20 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



further elucidation of his views Haeckel says: ""The 

 two fundamental forms of substance, ponderable matter 

 and ether, are not dead, and only moved by extrinsic 

 force ; but they are endowed with sensation and will 

 (though, naturally, of the lowest grade) ; they experience 

 an inclination for condensation, a dislike of strain ; they 

 strive after the one and struggle against the other." ^ 



With regard to the metaphorical expression of 

 chemical " affinities," which Haeckel regards as actual, 

 he says : " Every shade of inclination from complete 

 indifference to the fiercest passion is exemplified in the 

 chemical relation of the various elements towards each 

 other, just as we find in the psychology of man, and 

 especially in the life of the sexes. . . . The irresistible 

 passion that draws Paris to Helen, and leaps over all 

 bounds of reason and morality, is the same powerful 

 ' unconscious ' attractive force which impels the living 

 spermatozoon to force an entrance into the ovum in the 

 fertilisation of the egg of the animal or plant — the same 

 impetuous movement which unites two atoms of hydro- 

 gen to one atom of oxygen for the formation of a mole- 

 cule of water. . . . Even the n^oui is not without a 

 rudimentary form of sensation and will. The same 

 must be said of the molecules which are composed of 

 two or more atoms." - Hence Haeckel deduces the 

 presence of a universal "soul," both in atoms, molecules 

 and their compounds ; and subsequently in living cells 

 up to man. 



With regard to ether he says : " Ether is boundless 

 and immeasurable, like the space it occupies. It is in 

 eternal motion ; and this specific movement of Ether (it 

 is immaterial whether we conceive it as vibration, strain, 

 condensation, etc.) in reciprocal action with mass- 

 > op. cit., p. 224. '^Op. cit., pp. 228, 229. 



