ON THE MOKPHOLOGICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 253 



to the poetical huirI of Goethe, and all other artists, 

 thau the separations and chissitications of the men of 

 science. '' It is one of Humboldt's uncontested merits 

 that he, in order to prove the unity which rules in 

 the formation of the earth, searched for analogies in 

 the geological constitution of distant countries. As 

 we see him pointing out numerous novel coincidences 

 between the formations of Mexico and Hungary, so 

 likewise we owe to him suggestive hints for other 

 similar comparisons." ^ But the man in whose labours 

 the tendency of thought which was uncritically followed 

 by Goethe, and magnificently represented in Humboldt, 

 found the clearest scientific expression, so far as animated 

 nature is concerned, was liltienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 41. 



Geoffrey 



the friend and colleague and then the great rival of s»int- 



o '^ Hilaire. 



Cuvier." Xo one recognised more clearly the deeper 

 significance of the great outburst of the two conflicting 

 ways of viewing nature in the Paris Academy of Sciences 

 in 1 8 :» than Goethe himself, who in the eighty-first year 

 of his life was deeply stirred by seeing his favourite ideas 

 espoused by a scientific authority of the first order.^ 



' See Julius Ewald in the third great event ? The volcano has come 



volume of the ' Leben Hum- to an eruption, everything is in 



boldt's ' Vjy Bruhns (German edi- flames, and it is no longer a dis- 



tion), p. 184. cus.sion with closed doors.' 'A 



- See Huxley in 'Life of Owen.' dreadful affiiir,' I replied. 'But 



vol. ii. p. 293. what else could one expect undei- 



■* Eckermann in the ' L'onversa- the well-known circumstances and 



tions with Goethe ' gives the follow- with such a ministry, but that it 



ing remarkable account, under date would end with the expulsion of the 



2nd August 1830: " The new.s of Royal Family.'" ' We do not seem 



the outbi-eak of the French Revolu- to understand each other, my 



tiim arrived to-day, and created friend,' retorted Goethe. ' I am in 



e.xcitement everywhere. In the iM'wi-c speaking of tho.se peojile ; I 



course of the afternoon I went to am iimcerued with quite different 



Goethe. 'Well,' he called out to iliiiiL,'s. I spe.ak of that most im- 



me, ' wiiat do you think of this porlant conflict which has come 



