PROFESSOR HiECKEL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—We are told in the Times of the 30th ult. that Professor ilteckel, of Jena, in the speech he delivered at Paris, where a banquet in his honour was given by the French naturalists, pre- dicted that the mechanical interpretation of Nature would strike the last blow at the vague, idealist Pantheism of Hegel, Schopenhauer and Hartmann, and that even anomalies in living organisms would soon be explained by the laws of mechanics, were all the elements procurable ; but I have just concluded the perusal of a paper on the souls of cells (Zellen- seelen), by Professor limckel, in the July number of the Deutsche Rundschau, in which the great biologist teaches that every cell in a living body has a soul of its own. Plants, he says, are republics of cells, animals are monarchies of cells, and he pro- tests with some warmth, in concluding, against the accusations of materialism which his opponents bring forward.
I find it difficult to reconcile these two conflicting views, and should feel grateful if any disciple of Professor Hmckel would help me out of my difficulty.—I am, Sir, &c., A.
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