io 4 HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ 



same organism, as seen in animal species, exists in the 

 manifold repetition of the same parts in plants, and again 

 in the transition from the leaves of the stem to those of the 

 calyx and petals from which follows Goethe's theory of 

 the ' Metamorphosis of Plants ', which has been accepted, at 

 any rate in its essential features, by the botanists. The repeti- 

 tion of homogeneous parts in animals, which Goethe noticed 

 accidentally, led him to extend his doctrine to animals also, 

 but in Helmholtz's opinion these osteological conclusions 

 have been less favoured by science. 



According to Helmholtz it was wonderful that Goethe should 

 divine the existence of such a law, and follow out its indi- 

 cations so acutely, although he neither saw what law it was, 

 nor even tried to find out; since he always held the view 

 that l Nature must yield up her own secrets, inasmuch as she 

 is the transparent symbol of her ideal significance*. 



But after emphasizing the great services which Goethe had 

 rendered to the natural sciences, Helmholtz claimed the right 

 of criticizing the physical conclusions arrived at by this great 

 genius, and pointed out the errors into which Goethe fell, when 

 he attempted to repeat Newton's experiments with the prism, 

 in order to investigate the aesthetic laws of colour in painting. 

 He was ignorant of the most elementary principles of optics, 

 and held all Newton's facts and deductions to be an absurdity. 

 Helmholtz discusses the very interesting question why this 

 master-mind should have attacked Newton and the physicists 

 in general with such unparalleled animosity, imputing nothing 

 but ill will to his antagonists, and why this greatest of poets 

 should have assumed his achievements in science to be far 

 more valuable than all he had accomplished in poetry. Helm- 

 holtz attacks his subject with a brilliancy of comprehension, 

 a depth of aesthetic feeling, an appreciation of the poetic and 

 scientific qualities of the man, and of the inductive and deductive 

 methods of reasoning, possible only in a great and contem- 

 plative thinker, expressing himself in the language of inimitable 

 charm and vigour that characterizes all his writings, and is 

 unique as a model for the popular treatment of scientific 

 problems. 



For the poet, he says, as for every other artistic genius, 

 an idea is not expressed as the product of a slowly matured 



