536 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



theory of evolution in Germany, where the rapid progress of 

 true ideas was in no small measure due to his activity. In 

 philosophy he is chiefly identified with the kind of materialism 

 prevailing last century — and with a monism which, if it appears 

 crude and ill-thought-out in these times, was nevertheless a 

 great advance on what had gone before. His present unpopu- 

 larity in England is not altogether well justified. There were 

 faults in his view of the universe, no doubt ; but a true theory 

 cannot be achieved in a day ; and it is fairer to compare his 

 philosophy, not with what we know now, but with the philo- 

 sophy of his contemporaries, whom he attacked. But they 

 are past and forgotten altogether. Their views, if revived, 

 would excite only a smile ; the victory was to Haeckel and 

 not to them ; and it is strong testimony to the strength of his 

 philosophy that even now it is sufficiently alive to excite serious 

 hostility ; and that, too, though the public in general would 

 much sooner have forgotten him than his antagonists, if they 

 could. Science moves step by step ; and it is scarcely gracious 

 to attack a man who moved a few steps upwards, merely 

 because he did not climb the whole staircase. He accelerated 

 the rate of progress ; both in zoology and philosophy he did 

 work from which others could take their start and continue 

 moving forwards. 



Haeckel has also been criticised on account of his very 

 embittered attitude towards England during the war. We are 

 bound to confess that it was unworthy and even contemptible. 

 But let us not forget that he was over eighty when the war 

 broke out, and surrounded on every side by violent prejudice 

 and emotion. It is not to be expected that the mind of a 

 man at that age should retain sufficient strength to stand 

 out against the popular storm, and see things clearly in the 

 wild emotional hurricane of war. It is not only more chari- 

 table, it is far more true, to see in this perversion of judgment 

 an inevitable symptom of senility ; the senility of an old 

 man who had worked out his life in the arduous pursuit of 

 science, and defiance of popularity. Had he been a younger 

 man, the case would have been different ; but so also, if we 

 may judge by the whole tenor of his life and opinions, would 

 have been his views. Haeckel's permanent reputation is 

 assured as a leader of nineteenth-century thought. 



PURE MATHEMATICS. By Dorothy M. Wrinch, University College, 

 London. 



The Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, series 2, 

 vol. 18, part 3, issued in September 191 9, is an exceptionally 

 interesting number. It contains two long papers, dealing 



