PREFACE. 



The hour has come for us to commence our retro- 

 spect of one of the most wonderful sections of time 

 that was ever measured by the sweep of the earth. 

 Already the expert is at work, dissecting out and 

 studying his particular phase of that vast world of 

 thought and action we call the nineteenth century. 

 Art, literature, commerce, industry, politics, ethics — 

 all have their high interpreters among us ; but in the 

 chance of life it has fallen out that there is none to 

 read aright for us, in historic retrospect, what after- 

 ages will probably regard as the most salient feature 

 of the nineteenth century — the conflict of theology 

 with philosophy and science. The pens of our 

 Huxleys, and Tyndalls, and Darwins lie where they 

 fell ; there is none left in strength among us to sum 

 up the issues of that struggle with knowledge and 

 sympathy. 



In these circumstances it has been thought fitting 

 that we should introduce to English readers the latest 

 work of Professor Haeckel. Germany, as the reader 

 will quickly perceive, is witnessing the same strange 



