2Q2 OWEN'S POSITION IN 



Goethe was well acquainted with Caspar F. Wolff 

 and his writings. 



AH this is mere justice to Goethe ; but, as it 

 is the unpleasant duty of the historian to do 

 justice upon, as well as to, great men, it be- 

 hoves me to add that the germs, and more than 

 the germs, of the worst faults of later speculative 

 morphologists are no less visible in his writings 

 than their great merits. 4 In the artist-philosopher 

 there was, at best, a good deal more artist than 

 philosopher; and when Goethe ventured into the 

 regions which belong to pure science, this excess 

 of a virtue had all the consequences of a vice. 

 ' Trennen und zahlen lag nicht in meiner Natur,' 5 

 says he ; but the mental operations of which 

 ' analysis and numeration ' are partial expressions 

 are indispensable for every step of progress 

 beyond happy glimpses, even in morphology ; 

 while, in physiology and in physics, failure in the 

 most exact performance of these operations in- 

 volves sheer disaster, as indeed Goethe was 

 afforded abundant opportunity of learning. Yet 

 he never understood the sharp lessons he re- 

 ceived, and put down to malice, or prejudice, the 

 ill-reception of his unfortunate attempts to deal 

 with purely physical problems. 



Goethe's contributions to the science of 



4 See, for example, the essay 5 Morphologie : Geschichte 



1 Ueber die Spiraltendenz der meines botanischen Stadiums. 

 Vegetation ' in the Morphologie. 



