CHAPTER VI 



THE speech at the Scientific Congress in 1863 

 was the first open confession that Haeckel 

 felt bound to make. But the real work for the 

 new ideas began on his return to Jena. Nothing 

 was further from Haeckel's thoughts at that time 

 than the idea of becoming merely the populariser 

 of Darwinism in Germany. He has often been 

 spoken of since in lay circles as such. It is en- 

 tirely wrong. He had the courage to recognise 

 his debt whenever he contracted one ; and cer- 

 tainly Darwin supplied the groundwork of his 

 colour-scheme. But he was much too independent 

 and individual in his nature not to take the axe 

 in his own hand at once and begin to hew away 

 himself. 



Darwin had strengthened his book with a large 

 amount of the best material that zoology and 

 botany could supply. But there was something 

 else to be done : a theoretical treatment of a 

 general character with cleverly grouped illustra- 



172 



