THE "GENERAL MORPHOLOGY" 193 



by calling his work the " Morphology of Organ- 

 isms," or the science of the forms of animals and 

 plants. 



But there was one danger in the conception 

 of a morphology of animals and plants, namely, 

 the danger of taking it to mean a purely external 

 description : so many thousand species of plants, 

 soberly described, labelled, and numbered, a huge 

 cabinet of stuffed skins, a herbarium of hay. A 

 whole scientific school had really taken it in this 

 sense since Goethe's time ; much as if one were to 

 think aesthetics consisted simply in forming an 

 illustrated catalogue of all the art-treasures in the 

 world, a realistic catalogue in which the marble 

 statues from the Parthenon and the Moses of 

 Michael Angelo would simply be given as number 

 so-and-so in class so-and-so. 



Haeckel was preserved from this school by his 



nore immediate masters, as well as by Goethe 



limself ; firstly by Johannes Miiller, then by the 



)otanist Schleiden, finally by the influence of 



3-egenbaur. There was at the time enough, and 



nore than enough, of this external museum- 



'. norphology. It was far from Haeckel 's intention 



! o produce a new compendium, in several volumes, 



; >f this kind of science of plants and animals. 



; lis morphology was to be " general," to have a 



r >roader range, be a programme. As Richard 



. lertwig said very happily at a later date, he 



aw his science, not as it then was, but as it ought 



o be, in his opinion. 



The science of forms was to be in the fullest sense 



13 



