864 Professor Tyndall [March 19, 



It may be that Goethe is correct in affirming that the will and 

 prejudice of the individual are all-influential. We must, however, 

 add the qualifying words, " as far as the individual is concerned." 

 For in science there exists, apart from the individual, objective truth ; 

 and the fate of Goethe's own theory, though commended to us by so 

 great a name, illustrates how, in the progress of humanity, the in- 

 dividual, if he err, is left stranded and forgotten — truth, independent 

 of the individual, being more and more grafted on to that tree of 

 knowledge which is the property of the human race. 



The imagined ruin of Newton's theory did not satisfy Goethe's 

 desire for completeness. He would explore the ground of Newton's 

 error, and show how it was that one so highly gifted could employ 

 his gifts for the enunciation and diffusion of such unmitigated 

 nonsense. It was impossible to solve the riddle on purely intel- 

 lectual grounds. Scientific enigmas, he says, are often only capable 

 of ethical solution, and with this maxim in his mind he applies 

 himself, in the second volume of the ' Farbenlehre,' to the examina- 

 tion of " Newton's Personlichkeit." He seeks to connect him with, 

 or rather to detach him from, the general character of the English 

 nation — that sturdy and competent race, which prizes above all things 

 the freedom of individual action. Newton was born in a storm- 

 tossed time — none indeed more pregnant in the history of the world. 

 He was a year old when Charles I. was beheaded, and he lived to 

 see the first George upon the throne. The shock of parties was in 

 his ears, changes of ministries, Parliaments, and armies were occur- 

 ring before his eyes, while the throne itself, instead of passing on by 

 inheritance, was taken possession of by a stranger. What, asks 

 Goethe, are we to think of a man who could put aside the claims, 

 seductions, and passions incident to such a time, for the purpose of 

 tranquilly following out his bias as an investigator ? 



So singular a character arrests the poet's attention. He had laid 

 down his theory of colours, he must add to it a theory of Newton. 

 The great German is here at home, and Newton could probably no 

 more have gone into these disquisitions regarding character, than 

 Goethe could have developed the physical theories of Newton. 

 He prefaces his sketch of his rival's character by reflections and 

 considerations regarding character in general. Every living thing, 

 down to the worm that wriggles when trod upon, has a character of 

 its own. In this sense even the weak and cowardly have characters, 

 for they will give up the honour and fame which most men prize 

 highest, so that they may vegetate in safety and comfort. But 

 the word character is usually applied to the case of an individual 

 with great qualities, who pursues his object undeviatingly, and 

 without permitting either difficulty or danger to deflect him from his 

 course. 



"Although here, as in other cases," says Goethe, " it is the exuberant 

 (Ueberschwangliche) that impresses the imagination, it must not be 

 imagined that this attribute has anything to do with moral feeling. The 



