THE "GENERAL MORPHOLOGY" 241 



and spurge, and braced for the great struggle of his 

 life that was now to begin in earnest. 



The voyage had really two aims. To see the 

 volcano above a palm-clad coast, with the Atlantic 

 Ocean bringing its medusae; and to work for 

 Darwin. 



A personal connection between the two had 

 already been formed as a matter of course. 

 Darwin, almost confined for years to his isolated 

 home at Down owing to his constant ill-health, 

 had received a copy of the Badiolaria, and the 

 correspondence had begun. The work had as yet 

 met with little encouragement from the ranks 

 of exact scientists. It cannot have been a matter 

 of indifference to Darwin personally that so dis- 

 tinguished a work, a real model of professional 

 research, had come over to him. Proofs of the 

 Morphology were sent over to Down before the 

 book was ready for publication. Darwin read 

 German with difficulty, but in this case he was 

 stimulated to make an unusual effort. At last 

 Haeckel himself made his appearance at the 

 master's home. It seemed as though he had to 

 visit him in person to receive his blessing. It 

 was, at all events, a happy moment in the history 

 of Darwinism when the two men first met whose 

 names will be inseparable in literature. 



This was in October, 1866 ; Darwin had sent his 

 carriage to bring Haeckel from the station. A 

 sunny autumn morning smiled on the homely and 

 beautiful English landscape with its bright woods 

 and golden broom and red erica and evergreen oaks. 



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