THE WONDERS OF LIFE:

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 77

THE WONDERS OF LIFE:

A POPULAR STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL :

PHILOSOPHY.

By Eexst Haeckel, Ph.D., M.D.. LL.D., Sc.D. London : Watts and Co. 6s net. The pages of this valuable book m ill be studied with profound interest by many readers already possessed of fairly solid acquaintance with biological literature. No biologist now living can be mentioned in serious comparison with the veteran of Jena as an exponent of the wonders of life and of the great scientific and philosophical -generalisations which, during recent times, have been made in harmony with the superabundance of ascertained facts so enormously added to during the "wonderful century" which recently came to its end. That century, among all its marvellous achievements, produced nothing so farreaching in its effects as the now universally he^ doctrine of organic evolution. It has been said, and said truly, of Charles Darwin that "it was not biology alone that he was fooredoomed to revolutionise, I but the whole range of human thought, and perhaps even ultimately of human action." j Without stopping to discuss the point whether the Darwinian theory of evolution ! has grasped the human mind, or whether ' the human mind has grasped it, we may safely assert that th© influence of evolutionary thought since Darwin published his epoch-making "Origin of Species " has been ' profound An immense literature finds its ; starting place at that point in time, and j this vast stream of exposition has been , divided and subdivided until there is some risk of the main stream becoming obscured or lost sight of. Every now and then*, however, some thoughtful individual essays the production of a new finger post or feet of such for the guidance of those who seek to look upon the mam current of • evolutionary energy. Many of th^se take the form of books, in which the subject of organic evolution is dealt Avith in a manner adapted to the needs of ordinary readers. i There are some good tilings of this kind i with which all who wish for reliable inj formation upon the many aspects of evolution should make themselves acquainted. Amongst the best of these I may mention "The Study of Animal Life," and 'The Science of Life," by Professor J. Arthur Thomson ; "The Story of Creation : A Plain Account of Evolution," by Edward Clodd; "Charles Darwin,*' by Grant Allen ; and "An Easy Outline of Evolution," by Principal Dennis Hird. There are other books, some small, some large, notably several of the volumes in Newness "Library of Useful Stories," but the ones I have named) are especially valuable as introductions to the subject, and, in case of the first, second, and fourth, for their historical quality. Readers who have already made i themselves convs'irsant with a few such ■ books ought to have no particular difficulty with "The Wonders of Life," which, however, is essentially a volume intended j for the educated minority. "The Wonders of Life" is. as the title indicates, a supplementary volume to "The Kiddle of the Universe." The publicaI tion of that work was followed by an i intellectual thunderstorm, that has left the mental atmosphere a good deal clearer than it was. To dispel the murky clouds of reaction then threatening, especially in Germany, to permanently obscure the position gained by post-Darwinian biology was the task set himself by Professor Haeckel in writing the "Riddle," and that a vast audience was eager to hear what j this master builder of biological science j had to say was proven by the immediate i results. Many a good book has fallen i dead-born from the press, but it was quite i otherwise in this instance. In Germany, in addition to several large editions at a much higher price, over 100,000 copies of the cheap (one shilling) edition have been sold. In Britain and the British colonies practically the same results have been attained — two large editions at six shillings and almost 100,000 copies at sixpence having been disposed of. The work has also had a large sale in the United States ; and,, with 11 other translations, extending the circulation into 11 other dbuntries, it can hardly be denied that tho success of the "Riddle" has been remarkable. The immediate circumstances that led to his writing the present woi%: supply proof positive, not only that biological matters excite wide interest, but also show that to Dr Haeckel large numbers look for guidance direct. Following upon the publication of the "Riddle" came over 5000 letters from readers asking, most of them, for more minute information upon a Variety of matters touched upon in the earlier book. "At first," he says, "I conscientiously replied to each of these correspondents, but I had at length to content myself with sending a printed slip with the intimation that my time and strength did not permit me to male© an adequate reply." Most of the inquiries related to biological questions, and to deal with these in more intimate detail this work on "The Wonders of Life" was undertaken. It was written, not because its- author wished to produce another for he had announced that he would not do so. but because he felt bound to write it in response to the inquiries of so many of his readers. He utters the earnest hope that all of those may be "moved by it to penetrate deeper and deeper into the glorious work of Nature, and to reach the insight of our greatest German natural philosopher, Goethe: "What greater thing in life can man achieve Than that ■GJod-natuTe. be revealed to him?" The book is divided into four sections, dealing respectively with "Knowledge of Life," "Nature of Life," "Functions of Life," and "History of Life." Those again are subdivided into chapters, within which i the encyclopediac knowledge of his vast l*»dv_ Biosi ijftfiortant gubjegk has been ex-

pressed with unflagging force and practical literary skill by the veteran biologist. A clear and forcible thinker, at once logical and imaginative, Professor Haeckel is never likely to shoot wide of the mark when his aim is the restatement of biological facts, or the philosophical delations to be drawn from them. Accompanied by such a guide, the reader will be faiii to admit, as he passes from chapter to chapter descriptive of life, its unities and forms, nutrition and reproduction, mental attributes, origin, evolution, and >alue, tl fit he has arrived very near to the only position possible to be based upon the Lnowledge of Nature in our own times. It has been well said, that "The richest and most fertile imagination in the worl 1 v\ >j! never arrive at truth or value unless there is also a diligent search for and examination of the fact concerned."' The nm ;•".• of this book has fulfilled both requirements ; he has been a diligent seeker \fter f.K-t-;, ;u)d he has throughout life al&o used to great purpose the faculty of imaginative interpretation. His knowledge of the forms of life is enormous, while his power to reason upon that knowledge is unrivalled by any biologist, either of the present or past. Haeckel is, essentially, a religious man in an epoch when religion is largely make-believe. That he has been bitterly assailed by the upholders of what is vaguely called "orthodoxy " is nothing to be wondered at. It is what happens to every reformer. But no one could read his examination of Kant or those passages wherein he enforces the claims of his own monistic system without perceiving that the latter really represents, better than any other mind has formulated it, that conception of the Universe towards which the cultivated mind of man is gradually converging. He says that all the competing systems of the various theological camps '"approach until they touch each other," and many of the admittedly vague statements of our own men of science can only be interpreted as meaning the same thing. Our beliefs no more than our practices are those of our forefathers, but our ideals are as good or better than were theirs. Haeckel stands for the ideal as strongly as any man, and more so than

most. . . . We do not lose sight of our ideals. On the contrary, our 'realist philosophy of life' teaches us that they are rooted deep in human nature. While occupying ourselves with the ideal world in art and poetry, and cultivating the play of emotion, we persist, nevertheless, in thinking that the real world, the object of science," can be truly known only by experience and pure reason. Truth and art are -then united in the perfect harmony of monism." DINOBXIS.