William Hooker

“ It was then decided to transfer the garden to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. This took place in 1840, and in 1841 Sir William Hooker, who was then Professor in Glasgow, was appointed the first Director. The move to Kew, whither he took his private Library, Herbarium, and Museum, was carried out in the absence of his son, who was still in the Antarctic. It was not till the Himalayan journey was over in 1851 that Sir Joseph settled at Kew, his great collections having already been consigned there by agreement with the Government. ”

“ Hooker, having some influence, obtained him a position in one of the departments at Washington, where he still remains, a firm friend of Joe Hooker, and boasting of enjoying the friendship of the "commander of the best army on the planet."
Like most nervous men, Hooker is untiringly energetic. He goes at every thing, as he does at the enemy, with a dash. ”

“ I asked Oliver what profession he purposed following, whether he wished again to go to sea.
“I should probably have done so,” he answered; “but Mr Hooker has proposed that I should go to college, and my tastes certainly lead me to adopt one of the learned professions. I delight in study, and should like to choose the one by which I might the most benefit my fellow-creatures. Had I my free choice, I should wish to become a minister of the gospel, for I am sure to no more honourable or important calling can man devote the energies and talents with which his Maker has endowed him.” ”

“ Hooker imbibed from his father a passion for botanical research, and from his youth was inspired with a keen desire to indulge it by foreign travel. This was first gratified when Sir James Clark Ross [q. v.] , a friend of his father, offered to take him, if he qualified in time, nominally as assistant surgeon, but actually as naturalist, on his own ship, the Erebus, on the Antarctic expedition. Thus Hooker, like Darwin and Huxley, 'began his scientific career on board one of Her Majesty's ships.' The filiation of Hooker's life-work to that of Darwin had an accidental origin. ”

“ Hooker has energy equal to Grant, but he has not Grant's patience, stoicism, or imperturbability. He is not content, like Grant, to wait for results. His strength lies in his momentum; Grant's in his weight. It was perhaps because Hooker so nearly resembles him, and because Howard had such opposite characteristics, that Sherman preferred the latter as commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Howard and Hooker have certain qualities in common, but yet are as different in organization as Sherman and Howard. Howard is, like Hooker, a finished gentleman, princely in manners. ”

“ All the collectors make money. Hooker is very anxious about it. I hope to find the{91} fifty copies of “Flora” at Wiley & Putnam’s on reaching London. I hope you have seen the partner at New York on the subject, and that the “Flora” will be advertised fully in London before I reach there. But I must close. Don’t fail to write very often. Sir William and Lady Hooker and all the family, old, young, and middle-aged, all send their most affectionate regards. I sit over against your portrait at dinner. It is very like you....
TO JOHN TORREY.
Kinross, Wednesday evening, January 2, 1839. ”

“ The liberality with which Ferdinand Bauer had been treated by the English government, in whose service he had remained, finishing the plates illustrative of the expedition, up to the year 1813, enabled him, on his return to Austria, to purchase a small house at Hitzing, near Vienna, adjacent to the large Botanic Garden of Schœnbrunn. Here he worked very hard in executing aud completing his drawings of New Holland plants and animals, as well as some plates of his Illustrationes, filling two large volumes with the former. He enjoyed the friendship of the different Naturalists in Vienna ”

“ Nature never made him for one part of the land. He has fought over every part of the country from Maryland to Mexico, from the Potomac to beyond the Rio Grande, and from a private citizen of the most westerly district of California, he rose to command as brigadier general of the regular army in the most easterly department of the reunited country. Every Californian, if not every American, is proud of Joe Hooker, for he is a representative man of that peculiar race of pioneers drawn from every state of the Union and nationality of the globe. ”

“ Hooker took umbrage at the appointment of Howard—the insult was too glaring and offensive to be overlooked—and at his own request he was relieved of command under Sherman by the President, and given the command of the Department of the North.
It is not to be supposed, from what I have said about Hooker's disposition to criticise, that he is of a vindictive nature. His disgust is not irrevocable. He is always ready to forgive a blunder when retrieved by a success. He is particularly constant in his friendships. ”

“ It was mainly by Hooker’s exertions that botanists were appointed to the government expeditions. While his works were in progress his herbarium received large and valuable additions from all parts of the globe, and his position as a botanist was thus vastly improved. He was made a knight of Hanover in 1836 and in 1841 he was appointed director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, on the resignation of W. T. Aiton. Under his direction the gardens expanded from 11 to 75 acres, with an arboretum of 270 acres, many new glass-houses were erected, and a museum of economic botany was established. ”

“ The two friends eagerly shook hands, the stranger sinking down into a chair, and looking eagerly into Mr Hooker’s face.
“You will recover, never fear—you will recover,” he exclaimed. “You have had a touch of jungle fever; and if you can get on shore for a few days, and live in the open air, instead of in this confined cabin, you will quickly pick up your strength. But, Hooker, I had no idea you were married. Are these young people on board your children? and the lady on deck there, is she your wife?”
“No, no, no,” answered Mr Hooker. “The old Dutchwoman is the young girls’ governante. ”

“ HOOKER, Sir WILLIAM JACKSON (1785–1865) , director of Kew Gardens, was born, on 6 July 1785, at Norwich, where his father was then in business. His father, Joseph Hooker, who was lineally descended from John Hooker [q. v.] , the historian, the uncle of Richard Hooker [q. v.] , was a native of Exeter, and devoted his leisure to the cultivation of rare plants and to reading, especially travels and German literature. Hooker was educated under the Rev. Dr. ”

“ Hooker was a better fighter than McClellan and wiser than Burnside or Pope. Moreover, after two years of war, the Union Government had at last found out that civilian detectives knew less about armies than expert staff officers know, and that cavalry which was something more than mere men on horses could collect a little information too. Hooker knew Lee's strength as well as his own. So he decided to hold Lee fast with one part of the big Federal army, turn his flank with another, and cut his line of supply and retreat with Stoneman's ten thousand sabers as well. ”

“ His success as the commander of a corps in the West has become not less familiar to the public; and his achievements at Lookout Mountain, Resaca, and before Atlanta, will be the basis for the establishment of his true character as a military man. I do not mean by this to say that Hooker can not command with success a great army. I have no personal knowledge of his career as a commanding general, but from his mental organization it is evident that he is greater as a leader than as a director of men. ”

“ Were it within the purpose of this sketch to do so, no better illustration of the fighting general could be given than a detailed account of this battle, in which Hooker was the central—only figure. The country is as much indebted to him personally for the victory as to Sheridan for Cedar Creek, Rousseau for Perryville, or Thomas for Chickamauga.
Hooker is "his own worst enemy"—not in a common and vulgar acceptance of that term, now universally applied to those who indulge their appetite at the expense of the brain. ”

“ Immediately a jar of arrack, which my uncle had brewed for the sake of preserving his specimens—certainly not for drinking—was produced, and the nautilus was carefully embalmed within it.
“If you can obtain another, which we can dissect, you will have rendered Mr Hooker and me the greatest possible service,” he exclaimed enthusiastically. “Us, did I say!—the whole scientific world at large. You will deserve to become a member of all the societies of Europe—the most honourable distinction which a man of any age might desire to obtain.” ”

“ Hooker's career in Mexico was not remembered when the rebellion began, or he would have earlier stood high in the confidence of the government, for it was among the most brilliant of the many successes attained by the many very able young men engaged in that war. To have risen under the old and very faulty organization of the army in a short war, in which there were few casualties, from a lieutenant to be brevetted lieutenant colonel of the regular army, was no small achievement. ”

“ The criticism on McClellan and his want of generalship was mistaken by a great many for vanity instead of candor, and the press of the country heartily ridiculed Hooker's vanity. He was called an exalte, an enthusiast. He has certainly a good opinion of himself, as all great men, not only warriors, but philosophers, have invariably had of themselves. Many not less famous men have been vain of lesser qualities than Hooker boasts, and their own [Pg 181] good opinions of themselves have been adopted by posterity. Hooker is proud of his mental abilities. ”

“ Hooker has all the ardor, and Howard all the enthusiasm of Gustavus, and were capable of as great things. Steedman has all the roughness, nonchalance, and impudence of Suwaroff. McPherson was a Moreau, alike young, indecisive, and unfortunate. True, we have developed many Grouchys, who can not command above a few thousand men, and several Berthiers, who can not even calculate a day's march correctly; but we have also given opportunity to one or two Neys in Sheridan and Rousseau, and several Murats in Hancock, Logan, and Gordon Granger. ”

“ A man born with this disposition would naturally seek the army. Hooker entered West Point and studied his way through with a zeal and industry which must have placed him higher than twenty-eight in a class of fifty graduates had he not, like Sheridan, suffered for his belligerency in the estimation of the staid and steady professors of that institute. ”

“ Mr Hooker was now all life and spirits.
“The first thing we require, remember, is a good supply of provisions and ammunition. Those are the chief necessaries. Water we cannot carry, but I hope we may find it on the hill. At all events, let us take care to have some pitchers to contain it. Then some cooking apparatus, seeing we cannot eat our provisions raw. Then we shall require some bedding for you young ladies. We can rough it well enough on the ground.”
We had made some progress in our preparations, when Mr Thudicumb and Dick Tarbox arrived. ”

“ Camden, who in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth, 1599, mentions him with a high commendation of his life and learning, declares him to die in the year 1599; and yet in that in of his Monument, set up at the charge of Sir William Cowper, in Bourne Church, where Mr. Hooker was buried, his death is there said to be in anno 1603; but doubtless both are mistaken; for I have it attested under the hand of William Somner, the Archbishop's Registrar for the Province of Canterbury, that Richard Hooker's Will bears date October 26th in anno 1600, and that it was proved the third of December following. ”

“ Mr Hooker and the mate were sufficiently recovered to move about the house and to take short walks in the neighbourhood. The girls were both very anxious to go also, but the Frau strongly objected to their doing so.
“Suppose we meet snakes, or wild beasts, or savages?” she asked. “Oh no, no, Frauline Emily and Grace. You must stop and take care of Mr Hooker and poor Mr Thudicumb. What they do without you?” ”

“ On the ninth of June a cavalry combat round Brandy Station, in the heart of Virginia, made Hooker's staff feel certain that Lee was again going up the Valley and on to Maryland. At one time, for want of supplies, Lee had to spread out his front along a line running eighty miles northwest from Fredericksburg to Strasburg. Hooker, on the keen alert, implored the Government to let him attack the three Confederate corps in detail. Success against one at least was certain. Lincoln understood this perfectly. ”

“ He must be a regular mountaineer who can unopposed make the ascent of the Lookout without halting several times to rest; and the story of the assault seems incredible to one standing on the summit, where the rebels were posted, and looking at the rough ascent over which Hooker charged. Only a general in whom the disposition to fight was largely developed could have conceived such a project, and only troops inspired by the presence of one whom they knew to be a brave and daring leader could have executed the ambitious plan. ”

“ Four months earlier Hooker published his 'Introductory Essay on the Flora of Tasmania,' by far the most noteworthy of his speculative writings. In this he frankly adopts, in view of the Darwin-Wallace theory, the hypothesis 'that species are derivative and mutable.' The essay is in other respects remarkable for the first sketch of a rational theory of the geographical distribution of plants, besides giving a masterly analysis of the Australian flora. ”

“ But Howard, unlike Hooker, is exceedingly methodical, is always calm, self-possessed, and of a lymphatic rather than a bilious temperament. Hooker is ever sanguine. It is not to be supposed that, because he is a quick worker, he easily flags in his hasty labor. His energy never gives out, and he is as persistent as Thomas, more so than Sherman, and vies with Grant in this respect. ”