all dictated, and very slowly and painstakingly at LITTLE that,-Hæckel writes with his own hand, and when JOURNEYS the fit is on, he turns off manuscript at the rate of from two to four thousand words a day. In writing "The Riddle of the Universe," he took no exercise save to go up on the roof, breathing deeply and pounding his chest, varying the pounding by reaching his arms above his head and stretching. However, after a few weeks the villagers and visitors got to looking for him with opera glasses; and he ceased going on the roof, taking his calisthenics at the open window. This exercise of reaching and stretching until you lift yourself on tiptoe, he goes out of his way to recommend in his book on "Development," wherein he says, "There is a tendency as the years pass for the internal organs to drop, but the individual who will daily go through the motion of reaching for fruit on limbs of trees that are above his head, standing on tiptoe and slowly stretching up and up, occasionally throwing his head back and looking straight up, will of necessity breathe deeply, exercise the diaphragm and I believe in most cases will ward off disease and ' keep old age awaiting for long." Here is a little common-sense advice given by a physician who is also a great scientist. To try it will cost you nothing-no apparatus is required-just throw open the window and reach up and up and up, first with one arm, then the other and then both arms. "The person who does this daily for five minutes as a habit, will probably have no need of a physician," LITTLE JOURNEYS adds Hæckel, and dismissing the subject, branches off into an earnest talk on radiolaria. ECKEL was educated for a physician & began his career by practicing medicine. But his heart was really not in the work; he very soon came to the conclusion that the constant dwelling on the pathological was not worth while "Hereafter I'll devote my time to the normal, not the abnormal and distempered. The sick should learn to keep well," he wrote a friend. And again, "If an individual is so lacking in will that he cannot provide for himself, then his dissolution is no calamity to either himself, the state or the race." This was written in his twenties, and seems to sound rather sophomorish, but the idea of the boy is still with the old man, for in "The Riddle of the Universe" he says, "The final effect upon the race by the preservation of the unfit, through increased skill in surgery and medicine, is not yet known." In another place he throws in a side remark, thus, "Our almshouses, homes for imbeciles, and asylums where the hopelessly insane often outlive their keepers may be a mistake, save as these things minister to the spirit of altruism which prompts their support. Let a wiser generation answer!" Doubtless Hæckel could make a good argument in favor of the doctors if he wished, but probably if asked to do so his answer would paraphrase Robert Ingersoll, when that gentleman was taken to task for unfairness towards Moses, "Young man, you seem to forget that I am not the attorney of Moses-don't worry, there are more than ten millions of men looking after his case." Ernst Hæckel is not the attorney for either the doctors or the clergy. It was Darwin and "The Origin of Species" that tipped the beam for Hæckel in favor of science. Very shortly after Darwin's great book was issued, in 1859, a chance copy of the work fell into the hands of our young physician. He read and spoke English, and in a general way was interested in biology. As he read of Darwin's observations and experiments the heavens seemed to open before him. Things he had vaguely felt, Darwin stated, and thoughts that had been his, Darwin expressed. "I might have written much of this book myself," he said. The love of nature had been upon the young man almost from his babyhood. All children love flowers and mix easily with the wonderful things that are found in woods and fields. At twelve years of age Ernst had formed a goodly herbarium, and was making a collection of bugs, and not knowing their names or even that they had names, he began naming them himself. Later it came to him with a shock of surprise and disappointment that the bugs and beetles had already had the attention of scholars. But he got even by declaring that he would hunt out some of the tiny things LITTLE LITTLE JOURNEYS the scholars had overlooked and classify them. Every man imagines himself the first man, and to think that he is Adam and that he has to go forth, get acquainted with things and name them, reveals the true bent of the scientist. Dr. Hæckel was ripe for Darwin's book. He was looking for it, and it only took a slight jolt to dislodge him from the medical profession and allow the Law of Affinity to do the rest. Wallace had written Darwin's book under another name, and if these men had not written it, Hæckel surely would, for it was all packed away in his heart and head. As Darwin had studied and classified the Cirripedia, so would he write an essay on Rhizopods. Luck was with him-luck is always with the man of purpose. He had an opportunity to travel through Italy as medical caretaker to a rich invalid. Sickness surely has its uses; and rich invalids are not wholly a mistake on the part of Setebos. Hæckel secured the leisure and the opportunity to round up his Rhizopods. He presented the work to the University of Jena, because this was the University that Goethe attended, and the gods of Hæckel were three-Goethe, Darwin and Johannes Muller. Muller was instructor in Zoology at Berlin, a man quite of the Agassiz type who made himself beloved by the boys because he was what he was-a boy in heart, with a man's head and the soul of a saint. Some one said of Muller, "To him every look into a microscope was a service to God." In his reverent attitude he was like Linnæus who fell on his knees on first beholding the English gorse in LITTLE full flower, and thanked heaven that such a moment of divine joy was his. Muller was a Jena man, too, and he gave Hæckel letters to the big-wigs. The wise men of Jena discovered that there was merit in Hæckel's discoveries. Original investigators are rare -most of us write about the men who have done things, or else we tell about what they have done, and so we reach greatness by hitching our wagon to a star For the essay on "Rhizopods," Hæckel was made Professor Extraordinary of the University of Jena. This was in 1862; Hæckel was then twenty-eight years old; & there he is today, after a service of forty-two years. ECKEL is happily married, with a big wives both of whom sympathized with the Teddine philosophy. With the whole household, including servants, the great scientist is on terms of absolute good camaradie. The youngsters ride on his back; the older girls decorate him with garlands; the boys work with him in the garden or together they tramp the fields and climb the hills. But when it comes to study he goes to his own room JOURNEYS |