in such a full consciousness of its great importance in the history of
culture, that Haeckel closes his "Nat. Hist. of Creat." with the following
words: "Future centuries will celebrate our age, which was occupied with
laying the foundations of the Doctrine of Descent, as the new era in which
began a period of human development, rich in blessings,--a period which was
characterized by the victory of free inquiry over the despotism of
authority, and by the powerful ennobling influence of the Monistic
Philosophy." At the end of the lecture, next to the last, in the same Vol.
II, page 332, he pays the following compliment to the antagonists of
monism: "The recognition of the theory of development and the Monistic
Philosophy based upon it, forms the best criterion for the degree of man's
mental development." In his "Generic Morphology," and in the first edition
of his "Nat. Hist. of Creat.," he, in a geological scala, which closes with
the human period, even divides the whole past, present, and future history
of mankind into two halves: first part, dualistic period of culture; second
part, monistic period of culture. Still, we will not omit to mention, with
credit, that this anticipatory historiography has discreetly disappeared
from the geological scala of the following editions of his "Natural History
of Creation."

As to the further scientific consequences to which this anti-teleological
monism leads, the advocates of it are in tolerable accord; although they
are subject to the most incomprehensible illusions regarding the practical
consequences of it, as we have seen in the above-quoted {166} concluding
words of Haeckel's "Natural History of Creation." As to the scientific
consequences, they express themselves plainly enough: the belief in a
living Creator and Lord of the world no longer find any place; everything,
even all the rich treasures of human life and history, become a result of
blindly acting forces; the history of the world, ethics, and all spiritual
sciences, are in the progress of perception dissolved into physiology, and
physiology into chemistry, physics and mechanism. In his "Natural History
of Creation," Vol. I, page 170, Haeckel frankly calls the whole history of
the world a physico-chemical process.

Whoever refers to a view of another person, is in duty bound to enter into
that view, if possible objectively, even if he does not agree with it. The
author of this book tries to comply with this obligation