Frank A. Dearborn an Ernst Haeckel, Nashua, 29. April 1901
Dr. F. A. Dearborn,
No, 1 Abbot Street.
Nashua, N. H., April 29“ 1901
Ernst Haeckel, Ph. D.,
Dear Sir:
I am reading your „The Riddle of the Universe“, translated by Joseph McCabe, and published by Harper & Brother, N. Y. & London, and desire to call your attention to an error – probably a typographical one. In Chapter XI, page 194, treating the dogma of the Immortality of the Soul you are given as stating the following: „All the monistic philosophers of the century (Strauss, Feuerbach, Büchner, Spencer, etc.) are athanatists.“ Did you not intend to say thanatists? Strauss, Feuerbach, Spencer I have never read, but Büchner I have, and he certainly is a thanatist. Last month, at the request of one of our leading dentists, (a great admirer of yourself and Dr. Büchner), our Library Trustees added your „Riddle of the Universe“ to our public Library, much to the surprise | of some who feared that some of the watchmen on the tower of orthodoxy would detect danger, and sound an alarm, and prevent its being added. But, fortunately, such was not the case –
Respectfully,
F. A. Dearborn,
P. S.
I did not write in German, as I am out of College twenty years, and afeared my Knowledge of that language too limited.