Preface to the English Edition. xxvii 



they fear that these would infallibly lead to a view 

 of the Universe which is to them unacceptable, 

 viz. the materialistic view. With regard to the 

 former I wished to show that the views of the 

 development of organic Nature inaugurated by 

 Darwin and defended in this work are certainly 

 correctly designated mechanical ; with reference 

 to the latter I wished to prove that such a me- 

 chanical conception of the organic world and of 

 Nature in general, by no means leads merely to 

 one single philosophical conception of Nature, viz. 

 to Materialism, but that on the contrary it rather 

 admits of legitimate development in a quite 

 different manner. 



Thus in these last four essays much that 

 appears heterogeneous will be found in close 

 association, viz. scientific details and general 

 philosophical ideas. In truth, however, these are 

 most intimately connected, and the one cannot 

 dispense with the other. As the detailed investi- 

 gations of the three essays find their highest 

 value in the general considerations of the fourth, 

 and were indeed only possible by constantly 

 keeping this end in view, so the general con- 

 clusions could only grow out of the results of the 

 special investigations as out of a solid foundation. 

 Had the new materials here brought together 

 been already known, the reader would certainly 

 have been spared the trouble of going into the 

 details of special scientific research. But as 



