Prof. Ernst HaecTcel. 49 



by the new and true view of the world and of human life 

 and destiny. 



There is no time nor need to continue further here these 

 old religious names, once believed in as facts, and which now 

 are of value only as symbols of the grander truths since 

 evolved, but which they, if still used, may esi3ress. How to 

 thus translate them, these hints only must suffice. The 

 illusions dejDart, the truths remain ! 



When the old religions fall, what will you give in their 

 place ? We answer. Religion ! Look around ! The en- 

 chanted castle of existence of the past was but a half-seen, 

 discolored prophecy of the truth which is rejilacing it, with 

 a grandeur and a reality that terrifies the soul at first. Peo- 

 ple are frightened when science tells them that this world 

 is the real one, and " the other " its shadow. But this true 

 world includes all — is The All ! It brings with it a new phi- 

 losophy, religion, morality, life, and motive, which is an en- 

 during well-spring of energy, consolation, and hoj^e — not of 

 pessimism nor optimism, but of ever- victorious meliorism. 



Do not as an ethical society fear that the old moral lights 

 will be blown out and darkness result. The true scientific 

 foundation will replace the old, as in our cities the scientific 

 electric light has come to take the place of the old smoky 

 lamps. To secure such replacement, throughout the whole 

 individual and social domain of human afl'airs, is the motive 

 and inspiration of those scientists who, in Euroj^e and Amer- 

 ica, put their conclusions before the people in the simplest 

 language, yet ever eloquent with these new purposes and 

 hopes. Of the noblest of such teachers and prophets none 

 stands forth more prominently than Ernst Haeckel. From 

 his concluding words at tliat Munich contest rings out the 

 motto which, in a word, expresses the impidse of his own 

 life, and of the creative era of the new faith of Monism : 

 Imjyavidi progrediamur ! "Undaunted we press ever on ! " 

 But in this motto we can not escape the echo of a verse of 

 Goethe's magnificent " Symbol " of the progress of man — 

 progress between "the great silences" of the stars and the 

 grave — a poem which Carlyle has called, and made im- 

 mortal to us as, the deepest, grandest word of our time : 



Die Zukunft docket The future hides 



Schmerzen und Gliioke. Sorrows and gladness. 



Schrittweis dein Blicke, Stepwise to the sight, 



Doch nngcschrecket, Yet undaunted, . 



Dringen wir vorwarts 1 We press ever on I 



