MONISM AND EVOLUTION. 239 



Compassionate the chain, in dark, unhealthy prisons ; 

 The axe and the block are two doleful beings, 

 The axe surfers as much as the body, the block 

 as much as the head." 



The Religion of the Future. 



Such, in brief outline, are the leading conclu- 

 sions of Haeckel's teachings in science and philoso- 

 phy. What, now, are his views on religion? For his 

 friends and disciples assert that he is not only a 

 great scientist, and a great philosopher, but that he 

 is also to be saluted as the prophet and high-priest 

 of the religion of science, which means, we are 

 assured, the religion of the future. According to a 

 recent exponent of Haeckelism, " We find the reli- 

 gious history of our race to consist of a gradual Evo- 

 lution of its leading peoples from a broad base of 

 general Animism and Fetichism, thence to astrology, 

 thence to Polytheism, thence to Monotheism, and 

 thence to Scientism, expressed chiefly to us in the 

 Pantheism of Goethe, the Positivism of Comte, the 

 Synthetism of Spencer, the Cosmism of Fiske, and 

 finally by the Monism of Haeckel."" His new form 



! " Sache que tout connait sa loi, son but, sa route ; . . 

 Que tout a conscience en la creation . . . 



Vents, ondes, flammes, 



Arbres, roseaux, rochers, tout vit ! Toutest plein d'ames. 

 Ayez pitie ! Voyez ames dans les choses . . . 

 Plaignez le prisonnier, mais plaignez le verrou ; 

 Plaignez la chaine au fond des bagnes insalubres ; 

 La bache et le billot sont deux Stres lugubres ; 

 La hache souffre autant que le corps, le billot 

 Souffre autant que la tfite." 



" Les Contemplations." Tom. II, p. 315. 

 2 " Evolution in Science, Philosophy and Art, 1 ' p. 41. 



