MONISM AND EVOLUTION. 243 



For those who are familiar with the life-work of 

 the Jena professor, and know how blindly the multi- 

 tude follow one who is looked upon as an authority 

 in science, how prone they are to hero worship, there 

 will be no difficulty in answering those questions and 

 in reconciling what are, at least, apparent contradic- 

 tions. 



Haeckel's Limitations. 



Haeckel, no one questions it, has achieved de- 

 served eminence in his chosen field of work. But 

 Haeckel is a specialist, an ardent specialist, and his 

 limitations are very strongly marked. As a student 

 of the lower forms of life, to which he has devoted 

 the greater portion of his time, he has probably no 

 superior, and but few peers. But the very ardor with 

 which he has cultivated science, and forced every- 

 thing to corroborate a pet theory, has made him one- 

 sided and circumscribed in his views of the cosmos 

 as a whole, so as practically to incapacitate him for 

 the discussion of general questions of science and 

 philosophy, and much more those of theology. 

 Like all specialists, he suffers from intellectual my- 

 opia, and it is almost inevitable that such should be 

 the case. He examines everything as he would a 

 microbe or a speck of protoplasm, under the ob- 

 jective of his microscope. He applies the methods 

 of induction to questions of metaphysics, and con- 

 founds the principles of metaphysics with the data of 

 experimental science. The result, as might be an- 

 ticipated, is to "make confusion worse confounded." 

 For such a one, the only cure is a broader knowledge 

 and a rigid and systematic drill in the fundamental 



