THE CROWNING YEARS 317 



estimable person, the general reader, betrays less 

 eagerness for the fuller proof, we must remember 

 that for ages he has been taught to disregard such 

 a thing as *' proof." It is the general reader that 

 makes Haeckel didactic. It is Haeckel's opponents 

 who made the general reader. However, the great 

 bulk of The Wonders of Lifeis true to its title. It 

 is an intensely interesting summary of biological 

 facts. For the rest, if it contains speculations 

 that run beyond the evidence (though based on it) 

 who is better qualified to open up these new paths 

 than men with the enormous range of knowledge 

 that Haeckel has? "I agree with you," one of 

 the first biologists in England wrote to me recently, 

 ^'that Haeckel is one of the first living biologists. 

 There are not any others who have the same 

 wide knowledge and experience and consequent 

 ^ point of view.' He knows his zoology, botany, 

 physiology, and pathology, also geology, and has 

 travelled, and has a keen interest in and knowledge 

 of no small degree of philology, archaeology, and 

 ethnography." 



Haeckel was in Italy once more in the autumn 

 of 1904, and although he did little quiet travel and 

 no fishing for radiolaria it is probable that no visit 

 to the country ever afforded him such satisfaction. 

 One great shadow lay over the beautiful land and 

 its genial race whenever he visited it — a gross and 

 almost impenetrable superstition. Turn off the 

 great routes of Italy, with their splendid cathedrals, 

 and visit the small towns and villages. See the 

 scum of Naples tearing the clothes from each other 



