72 GOETHE'S "FARBENLEHRE." 



" Although here, as in other cases/' says Goethe, " it 

 is the Exuberant (Ueberschwdngliche) that impresses 

 the imagination, it must not be imagined that this attri- 

 bute has anything to do with moral feeling. The main 

 foundation of the moral law is a good will * which, in 

 accordance with its own nature, is anxious only for the 

 right. The main foundation of character is a strong 

 will, without reference to right or wrong, good or bad, 

 truth or error. It is that quality which every Party 

 prizes in its members. A good will cherishes freedom, 

 it has reference to the inner man and to ethical aims. 

 The strong will belongs to Nature and has reference to 

 the outer world to action. And inasmuch as the 

 strong will in this world is swayed and limited by the 

 conditions of life, it may almost be assumed as certain 

 that it is only by accident that the exercise of a strong 

 will and of moral rectitude find themselves in harmony 

 with each other." In determining Newton's position in 

 the series of human characters, Goethe helps himself to 

 images borrowed from the physical cohesion of matter. 

 Thus, he says, we have strong, firm, compact, elastic, 

 flexible, rigid or obstinate, and viscous characters. 

 Newton's character he places under the head of rigid or 

 obstinate, and his theory of colours Goethe pronounces 

 to be a petrified apergu. 



Newton's assertion of his theory, and his unwavering 

 adherence to it to the end of his life, Goethe ascribes 

 straight off to moral obliquity on Newton's part. In 

 the heat of our discussion, he says, we have even ascribed 

 to him a certain dishonesty. Man is subject to error, 

 but when errors form a series, which is followed pertina- 

 ciously, the erring individual becomes false to himself 



*I have rendered Goethe's "puteWille," by good will; his 

 ""Wollen," which he contrasts with " Wille," I have rendered by 

 strong will. 



