26 HAECKEL 



of Sethe's grandson. If Haeckel had been burned 

 at the stake hke Giordano Bruno, he would have 

 thought of nothing but the '4aw" — ^the law of 

 truth and freedom that they would bum with him. 



Christoph Sethe continued to play an impor- 

 tant part in the service of Prussia, to which, of 

 course, he returned, together with the Rhinelands, 

 after Napoleon's fall. He was destined to live 

 through the terrible reaction under Frederic 

 William the Third, and the fiery outburst under 

 his successor. After the early death of his wife 

 their youngest daughter, Bertha, managed his 

 house and large family. 



She lived until her death (April 1, 1904) in 

 her quiet, unpretentious home in one of the large 

 empty streets behind the Tiergarten at Berlin, 

 reaching the age of ninety-two, but never losing 

 her freshness of mind and memory. In my many 

 happy talks with the aged lady the succeeding 

 periods seemed to melt together. The small, old 

 furniture and the ancient, ever-ticking clock made 

 me forget, in dreamy twilight hours, that the 

 red glare in the sky above the houses beyond, that 

 faintly lit up the old-time room, was the reflec- 

 tion from the twentieth century of the electric 

 flames that flashed on the great modern city. 

 On the table lay the latest part of Haeckel's 

 (her nephew) fine illustrated work for artistically 

 minded scientists and scientifically minded artists 

 — the Art'forms in Nature, The dear old lady 

 spoke with pride of her knowledge of the *' radio- 

 laria," the mysterious unicellular ocean-dwellers, 



