Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2Darwin, Charles
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Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2
Darwin, Charles
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Correspondence
Mr. Huxley, writing in 1869, paid a high tribute to Professor Haeckel as
the Coryphaeus of the Darwinian movement in Germany. Of his 'Generelle
Morphologie,' "an attempt to work out the practical application" of the
doctrine of Evolution to their final results, he says that it has the
"force and suggestiveness, and... systematising power of Oken without his
extravagance." Professor Huxley also testifies to the value of Haeckel's
'Schopfungs-Geschichte' as an exposition of the 'Generelle Morphologie'
"for an educated public."
Again, in his 'Evolution in Biology' (An article in the 'Encyclopaedia
Britannica,' 9th edition, reprinted in 'Science and Culture,' 1881, page
298.), Mr. Huxley wrote: "Whatever hesitation may, not unfrequently,
be felt by less daring minds, in following Haeckel in many of his
speculations, his attempt to systematise the doctrine of Evolution,
and to exhibit its influence as the central thought of modern biology,
cannot fail to have a far-reaching influence on the progress of
science."
In the following letter my father alludes to the somewhat fierce manner
in which Professor Haeckel fought the battle of 'Darwinismus,' and
on this subject Dr. Krause has some good remarks (page 162). He asks
whether much that happened in the heat of the conflict might not well
have been otherwise, and adds that Haeckel himself is the last man to
deny this. Nevertheless he thinks that even these things may have worked
well for the cause of Evolution, inasmuch as Haeckel "concentrated
on himself by his 'Ursprung des Menschen-Geschlechts,' his 'Generelle
Morphologie,' and 'Schopfungs-Geschichte,' all the hatred and
bitterness which Evolution excited in certain quarters," so that, "in
a surprisingly short time it became the fashion in Germany that Haeckel
alone should be abused, while Darwin was held up as the ideal of
forethought and moderation."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO E. HAECKEL. Down, May 21, 1867.
Dear Haeckel,
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