DARWIN 133 



scientific '^ mysticism," '* metaphysics," and "phi- 

 losophy in the worst sense of the word." 



Haeckel read the dangerous book at BerHn in 

 May, 1860. " It profoundly moved me," he writes 

 to me, " at the first reading. But as all the 

 Berlin magnates (with the single exception of 

 Alexander Braun) were against it, I could make 

 no headway in my defence of it. I did not 

 breathe freely until I visited Gegenbaur at Jena 

 (June, 1860) ; my long conversations with him 

 finally confirmed my conviction of the truth of 

 Darwinism or transformism." 



It was, therefore, in the critical days imme- 

 diately before or during the negotiations with 

 Gegenbaur which led to his setting up as a 

 private teacher at Jena. The names of Darwin 

 and Jena unite chronologically in Haeckel's life — 

 two great names that were to bear him into the 

 very depths of his career, and that have their roots 

 in the same hour. 



We may ask what it was in the book that 

 "profoundly moved" the young student of the 

 radiolaria. The name of Braun only partly 

 explains the matter, as Braun was an evolutionist 

 of the same type as Bronn. He was amiably 

 disposed to meet it, but did not openly enter on 

 the new path. We must go deeper. We then 

 understand it clearly enough, if we recollect 

 Haeckel's bent in the last few years. 



He had no longer any scruples with regard to 

 religion. The God of tradition had been entirely 

 replaced in him by Goethe's God, who did not 



