84 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



less formally complete than that of Goethe. But this fact 

 does not in the least detract from Goethe's merit ; for, in 

 spite of insinuations to the contrary, there is every reason 

 to believe that Goethe had not seen the Theoria Generationis 

 when he wrote his Ver stick. When he did become 

 acquainted with Wolff's work, he did not fail to recognise 

 its importance, and spoke of its author as his " admir- 

 ble precursor". It is extremely interesting to observe 

 that these two men of distinguished ability, working inde- 

 pendently, arrived at essentially the same conclusions by 

 what I venture to regard as quite opposite methods. As 

 to the nature of Wolffs method, there cannot be the 

 slightest doubt. He approached the study of plants, it is 

 true, for the purpose of establishing his theory of Epigenesis, 

 but not with any preconceived ideas bearing upon Meta- 

 morphosis. He made his observations, and from them 

 he drew his conclusions. But with Goethe the case 

 seems to have been different. It is true that he made 

 observations, but these observations would appear to have 

 served rather to confirm a theory already formed in his mind 

 than to suggest one. Whilst the method of Wolff was 

 purely inductive, that of Goethe was essentially deductive. 

 This is perhaps a hard saying, the more so as Goethe him- 

 self distinctly repudiates the role of an h priori philosopher. 1 

 " It is by no sudden and unexpected inspiration of genius," 

 he writes, " but through long prosecuted studies that I have 

 arrived at my results," a position which is even more 

 definitely asserted in his first conversation with Schiller. 

 Here is Lewes' account of it : " One day, in May 1794, they 

 met, coming from a lecture given by Batsch at the Natural 

 History Society in Jena ; in talking over the matter, Goethe, 



1 In another passage, however, he seems to admit the deductive char- 

 acter of his work : " I saw that a whole life of talent and labour was requi- 

 site to enable any one to arrange the infinitely copious organic forms of a 

 single kingdom of nature. Yet I felt that for me there must be another 

 way, analogous to the rest of my habits. The appearance of the changes, 

 round and round, of organic creatures had taken strong hold on my mind. 

 Imagination and Nature appeared to me to vie with each other which could 

 go on most boldly and most consistently." {Zur Morphologie, 181 7, i., p. 

 3°)- 



