GOETHE'S ' FARBENLEHRE.' 51 



naeh innen ; ' a fiftli 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 Goethe'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 ; Reversion ; 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. 



