EDITOR'S TABLE. 



409 



ble authority ; he examines what claim they 

 have to be trusted ; he asks whether things 

 which they pronounce alike are really alike, 

 and whether things which they pronounce 

 different are really different ; and often finds 

 that he must answer, no ! The result of such 

 examination, as at present understood, is that 

 the organs of sense do indeed give us informa- 

 tion about external effects produced on them, 

 but convey those effects to our consciousness 

 in a totally different form, so that the charac- 

 ter of a sensuous perception depends not so 

 much on the properties of the object perceived 

 as on those of the organ by which we receive 

 the information. 



"We see that science has arrived at an esti- 

 mate of the senses very different from that 

 which was present to the poet's mind. And 

 Newton's assertion that white was composed 

 of all the colors of the spectrum was the first 

 germ of the scientific view which has sub- 

 sequently been developed. For at that time 

 there were none of those galvanic observa- 

 tions which paved the way to a knowledge 

 of the functions of the nerves in the produc- 

 tion of sensations. Natural philosophers as- 

 serted that white, to the eye the simplest and 

 purest of all our sensations of color, was com- 

 pounded of less pure and complex materials. 

 It seems to have flashed upon the poet's mind 

 that all his principles were unsettled by the 

 results of this assertion, and that is why the 

 hypothesis seems to him so unthinkable, so 

 ineffably absurd. We must look upon his 

 " Theory of Color " as a forlorn hope, as a des- 

 perate attempt to rescue from the attacks of sci- 

 ence the belief in the direct truth of our sen- 

 sations. And this will account for the enthu- 

 siasm with which lie strives to elaborate and 

 to defend his theory, for the passionate irri- 

 tability with which he attacks his opponent, 

 for the overweening importance which he at- 

 taches to these researches in comparison with 

 his other achievements, and tor his inaccessi- 

 bility to conviction or compromise. 



In conclusion, it must be obvious to every 

 one that the theoretical part of the " Theory 

 of Color" is not natural philosophy at all ; at 

 the same time we can, to a certain extent, see 

 that the poet wanted to introduce a totally 

 different method into the study of Nature, 

 and more or less understand how he came to 

 do so. Poetry is concerned solely with the 

 "beautiful show" which makes it possible to 

 contemplate the ideal ; how that show is pro- 

 duced Is a matter of indifference. Even Na- 

 ture is, in the poet's eyes, but the sensible 

 expression of the spiritual. The natural phi- 

 losopher, on the other hand, tries to discover 

 the levers, the cords, and the pulleys, which 



work behind the scenes, and shift them. Of 

 course, the sight of the machinery spoils the 

 beautiful show, and therefore the poet would 

 gladly talk it out of existence, and, ignoring 

 cords and pulleys as the chimeras of a pedant's 

 brain, he would have us believe that the scenes 

 shift themselves, or are governed by the idea 

 of the drama. And it is just characteristic of 

 Goethe that he, and he alone among poets, 

 must needs break a lance with natural phi- 

 losophers. Other poets are either so entirely 

 carried away by the fire of their enthusiasm 

 that they do not trouble themselves about the 

 disturbing influences of the outer world, or 

 else they rejoice in the triumphs of mind over 

 matter, even on that unpropitious battle-field. 

 But Goethe, whom no intensity of subjective 

 feeling could blind to the realities around him, 

 can not rest satisfied until he has stamped 

 reality itself with the image and superscrip- 

 tion of poetry. This constitutes the peculiar 

 beauty of his poetry, and at the same time 

 fully accounts for his resolute hostility to the 

 machinery that every moment threatens to 

 disturb his poetic repose, and for his deter- 

 mination to attack the enemy in his own 

 camp. 



But we can not triumph over the machin- 

 ery of matter by ignoring it ; we can tri- 

 umph over it only by subordinating it to the 

 aims of our moral intelligence. We must 

 familiarize ourselves with its levers and pul- 

 leys, fatal though it be to poetic contempla- 

 tion, in order to be able to govern them after 

 our own will, and therein lies the complete 

 justification of physical investigation, and its 

 vast importance for the advance of human 

 civilization. 



" EYOL UTION ADMITTED, WIIA T THEN? " 



It is gratifying to note an obvious 

 subsidence of alarm on the part of emi- 

 nent divines in regard to the acceptance 

 of evolution doctrines, accompanied by 

 the bolder enunciation of rational views 

 respecting religion. Dr. E. O. Haven, 

 Chancellor of the University of Syra- 

 cuse, and now a Methodist bishop, sends 

 a communication to a leading religious 

 journal under the above title, which is 

 full of significant foreshadowings that 

 are worthy of notice. 



Dr. Haven utters a very important 

 truth when he says : " Men are prone 

 to associate their religion with its dra- 

 pery. This becomes obsolete and must 



