188 HAECKEL 



struggles, of the Generelle Morphologie, It was 

 written and printed in less than a year. I lived 

 the life of a hermit, gave myself barely three or 

 four hours sleep a day, and worked all day and half 

 the night. My habits were so ascetic that I really 

 wonder I am alive and well before you to-day." 



In his hour of collapse Haeckel sat down and 

 wrote ^Hhe book of his life." There were only two 

 alternatives for a book written in such circum- 

 stances. It would be either very bad or very good. 

 When a young man in his thirties throws himself 

 into a great effort of this kind and writes a work 

 that he conceives as a testament — a work in which 

 he will speak for the last time, but will say every- 

 thing — it is a desperate test of all that he has done 

 in his three decades of life and is about to give to 

 the world. In this case the test succeeded beyond 

 all expectation. 



The General Morphology of Organisms^ was 

 published in 1866, with the sub-title : ^* General 

 elements of the science of organic forms, mechani- 

 cally grounded on the theory of descent as reformed 

 by Charles Darwin." It consists of two thick 

 volumes of small print, containing more than 1,200 

 pages. The preface is dated September 14, 1866. 

 It is now one of the most important works in the 

 whole mental output of the second half of the nine- 

 teenth century. In respect of method of scientific 

 research it is a landmark by which we may charac- 

 terise and appraise the whole half-century. For 



* This work of Professor Haeckel's has not been translated 

 into EngUsh. [Trans.] 



