34 Pfof. Ernst Haeckel. 



of this philosophy are waiting for some one to bring forward 

 good reasons for not assenting to this completed phi- 

 losophy of science. 



Let us see how it stands : The world is divided, as Aris- 

 totle of old said it, into matter, not living, and living. How 

 does this doctrine apply to each ? In the inorganic or 

 material world, or world of not living matter, this law of 

 the equivalence and correlation of changes or phenomena is 

 universally accepted. The volume of essays by Grove and 

 others, on The Correlation and Conservation of Forces, col- 

 lected years ago by our friend Prof. E. L. Youmans (pub- 

 lished by D. Appleton & Co.), swept the field and prepared 

 the way for monism in this country. That is the sub- 

 stance of the story of our science, both of the least and 

 of the greatest world-changes ; they are all " correlates." 

 The pull or push and the consequent motions, revolutions, 

 and changes of our sun and of the solar system — are they 

 not the correlates of other far-off celestial changes? Our 

 earth and its surface, and all that takes place upon it — are 

 these phenomena not correlates of the solar heat ? Those 

 mechanical and other changes as to the masses of matter of 

 which we read in physics, as to its elements, of which chem- 

 istry informs us, and its modes of motion or processes, called 

 heat, light, electricity, etc. — are they not correlates all ? As 

 to non-living matter, the question, therefore, is settled. 



Next, as to living matter, or protoplasm, known only on 

 the surface of our little earth, yet the most wonderful of all 

 substances, " the physical basis of life " — can there be a dif- 

 ferent verdict ? Its chemistry shows it to be a nitro-carbon 

 in unstable chemical equilibrium (C, 0, H, N, P, and 8). Its 

 changes are not only those chemical and physical changes 

 attending other colloid or jelly forms of matter, but they 

 include that wonderful process called life, which is the con- 

 stant adjustment, reaction, and interaction of the organic 

 mass, with its environment, including the processes of as- 

 similation, growth, and dinsion into cells and special or- 

 gans. But these vital processes are manifest correlations of 

 the changes occurring in the body of the organism and in 

 the course of its ancestral development, or in the environ- 

 ment. Protoplasm is the material upon which the impinging 

 world environment plays the music of life and ultimately 

 the symphony of consciousness. That life-music is the cor- 

 relate of the two series of changes — viz., the protoplasmic 

 changes and the world changes. Life is not an entity, a 



