GOETHE'S SCIENCE

Abstract

GOETHE is the only considerable poet who devoted much of his time to science and who took himself seriously as a man of science. Make no mistake, he took himself very seriously: he said, for example, to Eckermann, “I do not attach importance to my work as a poet, but I do claim to be alone in my time in apprehending the true nature of colour”. Although he might on consideration have tended to revise this estimate of his poetry, it is abundantly clear from other records that he was convinced of the lasting importance of his writings on colour. Shelley took at one time a close interest in chemical experiments; Beddoes, a lesser, but not inconsiderable poet, spent most of his time in anatomical study, but neither of them thought that he had made a substantial contribution to science. Goethe stands alone.

Goethe on Nature and on Science

By Sir Charles Sherrington. (The Philip Maurice Deneke Lecture, delivered at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, on the 4th March, 1942.) Pp. 32. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1942.) 1s. 6d. net.