SPACE 31 



blind spot ; the surfaces surrounding it simply grow together. 

 We get the impression all the while that quite a different 

 kind of imagination is at work here, an imagination completely 

 lacking the power to form shapes. 



In any case, the fact that we are continually filling in 

 an anatomical hiatus with an adaptable product of the 

 imagination quite independent of our will, sets us thinking, 

 for here what is bodily and what is spiritual clearly have the 

 same origin. And this is a strong indication that bodily 

 things, like spiritual, are merely manifestations of the same 

 unknown natural force. 



In the physiological text-books we find collected all that 

 is worth knowing about the reciprocal influences of light, 

 dark and coloured surfaces ; but this wealth of material has 

 not yet been utilised for a symphonic theory of sight. Yet 

 in Goethe's works are to be discovered the foundations for it, 

 and set forth with his incomparable originality. But the 

 physicists rate Goethe as an amateur, and accordingly the 

 majority of physiologists likewise treat his views with con- 

 tempt. The reason for this misunderstanding lies in the 

 fundamentally different standpoints from which physics and 

 biology regard the world. 



In the world of the physicist there are only objects, which 

 react on one another through the medium of space ; in the 

 world of the biologist there are only appearances, which react 

 on one another through the medium of the subject. 



According to the physical theory, wave-like vibrations of 

 different diameters pass outwards from all objects ; each 

 of these different kinds of waves corresponds to a certain 

 colour-value. It is, however, a great mistake to suppose 

 that this explanation fits in with even the simplest facts. 

 If we cut out of the spectrum all the colours except pure red 

 and pure green, and illuminate with these alone the same 

 colourless surface, that surface will appear white. If we mix 



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