REJUVENESCENCE IN NATURE. Gl 



from the first seed-leaves to the final maturation of the 

 fruit, and, by the conversion of one form into another, 

 leading up to the highest point of vegetable life, as it 

 were, by an ideal fiight of steps.* This ideal flight of 

 steps w^hich Goethe perceived in the metamorphosis of 

 plants, is a speaking testimony of the profound con- 

 ception of it entertained by him ; for that which leads 

 the formative process of the plant from one stage to 

 another, which connects the steps of the series, which 

 causes each succeeding step, although separated from the 

 preceding, to appear as a stage of conversion of the 

 latter, can in reality be only an inner and ideal bond. 

 Only the inner identity of the nature of the plant, 

 through all the change of outward manifestations, can 

 justify us in regarding the gradually advancing Rejuve- 

 nescences as really a metamorphosis, that is, a series of 

 transformations of an essentially identical element. In 

 this sense Goethe speaks, too, of the mysterious affinity 

 of the different external organs of plants, pointing out 

 that the real identity of the organs corresponding to each 

 other at the different stages can indeed only be deduced 

 from that inward connection of the steps of the meta- 

 morphosis, and not from mere outward resemblance. 



Goethe already directed attention to the great vibra- 

 tions of the metamorphosis which we here first examine, 

 since he speaks of an alternation of expansion and con- 

 traction in the successive leaf-formations. f This is one 

 of the most important factors in his attempt to explain 

 the metamorphosis of plants ; for a minute discussion of 

 which, however, it is necessary that we should cast a 

 hasty glance over the series of the leaf-formations them- 



* Vide Goethe, 1. c. § 6. 



■\ Goethe, I.e. "Prom the seed up to the highest development of tlie 

 stem-leaf, we observed first an expansion, after which we saw the ealyx arise 

 from a contraction, the petals from an expansion, the reproductive organs by 

 another contraction, and shall now soon make out the greatest expansion in 

 the fruit and the greatest contraction in the seed. In these six steps 

 Nature completes, without pausing, the eternal work of the propagation of 

 vegetables." 



