GOETHE'S THEORY. 139 



both animal and vegetable physiology (views which have 

 been adopted by some of the first naturalists of Europe), 

 we are bound to receive his theory of colours with every 

 respect and attention. 



Goethe regards colour as the " thinning" of light ; 

 for example^ by obstructing a portion of white light, yellow 

 is produced ; by reducing it still farther, red is sup- 

 posed to result ; and by yet farther retarding the free 

 passage of the beam, we procure a blue colour, which is 

 the next remove from blackness, or the absence of 

 light. There is truth in this ; it bears about it a sim- 

 plicity which will satisfy many minds ; by it many of 

 the phenomena of colour may be explained : but it is 

 insufficient for any interpretation of several of those 

 laws to which the other theories do give us some insight. 



Newton may have allowed himself to be misled by 

 the analogy presented between the seven rays of the 

 spectrum and the notes in an octave. The mystic 

 number, seven, may have clung like a fibre of the web 

 of superstition to the cloak of the great philosopher ; 

 but the attack made by Goethe upon the Newtonian 

 philosophy betrays the melancholy fact of his being 

 diseased with the lamentable weakness of too many 

 exalted minds an overweening self-esteem. 



The polarization of light, as it has been unfortunately 

 called unfortunately, as conveying an idea of deter- 

 minate and different points or poles, which only exists 

 in hypothetical analogy presents to us a class of phe- 

 nomena which promise to unclose the mysterious doors 

 of the molecular constitution of bodies. 



This remarkable condition, as produced by the re- 

 flection of light from glass at a particular angle, was 

 first observed by Malus, in 1808,* when amusing him- 

 self by looking at the beams of the setting sun, reflected 



t * Malus, Sur une Propriete de la Lumiere Reflechie : Memoires 

 d'ArcueiJ. Numerous memoirs by Sir David Brewster, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions. 



