146 HAECKEL 



spoke for the first time on Darwin's theory, at a 

 spot from which the waves were bound to spread 

 through the whole scientific culture of the land. 

 Virchow, afterwards his bitter opponent, supported 

 him. All the deepest questions and consequences 

 of Darwinism were mooted with the first vibrant 

 accents. It was a great and unforgettable hour. 

 The first speaker at the Congress on the Sunday 

 V evening, September 19, 1863, was Haeckel. We 

 must remember the charm that attached to his 

 person even outwardly, the direct charm that did 

 not need any allusion to his growing repute in 

 zoology. It was the charm that had been felt 

 by the simple folk of uncultured Italy, who had 

 never heard even the name of the science. Darwin 

 was never a handsome man from the aesthetic 

 point of view. When he wanted to sail with Fitz- 

 Koy, it was a very near question whether the 

 splenetic captain would not reject him because 

 he did not like his nose. His forehead had so 

 striking a curve that Lombroso, the expert, could 

 put him down as having ^^ the idiot-physiognomy " 

 in his Genius and Insanity. At the time when 

 he wrote the Origin of Sjpecies he had not the 

 patriarchal beard that is inseparable from his 

 image in our minds ; he was bald, and his chin 

 clean shaved. The prematurely bent form of the 

 invalid could never have had much effect in such 

 a place, no matter what respect was felt for him. 

 Haeckel, young and handsome, was an embodi- 

 ment of the mens sana in corpore sano. He rose 

 above the grey heads of science, as the type of 



