This is a new formatted edition of a classic evolutionary summary by the distinguished German thinker, Ernst Haeckel, which was ably translated by the radical freethinker of his time, Joseph McCabe. From the preface by the author:

"However, in the three Berlin lectures - my last public addresses - I had no design of winning my hearers to my opinions by means of oratory. It was rather my intention to put before them, in connected form, the great groups of biological facts, by which they could, on impartial consideration, convince themselves of the truth and importance of the theory of evolution. Readers who are interested in the evolution-controversy, as I here describe it, will find in my earlier works (The History of Creation, The Evolution of Man, The Riddle of the Universe, and The Wonders of Life) a thorough treatment of the views I have summarily presented. I do not belong to the amiable group of 'men of compromise,' but am in the habit of giving candid and straightforward expression to the convictions which a half-century of serious and laborious study has led me to form. If I seem to be a tactless and inconsiderate 'fighter', I pray you to remember that 'conflict is the father of all things', and that the victory of pure reason over current superstition will not be achieved without a tremendous struggle. But I regard ideas only in my struggles: to the persons of my opponents I am indifferent, bitterly as they have attacked and slandered my own person."