GOETHE'S * FARBENLEHBE.' 67 



media entangle him everywhere, leading him captive 

 and committing him to almost incredible delusions. 

 The colours of tempered steel, he says, and kindred 

 phenomena, may perhaps be quite conveniently deduced 

 from the action of turbid media. Polished steel power- 

 fully reflects light, and the colouring produced by 

 heating may be regarded as a feeble turbidity, which, 

 acted upon by the polished surface behind, produces a 

 bright yellow. As the turbidity augments, this colour 

 becomes dense, until finally it exhibits an intense 

 ruby-red. Supposing this colour to reach its greatest 

 proximity to darkness, the turbidity continuing to 

 augment as before, we shall have behind the turbid 

 medium a dark background, against which we have first 

 violet, then dark blue, and finally light blue, thus com- 

 pleting the cycle of the phenomena. The mind that 

 could offer such an explanation as this must be quali- 

 tatively different from that of the natural philosopher. 

 The words 'quite conveniently deduced,' which I 

 have italicised in the last paragraph, are also used by 

 Goethe in another place. When the results of his ex- 

 periments on prismatic colours had to be condensed into 

 one commanding inference, he enunciated it thus: 

 * Und so lassen sich die Farben bei Gelegenheit der 

 Refraction aus der Lehre von den triiben Mitteln gar 

 bequem ableiten.' This is the crown of his edifice, and it 

 seems a feeble ending to so much preparation. Kingsley 

 once suggested to Lewes that Goethe might have had a 

 vague feeling that his conclusions were not sound, and 

 that he felt the jealousy incident to imperfect con- 

 viction. The ring of conscious demonstration, as it is 

 understood by the man of science, is hardly to be found 

 in the words, ' gar bequem ableiten.' They fall flaccid 

 upon the ear in comparison with the mind-compelling 

 Q.E.D. of Newton. 



