Prof. Ernst Haeckel. 33 



termination to endiire the consequences. The religious and 

 political leaders of Germany were therefore not a little agi- 

 tated when he came forward at the Association of German 

 Naturalists and Physicians at Munich, in the autumn of 

 1877, with a paper that actually favored the practical teach- 

 ing of evolutionary science and philosophy instead of the 

 old-time theories. Thereupon, before the same assembly, as 

 we have stated, Virchow was put to the front to defend the 

 conservative, or stahis in quo position, against the incom- 

 ing tide of evolution and monism. Haeckel replied, in a 

 discourse known to the world as the book on Freedom in 

 Science and Teaching. Together with Prof. Huxley's 

 careful introduction, it should be familiar to all our readers. 

 By this discussion the thinking world was brought face to 

 face with monism as a philosophy, and thoughtful men 

 everywhere are trying to answer the question, Can it 

 stand ? 



Prof. Haeckel has chosen this term monism, so, as he 

 says, to break away from the errors of the past, as indicated 

 by the terms theism, materialism, spiritualism, etc., and 

 also from complications j)fO or coi^ with other modern phi- 

 losophies, such as the positivism of Comte, the synthetism of 

 Spencer, and the cosmism of Fiske, with whose systems any 

 evolutionary philosophy must be nearly allied. _ But he 

 prefers a new name and a fresh start, and takes it accord- 

 ingly. 



Both in Europe and in America monism has already a con- 

 siderable and an influential following. The Aveekly paper 

 and quarterly review. The Open Court and The j\Ionist, 

 under the very able editorship of Dr. Paul Carus, of Chi- 

 cago, are devoted to the new philosophy, and may be taken 

 as illustrations of the hold and ground which this new 

 phase of scientific thought is gaining in America and else- 

 where. We can no longer ignore it or be indilferent to it. 

 We must squarely meet the question. Can it stand ? * 



Monism claims to be the last and most consistent word of 

 science in philosophy. As above noted, it grows out of the 

 extended application of the fundamental law of science — 

 that of tlie equivalence and correlation of all knowable ]^he- 

 nomena or changes possible to the whole world — thus bind- 

 ing it all together ad infinitum as a unity. The advocates 



* Fundamental Problems, by Dr. Paul Cams, published by The Open Court 

 Company, Chicago (price, $1), is the important opening work ou monism in 

 America. 



