

GROWTH OF IDEAS 279 



animals, and trace *the whole parallel of its em- 

 bryonic and ancestral development down to its 

 finest details. It would serve as an excellent 

 object-lesson. He would take it, not from some 

 remote corner of the system, such as the sponges or 

 medusae, but from the very top of the tree, where 

 palingenesis and cenogenesis seemed to have 

 culminated in an inextricable confusion. But what 

 example could be more appropriate and effective 

 than the most advanced of all living things 

 man. He would write a monograph on man on 

 an entirely new method; would show ontogeny 

 and phylogeny confirming each other down to 

 the smallest detail. It was another great enter- 

 prise. And this particular subject was so inte- 

 resting that it would appeal strongly to the general 

 readers of his History of Creation as well as to 

 the academic scientists. Man was a subject of 

 such obviousness and importance to the layman 

 that in this case there was really no professional 

 limitation of interest at all. Every detail in the 

 most technical treatment of the subject would be 

 taken into account, and evoked his strongest 

 sympathy. 



When Haeckel had fully matured this plan, 

 he produced his Anthropogeny.* The word, 

 founded on the Greek, means the " genesis" or 

 "evolution of man." 



The work is a very able combination of two 



* The fifth edition is translated into English, with all the 

 plates and illustrations, under the title of The Evolution of 

 Man. [Trans.] 



