142 HAECKEL 



only in that way can we get rid of the mountain 

 of prejudice that at present covers the subject.' 

 I share this view entirely, " Haeckel continues, 

 " and on that account feel that I must express 

 here my belief in the mutability of species and 

 the real genealogical relation of all organisms. 

 Although I hesitate to accept Darwin's views and 

 hypotheses to the full and to endorse the whole of 

 his argument, I cannot but admire the earnest, 

 scientific attempt made in his work to explain all 

 the phenomena of organic nature on broad and 

 consistent principles and to substitute an in- 

 telligible natural law for unintelligible miracles. 

 There may be more error than truth in Darwin's 

 theory in its present form, as the first attempt 

 to deal with the subject. Undeniably important 

 as are the principles of natural selection, the 

 struggle for life, the relation of organisms to each 

 other, the divergence of characters, and all the 

 other principles employed by Darwin in support of 

 his theory, it is, nevertheless, quite possible that 

 there are just as many and important principles 

 still quite unknown to us that have an equal or 

 even greater influence on the phenomena of organic 

 nature. This is the first great attempt to con- 

 struct a scientific, physiological theory of the 

 development of organic life and to prove that the 

 physiological laws and the chemical and physical 

 forces that rule in nature to-day must also have 

 been at work in the world of yesterday." Haeckel 

 then refers to Bronn, the translator of the book. 

 With Bronn he calls Darwin's theory the fertilised 



