Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882
Various
Science -- Periodicals
the world will form an interesting chapter in the future history of the
doctrine of development."
Describing a visit which he paid to the late Mr. Darwin in 1866,
Professor Haeckel says:
"In Darwin's own carriage, which he had thoughtfully sent for my
convenience to the railway station, I drove one sunny morning in October
through the graceful, hilly landscape of Kent, which, with the checkered
foliage of its woods, with its stretches of purple heath, yellow broom,
and evergreen oaks, was arrayed in the fairest autumnal dress. As the
carriage drew up in front of Darwin's pleasant country-house, clad in a
vesture of ivy and embowered in elms, there stepped out to meet me from
the shady porch, overgrown with creeping plants, the great naturalist
himself, a tall and venerable figure with the broad shoulders of an
Atlas supporting a world of thoughts, his Jupiter-like forehead highly
and broadly arched, as in the case of Goethe, and deeply furrowed by
the plow of mental labor: his kindly, mild eyes looking forth under the
shadow of prominent brows; his amiable mouth surrounded by a copious
silver-white beard. The cordial, prepossessing expression of the whole
face, the gentle, mild voice, the slow, deliberate utterance, the
natural and _naive_ train of ideas which marked his conversation,
captivated my whole heart in the first hour of our meeting, just as
his great work had formerly, on my first reading it, taken my whole
understanding by storm. I fancied a lofty world sage out of Hellenic
antiquity--a Socrates or Aristotle--stood alive before me. Our
conversation, of course, turned principally on the subject which lay
nearest the hearts of both--on the progress and prospects of the history
of development. Those prospects at that time--16 years ago--were bad
enough, for the highest authorities had for the most part set themselves
against the new doctrines. With touching modesty, Darwin said that his
whole work was but a weak attempt to explain in a natural way the origin
of animal and vegetable species, and that he should not live to see any
noteworthy success following the experiment, the mountain of opposing
prejudice being so high. He thought I had greatly overestimated his
small merit, and that the high praise I had bestowed on it in my
'General Morphology' was far too exaggerated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account