GOETHE'S " FARBENLEHRE." 73 



and to others. Nevertheless reason and co cienee 

 will not yield their rights. We may belie them, but 

 they are not deceived. It is not too much to say that 

 the more moral and rational a man is, the greater 

 will be his tendency to lie when he falls into error, and 

 the vaster will be that error when he makes up his mind 

 to persist in it. 



This is all intended to throw light upon Newton. 

 When Goethe passes from Newton himself to his follow- 

 ers, the small amount of reserve which he exhibited 

 when dealing with the master entirely disappears. He 

 mocks their blunders as having not even the merit of 

 originality. He heaps scorn on Newton's imitators. 

 The expression of even a truth, he says, loses grace in 

 repetition, while the repetition of a blunder is imperti- 

 nent and ridiculous. To liberate oneself from an error is 

 difficult, sometimes indeed impossible for even the 

 strongest and most gifted minds. But to take up the 

 error of another, and persist in it with stiffnecked obsti- 

 nacy, is a proof of poor qualities. The obstinacy of a 

 man of originality when he errs may make us angry, but 

 the stupidity of the copyist irritates and renders us mis- 

 erable. And if in our strife with Newton we have some- 

 times passed the bounds of moderation, the whole blame 

 is to be laid upon the school of which Newton was the 

 head, whose incompetence is proportional to its arro- 

 gance, whose laziness is proportional to its self-suf- 

 ficiency, and whose virulence and love of persecution 

 hold each other in perfect equilibrium. 



There is a great deal more invective of this kind, 

 but you will probably, and not without sadness, con- 

 sider this enough. Invective may be a sharp weapon, 

 but over-use blunts its edge. Even when the denuncia- 

 tion is just and true, it is an error of art to indulge in 

 it too long. We not only incur the risk of becoming 



