THE "GENERAL MORPHOLOGY" 193 



by calling his work the "Morphology of Organ- 

 isms," or the science of the forms of animals and 

 plants. 



But there was one danger in the conception 

 of a morphology of animals and plants, namely, 

 the danger of taking it to mean a purely external 

 description : so many thousand species of plants, 

 soberly described, labelled, and numbered, a huge 

 cabinet of stuffed skins, a herbarium of hay. A 

 whole scientific school had really taken it in this 

 sense since Goethe's time ; much as if one were to 

 think aesthetics consisted simply in forming an 

 illustrated catalogue of all the art-treasures in the 

 world, a realistic catalogue in which the marble 

 statues from the Parthenon and the Moses of 

 Michael Angelo would simply be given as number 

 so-and-so in class so-and-so. 



Haeckel was preserved from this school by his 

 more immediate masters, as well as by Goethe 

 himself; firstly by Johannes Miiller, then by the 

 botanist Schleiden, finally by the influence of 

 Gegenbaur. There was at the time enough, and 

 more than enough, of this external museum- 

 morphology. It was far from Haeckel's intention 

 to produce a new compendium, in several volumes, 

 of this kind of science of plants and animals. 

 His morphology was to be "general," to have a 

 broader range, be a programme. As Richard 

 Hertwig said very happily at a later date, he 

 saw his science, not as it then was, but as it ought 

 to be, in his opinion. 



The science of forms was to be in the fullest sense 



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