The Development of Life 51 



"The most important moment in the life of 

 every man, as in that of all other complex animals, 

 is the moment in which he begins his individual 

 existence [coalescence of sperm cell and ovum] 

 .... the existence of the personality, the in- 

 dependent individual, commences. This onto- 

 genetic fact is supremely important, for the most 

 far-reaching conclusions may be drawn from it. 

 In the first place, we have a clear perception that 

 man, like all the other complex animals, inherits 

 all his personal characteristics, bodily and mental, 

 from his parents ; and further, we come to the 

 momentous conclusion that the new personality 

 which arises thus can lay no claim to 'immor- 

 tality' " (p. 22). 



Others beside Haeckel have held this kind 

 of view at one time or another ; but, unlike 

 him, most of them have recanted and seen 

 the error of their ways. He is, indeed, aware 

 that several of his great German contempo- 

 raries have been through this phase of thought 

 and come out on the other side, notably the 

 physiologist - philosopher Wundt, and he 

 refers to them fairly and instructively thus : 



" What seems to me of special importance and 

 value in Wundt's work is that he * extends the law 

 of the persistence of force for the first time to the 

 psychic world/ 



