*57 



Chap, iv.] Metamorphosis and of the Spiral Theory. 



really taken place. But we cannot reason in this way in the case 

 of that which Goethe calls normal or ascending metamorphosis. 

 When in a given species, which has remained constant with 

 all its marks for countless generations, the cotyledons, the 

 leaves, the bracts, and the parts of the flower are called leaves, 

 this must be merely the result of abstraction, which has led to 

 the generalising of the idea of a leaf ; if we make abstraction 

 of the physiological characters of the carpels, stamens, floral 

 envelopes, and cotyledons, and regard only the way in which 

 they originate on the stem, we are justified in including them 

 in one general idea with ordinary leaves, and to this idea we 

 quite arbitrarily give the name leaf. But this does not justify 

 us in speaking of a change of these organs, so long as we 

 consider the whole plant in question as a hereditary and 

 constant form. For the plant therefore taken as constant the 

 idea of metamorphosis has only a figurative meaning; the 

 abstraction performed by the mind is transferred to the object 

 itself, if we ascribe to it a metamorphosis which has really taken 

 place only in our conception. The case would be different, if 

 here as well as in the abnormal instances above-mentioned we 

 could assume that the stamens and other organs of the plants 

 lying before us were ordinary leaves in their progenitors. So 

 long as this assumption of an actual change is not even hypo- 

 thetically made, the expression change or metamorphosis is 

 purely figurative, the metamorphosis is a mere 'idea.' This 

 distinction Goethe has not made ; he did not clearly see that 

 his normal ascending metamorphosis can only have the mean- 

 ing of a scientific fact, if a real change is assumed to take place 

 in the course of propagation in this case, as in that of abnormal 

 metamorphosis or misformation. A comparison of his various 

 expressions shows that he took the word metamorphosis some- 

 times in its literal, sometimes in its ideal and figurative sense ; 

 for instance, he says expressly, ' We may say that a stamen is 

 a folded petal, just as we may say that a petal is a stamen in a 

 state of expansion.' This sentence shows that Goethe did not 



