ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 253 



to the poetical mind of Goethe, and all other artists, 

 than the separations and classifications of the men of 

 science. " It is one of Humboldt's uncontested merits 

 that he, in order to prove the unity which rules in 

 the formation of the earth, searched for analogies in 

 the geological constitution of distant countries. As 

 we see him pointing out numerous novel coincidences 

 between the formations of Mexico and Hungary, so 

 likewise we owe to him suggestive hints for other 

 similar comparisons." l But the man in whose labours 

 the tendency of thought which was uncritically followed 

 by Goethe, and magnificently represented in Humboldt, 

 found the clearest scientific expression, so far as animated 

 nature is concerned, was fitienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. . 



Geoffrey 



the friend and colleague and then the great rival of 

 Cuvier. 2 No one recognised more clearly the deeper 

 significance of the great outburst of the two conflicting 

 ways of viewing nature in the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 in 1830 than Goethe himself, who in the eighty-first year 

 of his life was deeply stirred by seeing his favourite ideas 

 espoused by a scientific authority of the first order. 3 



1 See Julius Ewald in the third great event ? The volcano has come 



volu,me of the ' Leben Hum- to an eruption, everything is in 



boldt's ' by Bruhns (German edi- flames, and it is no longer a dis- 



tion), p. 184. cussion with closed doors.' 'A 



2 See Huxley in ' Life of Owen,' 

 vol. ii. p. 293. 



3 Eckermann in the ' Conversa- 

 tions with Goethe ' gives the follow- 

 ing remarkable account, under date 

 2nd August 1830: "The news of 

 the outbreak of the French Revolu- 

 tion arrived to - day, and created 

 excitement everywhere. In the 



dreadful affair,' I replied. ' But 

 what else could one expect under 

 the well-known circumstances and 

 with such a ministry, but that it 

 would end with the expulsion of the 

 Royal Family ? ' ' We do not seem 

 to understand each other, my 

 friend,' retorted Goethe. ' I am in 

 nowise speaking of those people ; I 



course of the afternoon I went to am concerned with quite different 

 Goethe. 'Well,' he called out to things. I speak of that most im- 

 me, 'what do you think of this portant conflict which has come 



