MONISTIC EVOLUTION 119 



taken as the best presentation of monistic, that is, 

 atheistic and materialistic, evolution. 



Haeckel is an eminent comparative anatomist and 

 physiologist, who has earned a wide and deserved 

 reputation by his able and laborious studies of the 

 calcareous sponges, the radiolarians, and other low 

 forms of life. In his work on The Evolution of Man, 

 he applies this knowledge to the solution of the 

 problem of the origin of humanity, and sets himself 

 not only to illustrate but to prove the descent of 

 our species from the simplest animal types, and even 

 to overwhelm with scorn every other explanation of 

 the appearance of man, except that of spontaneous 

 evolution. The book is full of important facts well 

 stated. The great reputation of the author has given 

 it a wide currency, and it has been translated and 

 reprinted both in England and America, and there 

 can be little doubt that it has exercised an important 

 influence, more especially upon young men of the 

 educated classes, while it has furnished the armoury 

 of many lesser combatants on the same side. It 

 merits, therefore, a careful examination, both as to its 

 data and the manner of treatment of the subject. To 

 understand the latter, it will be necessary in the first 

 place to glance at Haeckel s personal position with 

 reference to the study of Nature. 



He is not merely an evolutionist, but what he terms 

 a monist/ and the monistic philosophy, as defined 

 by him, includes certain negations and certain positive 



