150 HAECKEL 



and zoology. Haeckel's own programme for 

 decades was unfolded. This phrase, too, was a 

 birth-hour. In all the struggle that has followed 

 as to the ^^ how " of evolution this figure of the 

 tree with the verdant branches as the new field 

 of zoological and botanical work, and the withered 

 branches for the paleontologist, has never been 

 abandoned. A symbol from the living world itself, 

 the branching tree, had at last taken a decisive 

 place in the science and the classification of 

 living things. With splendid clearness the speech 

 then enumerates the Darwinian principles : varia- 

 tion, heredity, the struggle for life, selection, and 

 adaptation. A vast duration is claimed for the 

 geological epochs in the sense of Lyell ; and it 

 is pointed out that there is a progressive advance 

 of forms throughout these periods. Special stress 

 is laid on the ever-advancing, ever-uplifting 

 element in evolution. Man is again introduced 

 into the subject. He has "evolved" from the 

 brutality of the animal. Language itself has been 

 naturally " developed." (What a shrewd per- 

 spective in such a brief phrase ! How the 

 philologists would stare !) So the '^ law of 

 advance " traverses the whole field of culture. A 

 fiery passage follows : " Keaction in political, 

 social, moral, and scientific life, such as the 

 selfish efforts of priests and despots have brought 

 about at every period of history," cannot per- 

 manently hinder this advance. The " advance " 

 is '* a law of nature," and " neither the weapons 

 of the tyrant nor the anathemas of the priest 



