Influence of Science Upon' German Literature. 55 
In the practical application of these discoveries in all the relations 
of life; the telegraph,, the telephone, ocean steamers, wireless teleg- 
raphy, airships, is due to the technical progress in the knowledge 
of physics, especially in the application of steam and electricity. 
Chemistry has so perfected photography that we can easily take 
the pictures of every object, planetary or spiritual (?), and has 
made wonderful changes in agriculture and medicine. 
In social life, however, in the State, the school and the church, 
there has not been, according to Haeckel, any perceptible advance. 
The older systems still keep their hold upon us, and the little prog- 
ress actually made is hardly noticeable. And yet the careful ob- 
server will discover a gradual remodelling of the older systems in- 
to newer, more rational ones, that are founded upon the clearer 
knowledge of the relations of man to man. Society itself is fast 
absorbing the latest results of scientific research and soon the 
gradual revolution of thoughts and feelings will demand and re- 
ceive the best possible systems for the full and complete develop- 
ment of man. 
The following propositions may be considered settled by the in- 
vestigations that have been carried on for a century or more : 1. 
The universe is eternal, infinite and unlimited. 2. The substance 
(matter) of the same, with its two attributes (matter, energy), 
fills the Infinite space, and these attributes are in constant motion. 
3. This motion turns out to be, in infinite time, a uniform develop- 
ment, with periodic changes from birth to death, from progressive 
to regressive formation. 4. The innumerable bodies of the uni- 
verse, which are distributed in space-filling aether, are subject to 
the laws of substance (matter) ; while in one part of the universe 
the rotating bodies are approaching slowly their regressive forma- 
tion and their end, new formations and developments arise in an- 
other part of the universe. 5. Our sun is one of these numerous 
!(• ? ) perishable bodies, and our earth is one of the perishable planets 
which encircle it. 6. Our earth passed through a long process of 
cooling before water, and, because dependent upon this, the pre- 
eminent condition of organic life, could exist. 7. The long de- 
velpoment and transformation of Innumerable organic forms took 
millions of years. 8. The vertebrates excelled all others in their 
development. 9. The mammals stand first here. 10. Among 
these the primates are first. 11. Man is the youngest of these. 
12. The history of the world is a very short period when com- 
pared with the other unwritten history. 
As to the unsettled world-problems, perhaps Emil du Bois-Rey- 
mond, in his address before the Leipzig session of the Berlin Acad- 
