HAECKEL AND THE NEW ZOOLOGY 



plishment a trait regarding which men, even active 

 men, so widely differ. But Professor Haeckel holds 

 that whatever his normal bent in this direction, it was 

 enormously strengthened in boyhood by the precepts 

 of his mother from whom, by-the-bye, he chiefly in- 

 herits his talents. "My mother," he says, "would 

 never permit me to be idle for a moment. If I stood 

 at a window day-dreaming, she would always urge me 

 to be up and doing. 'Work or play,' she would urge, 

 'but do not stand idle.' Through this reiterated ad- 

 monition, physical activity became a life-long habit 

 with me, and work almost a necessity of my being. 

 If I have been able to accomplish my full share of la- 

 bors, this is the reason. I am never idle, and I scarcely 

 know the meaning of ennui." 



This must not be interpreted as meaning, however, 

 that Professor Haeckel takes up a task and works at 

 it all day long unceasingly. That is not the Ger- 

 man method of working, and in this regard Professor 

 Haeckel is a thorough German. " When I was a young 

 man," he says, "I at one time, thanks to the persua- 

 sions of some English friends, became a convert to the 

 English method of working, and even attempted to 

 introduce it into Germany. But I soon relinquished it, 

 and lapsed back into our German method, which I am 

 convinced will produce better results for the average 

 worker. The essential of this method is the long mid- 

 day rest, which enables one late in the afternoon to 

 begin what is virtually a new day's-work, and carry it 

 out with vigor and without undue fatigue. Thus I, 

 who am an early riser, begin work at five in summer 

 and six in winter, after the customary light breakfast 



VOL. V. II l6l 



