GOETHE'S ' FARBENLEHRE. 1 57 



lie noticed that when certain bodies were incorporated 

 with glass this substance also played a double part, 

 appearing blue by reflected and yellow by transmitted 

 light. 1 



The action of turbid media was to Goethe the ulti- 

 mate fact the Urphanomen of the world of colours* 

 * We see on the one side Light and on the other side 

 Darkness. We bring between both Turbidity, and 

 from these opposites develop all colours.' As long as 

 Goethe remains in the region of fact his observations 

 are of permanent value. But by the coercion of a 

 powerful imagination he forced his turbid media into 

 regions to which they did not belong, and sought to 

 overthrow by their agency the irrefragable demonstra- 

 tions of Newton. Newton's theory, as known by every- 

 body, is that white light is composed of a multitude of 

 differently refrangible rays, whose coalescence produces 

 the impression of white. By prismatic analysis these 

 rays are separated from each other, the colour of each 

 ray being strictly determined by its refrangibility. The 

 experiments of Newton, whereby he sought to establish 

 this theory, had long appealed with overmastering evi- 

 dence to every mind trained in the severities of physical 

 investigation. But they did not thus appeal to Goethe. 

 Accepting for the most part the experiments of Newton, 

 he rejected with indignation the conclusions drawn from 

 them, and turned into utter ridicule the notion that 

 white light possessed the composite character ascribed 

 to it. Many of the naturalists of his time supported 

 him, while among philosophers Schelling and Hegel 

 shouted in acclamation over the supposed defeat of 

 Newton. The physicists, however, gave the poet no 

 countenance. Goethe met their scorn with scorn, and 



1 Beautiful and instructive samples of such glass are to be seen 

 in the Venice Glass Company's shop, No. 30 St. James's Street. 



