148 HAECKEL 



made at the psychological moment, a trumpet- 

 blast that sent its thrilling alarm from the 

 threshold of a new age, for friend or foe to hear. 

 The speech gives a slightly exaggerated account 

 of the struggle that already existed. All was in 

 confusion. Science was breaking up into two 

 camps. On the one side evolution and progress, 

 on the other the creation and immutability of 

 species. Already there are distinguished leaders 

 of science in favour of evolution. It is time to 

 discuss the matter in full publicity — and the thing 

 is done. 



There was, let me say parenthetically, on the 

 Continent at least no question at that time of 

 this clear division, or even of a serious agitation. 

 It was partly this speech, together with Haeckel's 

 next work, that was to bring it about. To the 

 highest authorities the subject seemed to be below 

 the level of discussion. We must recall a ' 

 passage that the Professor of Zoology at Gottin- 

 gen, Keferstein, had written a year before in the 

 Gottinger Gelehrte Anzeiger, *' It gives great 

 satisfaction to the earnest scientific worker," we 

 read, '*to see a man like Agassiz, with an 

 authority based on the finest zoological works, 

 reject unreservedly a theory [Darwin's] that 

 would discredit the whole work of classifiers for 

 a century, and to see that the views built up by 

 several generations and the general consent of 

 humanity hold a stronger position than the views 

 of a single individual, however eloquently they 

 may be stated." There is no idea in this of two 



