LAW OF DISPERSION BY REFRACTION. 393 



there the yellow appears ; on the other hand, where 

 the clear border laps over the dark ground, the blue 

 is seen 21 ; and hence we easily see that the image 

 must appear red and yellow at one end, and blue 

 and violet at the other. 



We need not explain this system further, or 

 attempt to show how vague and loose, as well as 

 baseless, are the notions and modes of conception 

 which it introduces. Perhaps it is not difficult to 

 point out the peculiarities in Gothe's intellectual 

 character which led to his singularly unphiloso- 

 phical views on this subject. One important cir- 

 cumstance is, that he appears, like many persons in 

 whom the poetical imagination is very active, to 

 have been destitute of the talent and the habit of 

 geometrical thought. In all probability, he never 

 apprehended clearly and steadily those relations of 

 position on which the Newtonian doctrine depends. 

 Another cause of his inability to accept the doctrine 

 probably was, that he had conceived the " composi- 

 tion" of colours in some way altogether different 

 from that which Newton understands by composi- 

 tion. What Gothe expected to see, we cannot clearly 

 collect ; but we know, from his own statement, that 

 his intention of experimenting with a prism arose 

 from his speculations on the rules of colouring in 

 pictures ; and we can easily see that any notion of 

 the composition of colours which such researches 



81 Farbenkhre, 239. 



