538 



NATURE 



[Sept. 28, 1882 



common property. We will therefore on this occasion expound 

 only that point which for us to-day is of quite peculiar interest, 

 and has at the same time been very variously conceived, the 

 question, namely, how far the general theory of nature 

 held by our greatest poet agrees with Darwin's. In 1866 

 ii my "General Morphology" I placed Goethe and 

 Lamarck side by side with Darwin as the most important of 

 the founders of the theory of fili ition, and in the way of evidence 

 had compiled from their writings a great number of specially 

 remarkable passages. Their number has lately been increased 

 by others. In the case, however, of a universal genius like 

 Goethe, the question depends far less on the number and form 

 of particular passages in which he communicates his view of the 

 "formation and transformation of organic natures" as on the 

 whole spirit of his grand and thoroughly monistic theory of 

 nature, and on this subject those who have a general knowledge 

 and comprehension of Gjethe cannot now entertain any doubt. 

 In that valuable legacy entitled "God and the World" he Ins 

 left us in superabundance a collection of confessions as perfectly 

 beautiful in their form as they are significant in their substance. 



The preface to the-e confessions, the Proem, at once ex- 

 presses the fundamental monistic thought of Goethe's general 

 view of nature, the inseparable unity of Nature and God, in a 

 manner which leaves us in no doubt : — 



'* Was war' ein Gott, der ntir von aussen stiesse, 

 Im Kreis das All am Finger laufen liesse ! 

 Ihm 2iemt's, die Welt im Innern 2 1 bewegen, 

 Natur in Sich. Sich in Natur zu hegen. 

 So dass was in Ihm lebt und webt und ist, 

 Nie Seine Kraft, nie Seinen Geist vermisst !" ' 



Consider, in addition, the following wonderful poems : " The 

 World-Soul," "One and All," "Legacy," " Parabase," 

 " Epirrhema," &c. ; consider, moreover, his pronounced con- 

 fession to Spinoza's doctrine, and we cannot really find any 

 essential divergence from our current monistic comprehension of 

 tie world as newly established by Darwin. And what a high 

 value Goethe himself attaches to it is seen in his question : — 



" Was kann der Mensch in Leben mehr gewinnen 

 Als dass sich Gott-Natur ihm offenbare, 

 Wie sie das Feste lasst 211 Geist verrinnen. 

 Wie sie das Geister2eugte fest bewahre ? " 2 



That, accordingly, our great Prince of Poets considered the 

 world only as a moni tic process of development in the sen-e of 

 tie Hellenic philosophy of nature, is further demonstrated, a non ; 

 other passages, by the dialogue between Thales and Anaxagoras 

 in the Classical Walpurgis-Night. We would also point out 

 the emphasis with which in geology he held fast to the theory of 

 a gradual and uninterrupted development of our planet and its 

 mountains. From the very beginning he was the most decided 

 opponent of the fallacy of repeated violent revolutions in our 

 globe, a fallacy which developed itself in the beginning of our 

 century, and through Cuvier, in particular, came to be gene- 

 rally accepted. "The violence and leaps in this doctrine, he 

 said, " I cannot away with, for they are not in accordance with 

 nature. Be the matter as it will, it must stand written, that I 

 curse this confounded hurly-burly apparatus of the new creation 

 of the world. And, assuredly, a talented young man y 

 arise with the courage to oppose this universal craze!' Only 

 a few years passed till this expectation was fulfilled. For in 

 1830 appeared Darwin's like-minded countryman, the great 

 geologist, Charles I. yell, and delivered his continuity-theory, the 

 doctrine which is now universally received, of the gradual and 

 uninterrupted development of the earth from natural causes, a 

 mechanical geological theory which, perfectly in Goethe's sense, 

 excluded all violent revolutions of the earth from supernatural 

 cause-. 



If here in the province of geology Goethe shows himself as a 

 most decided adherent to a monistic theory of development, we 

 find him much more so in the province of biology. For the 

 knowledge of the living substance, this "precious, glorious 

 thing" was truly his peculiar pet-study. Here, especially in 

 Morphology, his " Doctrine of Forms," he has cast glances into 

 the inner origin and birth of organic forms, glances deep and 

 clear such as were pos-ible only to a genius who was simulta- 

 neously thinker and artist, naturali t and philosopher. 



1 What kin. 1 of God were He who impelled things only from outside, and let 

 the universe twirl r : It ssems proper to Him to move th 

 inwardly to cheri.h nature in Himself, Himself in Nature, so that ' 



lives ai . in Him never misses His power nor His s] 



2 What greater gain in life can man achieve than the revelation uf God- 

 Nature to him, the evoluti.n of spirit from substance and the substantiation 

 of spirit ? 



Among the many interesting contributions Goethe has made 

 to morphology, the most valuable and most elaborate is the 

 " Metamorphosis of Plants," which appeared in 1790. In this 

 mature product of his botanical studies, which lasted throughout 

 many years, and which most seriously engaged him during his 

 travels in Italy, he deduces, as is well known, the whole endless 

 wealth of forms in the vegetable world from one single proto- 

 plant, and makes all its different organs come into being through 

 manifold transformation and process of development on the part 

 of one single fundamental organ, the leaf. With this work 

 occurred, in point of fact, the first attempt to refer the endless 

 multiplicity of individual vegetable forms to one common original 

 type. 



" Alle Gestalten sind jihnlich, doch keine gleichel der andern; 

 Und so deutet das Chor auf ein geheimes GesetZ. 1 



This "secret law," this "sacred riddle," is the common 

 descent of all plants from that protoplant, conjoined with the 

 fact that the special differences are effected by the different 

 circumstances and conditions of their existence. 



As in the "Metamorphosis of Plants," so also in the " Meta- 

 morphosis of Animals," Goethe seeks, likewise, after the common 

 prototype out of which all the allied forms have been produced 

 through diverging development. 



•' Alle Glieder bilden sich aus nach ew'gen Geset2en, 

 Und die seltenste Form bewahrt im Geheimen das Urbild. 

 Also bestimmt die Gestalt die I-ebensweise des Thieres, 

 Und die Weise 2U leben. sie wirkt auf alle Gestalten 

 Miichtig zuriick. So 2eiget sich fest die geordnete Bildung 

 Welche zum Wechsel s.ch neigt durch ausserlich wirkende Wesen." 2 



As is clearly seen in numerous other passages of his morpho- 

 logical studies on " Formation and Transformation of Organic 

 Natures," that "primal form" or "type" was the inward 

 original community which lies at the basis of all organic forms 

 and the original formation-tendency which i- transmitted by 

 inheritance. On the other hand, the " unrestrainable progressive 

 transformation which arises from the necessary conditions and 

 relations of the external world," is nothing el-e than Adaptation 

 to outward conditions of existence. This la'ter is the centrifugal 

 formative-energy of "Metamorphosis"; the former, again, is 

 the centripetal formative-energy of " Specification." The cleat- 

 knowledge of these two formative-energies, counteracting and 

 balancing each other, was so highly prized by the poet that he 

 enthusiastically extols it a- the " highest thought to which creative 

 nature soared." 



The province in animal morphology to which Goethe applied 

 himself with peculiar predilection was comparative osteology, 

 the skeleton-theory of vertebrates. The reason for this is to be 

 found in the fact that nowhere perhaps to such a degree as here 

 lie operation of that highest nature-conception of manifold 

 development out of one single typical fundamental form meet us 

 with such all convincing force. Down to the present day, con- 

 sequently, the comparative skeleton-doctrine has remained the 

 special favourite of morphologists. While in this province Goethe 

 demonstrated the unity of the vertebral formation in the different 

 divisions of vertebrates, and while in his celebrated skull-theory 

 he further showed that the skull was composed of a series of 

 transformed vertebra;, he arrived in 1795 at the following 

 remarkable utterance : "So much then have we attained as to 

 be able to as-ert without any misgiving that all the more perfect 

 organic natures — unlet- which we imply fi-hes, amphibious 

 animals, birds and mimmah with man at their head — have all 

 been formed after one original image, which in its highly per- 

 sistent parts only deviates more or less here and there, and yet 

 daily by propagation transforms and perfects itself." 



Some of our opponents have raised the objection that these and 

 similar pa-sages of Goethe are no "scientific truths," but only 

 poetical or rhetorical flourishes and images ; the type he meant 

 was only an "ideal pro-type," no real genealogical form. It 

 appears to us that this objection betrays little understanding of 

 the greatest German genius. He who is acquainted with Goethe's 

 thoroughly objective mode of thought, who appreciate- his tho- 

 roughly living and realistic view of nature, will, with us, entertain 

 no doubt that under that "type" n; intended a perfectly real 

 descent of kindred organisms from a comuion genealogical form. 

 That the great under.-tander of man did not thereby exclude man 



' All forms are si uilar, yet no one exactly the same as the other; and 

 ret lav - 



= All members work themselves up according to everlasting laws, and the 



preserves in secret the primi ive type. The firm, therefore, de- 



mi.nal's mode of life, while, reciprocally, themode of life reacts 



powerfully on all form. Thus the regulated structure firmly maintains to 



itself whilst yielding to change through the action of outward substances. 



