SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 179 



every sphere of culture — namely, Goethe, the poet and universal genius. 

 As is well known, he has been an influence even in the field of biology and 

 it is this side of his work that will be described in the following section. 



z. Goethe 



JoHANN Wolfgang Goethe was born in 1749 of wealthy middle-class parents 

 at Frankfurt am Main. He studied jurisprudence, first at Leipzig, then at 

 Strassburg, and after passing his law examinations practised for a time as 

 a lawyer and at the same time acquired a reputation as a poet. In 1775 ^^ 

 came to the court at Weimar, which was interested in literature, and there, 

 thanks to his brilliant intellectual and personal advantages, obtained an 

 eminent position — not only as poet and organizer of the pleasures of the 

 court, but also as an official he held the highest appointment in the little 

 Saxon capital. For a long time he held the reins of government with success 

 as Minister of State to the principality of Saxe- Weimar. In 1786 he made a 

 journey to Italy, which lasted two years and which proved of decisive im- 

 portance in his life, especially in regard to his scientific work. Having re- 

 turned home, he gradually withdrew from public life and devoted himself 

 whole-heartedly to poetry and science. Active and possessing his full in- 

 tellectual powers to the last, he attained a great age, dying in i8t,x. 



Even as a child Goethe had evinced a lively interest in nature; he ex- 

 amined flowers and carried out experiments in electricity and magnetism. 

 In his poems, too, there was conspicuous from the very first a keen interest 

 in nature — a gift of observing and describing its life in its different phases, 

 which greatly contributed to his fame. During his student days he received 

 varied impressions from the extremely chequered intellectual life prevailing 

 in Germany at that time; he became acquainted with French materialism, 

 which seemed to him dry and unanimated; on the other hand, he engrossed 

 himself in mystical literature, studying the writings of Paracelsus, van Hel- 

 mont, and Swedenborg, which made a somewhat deep impression on him 

 and influenced his poetry. In Strassburg he made the acquaintance of Herder 

 and, as he himself declares, his association with him increased his inter- 

 est for the study both of nature and of human development. Like Herder, 

 Goethe admired Spinoza and sought in him a basis for the unity between 

 spirit and nature that he desired to find in life. 



Goethe' s anatomical researches 

 At Weimar Goethe's interest in the natural sciences was increased through 

 his intercourse with scientists at the University of Jena and through periodi- 

 cal collaboration with Herder. While the latter was putting the finishing 

 touches to his above-mentioned Idcen, Goethe was studying anatomy ac 



