fe
(gleichmaessig belebt sind); that the distinction between living and dead
matter does not exist. When a stone is thrown into the air and falls by
certain laws to the ground, or when a solution of salt forms a crystal,
the result is neither more nor less a mechanical manifestation of life,
than the flowering of a plant, the generation or sensibility of animals,
or the feelings or the mental activity of man. In thus establishing the
monistic theory of nature lies the highest and most comprehensive merit
of the doctrine of descent, as reformed by Darwin." (p. 21) "As to the
much vaunted design in nature, it is a reality only for those whose
views of animal and vegetable life are to the last degree superficial.
Any one who has gone deeper into the organization and vital activity of
animals and plants, who has made himself familiar with the action and
reaction of vital phenomena, and the so-called economy of nature, comes
of necessity to the conclusion, that design does not exist, any more
than the vaunted goodness of the Creator" (die vielgeruehmte Allguete des
Schoepfers). (p. 17)

Professor Huxley, in his review of this work of Haeckel, already quoted,
says: "I do not like to conclude without reminding the reader of my
entire concurrence with the general tenor and spirit of the work, and of
my high estimate of its value." If you take out of Haeckel's book its
doctrine of Monism, which he himself says means Materialism, it has no
"tenor or spirit" in it. It is not, however, for us to say how far
Professor Huxley intended his indorsement to go.

Haeckel says that Darwin's theory of evolution leads inevitably to
Atheism and Materialism. In this we think he is correct. But we have
nothing to do with Haeckel's logic or with our own. We make no charge
against Mr. Darwin. We cite Haeckel merely as a witness to the fact that
Darwinism involves the denial of final causes; that it excludes all
intelligent design in the production of the organs of plants and
animals, and even in the production of the soul and body of man. This
first of German naturalists would occupy a strange position in the sight
of all Europe, if, after lauding a book to the skies because it teaches
a certain doctrine, it should turn out that the book taught no such
doctrine at all.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] _The Science of Nature versus the Science of Man_. By Noah Porter,
President of Yale College. New York, 1871, p. 29.

[30] _Natuerlische Schoepfungsgeschich