THE "GENERAL MORPHOLOGY" 173 



tions from the facts already provided by two 

 sciences, and to reconstruct these sciences from 

 their foundations on the basis of the new theory. 

 At that time Haeckel was doing an incredible 

 amount of work, with body and mind. He had 

 an iron constitution. In the year of the Stettin 

 speech he won a laurel crown at the Leipsic 

 athletic festival for the long jump, with a leap of 

 twenty feet. His physical strength seemed so 

 inexhaustible that his host, Engelmann, put a 

 pair of heavy iron dumb-bells in his bed, in case 

 he should want to take exercise during the night. 

 He had a proportionate strength of mind. Every- 

 thing seemed to promise very well for the next 

 few years, so that he could devote his whole health 

 and strength to the great task of his life. His 

 teaching did not give him very much trouble in 

 a small university like Jena, that was only just 

 beginning to have a scientific name. The happi- 

 ness of his home life, with a highly gifted woman 

 who shared all his ideas with the freshness of 

 youth, began to chain the restless wanderer with 

 pleasant bonds to his place. He, of course, ex- 

 pected to have his sea-holiday in the old way for 

 the study of his little marine treasures, but other- 

 wise he remained quietly in the valley of the Saale. 

 The warmth of genial and most stimulating 

 friendships gathered about his life. With his 

 comfortable material position he set to work 

 on his great task under the best auspices. 



He would have had at the start material enough 

 to work upon without Darwin. From Miiller's 



