88 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
‘but what else could be expected under the circum- 
stances, and with such a ministry, except that it would 
end in the expulsion of the present royal family ?’ ‘We do 
not seem to understand each other, my dear friend? replied — 
Goethe. ‘I am not speaking of those people at all; I am 
interested in something very different, I mean the dispute 
between Cuvier and Geoffroy de Saint Hilaire, which has 
broken out in the Academy, and which is of such great im- 
portance to science. This remark of Goethe’s came upon 
me so unexpectedly, that I did not know what to say, and 
my thoughts for some minutes seemed to have come to a 
complete standstill. ‘The affair is of the utmost import- 
ance, he continued, ‘and you cannot form any idea of what 
I felt on receiving the news of the meeting on the 19th. 
In Geoéiroy de Saint Hilaire we have now a mighty ally 
for a long time to come. But I see also how great the 
sympathy of the French scientific world must be in this 
affair, for, in spite of the terrible political excitement, the 
meeting on the 19th was attended by a full house. The 
best of it is, however, that the synthetic treatment of 
nature, introduced into France by Geoffroy, can now no 
longer be stopped. ‘This matter has now become public 
through the discussions in the Academy, carried on in the 
presence of a large audience; it can no longer be referred 
to secret committees, or be settled or suppressed behind 
closed doors.’” 
In my book on “The General Morphology of Organisms” 
- [have placed as headings to the different books and chapters 
a selection of the numerous interesting and important sen- 
tences in which Goethe clearly expresses his view of 
organic nature and its constant development. I will here 
