146 Contemporary Evolution. 



of the human race from other primitive ape-like mam- 

 mals." 



He speaks (p. 75) of the time " when man, first devel- 

 oping out of the monkey state, began for the first time 

 to think MORE closely (!) about himself, and about the 

 origin of the world around him " ! It would be inter- 

 esting to catch one of our monkeys in the Regent's 

 Park thinking " loosely " about the origin of the world, 

 and to photograph its aspect while so occupied. 



Very amusing, however, are Haeckel's remarks as to 

 the wonderful results which are to follow a general ac- 

 quaintance with the simple facts of human embryonic 

 development, with which mysteries he naively imagines 

 " speculative philosophers " and " theologians " are not 

 acquainted. He tells us (p. 295), "These facts are not 

 calculated to excite approval among those who assume 

 a, thorough difference between man and the rest of 

 nature " ! Surely it is time that a man like Haeckel, 

 who has done good service with respect to anatomical 

 and zoological facts, should cease to give utterance to 

 such mere enfantillage. 



The wonderful manner, however, in which his mental 

 vision is, not so much obscured as inverted, by prejudice 

 (which we may hope is due rather to defective education 

 than to bad will), is made unmistakably plain by the fol- 

 lowing passage from his " Generelle Morphologic der 

 Organismen," vol. ii., p. 436, in which he declares that 





