Chap, i v.J Metamorphosis and oj 'the Spiral Theory. 159 



explains the lively, nay passionate, interest which he took in 

 the dispute between Cuvier and Geoffrey de St. Hilaire in 

 1830 1 . We gather from it that Goethe, in spite of all his 

 wanderings in the mists of the nature-philosophy of the time, 

 felt a growing need for some clearer insight into the nature of 

 metamorphosis, both in plants and animals, without ever being 

 able to make his way into the clear light. 



But these better motions remained without importance for 

 the history of botany ; the adherents of his doctrine of meta- 

 morphosis all apprehended it in the sense of the nature- 

 philosophy, and Goethe himself did not remonstrate against 

 the frightful way in which it was distorted by them. Its 

 further development therefore was in accordance with the 

 principles of that philosophy, which was accustomed to apply 

 the results of purely idealistic views in an uncritical way to 

 imperfectly observed facts. Above all the difficulty remained 

 unsolved, how the dogma of the constancy of species was to 

 be brought into logical connection with the idea of the meta- 

 morphosis of organs. The supranatural, which Elias Fries 

 found in the natural system, subsisted still in the doctrine of 

 metamorphosis in comparing the organs of a plant. 



Still more obscure and entirely the product of the nature-philo- 

 sophy is Goethe's view of the spiral tendency in vegetation. 

 At p. 194 of his essay entitled ' Spiraltendenz der Vegetation' 

 ( 1 83 1 ) he says : ' Having fully grasped the idea of metamorphosis 

 we next turn our attention to the vertical tendency, in order to 

 gain a nearer acquaintance with the development of the plant. 

 This tendency must be looked upon as an immaterial staff, 

 which supports the existence .... This principle of 

 life (!) manifests itself in the longitudinal fibres which we 

 use as flexible threads for many purposes ; it is this which 

 forms the wood in trees, which keeps annual and biennial plants 

 erect, and even produces the extension from node to node 



1 See Haeckel, 'Natiirliche Schopfuncsgeschichte,' ed. 4, 1873, p. So. 



