304 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [xii. 



delivered before a mixed audience at Jena, in the session 

 1867-8. 



" The Natural History of Creation," or, as Professor 

 Haeckel admits it would have been better to call his 

 work, " The History of the Development or Evolution of 

 Nature," deals, in the first six lectures, with the general 

 and historical aspects of the question, and contains a 

 very interesting and lucid account of the views of Lin- 

 naeus, Cuvier, Agassiz, Goethe, Oken, Kant, Lamarck, 

 Lyell, and Darwin, and of the historical filiation of these 

 philosophers. 



The next six lectures are occupied by a well-digested 

 statement of Mr. Darwin's views. The thirteenth lecture 

 discusses two topics which are not touched by Mr. Darwin, 

 namely, the origin of the present form of the solar system, 

 and that of living matter. Full justice is done to Kant, 

 as the originator of that "cosmic gas theory," as the 

 Germans somewhat quaintly call it, which is commonly 

 ascribed to Laplace. With respect to spontaneous gene- 

 ration, while admitting that there is no experimental 

 evidence in its favour, Professor Haeckel denies the 

 possibility of disproving it, and points out that the 

 assumption that it has occurred is a necessary part of 

 the doctrine of Evolution. The fourteenth lecture, 

 on " Schopfungs-Perioden und Schopfungs-Urkunden," 

 answers pretty much to the famous disquisition on 

 the " Imperfection of the Geological Record " in the 

 Origin of Species. 



The following five lectures contain the most original 

 matter of any, being devoted to " Phylogeny," or the 

 working out of the details of the process of Evolution 

 in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, so as to prove 

 the line of descent of each group of living beings, 

 and to furnish it with its proper genealogical tree, or 

 "phylum." 



