HAECKEL AND THE MONISTIC CREED 43 



of the Rationalist Press Association it was translated into 

 English with the title "The Riddle of the Universe," and became 

 at once the storm-centre of controversy. It was read eagerly 

 by intelligent working men, and added fuel to their hostility to 

 the churches. It was hailed as a new evangel by the earnest 

 group led by Robert Blatchford and the Clarion newspaper.* 

 Sir Oliver Lodge wrote an able refutation from the scientific 

 point of view in "Life and Matter," and many books and 

 pamphlets in defence of religion testified to the strength of the 

 impression which had been created. 1 



The position of "The Riddle of the Universe" is frankly 

 materialistic. Everything rests ultimately upon a purely phy- 

 sical basis. Psychology is only physiology under another name. 

 Consciousness is a matter of physics and chemistry. Rigid 

 determinism rules everywhere: "The freedom of the will is not 

 an object for critical scientific inquiry at all, for it is a pure 

 dogma, based on an illusion, and has no real existence." This 

 sentence is a good illustration of Haeckel's attitude to every 

 form of religious thought. His vehement dogmatism at first 

 arrested attention and then began to -excite misgiving. Incident- 

 ally "The Riddle of the Universe" contains an attack upon 

 Christianity, but in the sphere of historical investigation Haeckel 

 had no expert knowledge. The chapter on science and Chris- 

 tianity is an unfortunate illustration of the overruling by prej- 

 udice of a mind of great original power. It is the partisan 

 performance of a pamphleteer for whom evidence has ceased 

 to exist* 



No one will wish to question his achievements 

 as a scientist, but no one can deny his charlatanry 

 as a philosopher or the brazenness with which he 

 perpetrated his criminal frauds. 7 His offenses 

 against humanity, which far out-balanced his ser- 



4 Representing the extreme atheistic Socialism. 

 'The Catholic answer was given in "The Old Riddle and the 

 Newest Answer," by Father John Gerard, S. J. (Longmans). 

 9 Quoted in the Bombay Examiner, Sept. 27, 1919. 

 T See "Haeckel's Frauds and Forgeries," Assmuth and Hull. 



