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 Hand of Nine different Mammals. Vol. I.
.Eronlispiece.

E.Haeckel d."1. Lagesse sc

1. Man, 2. Goril.lcv, 3. Orang, 4.IJog, 5.Seal
6.Porpoise, 7. Bai, 8. Mole, 9. IJudc-bilL.
 THE

HISTORY OF CREATION
OR T H E D E V E L O P M E N T OF THE E A R T H A N D IT S

IN H A B IT A N T S B Y TH E A C T IO N OF NATURAL CAUSES

A POPULAR EXPOSITION OP

THE DOCTRINE OP EVOLUTION IN GENERAL, A ND OP T H A T OP

DARW IN, GOETHE, AND LAMARCK IN PARTICULAR

FROM THE EIGHTH GERMAN EDITION OF

ERNST H A E C K E L
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF JENA

T H E T R A N S L A T IO N R E V ISE D BY

E. RA Y LANKESTER, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.

DIRECTOR AND KEEPER OF ZOOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, CROMWELL ROAD
LINACRE PROFESSOR OF HUMAN AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF BXETER COLLEGE

IN TWO VOLUMES.— Y ol. L

FO U R T H E D IT IO N

SECOND IM PRESSION

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Li®
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD
1899
 Routledge Revivals

The History of Creation

Originally published in 1899, The History of Creation was the first book
of its kind to apply a doctrine to the whole range of organic morphol-
ogy and make use of the effect Darwin had on biological sciences
during the 19th century. Haeckel looks at Darwin’s reform of Descent
Theory and its establishment through the doctrine of selection. He
introduces Descent Theory into the systematic classification of animals
and plants and finds a "natural system" on the basis of genealogy - that
is, to construct hypothetical pedigrees for the various species of organ-
isms. The book will be of interest to those studying natural history and
the origins of modern scientific thought, it will appeal to researchers
both in the natural sciences and in history.
 The History of Creation
Or the Development of the Earth and its
Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes
Volume 1

by Ernst Haeckel
First published in 1899
by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd
This edition first published in 2018 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
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publishers.

Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes
correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LCCN: 09022254

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-07445-6 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-429-02167-1 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-07641-2 (pbk)
 A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
A ll thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

In all things, in all natures, in the stars

O f azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
The moving w&ters and the invisible air.
W ordsw orth.

A ll rights reserved
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTER I.
NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OP TH E DOCTRINE OP
FILIATIO N, OR DESCENT THEORY.
PAGE
General Importance and Essential Nature of the Theory of Descent
as reformed by Darwin.— Its Special Importance to Biology
(Zoology and Botany).— Its Special Importance to the History
of the Natural Development of the Human Race.— The Theory
of Descent as the Non-Miraculous History of Creation.— Idea of
Creation.— Knowledge and Belief.— History of Creation and His­
tory of Development.— The Connection between the History of
Individual and Palaeontological Development.— The Theory o f
Purposelessness, or the Science of Rudimentary Organs.— Useless
and Superfluous Arrangements in Organisms.— Contrast between
the two entirely opposed Views of N atu re: the Monistic (me­
chanical, causal) and the Dualistio (teleological, vital).— Proof of
the former by the Theory of Descent.— Unity of Organic and
Inorganic Nature, and the Identity of the Active Causes in both.
— The Absolute Importance o f the Theory of Descent to the Monistic
Conception o f all Nature ................................................................. 1

CHAPTER II.
SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION OF TH E THEORY OF DESCENT.
HISTORY OF CREATION ACCORDING TO L IN N ^ U S .
The Theory of Descent, or Doctrine of Filiation, as the Monistic Expla­
nation o f Organic Natural Phenomena.— It3 Comparison with
Newton’ s Theory of Gravitation.— Limits of Scientific Explanation
vi CONTENTS.

PA.GE
and of Homan Knowledge in general.-All Knowledge founded
origina.lly on Sensuous Experience, a posteriori.-Transition of a
posteriori Knowledge, by Inheritance, into a priori Knowledge.-
Contrast between the Supernatural Hypotheses of the Creation
according to Linnreus, Cuvier, Agassiz, and the Natural Theories
of Development according to Lamarck, Goethe, and Darwin.-
Connection of the former with the Monistic (mechanical), of the
latter with the Dualistic Conception of the Unive: se.-Monism
and Materialism.-Scientific and Moral Materialism.- The History
of Creation according to Moses.-Linnoous as the Fc11uder of the
Systematic Description of Nature and Distinction ,·f Species.-
Linnaius' Classification and Binary Nomenclature.-lieaning of
LinnlllUs' Idea of Species.-His History of Creation. -Linnains'
View of the Origin of Species . .. 25

CHAPTER III.
TRE HISTORY OF CREATION ACCORDING TO CUVIER
AND AGASSIZ.
Genera.I Theoretical Meaning of the Idea of Species.-Distinction
between the Theoretical and Practical Definition of the Idea of
Species.-Cnvier's Definition of Species.-Merits of Cuvier as the
Founder of Comparative Anatomy.-Distinction of the Fonr
Principal Forms (types or branches) of the Animal Kingdom, by
Cuvier and Biir.-Cuvier's Services to Palreontology.-His Hypo-
thesis of the Revolutions of our Globe, and the Epochs of Creation
separated by them.-Unknown Supernatural Causes of the Revo-
lutions, and the subsequent New Creations.~.Agassiz's Teleologica.1
System of Nature.-His Conception of the Plan of Creation, and
its six Categories (groups in classification).-.Agassiz's Views of
the Creation of Species.-Rude Conception of the Creator as a
man-like being in Agassiz's Hypothesis of Creation.-Its internal
Inconsistency and Contradictions with the important Palroonto-
logical Laws discovered by .Agassiz .. . 49

CHAPTER IV.
THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT .ACCORDING TO GOETHE
AND OKEN.
Scientific Insufficiency of all Conceptions of a Creation of Individual
Species.-Necessity of the Counter-Theories of Development.-
Historical Survey of the Most Important Theories of Development.
 CONTENTS. vii
l'.l.OB
-Greek Philosophy.-The Meaning of Natural Philosophy.-
Goethe.-His Merits as a Natoralist.-His Metamorphosis of
Plants.-His Vertebral Theory of the Skoll.-His Discovery of the
Mid Jawbooe io Ma.n.-Goethe's Interest in the Dispute between
Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire.-Goethe's Discovery of the Two
Organic Formative Principles, of the Conservative Priooiple. of
Specification (by Inheritance), and of the Progressive Principle
of Transformation (by .Ada.ptation).-Goethe's Views of the
Common Descent of all Vertebrate .Animals, including Man.-
Theory of Development according to Gottfried Reinhold Trevi-
ra.nns.-His Monistic Conception of Nature.-Oken.-His Natural
Philosophy.-Oken's Theory of Protoplasm.-Oken's Theory of
Infusoria (Cell Th,:iory) '14,

OHAPTER V.
THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT .ACCORDING TO KANT
.AND LAMARCK.
Kant's Services to the Theory of Development.-His Monistio Cosmo-
logy a.nd Dualistio.,Biology.-Contradiction between the Mechanical
and Teleological ·conception.-Compa.rison of Genealogical Biology
with Comparative Philology.-Views in favour of the Theory of
Descent entertained by Leopold Boch, Dar, Sohleiden, Unger,
Schaaffhausen, Victor Ca.roe, Biichner.-FrenchNa.tore-Philosophy.
Lamarck's Philosophi.e Zoologiqoe.-Lamarok's Monistic (me.
cha.nical) System of Nature.-His Views of the Interaction of the
Two Orga.nio Formative Tendencies of Inheritance a.nd Adaptation.
-Lamarck's Conception of Man's Development from .Ape-like
Mamma.ls.-Geoffroy St. Hilaire's, Naodin's, and Lecoq's Defence
of the Theory of Descent.-English Natore.Philosophy.-Views in
favour of the Theory of Descent, entertained by Era.emus Darwin,
W. Herbert, Grant, Freke, Herbert Spencer, Hooker, Huxley.-
The Double Merit of Charles Darwin .. . 102

OHAPTER VI.
THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT .ACCORDING TO LYELL
.AND DARWIN.
Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology.-His Natura.I History of the
Earth's Development.-Origin of the Greatest Effects through
the Multiplication of the Smallest Canses.-Unlimited Extent of
Geological Periods.-Lyell's Refutation of Cuvier's History of
v iii CONTENTS.

PAGE
Creation.— The Establishment of the Uninterrupted Connection
o f Historical Development by Lyell and Darwin.— Biographical
Notice of Charles Darwin.— His Scientific Works.— His Theory o f
Coral Reefs.— Development o f the Theory o f Selection.— A Letter
o f Darwin’s.— The Contemporaneous Appearance of Darwin’ s and
Alfred Wallace’ s Theory of Selection.— Darwin’ s Study of Domestic
Animals and Cultivated Plants.— Andreas Wagner’s notions as to
the Special Creation of Cultivated Organisms for the Good of Man.
— The Tree of Knowledge in Paradise.— Comparison between Wild
and Cultivated Organisms.— Darwin’ s Study of Domestic Pigeons.
— Importance of Pigeon-breeding.— Common Descent of all Races
of Pigeons ................ ..................................................................128

CHAPTER VII.
THE THEORY OP SELECTION (DARW INISM ).
Darwinism (Theory of Selection) and Lamarckism (Theory of Descent).
— The Process of Artificial Breeding.— Selection of the Different
Individuals for After-breeding.— The Active Causes of Transmuta­
tion.— Change connected with Pood, and Transmission by Inheritance
connected with Propagation.— Mechanical Nature of these Two
Physiological Functions.— The Process o f Natural Breeding ;
Selection in the Struggle for Existence.— Malthus’ Theory of
Population.—The Proportion between the Numbers of Potential
and Actual Individuals of every Species of Organisms.— General
Struggle for Existence, or Competition to attain the Necessaries
o f Life.— Transforming Force of the Struggle for Existence.—
Comparison of Natural and Artificial Breeding.— Selection in the
Life of Man.— Medical and Clerical Selection ... ... ... 153

CHAPTER VIII.
TRANSMISSION BY INHERITANCE AND PROPAGATION.
Universality of Inheritance and Transmission by Inheritance.— Special
Evidences of the same.— Human Beings with four, six, or seven
Fingers and Toes.— Porcupine Men.— Transmission o f Diseases,
especially Diseases o f the Mind.— Original Sin.— Hereditary
Monarchies.— Hereditary Aristocracy.— Hereditary Talents and
Mental Qualities.— Material Causes of Transmission by Inheritance.
— Connection between Transmission by Inheritance and Propaga­
tion.— Spontaneous Generation and Propagation.—Non-sexual or
Monogonous Propagation.— Propagation by Self-division.— Monera
and Amoebae.— Propagation b y the formation of Buds, by the
 CONTENTS. ix

PAGE
formation o f Germ-Buds, b y the formation of Germ-Cells.— Sexual
or Amphigonous Propagation.— Formation of Hermaphrodites.—
Distinction of Sexes, or Gonochorism.—Virginal Breeding, or
Parthenogenesis.— Material Transmission of Peculiarities of both
Parents to the Child by Sexual Propagation ... ............... 180

CHAPTER IX.
LAWS OF TRANSMISSION BY INHERITANCE.
Theories of Inheritance.— Difference between Transmission b y Inheri­
tance in Sexual and Non-sexual Propagation.— Distinction between
Conservative and Progressive Transmission by Inheritance.— Laws
of Conservative Transmission: Transmission of Inherited Characters.
— Uninterrupted or Continuous Transmission.— Interrupted or
Latent Transmission.— Alteration of Generations.— Relapse.—
Degeneracy.— Sexual Transmission.— Secondary Sexual Characters.
— Mixed or Amphigonous Transmission.— Hybrids.— Abridged or
Simplified Transmission.— Laws o f Progressive Inheritance :
Transmission o f Acquired Characters.— Adapted or Acquired
Transmission.— Fixed or Established Transmission.— Homochronous
Transmission (Identity in tim e).— Homotopio Transmission (Identity
in place).— Molecular Theories of Transmission.—Pangenesis
(Darwin).— Perigenesis (Haeckel).— Idioplasma (Nageli).— Germ-
plasma (Weismann).— Intracellular Pangenesis (Vries) ............... 201

CHAPTER X.
ADAPTATION AND NUTRITION. LAW S OF ADAPTATION.
Adaptation and Variation.— Connection between Adaptation and
Nutrition (Change o f Matter and Growth).— Distinction between
Indirect and Direct Adaptation.— Laws of Indirect or Potential
Adaptation. — Individual Adaptation. — Monstrous or Sudden
Adaptation.— Sexual Adaptation.— Laws of Direct or Actual
Adaptation.— Universal Adaptation.— Cumulative Adaptation.—
Cumulative Influence o f External Conditions of Existence and
Cumulative Counter-influence o f the Organism.— Free-will.— Use
and Non-Use o f Organs.— Practice and Habit.— Functional Adapta­
tion.— Correlative Adaptation.— Correlation o f Development.—
Correlation of Organs.— Explanation of Indirect or Potential
Adaptation b y the Correlation of the Sexual Organs and o f the
other Parts of the Body.— Aping or Mimetic Adaptation (Mimicry).
— Divergent Adaptation.— Unlimited or Infinite Adaptation ... 238
VOL. I. b
X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X I.
N A T U R A L SELECTION B Y THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
C E LLU LA R SELECTION AND PERSONAL SELECTION.
PAGE
Interaction of the Two Organic Formative Causes, Inheritance and
Adaptation.— Natural and Artificial Selection.— Struggle for
Existence, or Competition for the Necessaries of Life.— Dispropor­
tion between the Number of Possible or Potential, and the Number
of Real or Actual Individuals.— Complicated Correlations of all
Neighbouring Organisms.— Mode o f Action in Natural Selection.—
Homochromic Selection as the Cause o f Sympathetic Colourings.
— Sexual Selection as the Cause o f the Secondary Sexual Characters.
— The Struggle o f Parts in the Organism (Roux).— Functional
Self-Formation o f Suitable Structures.— Teleological Mechanism.—
Cellular Selection (Protista) and Personal Selection (Histonse).—
Selection of the Cells and of the Tissues.— The Principle of Selection
in Empedocles.— Mechanical Origin of what is Suitable for a Pur­
pose from what is Unsuitable.— Philosophical Range of Darwinism 278

CHAPTER XII.
DIVISIO N OF LABOUR AND DIVERGENCE OF FORMS. PROGRESS
AND RETROGRADATION.

Division o f Labour (Ergonomy) and Divergence of Forms (Polymor­

phism).— Physiological Divergence and Morphological Differentia­
tion both necessarily determined by Selection.— Transition of
Varieties into Species.— The Idea of Species.— Hybridism— Per­
sonal Divergence and Cellular Divergence.— Differentiation o f the
Tissues.—Primary and Secondary Tissues.—Siphonophora.—Change
of Labour (M etergy).— Convergence.— The Law of Progress and
Perfectioning.— The Laws of the Development of Mankind.— The
Relation between Progress and Divergence.— Centralization as
Progress.— Retrogradation.— The Origin o f Rudimentary Organs by
Non-Use and Habits discontinued.— The Doctrine of Purposeless­
ness, or Dysteleology ............................ ........................................ 300

CHAPTER X III.
THE IN D IV ID U A L DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISMS. THE HISTORY
OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE A N IM A L TRIBES.
General Importance of Individual Development (Ontogeny).—Defects
of our Present Education.— Facts in the Individual Development.
— Agreem ent in the Individual Development of Man and the
 CONTENTS. xi
PA.GB
Vertebrate .A.nima.ls.-The Homan Egg.-Fertiliza.tion,-Immor-
ta.lity.-The Clea.va.ge of the Egg.-Forma.tion of Germ-la.yers.-
Ga.strolation.-Historyof the Development of the Central Nervoos
System, of the Extremities, of the Bra.nchial Arches and of the
Tail in Vertebrate Animals.-Ca.usa.l Connection between Onto-
genesis and Phylogenesis.-The Fnndamenta.l Law of Biogenesis.
-Palingenesis or Recapitula.tive Development.-Cenogenesis or
Disordered Development.-Stages in Comparative Ana.tomy.-Its
Relation to the Palooontological and Embryological Series of
Development .. , 332

CHAPTER XIV.
MIGRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISMS. CHOROLOGY
AND THE ICE PERIOD OF THE EARTH.
Chorologica.l Facts and Ca.uses.-Origin of most Species in one Single
Locality: "Centres of Crea.tion."-Distribution by Migration.-
Active and Passive Migrations of Animals and Pla.nts.-Flying
Animals.-Analogies between Birds and Insects.-Bats.-Means
of Transport.-Transport of Germs by Water and by Wind,-Con-
tinna.l Change of the Area. of Distribution by Elevations and
Depressions of the Ground.-Chorologioal Importance of Geological
Prooesses.-Iolluence of the Change of Climate.-Ice or Glacial
Period.-Its Importance to Chorology.-Importance of Migrations
for the Origin of New Species.-Isolation of Colonists.-Wagner's
Law of Migration.-Connection between the Theory of Migration
and the Theory of Selection.-Agreement of its Resnlts with the
Theory of Descent . . . 363

CHAPTER XV.
THEORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSE AND
OF THE EARTH. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. THE
CARBON THEORY. THE PLASTID THEORY.
History of the Development ·of the Ea.rth.--Kant's Theory of the De-
velopment of the Universe, or the Cosmological Gas Theory.-
Development of Suns, Planets, and Moons.-First Origin of Water,
-Comparison of Organisms and Anorga.na..-Orga.nio and Inor-
ganic Sobstances.-Degrees of Density, or Conditions of Aggre-
gation.-Albuminous Combinations of Carbon.-Plasson-bodies.-
Organio and Inorganic Forms.-Crysta.ls and Monera.-Formless
Organisms without Organs.-Stereometrical Fundamental Forms
x ii CONTENTS.

PAGB
of Crystals and of Organisms.— Organic and Inorganic Forces.—
Vital Force.— Growth and Adaptation in Crystals and in Organisms.
— Formative Tendencies of Crystals.— Unity of Organic and In­
organic Nature.— Spontaneous Generation, or Archigony.—Auto-
gony and Plasmogony.— Origin of Monera by Spontaneous Genera­
tion.— Origin of Cells from Monera.— The Cell Theory.— The
Plastid Theory.— Plastids or Structural-Units.— Cytods and Cells.
— Four Different Kinds of Plastids .....................................................390
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES.
PAGE
IV.-Hand of Nine difl'e:rent Mammals ... ... Frontispiece
!.-Life History of a Simplest Organism To face page 188
!!.-}Germs or Embryos of Four Vertebrates Between pp. 334, 335
III-
V,-Development of the Gastrula To face page 344

FIGURES.
!.-Propagation of M:oneron 191
2.-Propage.tion of A.mmba 193
3.-Egg of Mammal. .. 194
4.-First Development of Mammal's Egg 195
5.-The Human Egg Enlarged 339
6.-Development c,f Mammal's Egg 343
7.-Embryo of a Mammal or Bird ... 349
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.

I a m desirous of prefacing the English edition o f the

“ History o f Creation ” with a few remarks which may serve
to explain the origin and object of this book. In the year
1866 I published, under the title “ Generelle Morphologies
a somewhat comprehensive work, which constituted the first
attempt to apply the general doctrine o f development to the
whole range o f organic morphology (Anatomy and Biogenesis),
and thus to make use of the vast march onwards which the
genius of Charles Darwin has effected in all biological
science by his reform o f the Descent Theory and its esta­
blishment through the doctrine of selection. A t the same
time, in the “ Generelle Morphologic,” the first attempt was
made to introduce the Descent Theory into the systematic
classification of animals and plants, and to found a “ natural
system ” on the basis o f genealogy; that is, to construct
hypothetical pedigrees for the various species of organisms.
The “ Generelle Morphologie ” found but few readers, for
which the voluminous and unpopular style of treatment, and
its too extensive Greek terminology, may be chiefly to blame.
But a proportionately large measure o f approval has met
xvi PREFACE.

the “ Naturliche Schopfungsgeschichte ” in Germany. This

book took its origin in the shorthand notes o f a course of
lectures which treated, before a mixed audience and in
a popular form, the most important topics discussed in the
“ Generelle Morphologies The notes were subsequently
revised, and received considerable additions. The book
appeared first in 1868, its fourth edition in 1873, and has
been translated into several languages. I hope that it may
also find sympathy in the fatherland o f Darwin, the more so
since it contains special morphological evidence in favour of
many o f the important doctrines with which this greatest
naturalist o f our century has enriched science. Proud as
England may be to be called the fatherland o f Newton, who,
with his law o f gravitation, brought inorganic nature under
the dominion o f natural laws o f cause and effect, yet may
she with even greater pride reckon Charles Darwin among
her sons— he who solved the yet harder problem o f bring­
ing the complicated phenomena o f organic nature under the
sway o f the same natural laws.
The reproach which is now oftenest made against the
Descent Theory is that it is not securely founded, not suffi­
ciently proven. Not only its distinct opponents maintain that
there is a want of satisfactory proofs, but even faint-hearted
and wavering adherents declare that Darwin’s hypothesis is
still wanting fundamental proof. Neither the former nor the
latter estimate rightly the immeasurable weight which the
great series of phenomena of comparative anatomy and onto­
geny, palaeontology and taxonomy, chorology and cecology,
cast into the scale in favour o f the doctrine o f filiation.
Darwin’s Theory o f Selection, which completely explains the
origin o f species through the combined action o f Inheritance
 PREFACE. x v ii

and Adaptation in the struggle for existence, also appears to

these persons not sufficient. They demand, over and above,
that the descent o f species from common ancestral forms
shall be proved in a particular case; that, in contradistinc­
tion to the synthetic proofs adduced for the Descent Theory,
the analytic proof o f the genealogical continuity o f the
several species shall be brought forward.
This “ analytical solution o f the problem of the origin of
species ” I have myself endeavoured to afford in my recently
published “ Monograph o f the Calcareous Sponges.” For five
consecutive years I have investigated this small but highly
instructive group o f animals in all its forms in the most
careful manner, and I venture to maintain that the mono­
graph, which is the result o f those studies, is the most
complete and accurate morphological analysis o f an entire
organic group which has up to this time been made.
Provided with the whole o f the material for study as yet
brought together, and assisted by numerous contributions
from all parts o f the world, I was able to work over the
whole group o f organic forms known as the Calcareous
Sponges in that greatest possible degree of fulness which
appeared indispensable for the proof of the common origin
of its species. This particular animal group is especially
fitted for the analytical solution o f the species problem,
because it presents exceedingly simple conditions o f organ­
ization, because in it the morphological conditions possess a
greatly superior, and the physiological conditions an inferior,
import, and because all species o f Calcispongise are remark­
able for the fluidity and plasticity o f their form. W ith a
view to these facts, I made two journeys to the sea-coast
(1869 to Norway, 1871 to Dalmatia), in order to study as
xviii PREFACE.

large a number o f individuals as possible in tbeir natural

circumstances, and to collect specimens for comparison. Of
many species, I compared several hundred individuals in the
most careful way. I examined with the microscope and
measured in the most accurate manner the details o f form o f
all the species. As the final result o f these exhaustive
and almost endless examinations and measurements it
appeared that “ good species,” in the ordinary dogmatic
sense o f the systematists, have no existence at all among
the Calcareous Sponges; that the most different forms are
connected one with another b y numberless gradational
transition forms; and that all the different species o f Calca­
reous Sponges are derived from a single exceedingly simple
ancestral form, the Olynthus. A drawing o f the Olynthus
and its earliest stages o f development (observe especially the
highly important Gastrula) is given in the frontispiece o f
the present edition. Illustrations o f the various structural
details which establish the derivation o f all Calcareous
Sponges from the Olynthus, are given in the atlas of
sixty plates which accompanies m y monograph o f the
group. In the gastrula, moreover, is now also found the
common ancestral form from which all the tribes o f animals
(the lowest group, that o f the protozoa, alone being excepted)
can without difficulty be derived. It is one o f the most
ancient and important ancestors o f the human race!
I f we take for the limitation o f genus and species an average
standard, derived from the actual practice o f systematists, and
apply this to the whole o f the Calcareous Sponges at present
known, we can distinguish about twenty-one genera, with one
hundred and eleven species (as I have done in the second
volume o f the Monograph). I have, however, shown that we
 PREFACE. x ix

may draw up, in addition to this, another systematic arrange­

ment (more nearly agreeing with the arrangement of the Calci-
spongise hitherto in vogue) which gives thirty-nine genera
and two hundred and eighty-nine species. A systematist
who gives a more limited extension to the "ideal species”
might arrange the same series of forms in forty-three genera
and three hundred and eighty-one species, or even in one
hundred and thirteen genera and five hundred and ninety
species; another systematist, on the other hand, who takes a
wider limit for the abstract “ species,” would use in arrang­
ing the same series o f forms only three genera, with twenty-
one species, or might even satisfy himself with one genus
and seven species. The delimitation o f species and genera
appears to be so arbitrary a matter, on account o f endless
varieties and transitional forms in this group, that their
number is entirely left to the subjective taste of the indi­
vidual systematist. In truth, from the point o f view o f the
theory o f descent, it appears altogether an unimportant ques­
tion as to whether we give a wider or a narrower signifi­
cation to allied groups o f forms— whether we choose, that is
to say, to call them genera or species, varieties or sub-species.
The main fact remains undeniable, viz., the common origin
o f all the species from one ancestral form. The many­
shaped Calcareous Sponges furnish, in the very remarkable
conditions o f their varieties o f aggregation (metrocormy), a
body o f evidence in favour o f this view which could hardly
be more convincing. N ot unfrequently the case occurs of
several different forms growing out from a single “ stock ”
or “ cormus ”— forms which until now have been regarded
by systematists, not only as belonging to different species,
but even to different genera. Fig. 10 in the frontispiece
X X PREFACE.

represents such a composite stock. This solid and tangible

piece o f evidence in favour o f the common descent oi
different species ought, one would think, to satisfy the most
determined sceptic!
In point o f fact, I have a right to expect o f my opponents
that they shall carefully consider the " exact empirical proof”
here brought forward for them, as they have so eagerly
demanded. The opponents o f the doctrine o f filiation, who
have too little power o f weighing evidence, or possess too
little knowledge to appreciate the overpowering weight of
proof afforded by the synthetical argument (comparative
anatomy, ontogeny, taxonomy, etc.), may yet be able to
follow me along the path of analytical proof, and attempt to
upset the conclusion as to the common origin o f all species
of all Calcareous Sponges which I have given in my Mono­
graph. I must, however, repeat that this conclusion is
based on the most minute investigation o f an extraordinarily
rich mass o f material,— that it is securely established by
thousands o f the most careful microscopical observations,
measurements, and comparisons o f every single part, and
that thousands o f collected microscopic preparations render,
at any moment, the most searching criticism o f my results
confirmatory o f their correctness. One may hope, then, that
opponents will endeavour to confront me on the ground of
this "exa ct empiricism,” instead o f trying to damn my
"nature-philosophical speculations.” One may hope that
they will endeavour to bring forward some evidence to
show that the latter do not follow as the legitimate conse­
quences o f the former. May they, however, spare me the
empty— though by even respectable naturalists oft-repeated
— phrase, that the monistic nature-philosophy, as expounded
 PREFACE. xxi

in the "General Morphology,” and in the "H istory of

Creation,” is wanting in actual proofs. The proofs are
there. Of course those who turn their eyes away from
them will not see them. Precisely that "exact ” form of
analytical proof which the opponents of the descent theory
demand is to he found, b y anybody who wishes to find it,
in the " Monograph o f the Calcareous Sponges.”

E r nst H e in r ic h H a e c k e i .

Jena, June 24ath, 1873,

 EDITOR’S PREFACE TO THE NEW ENGLISH
EDITION.

T he “ History of Creation ” has been so much modified by

its author, Professor Haeckel, in its successive German
editions, and so much new matter introduced, that it was
felt to be desirable that a new English edition o f the work
should be prepared. The translation o f the new matter,
which amounts to nearly half o f the whole work, has been
made by Miss Schmitz from the eighth German edition,
published in 1889, and revised by me. The new portions
o f the work have been necessitated by the progress o f
knowledge since the appearance o f the first English trans­
lation in 1876. They comprise an account of recent
theories which have grown out o f Darwin’s great doctrine,
and o f many new results o f investigations, such as those
made by the naturalists of the Challenger Expedition, and
others who, like Professor Haeckel himself, have taken
part in describing the rich stores o f zoological specimens
brought home b y H.M.S. Challenger.
The book in its present form cannot fail to interest all
who have a taste for natural history. It may be safely
trusted as an introduction to the study o f modem biology,
provided that the reader will remember that there are
x x iv PREFACE.

matters o f opinion and theory concerning which many

naturalists do not hold quite the same views as those
adopted b y Professor Haeckel. He himself is careful to
draw the reader’s attention to the fact that many o f his
“ pedigrees ” and other suggestions are only provisional. I
feel it due to m yself to state that I do not agree with him
as to a very large part o f his views on classification, and
as to his belief in the necessity o f assuming the “ trans-
missibility o f acquired characters.” Readers who have
gained an interest in these questions from the brief state­
ments o f the present work must, without assuming that
Professor Haeckel’s judgment is final, go on to study for
themselves the works of Weismann and others, which are
mentioned with perfect fairness in these pages.
No work of the scope of the €(History o f Creation”
could possibly satisfy every critic. It is a sufficient
recommendation for it that it is the statement o f the views
of one o f the most learned, experienced, and honoured
naturalists of modern times, whose original monographs on
Radiolaria, Sponges, and Jelly-fishes have been o f immense
importance to the progress o f science, and have excited
the admiration of his brother-naturalists throughout the
world by the beauty o f the innumerable drawings with
which he has illustrated them, and by the extraordinary
insight with which he has explained in their pages the
most complicated structures.

E. R a y L a n k e s t e r .
Oxford, February, 1892.
 THE HISTORY OE CREATION

CHAPTER I.

NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OP THE DOCTRINE OP

FILIATION , OR DESCENT THEORY.

General Importance and Essential Nature of the Theory of Descent as re­

formed by Darwin.— Its Special Importance to Biology (Zoology and
Botany).— Its Special Importance to the History of the Natural Develop­
ment of the Human Eace.— The Theory of Descent as the Non-Miraculous
History of Creation.— Idea of Creation.— Knowledge and Belief.— H is­
tory of Creation and History of Development.— The Connection between
the History of Individual and Palaeontological Development.— The
Theory of Purposelessness, or the Science of Eudimentary Organs.—
Useless and Superfluous Arrangements in Organisms.— Contrast between
the two entirely opposed Views of N ature: the Monistic (mechanical,
causal) and the Dualistic (teleological, vital).— Proof of the former by
the Theory of Descent.— Unity of Organic and Inorganic Nature, and
the Identity of the Active Causes in both.— The Absolute Importance
o f the Theory of Descent to the Monistic Conception of all Nature.

T he intellectual movement to which the impulse was given

thirty years ago, by the English naturalist, Charles Darwin
in his celebrated work, “ On the Origin of Species/'1 has,
within this short period, assumed dimensions of unparalleled
depth and breadth. It is true the scientific theory set forth
in that work, which is commonly called briefly Darwinism,
is only a small fragment of a far more comprehensive
doctrine— a part o f the universal Theory of Development,
VOL. i. b
2 THE HISTORY OF CREATION.

which embraces in its vast range the whole domain of

human knowledge.
But the manner in which Darwin has firmly established
the latter by the former is so convincing, and the direction
which has been given by the unavoidable conclusions of
that theory to all our views o f the universe, must appear to
every thinking man o f such deep significance, that its
general importance cannot be over-estimated. There is no
doubt that this immense extension of our intellectual
horizon must be looked upon as by far the most important,
and rich in results, among all the numerous and grand
advances which natural science has made in our day.
When our century, with justice, is called the age of
natural science, when we look with pride upon the im­
mensely important progress made in all its branches, we
are generally in the habit o f thinking more of immediate
practical results, and less o f the extension o f our general
knowledge o f nature. W e call to mind the complete
reform, so infinitely rich in consequences to human inter­
course, which has been effected by the development of
machinery, by railways, steamships, telegraphs, and other
inventions o f physics. Or we think o f the enormous in­
fluence which chemistry has brought to bear upon medicine,
agriculture, and upon all arts and trades.
But much as we may value this influence of modern
science upon practical life, still it must, estimated from a
higher and more general point of view, stand most assuredly
below the enormous influence which the theoretical progress
of modern science will have on the entire range of human
knowledge, on our conception of the universe, and on the
perfecting o f man’s culture.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Listen, as she condoles with a widower, on his recent
bereavement:

Sickness and afflictions is trials sent

By the will of a wise creation,
And always ought to be underwent
With fortitude and resignation.
Then mourn not for your pardner’s death,
But to forgit endevver,
For, sposen she hadn’t a died so soon,
She couldn’t a lived forever.

And when, at last, she secured a widower of her own, the Rev.
Shadrack Sniffles, how jubilant her muse became:

The heart that was scornful and cold as a stun,

Has surrendered at last to the fortinit one.
Farewell to the miseries and griefs I have had!
I’ll never desert thee, O Shadrack, my Shad.

The wonderful puns and repartees of Charles Lamb and Sydney

Smith, prince and king of wits! are open to the same objection as
those alluded to above: they are only too familiar, already. But as
that is equivalent to saying that they have charmed only too many
people; turned too many sorrowful or wearied minds out of their
ordinary channels; excited too much healthful and delightful laughter;
we are, after all, not disposed to complain. Rather let us, Sancho-
Panza-like, invoke a benison, first on Cervantes himself; then on the
English Hood and Hook, and Moore and Sheridan and Lamb, on the
three Smiths, Sydney and James and Horace; on Dickens,
Thackeray and Jerrold, and Edmund Lear; on our own Irving, Derby,
Whicher, Morris, Brown, the Clarkes; our Lowell, Saxe, Holmes,
Strong; our Warner, Cozzens, Dodgson, Gilbert, Locke, Bret Harte;
our Grail Hamilton, and our Phebe Carey; and on all the named and
unnamed, known and unknown writers, through whom have come to
us the exquisite sense of fun, the blessing of irrepressible mirth, and
of hearty, wholesome, innocent, delicious laughter!
 And if, despite our struggles, we are accused, as we shall be,
and justly, of having told some more than twice-told tales, of quoting
already hackneyed quotations charity will urge in our behalf (and, let
us trust, not vainly), Burns’ pathetic plea, reminding the critics, that
while

“What’s done they” easily “compute.

They know not what’s resisted.”

“SOUND AND” UNSOUND, “SIGNIFYING

NOTHING.”
A young gentleman of Rochester, suspecting that the poetical
enthusiasm of certain of his young lady acquaintances was not
genuine; that they appreciated the musical jingle of verses, without in
the least regarding the sentiment, laid a wager with one of his
friends, that he could write a set of stanzas, which should not contain
one grain of sense, and yet would be just as warmly applauded by
those young ladies as the most eloquent poetry.
He won the wager. (But this occurred many years ago. There are
no such young ladies in Rochester now).

See! the fragrant twilight whispers

O’er the orient western sky,
While Aurora’s verdant vespers
Tell her evening reign is nigh.

Now a louder ray of darkness,

Carols o’er the effulgent scene,
And the lurid light falls markless
On the horizon’s scattered screen.

Night is near, with all his horrors,

Sweetly swerving in his breast,
And the ear of fancy borrows
Morning mists to lull the west.
 Ere he comes in all his splendor,
Hark! the milky way is seen,
Sighing like a maiden tender
In her bower of ruby green.

Such a scene, ah! who can list to,

And not saddened, silent, seek
To unveil the burning vista
Of Diana’s raven cheek?

Thus tremulous, and ever dear,

Robed in repellant rapture;
Our hours shall stay, swift as the year,
Illumed by Cupid’s capture!

And when hyenal joys are ours,

And memory soars above us,
Hope shall retrace for future years
The love of all who love us.

Something of the same character is the subjoined:

EVENING SONG.

Brightly blue the stars shine o’er us,

While the sinking sun ascends
To the wide spread waves before us,
And a pleasing softness lends.

Homeward now the aged plough-boys

Wing their way o’er hill and dale,
And the laughter-loving cow goes
Tripping lightly down the vale.

Gentle zephyrs’ ink-stained fingers

Point the hour-hand of the clock,
There the warbling sheep-fold lingers—
Save it from the cruel hawk!

Thus excoriate the hours,

Till the red volcano’s powers
 Kindle on the hearth its fires:
Poets! dissipate your lyres!

In the following musical poem, the letter e does duty so well for
all the other vowels, as to suggest the idea that our ordinary lavish
use of them is a piece of extravagance!

When the September eves were new,

When fresh the western breezes blew,
When meek Selene, gem-besprent,
The dew her crested jewels lent;
We met, Belle, where the beeches grew,
When the September eves were new.

When the September eves were new,

Endless, meseemed, the sweets we knew!
Sweet fell the dew; sweet swept the breeze;
Sweet were the templed beechen trees;
The spell yet sweeter, tenderer grew,
When the September eves were new!

When the September eves were eld,

The templed beechen trees were felled;
Keen-edged the western breezes blew;
Crestless the meek Selene grew;
The fettered dew her jewels held,
When the September eves were eld.

When the September eves were eld,

Fled were the scenes we erst beheld—
Reft were the tender scenes we knew;—
The desert, where the beeches grew!
Yet, Belle, we sweeter secrets held,
Ere the September eves were eld!

The construction of the following verses, from which the letter s is

omitted, shows that our language is not of necessity a succession of
sibilant sounds, as it is generally supposed to be:
 Oh! come to-night, for naught can charm
The weary time when thou’rt away.
Oh, come! the gentle moon hath thrown
O’er bower and hall her quivering ray.
The heather bell hath mildly flung
From off her fairy leaf the bright
And diamond dew-drop that had hung
Upon that leaf a gem of light.
Then come, love, come!

To-night the liquid wave hath not,

(Illumined by the moonlit beam
Playing upon the lake beneath,
Like frolic in a fairy dream—)
The liquid wave hath not, to-night,
In all her moonlit pride, a fair
Gift-like to them that, on thy lip,
Do breathe and laugh and home it there.
Then come, love, come!

To-night, to-night, my gentle one,

The flower-bearing Amra tree
Doth long, with fragrant moan, to meet
The love-lip of the honey-bee.
But not the Amra tree can long
To greet the bee, at evening light,
With half the deep, fond love I long
To meet my Nama here to-night.
Then come, love, come!

What a boon would a volume of poems, modeled on the above

principle of architecture, be to perthonth troubled with a lithp; whose
reading at present (through the perverseness of the English
language), sounds thus:

Thweetly murmurth the breethe from the thea,

Thoothing my thoul to thlumberth,
Fond memorieth bearing to me,
Of the patht, in endleth numberth.
I thigh ath I think how yearth have thped,
How joy hath left me to thorrow;
My heart now thleepeth the thleep of the dead;
 Will it waken to gladneth to-morrow?

THE NIMBLE BANK-NOTE.

“And he rose with a sigh,
And he said, ‘Can this be?’”

(Motto chosen chiefly for its inappropriateness.)

One evening at the house of a friend of mine, while we were
seated at the table, Mr. Baker, my friend’s husband, absently feeling
in his vest pocket, found a five dollar note which he had no
recollection of putting there.
“Hallo!” he exclaimed, “that is no place for you. I should have put
you in my pocketbook. Here, wife, don’t you want some ready
money?” and he threw the note across the table to her.
“Many thanks,” she replied; “money is always acceptable,
although I have no present need of it.” She folded the note and put it
under the edge of the tea-tray, and then proceeded to pour out the
tea and attend to the wants of her guests.
At her right sat Mrs. Easton, or Aunt Susan, whom we all knew as
an acquaintance who, from time to time, spent a week with Mrs.
Baker. Her visit was just at an end, and she was to return home that
evening.
As Mrs. Baker was pouring her tea, it occurred to her that she
was in her aunt’s debt for certain small matters, and when she had
the opportunity, she pushed the note under her plate, saying:
“Here, auntie, take this five dollars in part payment of my debt.”
“Very well,” she replied, “but the money does not belong to me. I
owe you fifteen dollars, my dear Grace, which you lent me last
Saturday. I had to pay the taxes on my little home, and had not the
ready money, and Grace lent it to me,” explained Aunt Susan.
 Grace, an orphan, was a cousin of Mrs. Baker. She and her
brother Frank boarded with her, and made a very pleasant addition
to the family circle. She was studying music, and her brother was a
clerk in a mercantile establishment.
As soon as Aunt Susan received the note, she handed it to
Grace, saying:
“I will give you this now on account, and the rest as soon as I get
it.”
“All right,” answered Grace, laughing, “and since we all seem in
the humor of paying our debts, I will follow suit. Frank, I owe you
something for music you bought me; here is part of it,” and she threw
the bank-note across the table to her brother, who sat opposite.
We were all highly amused to see how the note wandered around
the table.
“This is a wonderful note,” said Mr. Baker; “I only wish somebody
owed me something, and I owed somebody something, so that I
might come into the ring.”
“You can,” said Frank. “I owe Mrs. Baker—or you, it’s all the
same—for my board; I herewith pay you part of it.”
Amid general laughter, Mr. Baker took the note and playfully
threw it to his wife again, saying:
“It’s yours again, Lucy, because what belongs to me belongs to
you. It has completed the round, and we have all had the benefit of
it.”
“And now it must go around again,” replied she gayly. “I like to
see money circulate; it should never lie idle. Aunt Susan you take it.
Now I have paid you ten dollars.”
“Dear Grace, here is another five dollars on my account,” said
Aunt Susan, handing it to Grace.
“And you Frank, have paid ten dollars for the music you bought
me,” said Grace, handing it to her brother.
 “And I pay you ten dollars for my board,” he continued, and the
note once more rested in Mr. Baker’s hands.
The exchanges were quick as thought, and we were convulsed
with laughter.
“Was there ever so wonderful an exchange?” exclaimed Grace.
“It’s all nonsense!” exclaimed Mr. Baker.
“Not in the least,” answered his wife. “It’s all quite right.”
“Certainly,” said Frank; “when the money belonged to you, you
could dispose of it as you would; I have the same right; it is a fair
kind of exchange, though very uncommon.”
“It shows the use of money,” said Aunt Susan. “It makes the
circuit of the world and brings its value to every one who touches it.”
“And this note has not finished its work yet, as I will show you, my
dear, if you will give it to me again, said Mrs. Baker to her husband.
“I present you with this five dollar note,” said Mr. Baker.
“And I give it to you, Aunt Susan—I owed you fifteen dollars, and
I have paid my debt.”
“You have, my dear friend, without doubt; and now, my dear
Grace, I pay you my indebtedness, with many thanks for your
assistance.”
“I take it with thanks, Aunt Susan,” replied Grace; “and now the
time has come when this wonder-working, this inexhaustibly rich
bank-note must be divided, because I do not owe Frank five dollars
more. How much have I to pay you?”
“Two dollars and sixty-two cents,” replied Frank.
“Can you change it?”
“Let me see; sixty-two, thirty-eight, yes, there is the change; the
spell is broken, Grace, and you and I divide the spoils.”
“This bank-note beats all I ever saw. How much has it paid? Let
us count up,” said Grace. “Mrs. Baker gave Aunt Susan fifteen
dollars, which Aunt Susan gave me; I gave Frank twelve dollars and
sixty-two cents; Frank gave Mr. Baker ten dollars—altogether fifty-
two dollars and sixty-two cents.”
“It’s all nonsense, I tell you,” cried Mr. Baker, again; “you all owe
each other what you owed before.”
“You are deceived, my dear, by the rapid, unbroken race this little
sum has made; to me it is as clear as daylight,” replied Mrs. Baker.
“If it is all nonsense, how could the note which you gave Mrs.
Baker, if nothing to me or to you, be divided between us two?” asked
Grace.
Mr. Baker did not seem to see it very clearly, but the others did,
and they often relate this little history for the amusement of their
friends.

THE RATIONALISTIC CHICKEN.

(Inspecting its shell.)
BY J. S. STONE.

Most strange!
Most queer,—although most excellent a change!
Shades of the prison-house, ye disappear!
My fettered thoughts have won a wider range,
And, like my legs, are free;
No longer huddled up so pitiably:
Free now to pry and probe, and peep and peer,
And make these mysteries out.
Shall a free-thinking chicken live in doubt?
For now in doubt undoubtedly I am:
This Problem’s very heavy on my mind,
And I’m not one either to shirk or sham:
I won’t be blinded, and I won’t be blind.

Now, let me see:

First, I would know how did I get in there?
Then, where was I of yore?
Besides, why didn’t I get out before?
Dear me!
Here are three puzzles (out of plenty more)
Enough to give me pip upon the brain!
But let me think again.
How do I know I ever was inside?
Now I reflect, it is, I do maintain,
Less than my reason, and beneath my pride,
To think that I could dwell
In such a paltry miserable cell
As that old shell.
Of course I couldn’t! How could I have lain,
Body and beak and feathers, legs and wings,
And my deep heart’s sublime imaginings,
In there?

I meet the notion with profound disdain;

It’s quite incredible; since I declare
(And I’m a chicken that you can’t deceive)
What I can’t understand I won’t believe.
Where did I come from, then? Ah! where, indeed?
This is a riddle monstrous hard to read.
I have it! Why, of course,
All things are moulded by some plastic force,
Out of some atoms somewhere up in space,
Fortuitously concurrent anyhow;—
There, now!
That’s plain as is the beak upon my face.

What’s that I hear?

My mother cackling at me! Just her way,
So prejudiced and ignorant I say;
So far behind the wisdom of the day.
What’s old I can’t revere.
Hark at her. “You’re a silly chick, my dear,
That’s quite as plain, alack!
As is the piece of shell upon your back!”
How bigoted! upon my back, indeed!
I don’t believe it’s there,
For I can’t see it: and I do declare,
For all her fond deceivin’,
What I can’t see I never will believe in!
 A MEDLEY.
I only know she came and went, [Lowell.
Like troutlets in a pool; [Hood.
She was a phantom of delight, [Wordsworth.
And I was like a fool. [Eastman.
One kiss, dear maid, I said, and sighed, [Coleridge.
Out of those lips unshorn! [Longfellow.
She shook her ringlets round her head, [Stoddard.
And laughed in merry scorn. [Tennyson.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, [Tennyson.
You hear them, Oh, my heart, [Alice Cary.
’Tis twelve at night by the castle clock— [Coleridge.
Beloved, we must part. [Alice Cary.
Come back, come back, she cried in grief, [Campbell.
My eyes are dim with tears; [B. Taylor.
How shall I live through all the days, [Mrs. Osgood.
All through a hundred years? [J. J. Perry.
’Twas in the prime of summer time, [Hood.
She blessed me with her hand; [Hoyt.
We strayed together deeply blest, [Mrs. Edwards.
Into the dreaming land. [Cornwall.
The laughing bridal roses blew, [Patmore.
To deck her dark brown hair, [B. Taylor.
No maiden may with her compare, [Brailsford.
Most beautiful, most rare! [Read.
I clasped it on her sweet cold hand, [Browning.
The precious golden link; [Smith.
I calmed her fears, and she was calm— [Coleridge.
Drink, pretty creature, drink! [Wordsworth.
And so I won my Genevieve, [Coleridge.
And walked in Paradise; [Hervey.
The fairest thing that ever grew [Wordsworth.
Atween me and the skies! [Tennyson.

ANOTHER MEDLEY.
 (WHO ARE THE AUTHORS?)

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

In every clime, from Lapland to Japan;
To fix one spark of beauty’s heavenly ray,
The proper study of mankind is man.

Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise,

Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain!
“The man of Ross,” each lisping babe replies,
And drags, at each remove a length’ning chain.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb

Far as the solar walk, or milky way?
Procrastination is the thief of time,
Let Hercules himself do what he may.

’Tis education forms the common mind,

The feast of reason and the flow of soul;
I must be cruel only to be kind,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole.

Syphax! I joy to meet thee thus alone,

Where’er I roam, whatever lands I see;
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown,
In maiden meditation, fancy free.

Farewell! and wheresoe’er thy voice be tried,

Why to yon mountain turns the gazing eye?
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose beard descending, swept his aged breast;
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
Man never is, but always to be blest.

AND ANOTHER MEDLEY.

The moon was shining silver bright,
 All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
When freedom from her mountain height,
Exclaimed, “Now don’t be foolish, Joe!”

An hour passed by; the Turk awoke,

Ten days and nights with sleepless eye,
To hover in the sulphur smoke,
And spread its pall upon the sky.

His echoing axe the settlers swung,

He was a lad of high degree;
And deep the pearly caves among,
Sweet Mary, weep no more for me.

Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast,

And cloudless sets the sun at even;
When twilight dews are falling fast,
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven.

Oh, ever thus, from childhood’s hour,

By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
Beneath yon ivy-mantled tower,
They lingered in the forest shade.

My love is like the red, red rose;

He bought a ring with posy true;
Deep terror then my vitals froze;
And, Saxon, I am Rhoderick Dhu!

LIFE.
Why all this toil for triumph of an hour?
[Young.
Life’s a short summer—man is but a flower;
[Dr. Johnson.
By turns we catch the fatal breath and die—
[Pope.
The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh.
[Prior.
To be is better far than not to be,
 [Sewell.
Though all man’s life may seem a tragedy:
[Spencer.
But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb—
[Daniel.
The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
[Sir Walter Raleigh.
Your fate is but the common fate of all;
[Longfellow.
Unmingled joys may here no man befall;
[Southwell.
Nature to each allots his proper sphere,
[Congreve.
Fortune makes folly her peculiar care;
[Churchill.
Custom does often reason overrule,
[Rochester.
And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool.
[Armstrong.
Live well—how long or short permit to heaven;
[Milton.
They who forgive most shall be most forgiven,
[Bailey.
Sin may be clasped so close we cannot see its face—
[French.
Vile intercourse where virtue has no place,
[Sommerville.
Then keep each passion down, however dear.
[Thompson.
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear;
[Byron.
Her sensual snares let faithless Pleasure lay,
[Smollet.
With craft and skill to ruin and betray,
[Crabbe.
Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise,
[Massinger.
We masters grow of all that we despise.
[Cowley.
Oh, then, renounce that impious self-esteem;
[Beattie.
Riches have wings; and grandeur is a dream.
[Cowper.
Think not ambition wise because ’tis brave,
[Sir Walter Davenant.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave,
[Gray.
What is ambition? ’Tis a glorious cheat.
[Willis.
Only destructive to the brave and great.
[Addison.
What’s all the gaudy glitter of a crown?
[Dryden.
The way to bliss lies not on beds of down.
[Francis Quarles.
How long we live, not years but actions tell;
[Watkins.
That man lives twice who lives the first life well.
[Herrick.
Make then, while yet you may, your God your friend.
[William Mason.
Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend.
[Hill.
The trust that’s given guard, and to yourself be just;
[Dana.
For live we how we may, yet die we must.
[Shakespeare.
 THE KEY.

ANSWERS TO PUZZLES.

1. Cobweb. M. A. R.
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2. Thanks.
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3. Of course I can! (Of Corsican.)

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4. Maid of Orleans.
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5. Because they have studded the heavens for centuries.

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6. The winds blue, and the waves rose.

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7. In violet.
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8. They leave out their summer dress.
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9. Because I am the querist.

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10. Penmanship. English Paper.

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11. Heather: weather. Hearth and Home.

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12. Nothing.
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13. It contains all the letters of the alphabet.

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14. A lawsuit.
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15. His father was Enoch, who did not die.

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16. Yes: he was the Daughter-of-Pharaoh’s son.

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17. When Autumn is turning the leaves.

 Back to puzzle

18. Bud-dhism.
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19. Starch. (Star, sac, scar, tar, trash, act, arc, arch, art, ash, rat,
rash, chart, cart, cat, car, chat, cash, cast, crash, hart, hat.)
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20. Ague. (Hague; league; plague.)

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21. Lettuce, alone. (Let us alone!)

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22. The moon.

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23. A human being. The Sphinx Riddle.

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24. Noah.
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25. Macaulay. Rural New Yorker.

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26. N R G.
 Back to puzzle

27. M T.
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28. O B C T.
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29. X L N C.
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30. L E G.
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31. Dutch S.
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32. French L.
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33. K.
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34. In the days of no A (Noah,) before U and I were born.

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35. T.
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 36. Q.
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37. It’s laudin’ ’em.

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38. No man has three feet; a man has two feet more than no
man: therefore, a man has five feet.
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39. A branch. M. L. C.
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40. Love Me Little: Love Me Long.

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41. Ma mère. E. P.
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42. Amiable (Am I able?)

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43. Conundrum.
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44. Purcell. M. D.
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