146 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



From the Primitive Worm to the Skulled Animal/ 

 and which has for its motto the lines of Goethe 

 beginning 



Not like the gods am I ! full well I know ; 

 But like the worms which in the dust must go. 



Both in prose and poetry man is very often compared 

 to a worm ; a miserable worm, a poor worm/ are com 

 mon and also compassionate phrases. If we cannot detect 

 any deep phylogenetic reference in this zoological metaphor, 

 we might at least safely assert that it contains an unconscious 

 comparison with a low condition of animal development, 

 which is interesting in its bearing on the pedigree of the 

 human race. 



If Haeckel s reading of Scripture had been suffi 

 ciently thorough, he might have quoted here the 

 melancholy confession of the man of Uz : I have 

 said to the worm, Thou art my mother and my 

 sister/ But though Job, like the German professor, 

 could humbly say to the worm, Thou art my mother/ 

 he could still hold fast his integrity, and believe in 

 the fatherhood of God. 



The moral bearing of monism is further illus 

 trated by the following extract, \vhich refers to a 

 more advanced step of the evolution that from the 

 ape to man, and which shows the honest pride of the 

 worthy professor in his humble parentage : 



/ Just as most people prefer to trace their pedigree from 

 a decayed baron, or if possible from a celebrated prince, 

 rather than from an unknown humble peasant, so they 

 prefer seeing the progenitor of the human race in an Adam 



