GENESIS OF MAN. 7 



of it was limited to the body of principles contained in the Origin 

 of Species. As in that work all reference to the position of the 

 human race in the animal kingdom was carefully excluded, thus 

 ingeniously avoiding the shock of prejudice which any such con- 

 nection would have occasioned, the simplicity, the naivete, and, at 

 the same time, the force of reasoning displayed in it, not only 

 won the immediate assent of 'all fully emancipated minds, but 

 took a strong hold upon great numbers of liberally educated per- 

 sons whose independent reflections had not yet carried them wholly 

 out from under the influence of theological conceptions. Among 

 these were many thoroughly scientific men and naturalists, special- 

 ists in the various departments of science, whose analytical labors 

 had not left them time for a synthesis of the facts even within their 

 own special branch of research. These accepted the conclusions 

 drawn in the Origin of Species without perceiving that other and 

 important ones might and must follow from the same premises. 

 And because Haeckel drew these logical and necessary conclu- 

 sions, these persons attacked him from all sides, and heaped upon 

 him every form of accusation. Besides the charge above referred to 

 of out-Darwining Darwin, and of going further than Darwin him- 

 self would ever sanction, there was added the stronger one that 

 Haeckel knew nothing about true Darwinism. The appearance in 

 1 87 1 of Darwin's Descent of Man placed these anti-Haeckel Dar- 

 winians in a most embarrassing situation, silencing many, convert- 

 ing numbers, and driving not a few into the theological camp. 

 But Haeckel emerged majestically from the battle, unscathed and 

 undaunted. To charges of " radicalism " he had simply replied : 

 " Radical thinking is consistent thinking, which allows itself to be 

 checked by no barriers of tradition or of enforced dogma." To 

 the confused outcry of the theological school and of the anti-Dar- 

 winians in general, he did not deem it worth his while to reply. 

 A satirical remark upon this class, however, is worth reproducing 

 and might be ranked alongside of Darwin's cutting sarcasm, 

 wherein he says that he who scorns to be descended from a beast 

 will generally reveal his descent in the act of sneering, whereby he 

 will expose his canine teeth. " It is an interesting and instructive 

 circumstance," says Haeckel, " that just those persons are most 

 shocked and indignant at the discovery of the natural development 

 of the human race from the apes, who, in their intellectual develop- 



