242 HAECKEL 



Haeckel has described their first meeting. *' When 

 the carriage drew up before Darwin's house, with 

 its ivy and its shadowy elms, the great scientist 

 stepped out of the shade of the creeper-covered 

 porch to meet me. He had a tall and venerable 

 appearance, with the broad shoulders of an Atlas 

 that bore a world of thought : a Jove-like forehead, 

 as we see in Goethe, with a lofty and broad vault, 

 deeply furrowed by the plough of intellectual 

 work. The tender and friendly eyes were over- 

 shadowed by the great roof of the prominent 

 brows. The gentle mouth was framed in a long, 

 silvery white beard. The noble expression of the 

 whole face, the easy and soft voice, the slow and 

 careful pronunciation, the natural and simple 

 tenor of his conversation, took my heart by storm 

 in the first hour that we talked together, just as 

 his great work had taken my intelligence by storm 

 at the first reading. I seemed to have before me 

 a venerable sage of ancient Greece, a Socrates or 

 an Aristotle." 



They were delighted to meet each other, for 

 they were like natures, in their best qualities. 

 Darwin had more passion in him than he ever 

 expressed, and behind all Haeckel's impetuosity 

 there was the naive and yielding temper of the 

 child. He poured out his anger against the 

 stubborn and bewigged professors who still held 

 out against the luminous truth of the theory of 

 evolution. Darwin put his hand on his shoulder, 

 smiled, and said they were rather to be pitied 

 than blamed, and that they could not keep back 



