[*] “As always, he is prodigious of learning, fertile alike in illuminating suggestion and extraordinary new words; and as always, totally at sea as to what may reasonably be said in a popular book.” E. T. Brewster.
| + + — | Atlan. 96: 682. N. ‘05. 410w. |
[*] “A translation which is, on the whole, excellent.”
| + + — | Nation. 81: 512. D. 21, ‘05. 360w. | |
| N. Y. Times. 10: 224. Ap. 8, ‘05. 330w. |
“The broad fact of development and the main details of the process are undeniably given by Prof. Haeckel with a wealth of illustration and a positiveness of statement which aids both understanding and memory, even if it somewhat obscures the complexity of the problem and the insecurity of the conclusions to which one is lead.” Joseph Jacobs.
| + + — | N. Y. Times. 10: 569. S. 2, ‘05. 1660w. |
“It is unfortunate that more care has not been taken with the translation and proof-reading, in the latter especially with regard to proper names. On the whole, however, the translation is readable and set forth in idiomatic English.” J. P. McM.
| + + — | Science, n.s. 22: 137. Ag. 4, ‘05. 1550w. |
Haeckel, Ernest Heinrich. Wonders of life. [*]$2. Harper.
This volume is supplementary to the author’s “Riddle of the universe,” and is an answer to the thousands of letters and the many published attacks the first work called forth. It contains a quantity of biological information and is probably too technical to be popular. “His whole method of argument is based on the continuity of life, the unity of nature, and his metaphysics grows out of his biology. The book is divided into four parts, in which he treats respectively of the knowledge, the nature, the functions and the history of life. Altho he is now in his seventy-second year he has not lost the skill in classification and terminology which has given him his special reputation, and he uses effectively the tabular form and parallel columns to elucidate his theories and to contrast them with those of his opponents.” (Ind.)