P.S.—I have always thought you would make a first-rate Lord Chancellor; and I now appeal to you as a Lord Chancellor.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, Tuesday [June 29, 1858].
...I have received your letters. I cannot think now (So soon after the death, from scarlet fever, of his infant child.) on the subject, but soon will. But I can see that you have acted with more kindness, and so has Lyell, even than I could have expected from you both, most kind as you are.
I can easily get my letter to Asa Gray copied, but it is too short.
...God bless you. You shall hear soon, as soon as I can think.
Yours affectionately, C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER. Tuesday night [June 29, 1858].
My dear Hooker,
I have just read your letter, and see you want the papers at once. I am quite prostrated, and can do nothing, but I send Wallace, and the abstract ("Abstract" is here used in the sense of "extract;" in this sense also it occurs in the 'Linnean Journal,' where the sources of my father's paper are described.) of my letter to Asa Gray, which gives most imperfectly only the means of change, and does not touch on reasons for believing that species do change. I dare say all is too late. I hardly care about it. But you are too generous to sacrifice so much time and kindness. It is most generous, most kind. I send my sketch of 1844 solely that you may see by your own handwriting that you did read it. I really cannot bear to look at it. Do not waste much time. It is miserable in me to care at all about priority.
The table of contents will show what it is.