114 'T^I^ DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



sooner perish than resign its place, was Hkewise in« 

 stituted by him at the same time. 



Thus, in Goethe's opinion, nature always makes use 

 of the same parts. Nature is inexhaustible in the 

 modification and realization of the archetype ; but to 

 that which has once attained realization cleaves the 

 tenacious power of persistency, a vis centripcta, of which 

 the profound basis is beyond the influence of anything 

 external. Hence, if he speaks of daily completion and 

 transformation by means of reproduction, he under- 

 stands, with respect to the animal which has attained 

 realization, merely that course of development or meta- 

 morphosis which is an image of inexhaustible pheno- 

 menal nature. The influences which Nature has exer- 

 cised upon the parts, he pictures to himself as still 

 present ; but of an actual transformation of existing 

 species into new ones, such as is required by the modern 

 Darwinian doctrine of Descent, Goethe does not speak 

 at all. 



In his view, what was it, then, that was to be trans- 

 formed .'* Surely not the archetype. He says, indeed, 

 *'Thus the eagle fashioned itself by the air for the 

 air, by the mountain top for the mountain top. The 

 mole fashions itself to the loose soil, the seal to the 

 water, the bat to the air ;" and generally, " the animal is 

 fashioned by circumstances to circumstances." But the 

 illustrations which he gives in the Sketch of A.D. 1796, 

 show plainly that he thought, not of any transforma- 

 tion of existing forms, but of mere modes of mani- 

 festation of the type and archetype as they exist in 

 given species. He then says, " The serpent stands 

 high in organization. It has a decided head, with 



