194 HAECKEL 



a '^philosophy of forms." ''Zoological philosophy" 

 was the name given by the hapless Lamarck, in 

 France a century ago, to a work that appeared in 

 the year that Darwin was born, and anticipated 

 his most advanced thoughts. Haeckel, also, gave 

 a new "philosophy of zoology and botany.*' The 

 title embodies the magic formula that gave him 

 courage to take up resolutely once more the 

 proscribed word, that seemed to have been scalded 

 and spoiled for ever in the witches' cauldron of 

 " natural philosophy " ; it spoke of the " theory of 

 descent as reformed by Charles Darwin." Two 

 sub-titles divided the work into two sections from 

 the start. The first part was, the critical elements 

 of the mechanical science of the developed forms 

 of organisms (animal and plant) : the second part 

 was, the same elements of the mechanical science 

 of the developing forms of organisms. 



In these titles we see the decisive advance 

 beyond Johannes Miiller. As Goethe had already 

 declared, morphology as such can be formed into 

 a real and profound science. It will then not 

 confine itself pedantically to a registration of forms. 

 It will compare them with each other, and seek ' 

 the hidden law in the straggling phenomena. It 

 will mark out broad lines that will enable the 

 human mind to grasp its objects in all their fulness. 

 Johannes Miiller had only been able to confirm 

 that in the narrower sphere of biology. This was 

 the nerve that gave vitality to zoology and botany, 

 and made them a province of the mind in the 

 higher sense. But the question now was : which 



