Haeckel's Philosophy 127 



as they seem to me rather rash, excursions 

 into side issues, which have attracted the 

 attention of the average man, and have 

 succeeded in misleading the ignorant. 

 If it could be universally recognised that 



"it is expressly as a hypothesis that Haeckel 

 formulates his conjecture as to manner of the 

 origin of life " (p. 744), 



and if it could be further generally admitted 

 that his authority outside biology is so weak 

 that 



" it is mere pettiness to carp at incidental state- 

 ments on matters on which Haeckel is known to 

 have or to exercise no peculiar authority, or to 

 labour in determining the precise degree of 

 evidence for the monism of the inorganic or the 

 organic world " (p. 748), 



I should be quite content, and hope that I 

 may never find it necessary to carp at these 

 things again. Also I entirely agree with 

 Mr M'Cabe, though I have some doubt 

 whether Professor Haeckel would equally 

 agree with him, that 



"there remain the great questions whether this 

 mechanical evolution of the universe needed 



