GROWTH OF IDEAS 281 



appeared in 1874. A fifth edition has now been 

 pubhshed, equipped with the finest illustrations, 

 both from the artistic and the scientific point of 

 view, that have ever appeared in a popular work 

 on embryology. We find in the Anthropogeny 

 all that the nineteenth century has learned or 

 surmised with regard to the ancestral history of 

 mankind. Even the gastraea-theory — the gastraea 

 belonging to man's direct ancestry — is dealt w4th 

 in popular fashion as far as this was possible. 



When the Anthropogeny was published Haeckel's 

 public position became more stormy than ever. 

 In professional circles a number of the embryolo- 

 gists had taken up an attitude of opposition to 

 him ; the most heated of them attacked his 

 popular works continually on the ground that 

 he was popularising, not the real results of 

 official science, but his own personal opinions. 

 There was a great deal of truth in that. The 

 only question was, which would stand best with 

 the future, his or their personal opinion ? It does 

 not alter the subjectivity of opinions that a few 

 people here and there combine and pretentiously 

 constitute themselves into a '-'■ science." Posterity 

 will deal coolly enough with their collective 

 decisions. It will take every man of science as an 

 individual, and merely ask which of them came 

 nearest to the truth. The name, the official 

 science, will pass into the grave with many titles 

 and decorations. All that will remain in men's 

 minds is the star of the personality in its relation 

 to the great constellation of contemporary human 



