Letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 June 1868

I am glad you were at the Messiah: it is the one thing that I shd like to hear again, but I daresay I shd find my soul too dried up to appreciate it, as in old days; & then I shd feel very flat, for it is a horrid bore to feel, as I constantly do, that I am a withered leaf for every subject except science. It sometimes makes me hate science, though God knows I ought to be thankful for such a perennial interest which makes me forget for some hours every day my accursed stomach.