LITTLE be wider of the mark. When Ernst Hseckel was 

 JOURNEYS asked " Who is your favorite author?" he promptly 

 answered, " Ernst Hseckel." 



His study is a big square room on the top floor of one 

 of the college buildings ; and in this room is a book- 

 case extending from ceiling to floor, given up to his 

 own works. Copies of every edition, and of all trans- 

 lations are here. And in a special case are the original 

 manuscripts, solidly bound in boards as carefully pre- 

 served as were the "literary remains" of William 

 Morris, guarded with the instincts of a bibliophile. 

 Of the size of this Hseckel collection one can make a 

 guess when it is stated that the man has written and 

 published over fifty different books. These vary in size 

 from simple lectures to volumes of a thousand pages. 

 His work entitled " The Natural History of Creation " 

 has been translated into twelve languages, and has 

 gone through fifteen editions in Germany, and about half 

 as many in England. 



The last book issued by Professor Hseckel was that 

 intensely interesting essay, " The Riddle of the Uni- 

 verse" which was written in 1899, in two months' 

 time, during his summer vacation. He gave it out that 

 he had gone to Italy, denied himself to all visitors who 

 knew that he had not, and answered no letters. He 

 reached his study every morning at six o'clock and 

 locked himself in, and there he remained until eight 

 o'clock at night. At noon one of his children brought 

 him his lunch. 



Unlike Herbert Spencer, whose later writings were 

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