50 GOETHE'S ' FARBENLEHRE.' 



Goethe prized the * Farbenlehre ' as the most import- 

 ant of his works. ' In what I have done as a poet,' he 

 says to Eckermann, * I take no pride, but I am proud 

 of the fact that I am the only person in this century 

 who is acquainted with the difficult science of colours.' 

 If the importance of a work were to be measured by the 

 amount of conscious labour expended in its production, 

 Goethe's estimate of the * Farbenlehre ' would probably 

 be correct. The observations and experiments there 

 recorded astonish us by their variety and number. The 

 amount of reading which he accomplished was obviously 

 vast. He pursued the history of optics not only along 

 its main streams, but on to its remotest rills. He was 

 animated by the zeal of an apostle, for he believed that 

 a giant imposture was to be overthrown, and that he 

 was the man to accomplish the holy work of destruction. 

 He was also a lover of art, and held that the enunciation 

 of the true principles of colour would, in relation to 

 painting, be of lasting importance. Thus positively 

 and negatively he was stimulated to bring all the 

 strength he could command to bear upon this question. 

 The greater part of the first volume is taken up with 

 Goethe's own experiments, which are described in 920 

 paragraphs duly numbered. It is not a consecutive 

 argument, but rather a series of jets of fact and logic 

 emitted at various intervals. I picture the poet in that 

 troublous war-time, walking up and down his Weimar 

 garden, with his hands behind his back, pondering his 

 subject, throwing bis experiments and reflections into 

 these terse paragraphs, and turning occasionally into 

 his garden house to write them down. This first por- 

 tion of the work embraces three parts, which deal, re- 

 spectively, with Physiological or Subjective Colours, 

 with Physical or Prismatic Colours, and with Chemical 

 Colours and Pigments. To these are added a fourth 

 part, bearing the German title, ' Allgemeine Ansichten 



