Joseph McCabe an Ernst Haeckel, London, [22. September 1903]
8, Elm Grove,
Cricklewood.
London N.W.
Dear Professor Haeckel,
You were good enough some weeks ago to express a desire to have my portrait. I have much pleasure in sending you one that I have had taken recently.
The Rationalist Press Association has asked me to reply to the English critics & theologians who have attacked the Riddle. I have with great pleasure agreed to do so, & will publish a || book containing a thorough reply to all their comments in November. You will not, of course, be in the least committed to anything I say, but I naturally desire to adhere to your sentiments. I, therefore beg you to write me a line on these points: –
1) Is it correct to represent Wundt, Du Bois-Reymond, & Virchow as what we call here “Agnostics”? The ecclesiastical writers are triumphantly saying these men went over to a definite dualism & theism. May I not rather describe them as Agnostics? ||
2) When you say at (or near) the end of the book that “we do not even know that it [the substance underlying matter & force, the ding-an-sich] exists”, may I say this is what you mean? – if there is any substance underlying matter & spirit, it is still impenetrable: but we have really no right to speak of anything underlying them in the sense of being hidden from us by them. They are the world-substance, or two aspects of the world-substance. That is how I conceive it, & I hope you approve.
3) In a recent issue of a journal || here it is said about you: “He himself, if report be true, is shaken to the very core as to his own position. A friend of his, entering his study a few weeks ago, found him in a somewhat mournful condition. ’What is the matter?’ said he, & the great philosopher replied ‘I cannot feel sure of my own position; suppose all my theories should turn out to be false’”
All England is interested in you on account of your book, & I should like to be able to say something about this. Please write (in German) as soon as you can as I am pressing on with my book.
With very great regard & the best wishes I remain
Yours faithfully
Joseph McCabe