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I know of no more solid and important contributions to biology in the past seven years than Haeckel's work on the Radiolaria, and the researches of his distinguished colleague Gegenbaur, in vertebrate anatomy; while in Haeckel's Generelle Morphologie there is all the force, suggestiveness, and, what I may term the systematizing power, of Oken, without his extravagance.
Utilizing his wide range of zoological and anatomical knowledge, he constructed a hypothetical tree of descent or, if you prefer, ascent from the root in a protozoon to the topmost twig or most recent offshoot, man. From that day till this Haeckel's persistent labors have been directed towards the perfection of that genealogical tree.
I know of no more solid and important contributions to biology in the past seven years than Haeckel's work on the "Radiolaria," and the researches of his distinguished colleague Gegenbaur, in vertebrate anatomy; while in Haeckel's "Generelle Morphologie" there is all the force, suggestiveness, and, what I may term the systematising power, of Oken, without his extravagance.
This is a point of great importance since it proves satisfactorily that men of science will have nothing to do with the "Weltraetsel." The large number of replies would, however, not allow Haeckel's friends to remain silent. The most extensive defense forthcoming was a pamphlet published by a certain Heinrich Schmidt of Jena.
I dwell upon this phase of Professor Haeckel's character and temperament from the very outset because I wish it constantly to be borne in mind, in connection with some of the doctrines to be mentioned presently, that here we have to do with no dry-as-dust scientist, cold and soulless, but with a broad, versatile, imaginative mind, one that links the scientific and the artistic temperaments in rarest measure.
V. In Professor Haeckel's speculations on Phylogeny, or the genealogy of animal forms, there is much that is profoundly interesting, and his suggestions are always supported by sound knowledge and great ingenuity. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, one feels that he has forced the mind into lines of thought in which it is more profitable to go wrong than to stand still.
Hence the linking of the word "monkey" with the phrase "Darwinian theory" in the popular mind; and hence, also, the interpretation of the phrase "missing link" in relation to man's ancestry, as applying only to our ancestor and not to any other of the gaps in the genealogical chain. What, then, is the present status of Haeckel's genealogical tree regarding man's most direct ancestor?
Haeckel, Ostwald, and Mach have each given the world a constructive system of thought. But these three systems have not, except in a secondary way, attempted a metaphysic of human life. Haeckel's system is mainly poetico-mythical, chiefly on the lines of some of the pre-Socratic philosophers.
The first of these is the manner in which the author treats the Romanes incident. Romanes ranks, as is well known, among the first of Haeckel's authorities. Hence it is a very painful fact that, but a short time before the publication of the first edition of the "Weltraetsel," my translation into German of Romanes' "Thoughts on Religion" should have appeared.
This is a very resigned position, very far removed from Haeckel's certainty and orthodoxy. To sum up: O. Hertwig has become a serious heretic in matters Darwinian. Will Haeckel, in his usual manner try to cast suspicion on Hertwig also?
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