ERNST HAECKEL
Monistic investigation of nature as knowledge of the true,
monistic ethic as training for the good, monistic æsthetic
as pursuit of the beautiful--these are the three great
departments of our monism: by the harmonious and consistent
cultivation of these we effect at last the truly beatific
union of religion and science so painfully longed for by
so many to-day. The True, the Beautiful, the Good, these
are the three august Divine Ones before which we bow the
knee in adoration; in the unforced combination and mutual
supplementing of these we gain the pure idea of God. To
this triune Divine Ideal shall the twentieth century build
its altars.--Haeckel's "The Confession of Faith of a Man of
Science."
The geographical distribution of German universities is such as
to shock the orderly mind of our General Education Board, which,
like a trained forester, believes in weeding out, or rather, in not
cultivating, institutions growing close together. But in Germany the
soil is so rich as to support three great universities--Leipzig,
Halle, and Jena--planted within a circle of twenty miles radius, and
nevertheless all thriving. Even the overweening development of Berlin
University since that city has become the imperial capital has not yet
overshadowed the smaller institutions. For, curious as it seems to
us Americans, students in Europe are not influenced in the choice of
a university chiefly by its size, the splendor of its buildings, or
even its athletic record. They seem rather to consider the personality
of the professors as the important thing, and will often travel
considerable distances, at a cost of one and sixteen hundredths cents
per mile, third class, in order to put themselves under the instruction
of a particular man they have taken a fancy to, quite ignoring some
other university which from our point of view had a claim upon their
allegiance, from the fact that it was nearer or had been attended by
their fathers. Jena, the least of the three in the matter of numbers,
is not by reason of that willing to confess inferiority to any of
its rivals, not even to big Berlin. On the contrary, Haeckel, in his
famous controversy with Virchow, apologized with satirical politeness
for his opponent's ignorance of zoölogy, on the ground that he could
not be expected to keep up with the advance of the science when he had
left the little institute of Wurzburg for the luxurious appliances and
the political and social duties of Berlin. In fact, Haeckel, with his
fondness for formulation, laid down a law on this point thirty-five
years ago which, he says, has yet to meet with contradiction, that "the
scientific work of an institution stands in inverse ratio to its size."
Certainly, if seclusion and scholarly traditions are conducive to
intellectual achievement, Jena is the place for the thinker. The
university, with one thousand eight hundred and seventeen students, is
about a third the size of the University of Wisconsin. The population
of the city is about the same as that of Madison. But while Madison
has other interests, political especially, Jena is absorbed in the
university. Its chief industry, the glassworks, is the offspring of the
university, for it was through the fortunate collaboration of Ernst
Abbé a professor who could figure out indices of refraction, with Carl
Zeiss, a glassmaker who was willing to put money into queer formulas,
that the new lenses were discovered which make possible our modern
photography and microscopy. Generously has the debt that the industry
owed to science been repaid, for the Zeiss company has borne a large
share of the expenses of maintaining the university and erecting its
new buildings, besides giving to the city many public buildings, among
them a splendid bathhouse, an auditorium and a free library and reading
room, where are on file one hundred and fifteen daily papers and three
hundred and sixty periodicals (American librarians, take notice).
From this it may be seen that Jena is an up-to-date town. Yet at the
same time it retains more of medieval picturesqueness than most,
mingling the new and the old as none but Germans know how to. "_Das
liebe närrische Nest_," as Goethe called it, is hidden away among the
Thuringian hills so that the railroad was a long time finding it. The
cobble-stoned streets stroll out from the market place in a casual sort
of a way and change their minds about where they are going without
notice, twisting about Gothic churches, diving under old towers,
wandering slowly along the banks of the Saale, or starting suddenly
straight up hill. The gossipy gables of the old houses lean toward
each other like peaked eldritch faces in fluted red caps. So close
they stand sometimes that you can touch the walls on either side, and
you have to walk with one foot on the sidewalk and the other on the
pavement, like the absent-minded German professor who thought he had
gone lame. When I saw Jena, I understood something which had long
puzzled me, that is, how the dachshund originated. It is manifestly
a product of evolution according to the principle of the survival
of the fittest, for only a creature constructed according to the
specifications "dog and a half long and half a dog high" could make his
way with convenience and celerity through this maze of narrow streets.
But all sorts of vehicles and beasts of burden get around somehow, too;
oxen and horses, automobiles and bicycles, dog carts and women carts.
Most in evidence everywhere are the students, who swagger through the
town with the consciousness of owning it, their bright-colored corps
caps at a cocky angle, and their faces looking like advertisements of
the dangers of not using safety razors, for the Jena student has three
hundred and fifty years of university tradition to live up to, and he
realizes the responsibility of it to the full.
The ancient and honorable history of Jena is unescapable. It is woven
into the very fabric of the place, and he who runs may read it from
the street signs. The Volkshaus, which I have mentioned, is very
appropriately approached through Ernst Abbé Strasse and Carl Zeiss
Strasse. On the other side of it is Luther Strasse, for Jena harbored
the great reformer for two years at a critical period in his career.
This leads to Goethe Strasse--Goethe composed the "Erlkönig" at Jena.
The next turn brings us into Schiller Strasse--Schiller was professor
of history in the University for ten years, carrying an active side
line of poetry the while. A big stone in the old garden marks the spot
where he wrote "Wallenstein," 1798. At the garden gate is Ernst Haeckel
Platz, from which Ernst Haeckel Strasse leads us to our destination,
the Villa Medusa. What other town could give a ten-minute walk so rich
in names worth remembering?
The Villa Medusa, mind you, is not named from the Greek gorgon, but
from the beautiful jellyfish with the long trail of waving threads,
one of the living comets dredged up by the _Challenger_ which Haeckel
depicted and described thirty years ago. The house is a square-built,
white, two-story dwelling, half hidden by the tall trees. The furniture
is of the conventional German type. The room into which I was shown
was not small, but it seemed so when Professor Haeckel entered it, for
the first impression one gets is largeness. He really is a large man
any way you take him; tall, heavy-limbed, large-featured; his hair is
now white but thick, and his beard broad and bushy. He moves with some
stiffness now, but otherwise his fourscore years have not impaired his
vigor. His bearing is erect and his handclasp strong. His laugh is
hearty and his blue eyes twinkle as he relates some amusing incident in
the controversies of which his life has been full.
For Haeckel has been a storm center of the cyclonic movements that
have swept over the whole earth during the last century. His name
has been a battle-cry in the scientific, religious, and political
wars of more than one generation, and never more than at present,
when a new religion with many thousands of adherents has set out to
conquer the world under the sign, "There is one Substance and Haeckel
is its prophet." I inferred from what he said to me and still more
from what he did not say that he was not very enthusiastic over the
semi-ecclesiastical form which the propaganda is now taking in Germany,
but is more interested in the quieter and wider acceptance of his
ideas which he regards as virtually complete in scientific circles. He
disclaimed emphatically any intention of establishing a cult or ritual,
like Comte. I fancy that the sentence with which he ended his chapter
on "Our Monistic Religion",
Just as the Catholics had to relinquish a number of churches
to the Reformation in the sixteenth century, so a still
larger number will pass over to the free societies of
Monists in the coming years,
was, like many another paragraph in the book, put in more to irritate
the clergy than with any serious intent. But it is curious to
observe how rapidly the Monist locals are assuming the forms of the
non-conformist congregations. They celebrate Christmas--that is, the
winter solstice--with trees, candles, and gifts. They have a weekly
sermon by Ostwald and a Sunday-school paper, _Die Sonne_.
[Illustration: Ernst Haeckel]
To see Haeckel at his best one should get him to talk of his beloved
Jena, which indeed is not difficult to do, for he is ever ready to
speak with enthusiasm of its beauty, its freedom of thought, and its
leadership in many of the great intellectual movements of German
history. When I remarked upon the many delightful roads and pathways
upon the hills round about the town, he explained Jena was the last
of the university towns to be reached by railroad. Professors and
students were poor, and they had to walk, so they learned to walk well
and to take pleasure in outdoor exercise and to appreciate fine views.
That Haeckel himself is a great lover of landscape as well as of the
beautiful in all forms of life is well known to readers of his travel
sketches. For this he gives credit to his mother, who, as he says in
dedicating to her his "Indian Letters",
Aroused in me in my earliest childhood a sense for the
infinite beauty of nature and taught the growing boy the
value of time and the joy of labor.
His skill as a draftsman and colorist appears in his zoölogical works,
and besides this professional work he has in his portfolios more than
a thousand original sketches in oil and water colors of scenery from
Norway to Malay; in fact, of every quarter of the globe except America.
When he was twenty-five he was so captivated by Sicily that he almost
gave up science to adopt landscape painting as a career.
The freedom of instruction which Jena has enjoyed to an exceptional
degree, even for Germany, Haeckel ascribes in part to the fact that the
university is located in one of the minor States, remote from the great
political centers, and derives its support from several sources. "We
had four masters," said Professor Haeckel to me, "and so we remained
free." He closes his address of 1892 on "Monism as the Bond Between
Religion and Science" with a grateful eulogy of the Grand Duke Karl
Alexander, who, he says,
has during a prosperous reign of forty years constantly
shown himself an illustrious patron of science and art; as
Rector Magnificentissimus of our Thuringian university of
Jena, he has always afforded his protection to its most
sacred palladium--the right of free investigation and the
teaching of truth.
We see that Haeckel has reason to be grateful for the protection
accorded him when we realize that he first championed the cause of
Darwin in 1862, only three years after the publication of "The Origin
of Species", and that twenty years after that professors were being
dismissed from American universities or were viewed with suspicion
for believing in evolution. Even to-day a man of Haeckel's views on
religion and his blunt way of expressing them would find it difficult
to retain his chair in most American universities. In Germany a
professor may be almost anything he pleases--except a Socialist--and
hold his job.
A song of the Jena students contains the couplet
"Wer die Wahrheit kennet und saget sie nicht,
Der ist fürwahr ein erbärmlicher Wicht!"
But according to Haeckel the students of Berlin University have a
different version:
Wer die Wahrheit kennet und saget sie frei,
Der kommt in Berlin auf die Stadtvogtei![1]
The grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, of which Jena is one of
the chief cities, has about the same area as Rhode Island and fewer
inhabitants. It was the first of the German States to acquire a
constitutional government, in 1816. The community is rather rigidly
orthodox in the evangelical Lutheran faith, which it was among the
first to espouse. How well the Grand Duke Karl Alexander maintained the
Jena tradition of _Lehrfreiheit_ is shown by an incident that happened
when Haeckel first scandalized Germany by championing the cause of
Darwinism. A prominent theologian came to the palace of the Grand
Duke at Weimar and begged him to dismiss the heretic professor. Karl
Alexander asked: "Do you suppose that he really believes the things he
publishes?"
"Most certainly he does," was the prompt reply. "Very well," said the
Grand Duke, "then the man simply does the same as you do."
It was about this time, when Haeckel, perceiving that the University
was suffering from the attack made upon him, approached Seebeck, the
head of the governing body, with an offer to resign his professorship
in order to relieve the tension. Seebeck, who had little sympathy with
his theories, replied: "My dear Haeckel, you are still young and you
will come yet to have more mature views of life. After all, you will do
less harm here than elsewhere, so you had better stay."
It may be well to add that while Haeckel did not change his views
except to become more radical as he grew older, the University did not
suffer in the long run by his presence. On the contrary, his fame as
an investigator and teacher drew students from all over the world and
brought to the University several large endowments.
Near to Ernst Haeckel Strasse and facing the park called Paradise there
is a unique building, the Phyletic Museum, established by Haeckel to
house collections illustrating the theory of evolution. On the wall
is painted the genealogical tree of the greatest family in the world,
embracing the whole animal kingdom, and over the central arch is
inscribed a quotation from the poet whom Haeckel most admires, Goethe:
Wer Wissenschaft und Kunst besitzt
Der hat Religion;
Wer diese beiden nicht besitzt
Der habe Religion!
Which Lange puts into English as
He who Science has and Art
He has Religion too;
Let him who in these has no part
Make his religion do.
Nowadays, when evolution is generally accepted, when it is preached
from the pulpit as well as taught in the school, it is hard for us to
realize the scorn and incredulity that greeted the theory on its first
formulation. We who see about us laboratories of experimental evolution
where new species of plants and animals are produced at will, according
to specifications drawn up in advance, can hardly put ourselves in
the position of those who fifty years ago believed that to question
the immutability of species was to induce intellectual confusion and
invite moral chaos. So we can scarcely appreciate the courage and
perspicacity of the young Haeckel in openly championing Darwinism
at a time when that theory was regarded as an absurdity, not alone
by theologians, as one would infer from Andrew D. White's "Warfare
of Science with Theology", but by most of the leading authorities
in all fields of science. But we may picture him on that memorable
Sunday evening of September 19, 1863, as he rose to give the opening
address of the Scientific Congress at Stettin; a tall, handsome young
man, blond-bearded, bright-eyed, sun-browned, hard-working, athletic
(that same year he won a laurel crown at the Leipzig festival for a
record-breaking jump of twenty feet). It was certainly presumptuous in
a zoölogist of only twenty-nine years, who had just secured a position
in the university circle as Extraordinary Professor at Jena (which
means below the Ordinary in Germany); who had just published his first
book, the "Monograph on the Radiolaria", so to attack the convictions
of his elders and masters there assembled. Haeckel was no halfway man.
As soon as he espoused Darwinism--which was barely a month after he
had laid eyes on "The Origin of Species"--he drew from it conclusions
that Darwin himself hesitated to suggest; on the one hand that life
originated in inorganic matter, on the other that the human race
originated from the lower animals. He at once drew up a pedigree not
only of the radiolaria but of mankind. Here is a passage from the very
beginning of his Stettin speech:
As regards man himself, if we are consistent we must
recognize his immediate ancestors in the ape-like mammals;
earlier still in kangaroo-like marsupials; beyond these, in
the secondary period, in lizard-like reptiles; and finally,
at a yet earlier stage, the primary period, in lowly
organized fishes.
and this, be it remembered, was eight years before Darwin published his
"Descent of Man."
"Without Haeckel there would have been Darwin, but no Darwinism," says
one of his enthusiastic disciples. But this immediately suggests the
question of whether it was altogether an advantage to have made an
"ism" out of Darwin. As a mere question of taxonomy his theory would
have been regarded by the lay world as harmless and uninteresting.
But heralded by Haeckel as evidential of materialism, as antagonistic
to the Church and as destructive to Christianity, Darwinism raised up
foes on all sides who would not otherwise have concerned themselves
with it. This, however, is a question of what-might-have-been like to
that of whether the slaves might not have been freed without blood-shed
_if_ the abolitionists had not been so extreme and if the Southerners
had not been so intolerant. So in this case; Haeckel was extreme, his
opponents were intolerant, so the war had to be. The gentle-natured
Darwin more than once had to caution his ardent German champion to be
less violent and sweeping in his attacks upon those who held the older
views. They were more to be pitied than blamed, said Darwin, and they
could not keep back permanently the stream of truth. In England Huxley
at the same time, with quite as sharp a pen as Haeckel's, was waging a
similar warfare against clerical antagonists.
It may be said that Haeckel spent the rest of his life in filling in
the outline he had sketched at the Stettin Congress of 1863, for,
however detailed the work on which he was engaged, he never afterward
lost sight of the guiding clew to the labyrinth of life evolution. We
are here not concerned with the zoölogical studies on which his fame
securely rests, but only with the philosophical views to which they led
him. His convictions were very definitely established in early manhood,
and he occupies to-day essentially the same point of view as fifty
years ago. During this time his efforts have been increasingly directed
toward reaching a wider audience. In 1866 he developed the fundamental
principles of his monistic philosophy in the two large volumes of his
"General Morphology of Organisms." This gained few readers outside the
circle of savants, and little acceptance there. In 1868 he put his
theory of evolution into more popular form in "The Natural History of
Creation." This had an unusual sale for a book of its kind, but Haeckel
was dissatisfied to see that the general public remained indifferent
and unaffected by the new conceptions of the world and man arising
from the discoveries of modern science. Worse still, he observed with
alarm a rising tide of reactionary thought at the close of the century
and a growing dominance of the clerical power in German politics. So
he determined to make a final effort to influence his generation, an
appeal to the court of last resort, the Cæsar of to-day, the people.
He packed his science and philosophy into one volume of moderate size,
filled in the chinks with _obiter dicta,_ and published it in 1899
under the title of "The Riddle of the Universe." This time he hit the
mark. The success of the book was immediate and amazing. An author of a
detective tale or a Zenda romance might have envied him. Ten thousand
copies were sold within a few months, one hundred thousand within a
year, and by this time the sale of the German and English editions has
doubtless passed the half million mark, not to speak of the fourteen
other languages into which the book has been translated. Since a book
like this usually has several readers for each copy, it is probable
that those who have been directly reached by Haeckel within fifteen
years must be numbered by the million. Besides this, of course, the
spread of his views has been further extended by a similar volume,
"The Wonders of Life", five years later, and by the widely circulated
pamphlets of the Deutscher Monistenbund. _Haeckels einheitliche
Weltanschauung_,[2] then, whatever one may think of it, is undeniably
an important factor in the thought of to-day.
I found Professor Haeckel not altogether pleased that he owed his
popular reputation to that one of his works in which he took the least
pride. He seemed to hold it in almost as light esteem as his opponents
and was frank in acknowledging its defects of style and content.
"But," he said in substance to me, "I had set forth my philosophy with
due dignity and order in my 'General Morphology' more than thirty
years before and nobody read it. Nobody reads it now, even when they
criticize my ideas. So what could I do but put them forth in a way that
would secure attention?"
We must observe that to secure this wider audience he did not resort
to any of the ordinary expedients, such as palliating unpopular views,
skipping dry details, and avoiding technical terms. "The Riddle of
the Universe" is not the sort of writing that goes by the name of
"popular science" and that is commonly regarded as necessary to catch
the attention and reach the understanding of the lay reader. Haeckel
discusses questions of physiology, zoölogy, botany, paleontology, and
astronomy, each in its own tongue, the bare facts stated without any
poetic disguise or flowery adornment. Far from dodging long words when
necessary, he invents them when unnecessary. Few men have done so much
word coinage. In his work on the radiolaria alone he had to christen
more than thirty-five hundred new species, two names apiece. So it is
no wonder that when he comes to talking metaphysics and religion he
sticks to the habit of making up his language as he goes.
In the case of other authors of this series I have had to distill the
essence of their philosophy from the leaves of many volumes. I have
had sometimes to translate poetry into prose and sometimes to piece
together scattered suggestions and faint allusions into a coherent
and compact doctrine. But in the case of Haeckel my task is easy, for
nothing of the sort is necessary. He has himself expressed his views in
succinct form and the plainest of language. He takes as much delight in
creeds and dogmatic statements as any scholastic theologian, and he has
the same implicit faith in formulas as capable of expressing all things
in heaven and earth. One reason why his conflicts with the clergy have
been so sharp and bitter is because he has much the same type of mind
and uses similar language. Ordinarily, in the so-called warfare of
religion and science, the adversaries revolve hopelessly around one
another, like double stars, without ever coming into contact.
The most convenient formulation of Haeckel's philosophy for our purpose
is that which he prepared as a sort of confession of faith for his lay
church, the Monistenbund. It is here translated entire and for the most
part literally, though in a somewhat condensed form.[3]
* * * * *
THE THIRTY THESES OF MONISM
I.--_Theoretical Monism_
1. Monistic Philosophy. The unitary conception of the world is based
solely upon the solid ground of scientific knowledge acquired by human
reason through critical experience.
2. Empiricism. This empirical knowledge is attained partly by sense
observations on the external world and partly by conscious reflection
on our mental internal world.
3. Revelation. In opposition to this monistic theory of knowledge
is the prevailing dualistic conception of the world, that the most
profound and important truths can be gained through supernatural
or divine revelation. All such ideas are due either to obscure and
uncritical dogmas or pious frauds.
4. Apriorism. Equally untenable is the assertion of Kantian metaphysics
that some knowledge is acquired _a priori_ independent of any
experience.
5. Cosmological Monism. The world is one great whole, a cosmos, ruled
by fixed laws.
6. Cosmological Dualism. The idea that there are two worlds, one
material or natural and the other spiritual or supernatural, arises
from ignorance, cloudy thinking, and mystical tradition.
7. Biophysics. Biology is only a part of the all-embracing physical
science and living beings are under the same laws as inorganic matter.
8. Vitalism. The so-called "vital force", which is still believed by
some to direct and control physical and chemical processes in the
organism, is just as fictitious as a "cosmical intelligence."
9. Genesis. Organic beings and inorganic nature alike have been
developed by one great process of evolution through an unbroken chain
of transformations causally connected. Part of this universal process
of evolution is directly perceptible; its beginning and end are unknown
to us.
10. Creation. The idea that a personal creator made the world out of
nothing and embodied his creative thought in the form of organisms must
be abandoned. Such an anthropomorphic creator exists as little as does
a "moral world order" ordained by him or a "divine providence."
11. Theory of Descent. That all existing beings are the transformed
descendants of a long series of extinct organisms developed in the
course of millions of years is proved by comparative anatomy, ontogeny,
and paleontology. This biogenetic transformation is established whether
we explain it by selection, mutation, or any other theory.
12. Archigony. When the earth's crust had cooled sufficiently, organic
life came into existence through the katalysis of colloidal compounds
of carbon and nitrogen in the form of structureless plasma globules
(Monera) represented to-day by the Chromoceæ.
13. Plasmic Metabolism. The innumerable forms of plant and animal life
arose from the ceaseless transformation of the living substance in
which the most important factors are the physiological functions of
variation and heredity.
14. Phytogeny. All plants and animals form a single genealogical tree
rooted in the Monera.
15. Anthropogeny. The position of man in nature is now fully
understood. He has all the characteristics of the vertebrates and
mammals and developed out of this class in the later tertiary period.
16. Pithecoid Theory. Man is most nearly related to the tailless
apes, but is not descended from any of the existing forms. On the
contrary, the common ancestors of all the anthropoid apes and man are
to be looked for in the earlier extinct species of old world apes
(Pithecanthropus).
17. Athanism. The soul consists of the totality of cerebral functions.
This soul or thought organ in man, a certain area of the cerebral
cortex, acts in accordance with the same laws of psychophysics as in
the other mammals. This function of course ceases at death, so it is
nowadays utterly absurd to believe in "the personal immortality of the
soul."
18. Indeterminism. The human will, like all other functions of the
brain (sensation, imagination, ratiocination), is dependent upon the
anatomy of this organ and is necessarily determined by the inherited
and acquired characteristics of the individual brain. The old doctrine
of "free will" is therefore seen to be untenable and must give way to
the opposite doctrine of determinism.
19. God. If by this ambiguous term is understood a personal "Supreme
Being", a ruler of the cosmos who, after the manner of men,
thinks, loves, generates, rules, rewards, punishes, etc., such an
anthropomorphic God must be relegated to the realm of the mystical
fiction, no matter whether this personal God be invested with a human
form or regarded as an invisible spirit or as a "gaseous vertebrate."
For modern science the idea of God is tenable only so far as we
recognize in this "God" the ultimate unknowable cause of things, the
unconscious hypothetical "first cause of substance."
20. Law of Substance. The older chemical law of the conservation of
matter (Lavoisier, 1789) and the more recent physical law of the
conservation of energy (Mayer, 1842) were later (1892) by our Monism
united into a single great universal law, for we recognized matter
and energy (body and spirit) as inseparable attributes of substance
(Spinoza).
II.--_Practical Monism_
21. Sociology. The culture which has raised the human race high above
the other animals and given it dominion over the earth depends upon the
rational cooperation of men in society with a thoroughgoing division
of labor and the mutual interdependence of the laboring classes. The
biological foundations of society are already perceptible among the
gregarious animals (especially the primates). Their herds and groups
are kept together by the social instinct (hereditary habits).
22. Constitution and Laws. The rational arrangement of society and its
regulation by laws can be attained by various forms of government,
the chief object of which is a just Nomocracy, the establishment of a
secular power based upon justice. The laws which limit the freedom of
the citizen for the good of society should be based solely upon the
national application of natural science, not upon venerable tradition
(inherited habits).
23. Church and Creed. On the other hand, all means should be used to
fight the hierarchy which cloaks the secular power with a spiritual
mantle and makes use of the credulity of the ignorant masses to further
its selfish aims. The confessional obligation as a particular form of
superstition is especially to be attacked, since it only serves to
evoke the distinction between those of other beliefs. The desirable
separation of Church and State is to be accomplished in such a way that
the State leaves equally free all forms of belief while restricting
their practical encroachments. The spiritual power (Theocracy) must
always be subordinate to the secular government (Nomocracy).
24. Papistry. The strongest hierarchy which to-day exercises spiritual
domination over the greater part of the civilized world is papistry or
ultramontanism. Although this mighty political organization stands in
sharp contradiction with the original pure form of Christianity and
wrongfully employs its insignia to obtain power, it nevertheless finds
strong support even from its natural opponents, the secular princes. In
the inevitable Kulturkampf against papistry it is, above all, necessary
to abrogate by law its three strongest supports, the celibacy of the
clergy, auricular confession, and the sale of indulgences. These
three dangerous and immoral institutions of the neo-Catholic church
are foreign to original Christianity. So also is the strengthening
of superstitions dangerous to society through the cult of miracles
(Lourdes, Marpingen) and of relics (Aix la Chapelle, Trèves) to be
prevented by law.
25. Monistic Religion. If we understand by religion, not a
superstitious cult and irrational creed, but the elevation of the mind
through the noblest gifts of art and science, then Monism forms a "bond
between religion and science" (1892). The three ideals of this rational
monistic religion are truth, virtue, and beauty. In all civilized
states it is the duty of the representatives of the people to see that
the monistic religion is officially recognized and its equal rights
with other confessions assured.
26. Monistic Ethics. The rational ethics which forms a part of this
monistic religion is derived, according to our modern theory of
evolution, from the social instincts of the higher animals, not from
a dogmatic "categorical imperative" (Kant). Like all of the higher
gregarious animals, man strives to attain the natural equilibrium
between the two different obligations, the behest of egoism and the
behest of altruism. The ethical principle of the "Golden Rule" has
expressed this double obligation twenty-five hundred years ago in the
maxim: "Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you."
27. Monistic Schools. In most civilized countries, and especially in
Germany, the instruction of youth in upper and lower grades is still
largely bound in fetters which the scholastic tradition of the Middle
Ages has retained to the present day. Only the complete separation of
Church and school can loose these fetters. The prevailing confessional
or dogmatic religious instruction is to be replaced by comparative
religious history and monistic ethics. The influence of the clergy of
any confession is to be removed from the school. The inevitable school
reform must be accomplished upon the basis of modern natural science.
The greater part of education should be devoted, not to the study of
the classical language and history, but to the various branches of
natural science, especially anthropology and evolution.
28. Monistic Education. Since the sound development of the soul (as
a function of the cerebral cortex) is closely connected with that of
the rest of the organism, the monistic education of youth, free from
the dogmatic teachings of the Church, must strive to upbuild soul
and body equally from earliest youth. Daily gymnastics, baths and
exercises, walks and tours, must develop and strengthen the organism
from early youth. Observation and love of nature will be thus awakened
and intensified. Through public libraries, continuation schools, and
popular monistic lectures will the more advanced be provided with
mental nourishment.
29. Monistic Culture. The admirable height of culture which mankind
in the nineteenth century has attained, the astonishing progress
of science and its practical applications in technology, industry,
medicine, etc., gives grounds for expecting a still greater development
of culture in the twentieth century. This desirable progress will then
however be possible only if the beaten paths of the traditional dogmas
and of clerical superstition be abandoned and a rational monistic
knowledge of nature attain the mastery instead.
30. The Monistenbund. In order to spread the natural unitary theory
of the universe to the widest circles and to realize practically the
beneficent fruits of theoretical monism, it is desirable that all
efforts in this direction find a common point of application through
the founding of individual monist societies. In this universal monist
association not only all free thinkers and all adherents of the
monistic philosophy find place, but also free congregations, ethical
societies, and free religious associations, etc., which recognize pure
reason as the only rule of their thought and action and not belief in
traditional dogma and pretended revelations.
There is a strong resemblance in form between this creed of the
monistic religion and the creeds that have been formulated by many
other religions in the history of the world; the same juxtaposition of
cosmogony and ethics without any apparent connection; the same mixture
of the fundamental and trivial, the permanent and ephemeral; the same
affirmation of idealistic aims mingled with attacks upon what is
assumed to be the beliefs of the opposition.
It is not my purpose in this book to criticize the views I present or
to obtrude my personal opinions, so I shall not discuss this monistic
confession of faith except to point out the striking contrast between
the theoretical and practical sections of the statement. The second is
in no sense a deduction from the first, and they are so different in
character as to give the effect of an anticlimax. Haeckel's fundamental
principles are bold and revolutionary. His practical conclusions are
timid and conventional. It would be a dull faculty meeting which did
not bring out more heretical views on education than Haeckel expresses.
Why is it necessary to storm the battlements of heaven and create a
new earth in order to make Greek optional and get the students to take
baths and walks?[4] Any session of the American Sociological Society
will bring out more suggestions for the radical reorganization of
society from professors in good and regular standing than are to be
found in all of Haeckel's works. He seems blind to what would appear
to us the glaring evils of his country, the burden of militarism, the
oppression of government, the conflict of classes, the monopoly of
land, the injustice of hereditary rank, the superstition of royalty,
and the like. If he touches on these at all, it is in mild and cautious
terms. His gratitude to the Grand Duke who was kind enough to let him
alone is expressed in language that sounds sycophantic to American
ears. All his fury is directed against the Church, Protestant and
Catholic alike, yet he remained until the age of seventy-seven a member
of the orthodox Lutheran Church. Of course, to be radical in thought
and conventional in practice is not peculiar to Haeckel. It is common
to most thinkers, but is especially conspicuous in his case.
The reforms he advocates in social customs are for the most part very
moderate. He is himself no smoker, and he thinks that the German
students devote too much attention to beer and dueling. This is
sensible but not startling. He declaims against the tyranny of fashion
and denounces corsets as injurious to the health.[5] In this, however,
most men and not a few women would agree with him. He asserts that
marriage is not a sacrament, but a civil contract, and as such may
be dissolved[6]. This is a doctrine common to Hebrew and Puritan.
One of the chief objects of the founding of the Monistenbund was to
force the separation of Church and State and the secularization of the
schools. This seems so obviously just and desirable that it is hard
for us to realize on what grounds it should be opposed. And as for the
demands expressed in Article 25 it is almost inconceivable to us that
a government could refuse a man the right to declare himself a Monist,
instead of a Lutheran or a Hebrew, if he wants to.
In our own free land anybody can get up a church of his own if he find
disciples, and if he prefers to belong to no church it is nobody's
business but his own. Not so in Germany, where a man has to give his
religion together with his age and occupation at every turn. Even if
he wants nothing more than a permit to a building or a rebate on his
railroad fare, he is called upon to make a confession of faith. And it
must be one of the few religions officially recognized by the State;
none of the "fancy religions" will pass muster. A man who declares
himself not a member of an established church, _konfessionslos_,
is looked upon with suspicion as a sort of outlaw. Under these
circumstances, of course, a large proportion of the adherents of the
State churches never attend the services and have no belief in the
creed they profess.
There is now going on in Germany what might be called an
"anti-Christian revival." Protracted meetings are being held in the
cities at which Monist missionaries exhort the people to leave the
Church, and at the conclusion the converts are called upon to stand
up and be counted. In 1913, during a whirlwind campaign in Berlin at
Christmas time, sixteen meetings were held and attended by thirteen
thousand persons, of whom twenty-three hundred and forty-three
announced their intention of formally separating themselves from the
churches of which they are nominally members. The Monist locals, the
independent congregations, and the free-thinker societies have joined
forces under the management of a central _Komitee Konfessionslos_. Very
curiously the Social Democratic party, which in its early days was so
fiercely anti-clerical, stands aloof from the movement and appears to
view it with disfavor.
This _Kirchenaustrittsbewegung_, or church-exit-movement has for its
aim to effect the complete separation of Church and State and to secure
for the individual freedom of religious choice. It does not, therefore,
indicate so great an increase of irreligion as appears on the face
of it. It will on the contrary tend to reduce the percentage of
hypocrisy and to allow the growth of new forms of religious association
better adapted to the times than the established churches. Already it
has stimulated a useful reflex. The "Go-to-church Sunday" has been
introduced from America, and the State churches are showing more signs
of life than for a long time.
It would obviously be an injustice to Haeckel to assume that, because
the practical reforms he advocates seem trite and timid to us, they
do not require both perspicacity and courage in Germany. The fact is
that Germany, advanced though it be intellectually, is still medieval
in government and usages. If, for instance, a German clergyman should
visit this country and stay in the home of an American minister, the
latter would probably be distressed by the views held by the visitor on
the inerrancy of the Scriptures and the value of beer, while, on the
other hand, the German would be equally shocked to hear his reverend
friend advocate secular schools and ridicule the divine right of kings.
Haeckel practically takes over intact the fundamental principles of
Christian ethics, making the Golden Rule the basis of his system,
although characteristically refusing to give Jesus any credit for it
by saying that it had a "polyphyletic origin." He attacks, indeed,
certain extreme forms of it, asceticism, belittlement of family life,
absolute self-sacrifice, etc., but he adopts substantially the moral
standards which the Christian men of his time and environment profess
and endeavor to practice. I do not say that he is wrong to borrow
ethics from Christianity. I do not suppose he could do better. But
he would have done the world great service if, instead of taking a
ready-made ethical system, he had worked it out from his fundamental
principle of evolution, as Spencer, Drummond, and Kropotkin have tried
to do. If, having done this, he had arrived at the same conclusions as
the Christian moralists, his aid would have been invaluable just now,
when, almost for the first time, attacks are made not so much on the
theology as on the ethics of Christianity, and this, too, in the name
of science. The air is filled with questions which arise in Haeckel's
peculiar field. Is, for example, Nietzsche justified in preaching
ruthless egoism as the logical lesson of evolution? Or is it true,
as many now say, that the preservation and protection of the weak in
body and mind necessarily lead to the degeneration of the race? In
the incidental references he makes to these questions,[7] he condemns
Nietzsche, but advocates euthanasia for the hopelessly diseased,
reaching the first conclusion from his "own personal opinion" and the
second from "pure reason." As the individual views of an evolutionist,
these are interesting and even valuable, but they can hardly be
regarded as established principles of the science of evolutionary
ethics.
Haeckel's politics may be summed up by saying that he is anti-clerical
and not much else. He concerns himself little about the form
of government or economic conditions, regarding them indeed as
comparatively unimportant matters.
The monistic and the socialistic movements in Germany are closely
associated, but chiefly, it seems to me, because both are anti-clerical
rather than because the evolutionary philosophy necessarily leads to
either democracy or socialism. Many Social Democrats profess themselves
Monists, and doubtless a large proportion of that party would agree
with Haeckel in the matter of religion. But on the other hand, they
can derive little if any support for their doctrines from the monistic
literature. Haeckel states his opinion with his usual frankness in a
contribution to Maximilian Harden's magazine, which concludes with the
words:
I am certainly no friend of Herr Bebel, who has attacked
me repeatedly, and among other things has slandered me in
his book on Woman. Besides, I hold the utopian aims of
the official social democracy to be impracticable and its
ideal future state to be a big workhouse. That, however,
cannot prevent me from recognizing the kernel of justice
in the great social movement. That this can be overcome by
the repressive acts of the Berlin council, by the power of
the police and of the State prosecutors can be believed
only by one who knows neither the history nor the natural
history of mankind.--_Zukunft_, 1895, No. 18. Quoted in the
introduction to "Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre", p. 9.
The immense popularity of "The Riddle of the Universe" is, I think,
largely to be accounted for by the personality of the author. The man
behind the gun was what gave it power. I do not mean that the reception
given to the book was due to Haeckel's standing as a zoölogist. The
outside world knows little and cares less for scientific reputation.
It was rather that the book revealed a man tremendously in earnest
who had made up his mind on questions of the most vital interest to
all and who said what he thought in the plainest and most emphatic
language, without regard to whose feelings he hurt. "The Riddle of the
Universe" and "The Wonders of Life" are, it seems to me, more valuable
as contributions to the psychology of genius than to philosophy. The
personal interest he aroused is evinced by the thousands of letters he
received and is still receiving about these books, ranging in tone from
the warmly sympathetic to the furiously antagonistic. He years ago had
to give up the task of answering them save by a printed slip.
Few books have ever excited so much heated controversy. Hundreds
of criticisms and replies have been published, and new ones appear
frequently yet, fifteen years after. The book was intended to draw the
fire of the enemy, clericalism, and it did. Nor did the philosophy of
the chair receive it any more favorably. It will be sufficient on this
point to quote the sharp criticism of Professor Friedrich Paulsen, of
Berlin University, whose idealistic monism comes into direct contact
with Haeckel's materialistic monism:
"I have read this book with burning shame for the state of general
culture and the philosophical culture of our people. That such a book
was possible, that it could be written, printed, sold, read, admired,
believed by a people which claims a Kant, a Goethe, a Schopenhauer, is
painful."
It is one of the curiosities of controversy that the Church should
often be found defending with desperation, not her own positions, but
some of the old, abandoned redoubts of Science. This was largely the
case in the evolution controversy. The real "origin of species" was
in the scientific mind. It was Science that discovered that all the
multifarious forms of plant and animal life could be classified into
distinct types, which, it too hastily assumed, were absolutely separate
and fixed. When later Science came to revise that view, it discovered
that the immutability of species had somehow in the meantime become a
theological dogma, to be zealously defended by curates who could not
tell a species from a genus.
It was the same in regard to the theory of spontaneous generation
or the production of living beings from non-living matter. This was
formerly good Christian doctrine, accepted by St. Augustine and taught
by the medieval schoolmen, and when in 1674 the Italian physician,
Francisco Redi, showed that the maggots that appeared in dead matter
came from eggs, he was persecuted for unbelief. But it was still
maintained that microscopic living forms could arise spontaneously
in bouillon and infusions of hay until Pasteur proved that this was
false, for in sealed and sterilized tubes no trace of life appears.
Such negative experiments are, of course, not competent to prove that
at some time and under other conditions life might not be produced from
the non-living. Yet, strangely enough, Haeckel's theological opponents
voluntarily adopted this untenable position and waged war against
him especially on account of his belief that when the earth's crust
cooled down, compounds of cyanic acid were transformed into globules of
albumin, from which developed unicellular organisms.
The only alternative hypothesis to this which has been brought forward
is the one advocated by Arrhenius, that the germs of life might have
been brought from some other planet in meteorites or floating free
in space and propelled by radiant energy. This is apparently not
impossible, but it seems a very violent assumption, much harder of
acceptance than the other, that of abiogenesis. For the wall between
the organic and the inorganic has been broken down completely, and that
between the living and non-living is being tunneled into from both
sides. On the one hand we have been able to construct artificially such
complex organic molecules as sugar and protein. On the other hand, it
has been found possible to produce in siliceous and metallic solutions
mimic cells which grow, move, put forth pseudopodia, select their food,
propagate by fission, and assume many of the characteristic forms of
vegetable and animal life. In more than one laboratory experiments in
the generation of life are still being hopefully carried on, and an
announcement of their success at any time would not amaze biologists in
general. But even though abiogenesis should forever remain impossible
as a laboratory experiment, it would not be untenable as a hypothesis
of the origin of life under the exceptional conditions of some earlier
stage in the world's history. Such a supposition, whether true or not,
is at least no more irreligious than is a recognition of the fact that
non-living matter is being continuously transformed into living within
our own bodies.
The volume invited attack because it was not only intentionally
provocative, but unintentionally vulnerable. One does not have to be
very learned in order to discover in it occasional errors as well as
many extravagant and questionable statements. The fact that few people
could treat of such a wide range of topics without making more mistakes
than Haeckel did not, of course, protect him from criticism. Huxley,
who enjoyed crossing swords with the clergy as much as Haeckel, was
more careful to guard himself from counter attack. If a discussion of
demonology led unexpectedly to the question of the exact status of the
district of Gadara in the Roman Empire, he was prepared to meet his
opponents on that ground as well as in biology. Not so Haeckel. He
picks up his church history from infidel pamphleteers[8] and recklessly
caricatures Christian beliefs. In attacking the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception of Mary he confuses it with that of the Virgin Birth of
Christ, and at the same time uses language needlessly offensive to
those who regard the Mother of Jesus with adoration.[9]
A more serious charge than ignorance of ecclesiastical history was
later brought against Haeckel by Doctor Brass, namely, that he had
fabricated evidence in support of his theory of evolution by falsifying
his drawings of embryos, that he had, among other things, taken
away vertebræ from the tail of a monkey embryo and had extended the
backbone of a human embryo in order to enhance the resemblance. Since
accuracy is the soul of science, this is as serious as it would be, for
instance, to charge a minister with preaching miracles when he does not
believe in them. In his reply Haeckel acknowledged
that a small part of my numerous embryo pictures (perhaps
six or eight per cent) are actually "falsified" (in the
sense of Doctor Brass), all those in fact in which the
material at hand for observation was so incomplete or
unsatisfactory that one was forced to fill up the gaps
by hypothesis and to reconstruct the missing members by
comparative synthesis in order to produce a connected chain
of evolution.
Haeckel emphatically denies any deception or misrepresentation, and
calls attention to the fact that such diagrammatic and reconstructed
drawings are common to all physiological works and are necessary to
bring out the desired points. As to whether Haeckel has transgressed
the permissible limits of such schematization of material I should
not be competent to decide. Thirty-six German men of science signed a
condemnation of Haeckel; forty-seven German men of science, "though
they did not like the kind of schematizing which Haeckel practiced in
some cases", signed a condemnation of Brass and the Keplerbund. The
numbers have no significance, since majorities never decide anything
except the balance of opinion, but the group that stood by Haeckel
contained more embryologists and zoölogists than the other.
So I will dismiss the subject by quoting the opinion of a biologist and
evolutionist who is thoroughly appreciative of Haeckel's contributions
to science. Professor V. L. Kellogg, of Stanford University, in
reviewing the "Evolution of Man" in _Science_, says:
"Biologists are likely to be of two minds concerning the advisability
of putting Haeckel's 'Evolution of Man' into the hands of the lay
reader as a guide and counselor on this most important of evolution
subjects. Haeckel is such a proselytizer, such a scoffer and fighter
of those who differ with him, that plain, 'unadorned statement of
facts and description of things as they are cannot be looked for in
his books. Or, if looked for, cannot be found. But this very eagerness
to convince; this hoisting of a thesis, this fight for Haeckelian
phylogeny and Haeckelian Monism, all make for interest and life in his
writings."
This whole affair is a striking illustration of Huxley's observation
that a controversy always shows an unfortunate tendency to slip from
the question of what is right to the relatively unimportant question
of who is right. Haeckel's critics have rarely attempted to controvert
his scientific work and in fact would not in most cases be competent
to discuss it. Even if he were guilty of all the mistakes alleged, it
would not materially affect his scientific conclusions.
In noting Haeckel's faults, we are in danger of failing to appreciate
the marvelous constructive genius of the man; the creative imagination
which is characteristic of the great scientist even more than of the
great poet. It was this gift that enabled him to discern in a handful
of slime dredged up by the _Challenger_ from the depths of the sea
an orderly system of living beings wherein each microscopic skeleton
of silica found its natural niche. It was this power which enabled
him to assist so largely in the transformation of zoölogy from a
purely observative and descriptive science, as it was when he began
his labors, to a rational, experimental, and prophetic science, as
it was when he closed them. As Cuvier from a few bits of bone could
construct a whole animal, so Haeckel from scattered species ventured
to construct, as early as 1865, a family tree, including all living
forms from monera to man. Faulty it is from the standpoint of our
present knowledge, but yet it must command our admiration because of
the insight he showed in perceiving natural relationships and the skill
with which he bridged the gaps in his living chain by hypothetical
forms. Just as the great Russian chemist Mendeléef was able to describe
in advance elements then unknown, but which were discovered later
and found to fit into the vacant places he had assigned to them in
his periodic law, so Haeckel's anticipations have been in many cases
confirmed by later science. It was his good fortune to be able to
hold in his hand the skullcap and femur of the "missing link" which
had for years been the jest of the anti-evolutionists. The apeman, or
Pithecanthropus, which he had in 1885 described and named, was in 1894
discovered by Dubois in Java. The mind of Haeckel has such high tension
that it leaps over the gaps in a demonstration like a ten thousand volt
current.
His account of how he was led to doubt the dogma of the immutability of
species must be quoted because it is an excellent illustration of the
wisdom of the laboratory adage: "Study the exceptions. They prove some
other rule."
The problem of the constancy or transmutation of species
arrested me with a lively interest, when, twenty years ago,
as a boy of twelve years, I made a resolute but fruitless
effort to determine and distinguish the "good and bad
species" of blackberries, willows, roses, and thistles.
I look back now with fond satisfaction on the concern
and painful skepticism that stirred my youthful spirits
as I wavered and hesitated (in the manner of most "good
classifiers", as we called them) whether to admit only
"good" specimens into my herbarium and reject the "bad",
or to embrace the latter and form a complete chain of
transitional forms between the "good species" that would
make an end of all their "goodness." I got out of the
difficulty at the time by a compromise that I can recommend
to all classifiers. I made two collections. One, arranged
on official lines, offered to the sympathetic observer all
the species, in "typical" specimens, as radically distinct
forms, each decked with its pretty label; the other was a
private collection, only shown to one trusted friend, and
contained only the rejected kinds that Goethe so happily
called "the characterless or disorderly races, which we
hardly dare ascribe to a species, as they lose themselves
in infinite varieties", such as rubus, salix, verbascum,
hieracium, rosa, cirsium, etc. In this a large number of
specimens, arranged in a long series, illustrated the direct
transition from one good species to another. They were the
officially forbidden fruit of knowledge, in which I took a
secret boyish delight in my leisure hours.--Bölsche's "Life
of Haeckel", p. 38.
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel, to give him for once his full
baptismal name, was born in Potsdam, February 16, 1834. He has a double
inheritance of talent, for both the Haeckels and the Sethes, his
mother's family, have contributed prominent names to German history,
and the two families have intermarried more than once. It is a curious
fact that Gustav Freytag, in his series of "Pictures from the German
Past", should have chosen for his representative men of the nineteenth
century two of Haeckel's ancestors: his mother's father, Christopher
Sethe, Privy Councilor and defender of Prussia against Napoleon, and
his father, Karl Haeckel, State Councilor.
But Ernst did not follow the family tradition and take to the law. He
showed an unmistakable bent for natural science, so, as a compromise
profession, his father had him trained as a physician. He took the
medical course, and in obedience to his father's wishes consented to
practice the profession for a year to see if he could make a success
of it. During the year only three patients came to him, owing perhaps
to the fact that Haeckel in order to get time for his biological
researches had fixed his consultation hours from five to six in the
morning. His father then gave up trying to make a doctor out of him and
allowed him to go to Messina in 1859 to study marine animals. Haeckel
straightway became engaged to his cousin Anna Sethe, and as soon as he
got his appointment at Jena married her. Their happiness was brief.
Two years later she died, leaving Haeckel, then thirty, so stricken
that he felt that he could not long survive the blow, so he plunged
with feverish haste into the preparation of his "General Morphology" in
order to leave to the world his science and philosophy in a systematic
form. It was written and printed, two thick volumes of more than twelve
hundred pages, in less than a year, during which Haeckel lived like a
hermit, working all day long and half the night, getting barely three
or four hours sleep out of the twenty-four.
Haeckel immortalized his wife by giving her a living monument instead
of one of marble or brass. He named for her one of his beloved medusæ,
a fairy-like jellyfish, whose mass of long, trailing tentacles reminded
him of his wife's blond hair. The Mitrocoma Ann? is described in his
"Monograph on the Medusæ", published in 1864, and a note states that it
was so named[10]
in memory of my dear, never-to-be-forgotten wife, Anna
Sethe. If it is given to me to do something during my
earthly pilgrimage for science and humanity, I owe it for
the most part to the blessed influence of my gifted wife,
who was torn from me by a premature end in 1864.
Three years afterwards he married again, Agnes Huschke, daughter of a
Jena anatomist. They have three children, two daughters and a son, who
has inherited his father's artistic talent and has devoted himself to
art in Munich.
Haeckel's æsthetic taste is shown not merely in the thousands of
paintings and drawings that fill his monographs, but especially in
his "Art Forms of Nature", which consists of ten portfolios of large
color plates depicting strange and beautiful creatures from all realms
of animal life but particularly in little known lower forms, fishes,
crustaceans, corals, radiolaria, diatoms, and desmids. Here are to
be seen real gargoyles, more grotesque than a sculptor's unaided
imagination can create. Here the designer and decorator can find
hundreds of suggestive themes for almost any purpose, so they have no
excuse for repeating the trite and traditional forms as they do.
A large part of these "art forms" Haeckel discovered in the course
of his investigations of deep-sea life on the material gathered by
the _Challenger,_ which was commissioned by the British Government
in 1872-1875 to explore the ocean. The results of this expedition,
published in fifty large volumes, constituted the greatest contribution
to oceanography that has ever been made. Haeckel contributed the
volumes on the medusæ, the siphonophora, the keratosa, and the
radiolaria. To the radiolaria Haeckel devoted ten years, 1877-1887, and
described 4318 species and 739 genera, from the curiously complicated
siliceous skeletons deposited on the bottom of the ocean by these
minute one-celled creatures.
Although Haeckel's life was largely devoted to the closest study of the
minutest forms of life, yet he never lost sight of the broader aspects
of his science. It seems as though he felt the need of resting his eyes
by raising them from the microscope and looking out of the window to
focus on infinity. Haeckel is essentially a specialist with a fondness
for generalization. He welcomed the change in the current of thought
that set in at the close of the nineteenth century, the effort of the
new century to get at the inner meaning of the mass of miscellaneous
facts that the old century had heaped up. It was with intent to assist
in this movement that he produced, at the age of sixty-five, his
"Riddle of the Universe", intending this to be the final expression of
his view of the world, a fragmentary sketch instead of the complete
"System of Monistic Philosophy" which he had projected many years
ago and could not now hope to complete. But five years later he
supplemented this with a similar popular volume, "The Wonders of Life",
in which he replies to certain criticisms and explains the biological
principles on which his philosophy is based. This, unlike the "Riddle",
was not composed at various intervals in the course of many years, but
was written uninterruptedly during four months spent at Rapallo, on the
Italian Riviera, when he was
stimulated by the constant sight of the blue Mediterranean,
the countless inhabitants of which had, for fifty years,
afforded such ample material for my biological studies;
and my solitary walks in the wild gorges of the Ligurian
Apennines and the moving spectacle of its forest-crowned
altars, inspired me with a feeling of the unity of living
nature--a feeling that only too easily fades away in the
study of detail in the laboratory.
Professor Haeckel retired from active service as teacher and
investigator in 1909 at the age of seventy-five. "Indeed I am wholly
a child of the nineteenth century and with its close I draw the line
under my life's work," he said, and the publication of "The Wonders of
Life" in 1904 confirms rather than contradicts this, for it shows that
he maintains his position altogether unshaken by the revolution that
has taken place in philosophic thought. Like Herbert Spencer he lived
to see a reaction against many of the opinions for which he fought most
earnestly.
The nineteenth century was cocksure of so many things about which the
twentieth century doubts. We are not so certain that, as Haeckel says,
everything can be reduced to the motion of the atoms. The atom itself
is crumbling, and as for motion, what is it? The ether in the reality
of which Haeckel puts implicit faith is to us a doubtful, perhaps an
unnecessary, hypothesis. Vitalism and teleology are coming back again
into biology in new forms. Pluralism, not monism, is the fashion of
the day, and some carry it almost to polytheism. Indeterminism finds
more advocates nowadays than determinism. Haeckel makes the first law
of thermodynamics (conservation of energy) one of the corner stones of
his philosophy, but has little regard for the second (degradation of
energy). Modern thought considers the second law more important than
the first.[11]
And what shall we say about the "Law of Substance", which is Haeckel's
contribution to the fundamental principles and which he apparently
regards as of equal importance to the discoveries of Lavoisier and
Mayer?[12] Speaking for myself, the reason I cannot accept it is
because it is absolutely meaningless to me. We know what the law of the
conservation of matter means. It means, among other things, that 12
pounds of carbon when burned make 44 pounds of carbon dioxid, which we
may decompose and get back 12 pounds of carbon again. The law of the
conservation of energy means, among other things, that when we burn 12
pounds of carbon we produce 135,305,600 foot pounds of energy. But what
does it mean when we say that matter and energy, or body and spirit,
are somehow the same substance? Have we said more than when we affirmed
the two laws separately? Even if true, does it make a bit of difference
to anybody or anything; or to put the query into the pragmatic form,
can it be true if it does not make a bit of difference to anybody or
anything? But we must bear in mind that the rigid application of this
formula to many historic attempts to solve the "riddle of the universe"
would leave less of them intact than in the case of Haeckel.
The Christian reader is likely, in his irritation at what appears to
him to be willful misrepresentation of his beliefs, to be too sweeping
in his condemnation of the ideas of Haeckel. Even in the matter of
religion Haeckel is not nearly so heretical as he assumes or is
presumed to be. Many of the things he attacks are almost unrecognizable
caricatures of modern religious views. It should be remembered that
the "Riddle" and the "Wonders" were written at a time when he saw
the German Government coming under the domination of the Blue-Black
Block, and when it seemed to him that this coalition of conservatives
and clericals threatened to suppress free speech and to check the
advance of science. In his earlier writings his views are expressed
in much more conciliatory language. Indeed, his pantheism is hardly
distinguishable at times from theories of divine immanence such as are
now held very commonly in orthodox churches. Wherein lies the magic of
the word "Monism" if not in our ingrained prejudice in favor of unity,
inherited from the fierce monotheism of the Jews? Is not Haeckel then
borrowing the thunders of Sinai to enforce his new religion?
His "General Morphology" of 1866, which, as he told me, he prefers to
his later works as an expression of his philosophy, concludes with the
following passage:
Our philosophy knows only one God, and this Almighty God
dominates the whole of nature without exception. We see his
activity in all phenomena without exception. The whole of
the inorganic world is subject to him just as much as the
organic. If a body falls fifteen feet in the first second in
empty space, if three atoms of oxygen unite with one atom of
sulphur to form sulphuric acid, if the angle that is formed
by the contiguous surfaces of a column of rock-crystal is
always 120°, these phenomena are just as truly the direct
action of God as the flowering of the plant, the movement
of the animal, or the thought of man. We all exist "by
the grace of God", the stone as well as the water, the
radiolarian as well as the pine, the gorilla as well as the
Emperor of China. No other conception of God except this
that sees his spirit and force in all natural phenomena is
worthy of his all-enfolding greatness; only when we trace
all forces and all movements, all the forms and properties
of matter, to God, as the sustainer of all things, do we
reach the human idea and reverence for him that really
corresponds to his infinite greatness. In him we live, and
move, and have our being. Thus does natural philosophy
become a theology. The cult of nature passes into that
service of God of which Goethe says: "Assuredly there is no
nobler reverence for God than that which springs up in our
heart for conversation with nature." God is almighty: he is
the sole sustainer and cause of all things. In other words,
God is the universal law of causality. God is absolutely
perfect; he cannot act in any other than a perfectly good
manner; he cannot therefore act arbitrarily or freely--God
is necessity. God is the sum of all force, and therefore
of all matter. Every conception of God that separates him
from matter, and opposes to him a sum of forces that are
not of a divine nature, leads to amphitheism (or ditheism)
and on to polytheism. In showing the unity of the whole of
nature, Monism points out that only one God exists, and that
this God reveals himself in all the phenomena of nature. In
grounding all the phenomena of organic or inorganic nature
on the universal law of causality, and exhibiting them as
the outcome of "efficient causes", Monism proves that God
is the necessary cause of all things and the law itself. In
recognizing none but divine forces in nature, in proclaiming
all natural laws to be divine, Monism rises to the greatest
and most lofty conception of which man, the most perfect of
all things, is capable, the conception of the unity of God
and nature.
* * * * *
HOW TO READ HAECKEL
"The Riddle of the Universe" (Harper) is the best popular presentation
of science and philosophy from Haeckel's point of view. This may be
supplemented by "The Wonders of Life" (Harper), in which he develops
more fully the biological side and defends himself against certain
criticisms. To these should be added the very interesting life of
Haeckel by W. Bölsche (Jacobs). Cheap editions of these three are
published by the Rationalist Press Association, London. They, as well
as other works of Haeckel, are translated by Joseph McCabe.
"The Natural History of Creation" (Appleton) and "The Evolution of
Man" (Appleton or Putnam) are both intended to explain in a way
comprehensible to the general reader the fundamental principles of
the theory of evolution and the biological facts on which it is
based. Special addresses by Haeckel are translated under the titles
of: "Monism as Connecting Religion and Science" (Macmillan) and "Last
Words on Evolution" (New York). Of his "Indische Reisebilder" there are
two versions in English; one by Mrs. S. E. Boggs entitled "India and
Ceylon", which is neither literal nor complete, and one by Clara Bell,
"A Visit to Ceylon" (Eckler), which is better. On the personal side may
be read Herman Schauffauer's sketches, "Haeckel, a Colossus of Science"
(_North American Review_, August, 1910), and "A Talk with Haeckel at
Home", in _T. P.'s Magazine_, 1912; Elbert Hubbard's "Little Journeys
to the Homes of Great Scientists", and Joseph McCabe's "A Scientist's
Sunset Years", in _Harper's Weekly,_ August 7, 1909. A few of the more
noteworthy of the books and articles on Haeckelism in English are:
"Life and Matter", by Sir Oliver Lodge, a criticism from the standpoint
of a spiritualist; the discussion between Lodge and McCabe in _Hibbert
Journal_, Vol. Ill, pp. 315 and 741; "The World View of a Scientist",
by Frank Thilly in _Popular Science Monthly,_ Vol. LXI, pp. 407-425;
"Ernst Haeckel, Darwinist, Monist", by V. L. Kellogg, in _Popular
Science Monthly_, _Vol._ LXXVI, pp. 136-142; "Haeckel and Monism", by
J. Butler Burke, in _Oxford and Cambridge Review_, 1907; "Lucretius and
Haeckel", by F. B. R. Hellems, in "University of Colorado Studies",
Vol. Ill, 1905; "Religion as a Credible Doctrine", by W. H. Mallock;
"Haeckel's Monism False", by Reverend F. Ballard; "The Old Riddle and
the Newest Answer", by Father Gerard; "Haeckel's Critics Answered", by
Joseph McCabe (London: Rationalist Press); "Haeckel's Answer to the
Jesuits" (New York: _Truthseeker_); "Haeckel and His Methods", by R.
L. Mangan, in the _Catholic World_, May, 1909. The monism of Doctor
Paul Cams, of Chicago, is a different variety from Haeckel's as he has
pointed out in the Monist, Vol. II, p. 498; Vol. IV, p. 228; and Vol.
XVI, p. 120.
Of the immense body of literature in German on Haeckel it is impossible
to give more than a few selected titles. The bibliography appended to
"Ernst Haeckel: Versuch einer Chronik seines Lebens und Wirkens" by
Walther May (Leipzig: Barth, 1909) devotes fourteen pages to the titles
of Haeckel's writings, four pages to a list of biographical books and
sketches, and thirteen pages to a list of criticisms and discussions of
Haeckelism.
"Die Welträtsel" and "Die Lebenswunder" are published by Alfred Kröner,
Leipzig. The epitome of Haeckel's philosophy, which is given almost
entire in the preceding pages, is to be found in "Der Monistenbund",
_Thesen zur Organisation des Monismus_ (Neuer Frankfurter Verlag).
Other works of Haeckel of a general and philosophical character are:
"Natürliche Schöpfungs-Geschichte" (Berlin: Reimer); "Anthropogenic
oder Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschens" (Leipzig: Engelmann);
"Generalle Morphologie der Organismen" (Reimer); "Systematische
Phylogenie" (Reimer); "Der Kampf um den Entwickelungs-Gedanken"
(Reimer); "Der Monismus als Band zwischen Religion und Wissenschaft"
(Kröner); "Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre", the reply to Virchow
(Kröner); "Das Weltbild von Darwin und Lamarck", the centenary address
on Darwin's, birthday (Kröner).
Haeckel's travel sketches are to be found in "Indische Reisebriefe"
(Berlin: Paetel) and "Aus Insulinde" (Kröner). Even one who reads no
German will find enjoyment and gain an appreciation of the artistic
side of Haeckel by looking over the color plates in "Kunstformen der
Natur" (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut) or "Wanderbilder" (Gera:
Köhler).
A remarkable tribute of world-wide affection is the volume issued on
his eightieth birthday, "Was wir Ernst Haeckel verdanken" (Leipzig:
Verlag Unesma), to which one hundred and twenty-five men and women
contributed,--savants, artists, workingmen, officials, and businessmen.
The monistic movement may be followed by the pamphlets of the society
which may be obtained ordinarily from the Verlag Unesma, Leipzig.
Some of the more interesting of these _Flugschriften_ are: "Friedrich
Paulsen über Ernst Haeckel", by Albrecht Rau; "Reinke contra
Haeckel", by Heinrich Schmidt; "Eine neue Reformation vom Christentum
zum Monismus", by Hannah Dorsch and Arnold Dodel; "Monismus und
Christentum", by Heinrich Schmidt; "Monismus und Klerikalismus", by J.
Unold; "Das Einheit der physikochemischen Wissenschaften", by Wilhelm
Ostwald; "Die einheitliche Weltanschauung", by Ernst Diesing: this last
urges the Monists to support the peace and conservation movements.
The official organ is _Das monistische Jahrhundert_, a weekly edited
by Ostwald and published by the Verlag Unesma, Leipzig. The issue for
February 14, 1914, is, in honor of his eightieth birthday, devoted to
Haeckel. For the history of monistic philosophy in general from the
Greeks to the present time see "Der Monismus", by various authors,
under the editorship of Arthur Drews (Jena: Diederich, 1908) or
"Geschichte des Monismus", by Rudolf Eisler (Leipzig: Kröner).
Of the expository and controversial literature, pro and con, it must
suffice to mention the following titles: "Die Weltanschauung Haeckel",
by Max Upel (Berlin-Schoenberg; Buchverlag der Hilfe), a brief and
fairminded critique; "Ernst Haeckel, ein Bild seines Lebens und
seiner Arbeit", by Wilhelm Breitenbach (Brackwede i. W.: Verlag von
Breitenbach & Hoerster), a tribute to the master on his seventieth
birthday; "Haeckel's Welträthsel nach ihren starken und ihren schwachen
Seite", by Julius Baumann (Leipzig: Diederich, 1900); "Anti-Haeckel",
by F. Loofs, Professor of Theology in Halle; "Philosophia Militans" by
F. Paulsen, Professor of Philosophy in Berlin. A good account of the
Haeckel-Paulsen controversy by Theodor Lorenz may be found in _Deutsche
Literaturzeitung_, March 12, 1910, and later.
[1] An undergraduate friend of mine to whom I referred these verses for
translation into the vernacular of the campus gives me this version:
Who knows the truth and speaks not out
He is indeed a sorry lout!
Who knows the truth and speaks too loose
In Berlin gets in the calaboose!
[2] This is _not_ to be translated, as I once heard a student give it,
"Haeckel's one-sided showing-up of the universe."
[3] "Thesen zur Organization des Monism."
[4] "Riddle of the Universe", p. 363.
[5] "Wonders of Life", p. 430.
[6] _Ibid._, p. 248.
[7] "Wonders of Life", pp. 115 and 119.
[8] President Thomas, of Middlebury College, exposed the source of his
theory that the father of Christ was a Roman officer named Pandera in
_The Independent_, Vol. 64, p. 515.
[9] Some of the more offensive of these passages are modified or
eliminated in the later editions of "Die Welträtsel."
[10] Another medusa also named for his wife, Demomema Annasethe,
will be found on one of the color plates of the New International
Encyclopedia (Vol. XII, p. 68).
[11] The significance of this change of emphasis in its bearing on
metaphysical, religious, and ethical ideas I endeavored to explain in
the preceding chapter.
[12] See Number 20 of the thirty theses given above.
End of Project Gutenberg's Major Prophets of To-Day, by Edwin E. Slosson