In any case, Haeckel had the splendid revenge of surviving his old teacher and almost lifelong opponent. Berlin had for years been dominated by the sceptical temper of Virchow and Du Bois-Reymond. The ardent evolutionist and opponent of Catholicism was impatient of a reserve that he felt to be an anachronism in science and an effective support of reactionary ideas. It was, therefore, with a peculiar satisfaction that he received the invitation, after Virchow's death, to address the Berlin public. Among the many and distinguished honours that have been heaped upon him in the last ten years this was felt by him to hold a high place. He could at last submit freely, in the capital of his country, the massive foundations and the imposing structure of a doctrine which he holds to be no less established in science than valuable in the general cause of progress.
The lectures are reproduced here not solely because of the interest aroused in them by the "Jesuit" telegram. They contain a very valuable summary of his conclusions, and include the latest scientific confirmation. Rarely has the great biologist written in such clear and untechnical phrases, so that the general reader will easily learn the outlines of his much-discussed Monism. To closer students, who are at times impatient of the Lamarckian phraseology of Haeckel—to all, in fact, who would like to see how the same evolutionary truths are expressed without reliance on the inheritance of acquired characters—I may take the opportunity to say that I have translated, for the same publishers, Professor Guenther's "Darwinism and the Problems of Life," which will shortly be in their hands.
JOSEPH McCABE.
November, 1905.
[PREFACE]
In the beginning of April, 1905, I received from Berlin a very unexpected invitation to deliver a popular scientific lecture at the Academy of Music in that city. I at first declined this flattering invitation, with thanks, sending them a copy of a printed declaration, dated 17th July, 1901, which I had made frequent use of, to the effect that "I could not deliver any more public lectures, on account of the state of my health, my advanced age, and the many labours that were still incumbent on me."
I was persuaded to make one departure from this fixed resolution, firstly, by the pressing entreaties of many intimate friends at Berlin. They represented to me how important it was to give an account myself to the educated Berlin public of the chief evolutionary conclusions I had advocated for forty years. They pointed out emphatically that the increasing reaction in higher circles, the growing audacity of intolerant orthodoxy, the preponderance of Ultramontanism, and the dangers that this involved for freedom of thought in Germany, for the university and the school, made it imperative to take vigorous action. It happened that I had just been following the interesting efforts that the Church has lately made to enter into a peaceful compromise with its deadly enemy, Monistic science. It has decided to accept to a certain extent, and to accommodate to its creed (in a distorted and mutilated form) the doctrine of evolution, which it has vehemently opposed for thirty years. This remarkable change of front on the part of the Church militant seemed to me so interesting and important, and at the same time so misleading and mischievous, that I chose it as the subject of a popular lecture, and accepted the invitation to Berlin.
After a few days, when I had written my discourse, I was advised from Berlin that the applications for admission were so numerous that the lecture must either be repeated or divided into two. I chose the latter course, as the material was very abundant. In compliance with an urgent request, I repeated the two lectures (17th and 18th April); and as demands for fresh lectures continued to reach me, I was persuaded to add a "farewell lecture" (on 19th April), in which I dealt with a number of important questions that had not been adequately treated.