A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



I believe, in anything like the same degree of any other 

 German university, or of any other university in the 

 world. One thing before others that has endeared 

 Jena to Haeckel, and kept him there in the face of re- 

 peated flattering calls to other universities, is that full 

 liberty of spirit has been accorded him there, as he 

 knew it would not be accorded elsewhere. "When a 

 man comes into the atmosphere of Jena," says Pro- 

 fessor Haeckel, " he perforce begins to think there is 

 no escape from it. And he is free to let his thoughts 

 carry him whithersoever they honestly may. My be- 

 liefs," he added, "are substantially the beliefs of my 

 colleagues in science everywhere, as I know from pri- 

 vate conversations; but they, unlike myself, are not 

 free to speak the full truth as they see it. I myself 

 would not be tolerated elsewhere, as I am well aware. 

 Had I desired to remain in Berlin, for example, I must 

 have kept silent. But here in Jena one is free." 



And he smiles benignly as he says it. The contro- 

 versies through which he has passed and the calum- 

 nies of which he has been the target have left no scars 

 upon this broad, calm spirit. 



HAECKEL AS MAN AND TEACHER 



It is indeed a delightful experience to meet Professor 

 Haeckel in the midst of his charming oasis of freedom, 

 his beloved Jena. To reach his laboratory you walk 

 down a narrow lane, past Schiller's house, and the gar- 

 den where Schiller and Goethe used to sit and where 

 now the new observatory stands. Haeckel's laboratory 

 itself is a simple oblong building of yellowish brick, 

 standing on a jutting point of land high above the 



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