the second volume.</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to C. Lyell.</h5>
<p>Down, February 18th [1854].</p>

<p>My dear Lyell,</p>

<p>I should have written before, had it not seemed doubtful whether you would
go on to Teneriffe, but now I am extremely glad to hear your further
progress 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 am astonished at what you say of the beauty, though I had
fancied it great.  It really makes me quite envious to think of your
clambering up and down those steep valleys.  And what a pleasant party on
your return from your expeditions.  I often think of the delight which I
felt when examining volcanic islands, and I can remember even particular
rocks which I struck, and the smell of the hot, black, scoriaceous cliffs;
but of those <em>hot</em> 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.</p>

<p>How very singular the fact is which you mention about the inclination of
the strata being greater round the circumference than in the middle of the
island; do you suppose the elevation has had the form of a flat dome?  I
remember in the Cordillera being <em>often</em> struck with the greater abruptness
of the strata in the <em>low extreme</em> outermost ranges, compared with the great
mass of inner mountains.  I dare say you will have thought of measuring
exactly the width of any dikes at the top and bottom of any great cliff
(which was done by Mr. Searle [?] at St. Helena), for it has often struck
me as <em>very odd</em> that the cracks did not die out <em>oftener</em> 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 Museum some of the surprisingly rich gold ore from
North Wales.  Ramsay also told me that he has lately turned a good deal of
New Red Sandstone into Permian, together with the Labyrinthodon.  No doubt
you see newspapers, and know that E. de Beaumont is perpetual Secretary,
and will, I suppose, be more powerful than ever; and Le Verrier has Arago&#8217;s
place in the Observatory.  There was a meeting lately at the Geological
Society, at which Prestwich (judging from what R. Jones told me) brought
forward your exact theory, viz. that the whole red clay and flints over the
chalk plateau hereabouts is the residuum from the slow dissolution of the
chalk!</p>

<p>As regards ourselves, we have no news, and are all well.  The Hookers,
sometime ago, stayed a fortnight with us, and, to our extreme delight,
Henslow came down, and was most quiet and comfortable here.  It does one
good to see so composed, benevolent, and intellectual a countenance.  There
have been great fears that his heart is affected; but, I hope to God,
without foundation.  Hooker&#8217;s book (Sir J. Hooker&#8217;s &#8216;Himalayan Journal.&#8217;)
is out, and <em>most beautifully</em> got up.  He has honoured me beyond measure by
dedicating it to me!  As for myself, I am got to the page 112 of the
Barnacles, and that is the sum total of my history.  By-the-way, as you
care so much about North America, I may mention that I had a long letter
from a shipmate in Australia, who says the Colony is getting decidedly
republican from the influx of Americans, and that all the great and novel
schemes for working the gold are planned and executed by these men.  What a
go-a-head nation it is!  Give my kindest remembrances to Lady Lyell, and to
Mrs. Bunbury, and to Bunbury.  I most heartily wish that the Canaries may
be ten times as interesting as Madeira, and that everything may go on most
prosperously with your whole party.</p>

<p>My dear Lyell,<br />
Yours most truly and affectionately,<br />
C. Darwin.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin - Day 118 of 188</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:54:52 +0000</pubDate>
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Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.
Down, January 29th [1853].

My dear Fox,

Your last account some months ago was so little satisfactory that I have
often been thinking of you, and should be really obliged if you would give
me a few lines, and tell me how your voice and chest are.  I most sincerely
hope that your report will [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[

<h5>Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.</h5>
<p>Down, January 29th [1853].</p>

<p>My dear Fox,</p>

<p>Your last account some months ago was so little satisfactory that I have
often been thinking of you, and should be really obliged if you would give
me a few lines, and tell me how your voice and chest are.  I most sincerely
hope that your report will be good&#8230;Our second lad has a strong mechanical
turn, and we think of making him an engineer.  I shall try and find out for
him some less classical school, perhaps Bruce Castle.  I certainly should
like to see more diversity in education than there is in any ordinary
school&#8211;no exercising of the observing or reasoning faculties, no general
knowledge acquired&#8211;I must think it a wretched system.  On the other hand,
a boy who has learnt to stick at Latin and conquer its difficulties, ought
to be able to stick at any labour.  I should always be glad to hear
anything about schools or education from you.  I am at my old, never-ending
subject, but trust I shall really go to press in a few months with my
second volume on Cirripedes.  I have been much pleased by finding some odd
facts in my first volume believed by Owen and a few others, whose good
opinion I regard as final&#8230;Do write pretty soon, and tell me all you can
about yourself and family; and I trust your report of yourself may be much
better than your last.</p>

<p>&#8230;I have been very little in London of late, and have not seen Lyell since
his return from America; how lucky he was to exhume with his own hand parts
of three skeletons of reptiles out of the <em>Carboniferous</em> strata, and out of
the inside of a fossil tree, which had been hollow within.</p>

<p>Farewell, my dear Fox, yours affectionately,<br />
Charles Darwin.</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.</h5>
<p>13 Sea Houses, Eastbourne,<br />
[July 15th? 1853].</p>

<p>My dear Fox,</p>

<p>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 enjoyment, had it
not been for the detestable cold gales and much rain, which always gives
much ennui to children away from their homes.  I received your letter of
13th June, when working like a slave with Mr. Sowerby at drawing for my
second volume, and so put off answering it till when I knew I should be at
leisure.  I was extremely glad to get your letter.  I had intended a couple
of months ago sending you a savage or supplicating jobation to know how you
were, when I met Sir P. Egerton, who told me you were well, and, as usual,
expressed his admiration of your doings, especially your farming, and the
number of animals, including children, which you kept on your land.  Eleven
children, ave Maria! it is a serious look-out for you.  Indeed, I look at
my five boys as something awful, and hate the very thoughts of professions,
etc.  If one could insure moderate health for them it would not signify so
much, for I cannot but hope, with the enormous emigration, professions will
somewhat improve.  But my bugbear is hereditary weakness.  I particularly
like to hear all that you can say about education, and you deserve to be
scolded for saying &#8220;you did not mean to <em>torment</em> me with a long yarn.&#8221;  You
ask about Rugby.  I like it very well, on the same principle as my
neighbour, Sir J. Lubbock, likes Eton, viz., that it is not worse than any
other school; the expense, <em>with all etc., etc.</em>, including some clothes,
travelling 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 much knowledge of character as boys used to do;
and this, in my opinion, is the <em>one</em> good of public schools over small
schools.  I should think the only superiority of a small school over home
was forced regularity in their work, which your boys perhaps get at your
home, but which I do not believe my boys would get at my home.  Otherwise,
it is quite lamentable sending boys so early in life from their home.</p>

<p>&#8230;To return to schools.  My main objection to them, as places of
education, is the enormous proportion of time spent over classics.  I fancy
(though perhaps it is only fancy) that I can perceive the ill and
contracting effect on my eldest boy&#8217;s mind, in checking interest in
anything in which reasoning and observation come into play.  Mere memory
seems to be worked.  I shall certainly look out for some school with more
diversified studies for my younger boys.  I was talking lately to the Dean
of Hereford, who takes most strongly this view; and he tells me that there
is a school at Hereford commencing on this plan; and that Dr. Kennedy at
Shrewsbury is going to begin vigorously to modify that school&#8230;</p>

<p>I am <em>extremely</em> glad 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&#8217;s kindest remembrances to yourself and Mrs. Fox.</p>

<p>My dear old friend, yours affectionately,<br />
C. Darwin.</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.</h5>
<p>Down, August 10th [1853].</p>

<p>My dear Fox,</p>

<p>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 may remember, not so
very long ago, 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 manner truly wonderful, one&#8217;s feelings and
regrets.  At first it is indeed bitter.  I can only hope that your health
and that of poor Mrs. Fox may be preserved, and that time may do its work
softly, and bring you all together, once again, as the happy family, which,
as I can well believe, you so lately formed.</p>

<p>My dear Fox, your affectionate friend,<br />
Charles Darwin.</p>

<p>[The following letter refers to the Royal Society's Medal, which was
awarded to him in November, 1853:]</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin - Day 117 of 188</title>
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		<description><![CDATA[

Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.
Down, March 7th [1852].

My dear Fox,

It is indeed an age since we have had any communication, and very glad I
was to receive your note.  Our long silence occurred to me a few weeks
since, and I had then thought of writing, but was idle.  I congratulate and
condole with you on [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[

<h5>Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.</h5>
<p>Down, March 7th [1852].</p>

<p>My dear Fox,</p>

<p>It is indeed an age since we have had any communication, and very glad I
was to receive your note.  Our long silence occurred to me a few weeks
since, and I had then thought of writing, but was idle.  I congratulate and
condole with you on your <em>tenth</em> child; but please to observe when I have a
tenth, send only condolences to me.  We have now seven children, all well,
thank God, as well as their mother; of these seven, five are boys; and my
father used to say that it was certain that a boy gave as much trouble as
three girls; so that bona fide we have seventeen children.  It makes me
sick whenever I think of professions; all seem hopelessly bad, and as yet I
cannot see a ray of light.  I should very much like to talk over this (by
the way, my three bugbears are Californian and Australian gold, beggaring
me by making my money on mortgage worth nothing; the French coming by the
Westerham and Sevenoaks roads, and therefore enclosing Down; and thirdly,
professions for my boys), and I should like to talk about education, on
which you ask me what we are doing.  No one can more truly despise the old
stereotyped stupid classical education than I do; but yet I have not had
courage to break through the trammels.  After many doubts we have just sent
our eldest boy to Rugby, where for his age he has been very well placed&#8230;I
honour, admire, and envy you for educating your boys at home.  What on
earth shall you do with your boys?  Towards the end of this month we go to
see W. at Rugby, and thence for five or six days to Susan (His sister.) at
Shrewsbury; I then return home to look after the babies, and E. goes to F.
Wedgwood&#8217;s of Etruria for a week.  Very many thanks for your most kind and
large invitation to Delamere, but I fear we can hardly compass it.  I dread
going anywhere, on account of my stomach so easily failing under any
excitement.  I rarely even now go to London; not that I am at all worse,
perhaps rather better, and lead a very comfortable life with my three hours
of daily work, but it is the life of a hermit.  My nights are <em>always</em> bad,
and that stops my becoming vigorous.  You ask about water-cure.  I take at
intervals of two or three months, five or six weeks of <em>moderately</em> severe
treatment, and always with good effect.  Do you come here, I pray and beg
whenever you can find time; you cannot tell how much pleasure it would give
me and E.  I have finished the 1st volume for the Ray Society of
Pedunculated Cirripedes, which, as I think you are a member, you will soon
get.  Read what I describe on the sexes of Ibla and Scalpellum.  I am now
at work on the Sessile Cirripedes, and am wonderfully tired of my job:  a
man to be a systematic naturalist ought to work at least eight hours per
day.  You saw through me, when you said that I must have wished to have
seen the effects of the [word illegible] Debacle, for I was saying a week
ago to E., that had I been as I was in old days, I would have been
certainly off that hour.  You ask after Erasmus; he is much as usual, and
constantly more or less unwell.  Susan (His sister.) is much better, and
very flourishing and happy.  Catherine (Another sister.) is at Rome, and
has enjoyed it in a degree that is quite astonishing to my dry old bones. 
And now I think I have told you enough, and more than enough about the
house of Darwin; so my dear old friend, farewell.  What pleasant times we
had in drinking coffee in your rooms at Christ&#8217;s College, and think of the
glories of Crux major.  (The beetle Panagaeus crux-major.)  Ah, in those
days there were no professions for sons, no ill-health to fear for them, no
Californian gold, no French invasions.  How paramount the future is to the
present when one is surrounded by children.  My dread is hereditary ill-health.  Even death is better for them.</p>

<p>My dear Fox, your sincere friend,<br />
C. Darwin.</p>

<p>P.S.&#8211;Susan has lately been working in a way which I think truly heroic
about the scandalous violation of the Act against children climbing
chimneys.  We have set up a little Society in Shrewsbury to prosecute those
who break the law.  It is all Susan&#8217;s doing.  She has had very nice letters
from Lord Shaftesbury and the Duke of Sutherland, but the brutal Shropshire
squires are as hard as stones to move.  The Act out of London seems most
commonly violated.  It makes one shudder to fancy one of one&#8217;s own children
at seven years old being forced up a chimney&#8211;to say nothing of the
consequent loathsome disease and ulcerated limbs, and utter moral
degradation.  If you think strongly on this subject, do make some
inquiries; add to your many good works, this other one, and try to stir up
the magistrates.  There are several people making a stir in different parts
of England on this subject.  It is not very likely that you would wish for
such, but I could send you some essays and information if you so liked,
either for yourself or to give away.</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.</h5>
<p>Down [October 24th, 1852].</p>

<p>My dear Fox,</p>

<p>I received your long and most welcome letter this morning, and will answer
it this evening, as I shall be very busy with an artist, drawing
Cirripedia, and much overworked for the next fortnight.  But first you
deserve to be well abused&#8211;and pray consider yourself well abused&#8211;for
thinking or writing that I could for one minute be bored by any amount of
detail about yourself and belongings.  It is just what I like hearing;
believe me that I often think of old days spent with you, and sometimes can
hardly believe what a jolly careless individual one was in those old days. 
A bright autumn evening often brings to mind some shooting excursion from
Osmaston.  I do indeed regret that we live so far off each other, and that
I am so little locomotive.  I have been unusually well of late (no water-cure), but I do not find that I can stand any change better than
formerly&#8230;The other day I went to London and back, and the fatigue, though
so trifling, brought on my bad form of vomiting.  I grieve to hear that
your chest has been ailing, and most sincerely do I hope that it is only
the muscles; how frequently the voice fails with the clergy.  I can well
understand your reluctance to break up your large and happy party and go
abroad; but your life is very valuable, so you ought to be very cautious in
good time.  You ask about all of us, now five boys (oh! the professions;
oh! the gold; and oh! the French&#8211;these three oh&#8217;s all rank as dreadful
bugbears) and two girls&#8230;but another and the worst of my bugbears is
hereditary weakness.  All my sisters are well except Mrs. Parker, who is
much out of health; and so is Erasmus at his poor average:  he has lately
moved into Queen Anne Street.  I had heard of the intended marriage (To the
Rev. J. Hughes.) of your sister Frances.  I believe I have seen her since,
but my memory takes me back some twenty-five years, when she was lying
down.  I remember well the delightful expression of her countenance.  I
most sincerely wish her all happiness.</p>

<p>I see I have not answered half your queries.  We like very well all that we
have seen and heard of Rugby, and have never repented of sending [W.]
there.  I feel sure schools have greatly improved since our days; but I
hate schools and the whole system of breaking through the affections of the
family by separating the boys so early in life; but I see no help, and dare
not run the risk of a youth being exposed to the temptations of the world
without having undergone the milder ordeal of a great school.</p>

<p>I see you even ask after our pears.  We have lots of Beurrees d&#8217;Aremberg,
Winter Nelis, Marie Louise, and &#8220;Ne plus Ultra,&#8221; but all off the wall; the
standard dwarfs have borne a few, but I have no room for more trees, so
their names would be useless to me.  You really must make a holiday and pay
us a visit sometime; nowhere could you be more heartily welcome.  I am at
work at the second volume of the Cirripedia, of which creatures I am
wonderfully tired.  I hate a Barnacle as no man ever did before, not even a
sailor in a slow-sailing ship.  My first volume is out; the only part worth
looking at is on the sexes of Ibla and Scalpellum.  I hope by next summer
to have done with my tedious work.  Farewell,&#8211;do come whenever you can
possibly manage it.</p>

<p>I cannot but hope that the carbuncle may possibly do you good:  I have
heard of all sorts of weaknesses disappearing after a carbuncle.  I suppose
the pain is dreadful.  I agree most entirely, what a blessed discovery is
chloroform.  When one thinks of one&#8217;s children, it makes quite a little
difference in one&#8217;s happiness.  The other day I had five grinders (two by
the elevator) out at a sitting under this wonderful substance, and felt
hardly anything.</p>

<p>My dear old friend, yours very affectionately,<br />
Charles Darwin.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin - Day 116 of 188</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:54:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TurtleReader</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Charles Darwin]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[

Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker.
Down, October 12th, 1849.

&#8230;By the way, one of the pleasantest parts of the British Association was
my journey down to Birmingham with Mrs. Sabine, Mrs. Reeve, and the
Colonel; also Col. Sykes and Porter.  Mrs. Sabine and myself agreed
wonderfully on many points, and in none more sincerely than about you.  We
spoke [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[

<h5>Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker.</h5>
<p>Down, October 12th, 1849.</p>

<p>&#8230;By the way, one of the pleasantest parts of the British Association was
my journey down to Birmingham with Mrs. Sabine, Mrs. Reeve, and the
Colonel; also Col. Sykes and Porter.  Mrs. Sabine and myself agreed
wonderfully on many points, and in none more sincerely than about you.  We
spoke about your letters from the Erebus; and she quite agreed with me,
that you and the <em>author</em> (Sir J. Hooker wrote the spirited description of
cattle hunting in Sir J. Ross&#8217;s &#8216;Voyage of Discovery in the Southern
Regions,&#8217; 1847, vol. ii., page 245.), of the description of the cattle
hunting in the Falklands, would have made a capital book together!  A very
nice woman she is, and so is her sharp and sagacious mother&#8230;Birmingham
was very flat compared to Oxford, though I had my wife with me.  We saw a
good deal of the Lyells and Horners and Robinsons (the President); but the
place was dismal, and I was prevented, by being unwell, from going to
Warwick, though that, i.e., the party, by all accounts, was wonderfully
inferior to Blenheim, not to say anything of that heavenly day at Dropmore. 
One gets weary of all the spouting&#8230;</p>

<p>You ask about my cold-water cure; I am going on very well, and am certainly
a little better every month, my nights mend much slower than my days.  I
have built a douche, and am to go on through all the winter, frost or no
frost.  My treatment now is lamp five times per week, and shallow bath for
five minutes afterwards; douche daily for five minutes, and dripping sheet
daily.  The treatment is wonderfully tonic, and I have had more better
consecutive days this month than on any previous ones&#8230;I am allowed to
work now two and a half hours daily, and I find it as much as I can do, for
the cold-water cure, together with three short walks, is curiously
exhausting; and I am actually <em>forced</em> to go to bed at eight o&#8217;clock
completely tired.  I steadily gain in weight, and eat immensely, and am
never oppressed with my food.  I have lost the involuntary twitching of the
muscle, and all the fainting feelings, etc&#8211;black spots before eyes, etc. 
Dr. Gully thinks he shall quite cure me in six or nine months more.</p>

<p>The greatest bore, which I find in the water-cure, is the having been
compelled to give up all reading, except the newspapers; for my daily two
and a half hours at the Barnacles is fully as much as I can do of anything
which occupies the mind; I am consequently terribly behind in all
scientific books.  I have of late been at work at mere species describing,
which is much more difficult than I expected, and has much the same sort of
interest as a puzzle has; but I confess I often feel wearied with the work,
and cannot help sometimes asking myself what is the good of spending a week
or fortnight in ascertaining that certain just perceptible differences
blend together and constitute varieties and not species.  As long as I am
on anatomy I never feel myself in that disgusting, horrid, cui bono,
inquiring, humour.  What miserable work, again, it is searching for
priority of names.  I have just finished two species, which possess seven
generic, and twenty-four specific names!  My chief comfort is, that the
work must be sometime done, and I may as well do it, as any one else.</p>

<p>I have given up my agitation against mihi and nobis; my paper is too long
to send to you, so you must see it, if you care to do so, on your return. 
By-the-way, you say in your letter that you care more for my species work
than for the Barnacles; now this is too bad of you, for I declare your
decided approval of my plain Barnacle work over theoretic species work, had
very great influence in deciding me to go on with the former, and defer my
species paper&#8230;</p>

<p>[The following letter refers to the death of his little daughter, which
took place at Malvern on April 24, 1851:]</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to W.D. Fox.</h5>
<p>Down, April 29th [1851].</p>

<p>My dear Fox,</p>

<p>I do not suppose you will have heard of our bitter and cruel loss.  Poor
dear little Annie, when going on very well at Malvern, was taken with a
vomiting attack, which was at first thought of the smallest importance; but
it rapidly assumed the form of a low and dreadful fever, which carried her
off in ten days.  Thank God, she suffered hardly at all, and expired as
tranquilly as a little angel.  Our only consolation is that she passed a
short, though joyous life.  She was my favourite child; her cordiality,
openness, buoyant joyousness and strong affections made her most lovable. 
Poor dear little soul.  Well it is all over&#8230;</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin - Day 115 of 188</title>
		<link>http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/charles-darwin/the-life-and-letters-of-charles-darwin-day-115-of-188/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:54:49 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[Charles Darwin]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[

Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker.
Malvern, April 9th, 1849.

My dear Hooker,

The very next morning after posting my last letter (I think on 23rd of
March), I received your two interesting gossipaceous and geological
letters; and the latter I have since exchanged with Lyell for his.  I will
write higglety-pigglety just as subjects occur.  I saw the Review [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[

<h5>Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker.</h5>
<p>Malvern, April 9th, 1849.</p>

<p>My dear Hooker,</p>

<p>The very next morning after posting my last letter (I think on 23rd of
March), I received your two interesting gossipaceous and geological
letters; and the latter I have since exchanged with Lyell for his.  I will
write higglety-pigglety just as subjects occur.  I saw the Review in the
&#8216;Athenaeum,&#8217; it was written in an ill-natured spirit; but the whole virus
consisted in saying that there was not novelty enough in your remarks for
publication.  No one, nowadays, cares for reviews.  I may just mention that
my Journal got some <em>real good</em> abuse, &#8220;presumption,&#8221; etc.,&#8211;ended with
saying that the volume appeared &#8220;made up of the scraps and rubbish of the
author&#8217;s portfolio.&#8221;  I most truly enter into what you say, and quite
believe you that you care only for the review with respect to your father;
and that this <em>alone</em> would make you like to see extracts from your letters
more properly noticed in this same periodical.  I have considered to the
very best of my judgment whether any portion of your present letters are
adapted for the &#8216;Athenaeum&#8217; (in which I have no interest; the beasts not
having even <em>noticed</em> my three geological volumes which I had sent to them),
and I have come to the conclusion it is better not to send them.  I feel
sure, considering all the circumstances, that without you took pains and
wrote <em>with care</em>, a condensed and finished sketch of some striking feature
in your travels, it is better not to send anything.  These two letters are,
moreover, rather too geological for the &#8216;Athenaeum,&#8217; and almost require
woodcuts.  On the other hand, there are hardly enough details for a
communication to the Geological Society.  I have not the <em>smallest doubt</em>
that your facts are of the highest interest with regard to glacial action
in the Himalaya; but it struck both Lyell and myself that your evidence
ought to have been given more distinctly&#8230;</p>

<p>I have written so lately that I have nothing to say about myself; my health
prevented me going on with a crusade against &#8220;mihi&#8221; and &#8220;nobis,&#8221; of which
you warn me of the dangers.  I showed my paper to three or four
Naturalists, and they all agreed with me to a certain extent:  with health
and vigour, I would not have shown a white feather, [and] with aid of half-a-dozen really good Naturalists, I believe something might have been done
against the miserable and degrading passion of mere species naming.  In
your letter you wonder what &#8220;Ornamental Poultry&#8221; has to do with Barnacles;
but do not flatter yourself that I shall not yet live to finish the
Barnacles, and then make a fool of myself on the subject of species, under
which head ornamental Poultry are very interesting&#8230;</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to C. Lyell.</h5>
<p>The Lodge, Malvern [June, 1849].</p>

<p>&#8230;I have got your book (&#8216;A Second Visit to the United States.&#8217;), and have
read all the first and a small part of the second volume (reading is the
hardest work allowed here), and greatly I have been interested by it.  It
makes me long to be a Yankee.  E. desires me to say that she quite
&#8220;gloated&#8221; over the truth of your remarks on religious progress&#8230;I delight
to think how you will disgust some of the bigots and educational dons.  As
yet there has not been <em>much</em> Geology or Natural History, for which I hope
you feel a little ashamed.  Your remarks on all social subjects strike me
as worthy of the author of the &#8216;Principles.&#8217;  And yet (I know it is
prejudice and pride) if I had written the Principles, I never would have
written any travels; but I believe I am more jealous about the honour and
glory of the Principles than you are yourself&#8230;</p>

<h5>Charles Darwin to C. Lyell.</h5>
<p>September 14th, 1849.</p>

<p>&#8230;I go on with my aqueous processes, and very steadily but slowly gain
health and strength.  Against all rules, I dined at Chevening with Lord
Mahon, who did me the great honour of calling on me, and how he heard of me
I can&#8217;t guess.  I was charmed with Lady Mahon, and any one might have been
proud at the pieces of agreeableness which came from her beautiful lips
with respect to you.  I like old Lord Stanhope very much; though he abused
Geology and Zoology heartily.  &#8220;To suppose that the Omnipotent God made a
world, found it a failure, and broke it up, and then made it again, and
again broke it up, as the Geologists say, is all fiddle faddle.  Describing
Species of birds and shells, etc., is all fiddle faddle&#8230;&#8221;</p>

<p>I am heartily glad we shall meet at Birmingham, as I trust we shall, if my
health will but keep up.  I work now every day at the Cirripedia for 2 1/2
hours, and so get on a little, but very slowly.  I sometimes, after being a
whole week employed and having described perhaps only two species, agree
mentally with Lord Stanhope, that it is all fiddle faddle; however, the
other day I got a curious case of a unisexual, instead of hermaphrodite
cirripede, in which the female had the common cirripedial character, and in
two valves of her shell had two little pockets, in <em>each</em> of which she kept a
little husband; I do not know of any other case where a female invariably
has two husbands.  I have one still odder fact, common to several species,
namely, that though they are hermaphrodite, they have small additional, or
as I shall call them, complemental males, one specimen itself hermaphrodite
had no less than <em>seven</em>, of these complemental males attached to it.  Truly
the schemes and wonders of Nature are illimitable.  But I am running on as
badly about my cirripedia as about Geology; it makes me groan to think that
probably I shall never again have the exquisite pleasure of making out some
new district, of evolving geological light out of some troubled dark
region.  So I must make the best of my Cirripedia&#8230;</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Classic Horror and Lawrence of Arabia</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:08:06 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[arabia]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Dracula]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[
Bram Stoker&#8217;s Dracula and Mary Shelley&#8217;s Frankenstein. Getting in the Halloween spirit a bit early I guess. Coincidentally both stories start written in the form of correspondence. (Also in the Halloween vein don&#8217;t forget Lovecraft&#8217;s Cthulu stories)
T. E. Lawrence&#8217;s Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I just watched the movie Lawrence of Arabia and enjoyed it so [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<ul>
<li>Bram Stoker&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/bram-stoker/dracula-day-1-of-140/">Dracula</a> and Mary Shelley&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/mary-shelley/frankenstein-day-1-of-67/">Frankenstein</a>. Getting in the Halloween spirit a bit early I guess. Coincidentally both stories start written in the form of correspondence. (Also in the Halloween vein don&#8217;t forget <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/h-p-lovecraft/collected-stories-part-1-day-1-of-277/">Lovecraft</a>&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/h-p-lovecraft/collected-stories-part-2-day-1-of-274/">Cthulu</a> stories)</li>
<li>T. E. Lawrence&#8217;s <a href="http://www.turtlereader.com/authors/te-lawrence/seven-pillars-of-wisdom-day-1-of-240/">Seven Pillars of Wisdom</a>. I just watched the movie Lawrence of Arabia and enjoyed it so I was interested when I heard it was based on an autobiography. Hopefully it&#8217;s interesting. The dedication certainly is mysterious.</li>
</ul>]]></content:encoded>
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