HAECKEL: HIS LIFE, WORK, AND COMPANIONS 91 
which brought out on the occasion a special number in his 
honour, he made this reply : ‘‘ Germany has more learned 
men than Iam. ‘They have read more books than I have. 
But from my earliest youth, when in my fourth year, I 
plucked flowers and admired butterflies, I have yielded to 
my heart’s inclination and have incessantly studied one 
great book—Nature. This greatest of all books has taught 
me to know the true God. As physician, I saw human life 
in its heights and depths. In my travels through half the 
globe I learned the inexhaustible splendour. of the earth ; 
and with pen and pencil I have hunestly striven to repro- 
duce a part of what I saw, and to reveal it to my fellows.’’ 
At the beginning of April, 1909, Haeckel retired from 
his professorship at Jena. The leisure of his remaining 
days he will spend in writing a history of biology. One of 
his pupils becomes his successor. His concluding lecture 
at the university, on the roth of February last, characteris- 
tically ended with these words: ‘‘I am firmly convinced 
that my successor, Prof. Plate, one of my most capable 
pupils, will not only fill my place but will surpass me.”’ 
Some of Haeckel’s speculative opinions have been 
warmly controverted during his lifetime, and doubtless will 
furnish matter for controversy in the days to come. Still, 
apart from that residuum of error inseparable from human 
knowledge, time, the great arbiter, bids fair to place on the 
body of his practical teaching its seal of approval. But, 
however, that may be, the extent and precision of his 
knowledge excite astonishment, as his lucid method of im- 
parting that knowledge compels admiration ; while his ideal 
of duty, and his exemplification of that ideal in the deeds 
of daily life, make it doubtful if any amongst us dare ask to 
be judged by as high a standard. 
