GOETHE'S FARBENLEHRE. 219 



the experiment being then "objective." It is sometimes looked at 

 directly through the prism, the experiment being then " subjective." 

 In the production of chromatic effects, he dwells upon the absolute 

 necessity of boundaries " Griinzen." The sky may be looked at and 

 shifted by a prism without the production of color ; and if the white 

 rectangle on a black ground be only made wide enough, the center 

 remains white after refraction, the colors being confined to the edges. 

 Goethe's earliest experiment, which led him so hastily to the conclu- 

 sion that Newton's theory of colors was wrong, consisted in looking 

 through a prism at the white wall of his own room. He expected to 

 see the whole wall covered with colors, this being, he thought, implied 

 in the theory of Newton. But to his astonishment it remained white, 

 and only when he came to the boundary of a dark or a bright space did 

 the colors reveal themselves. This question of " boundaries " is one of 

 supreme importance to the author of the " Farbenlehre " ; the end and 

 aim of his theory being to account for the colored fringes j>roduced at 

 the edges of his refracted images. 



Darkness, according to Goethe, had as much to do as light with 

 the production of color. Color was really due to the commingling of 

 both. Not only did his white rectangles upon a black ground yield 

 the colored fringes, but his black rectangles on a white ground did 

 the same. The order of the colors seemed, however, different in the 

 two cases. Let a visiting-card, held in the hand between the eye and 

 a window facing the bright firmament, be looked at through a prism, 

 then supposing the image of the card to be shifted upward by refrac- 

 tion, a red fringe is seen above and a blue one below. Let the back 

 be turned to the window and the card so held that the light shall fall 

 upon it ; on being looked at through the prism, blue is seen above and 

 red below. In the first case the fringes are due to the decomposition 

 of the light adjacent to the edge of the card, which simply acts as an 

 opaque body, and might have been actually black. In the second case 

 the light decomposed is that coming from the white surface of the 

 card itself. The first experiment corresponds to that of Goethe with a 

 black rectangle on a white ground ; while the second experiment cor- 

 responds to Goethe's white rectangle on a black ground, Both these 

 effects are immediately deducible from Newton's theory of colors. But 

 this, though explained to him by physicists of great experience and 

 reputation, Goethe could never be brought to see, and he continued to 

 affirm to the end of his life that the results were utterly irreconcilable 

 with the theory of Newton. 



In his own explanations Goethe began at the wrong end, inverting 

 the true order of thought, and trying to make the outcome of theory 

 its foundation. Apart from theory, however, his observations are of 

 great interest and variety. He looked to the zenith at midnight, and 

 found before him the blackness of space, while in daylight he saw the 

 blue firmament overhead ; and he rightly adopted the conclusion that 



