AT THE UNIVERSITY 81 



of consultation from five to six in the morning ! 

 The result was that during a whole year of this 

 philanthropic occupation he had only three patients, 

 not one of whom died under his earnest attention. 



"This success was enough for my dear father," 

 says Haeckel. We can well believe it. 



The kindly old man consented to one more year 

 of quite extravagant study, in which all was to 

 come right. It was to be a year of travel, in Italy. 

 He was to devote himself to the study of marine 

 animals, not merely for pleasure, but earnestly 

 enough for him to find a basis for his life in the 

 result. This he succeeded in doing. Like the 

 children of fortune, who at the very moment when 

 they cannot see a step before them make a move 

 that the Philistine regards as the safest and last 

 refuge, Haeckel becomes engaged that very year to 

 his cousin, Anna Sethe. After that, in January, 

 1859, he goes down to the coast. He makes for 

 the blue Mediterranean, which he already knows 

 will prove anything but an "unprofitable sea" for 

 him. He will conjure up treasures of science from 

 its crystal depths with his Miiller-net ; then on 

 to fortune, position, marriage, and the future. The 

 fates have added a world-wide repute, if they have 

 denied many a comfort. 



