GOETHE'S ' FARBENLEHRE/ 51 



nach innen ; ■ a fifth part, entitled * Nachbarliche Ver- 

 haltnisse,' neighbouring relations ; and a sixth part, 

 entitled ' Sinnlich-sittliche Wirkung der Farbe,' sen- 

 suously-moral effect of colours. It is hardly necessary to 

 remark that some of these titles, though doubtless preg- 

 nant with meaning to the poet himself, are not likely to 

 commend themselves to the more exacting man of 

 science. 



The main divisions of G-oethe's book are subdivided 

 into short sections, bearing titles more or less shadowy 

 from a scientific point of view — Origin of white ; Origin 

 of black ; Excitement of colour ; Heightening ; Culmina- 

 tion ; Balancing ; Eeversion ; Fixation ; Mixture real ; 

 Mixture apparent ; Communication actual ; Communi- 

 cation apparent. He describes the colours of minerals, 

 plants, worms, insects, fishes, birds, mammals, and 

 men. Hair on the surface of the human body he con- 

 siders indicative rather of weakness than of strength. 

 The disquisition is continued under the headings — How 

 easily colour arises ; How energetic colour may be ; 

 Heightening to red ; Completeness of manifold pheno- 

 mena ; Agreement of complete phenomena ; How easily 

 colour disappears ; How durable colour remains ; Relation 

 to philosophy ; Relation to mathematics ; Relation to 

 physiology and pathology ; Relation to natural history ; 

 Relation to general physics ; Relation to tones. Then 

 follows a series of sections dealing with the primary 

 colours and their mixtures. These sections relate less 

 to science than to art. The writer treats, among other 

 things, of ^Esthetic effects Fear of the Theoretical ; 

 Grounds and Pigments, Allegorical, Symbolical, and 

 Mystical use of colours. The headings alone indicate 

 the enormous industry of the poet ; showing at the same 

 time an absence of that scientific definition which he 

 stigmatised as ' pedantry ' in the case of Newton. 



