Goethe's work on color theory. I.v. Goethe, the doctrine of color. Yellow-red and blue-red

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Today we understand how strongly color affects our perception of the world. But two centuries ago this was not obvious. One of the first who seriously took up the theory of color was the great Goethe. In 1810 he published his Teachings on Colour, the fruit of several decades. hard work.

Surprisingly, he put this work above his own. poetry, assuming that good poets"were before him and will be after him, and much more important is the fact that he is the only one in his century, "who knows the truth in the most difficult science of the doctrine of color."

True, physicists were skeptical about his work, considering it amateurish. But the "Doctrine of Color" was highly appreciated by philosophers, from Arthur Schopenguer to Ludwig Wittgenstein. In fact, the psychology of color originates from this work. Goethe was the first to talk about the fact that “certain colors cause special states of mind”, analyzing this effect both as a naturalist and as a poet.

And although over the past 200 years, psychology and neuroscience have made great progress in the study of this topic, Goethe's discoveries are still relevant and widely used by practitioners, for example, in printing, painting, design and art therapy.

Goethe divides the colors into "positive" - yellow, red-yellow, yellow-red, and "negative" - blue, red-blue and blue-red. The colors of the first group, he writes, create a cheerful, lively, active mood, the second - restless, soft and dreary. Goethe considers green to be a neutral color.

This is how the great poet and thinker describes colors.

Yellow

In its highest purity, yellow always has a light nature and is distinguished by clarity, cheerfulness and soft charm.

At this stage, it is pleasing as an environment, whether in the form of clothes, curtains, wallpaper. Gold in perfect pure form gives us, especially if brilliance is added, a new and lofty idea of this color; likewise, a bright yellow tint, which appears on shiny silk, for example, on satin, makes a magnificent and noble impression.

Experience shows that yellow makes an exceptionally warm and pleasant impression. Therefore, in painting, it corresponds to the illuminated and active side of the picture.

This warm impression can be felt most vividly when looking at some place through yellow glass, especially on gray winter days. The eye will rejoice, the heart will expand, the soul will become more cheerful; it seems that warmth is blowing directly on us.

If this color in its purity and clarity is pleasant and joyful, in its full strength it has something cheerful and noble, then, on the other hand, it is very sensitive and gives an unpleasant impression if it is dirty or to a certain extent shifted towards cold tones. . So, the color of sulfur, giving off green, has something unpleasant.

red yellow

Since no color can be considered unchanged, yellow, thickening and darkening, can intensify to a reddish hue. The energy of the color is growing, and it seems to be more powerful and beautiful in this shade. Everything we said about yellow applies here too, only in a more high degree.

Red-yellow, in essence, gives the eye a feeling of warmth and bliss, representing both the color of more intense heat and the softer glow of the setting sun. Therefore, he is also pleasant in surroundings and more or less joyful or magnificent in clothes.

yellow red

Just as a pure yellow color easily changes into red-yellow, so the latter rises irresistibly to yellow-red. Pleasant cheerful feeling that gives us red-yellow color, rises to unbearably powerful in a bright yellow-red.

The active side reaches its highest energy here, and it is not surprising that energetic, healthy, stern people especially rejoice at this paint. A tendency to it is found everywhere among savage peoples. And when the children, left to themselves, begin to color, they do not spare cinnabar and minium.

It is enough to look closely at a completely yellow-red surface, so that it seems that this color really hit our eye. It causes incredible shock and retains this effect to a certain degree of darkening.

Showing a yellow and red handkerchief disturbs and makes the animals angry. I also knew educated people who, on a cloudy day, could not bear to look at a man in a crimson cloak when they met.

Blue

Just as yellow always brings light with it, so blue can always be said to always bring something dark with it.

This color has a strange and almost inexpressible effect on the eye. As a color it is energy; but it stands on the negative side, and in its greatest purity is, as it were, an agitating nothingness. It combines some kind of contradiction of excitement and rest.

As we see the heights of the heavens and the distance of the mountains as blue, so the blue surface seems to be moving away from us.

Just as we willingly pursue a pleasant object that eludes us, so we look at the blue, not because it rushes at us, but because it draws us along with it.

Blue makes us feel cold, just as it reminds us of a shadow. The rooms, finished in pure blue, seem to a certain extent spacious, but, in essence, empty and cold.

It cannot be called unpleasant when positive colors are added to a certain extent to blue. Greenish color sea wave rather nice paint.

Red blue

Blue is potentized very gently into red, and thus acquires something active, although it is on the passive side. But the nature of the excitement it causes is completely different from that of red-yellow - it does not so much enliven as it causes anxiety.

Just as the growth of color itself is unstoppable, so one would like to go further with this color all the time, but not in the same way as with red-yellow, always actively stepping forward, but in order to find a place where one could rest.

In a very weakened form, we know this color under the name of lilac; but even here he has something alive, but devoid of joy.

blue red

This anxiety increases with further potentiation, and one might perhaps argue that a wallpaper of a perfectly pure saturated blue-red color will be unbearable. That is why, when it is found in clothes, on a ribbon or other decoration, it is used in a very weakened and light shade; but even in this form, according to its nature, it makes a very special impression.

The effect of this color is as unique as its nature. He gives the same impression of seriousness and dignity, as well-willedness and charms. It produces the first in its dark condensed form, the second in its light diluted form. And thus the dignity of old age and the courtesy of youth can be clothed in one colour.

The story tells us a lot about the addiction of rulers to purple. This color always gives the impression of seriousness and magnificence.

Purple glass shows a well-lit landscape in a terrifying light. Such a tone should have covered the earth and sky on the day of the Last Judgment.

If yellow and blue, which we consider the first and simplest colors, are combined together at their first appearance in the first stage of their action, then that color will arise, which we call green.

Our eye finds real satisfaction in it. When the two mother colors are in a mixture just in balance in such a way that neither of them is noticed, then the eye and the soul rest on this mixture, as on simple color. I don't want to and I can't go any further. Therefore, for rooms in which you are constantly located, green wallpapers are usually chosen.

More details in the book: I.-V. Goethe The Teaching about Color. Theory of knowledge” (Librokom, 2011).

Teaching about color. Theory of knowledge

War'nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,

Wie konnten wir das Licht erblicken?

Lebt'nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,

Wie konnt'uns Gottliches entziicken?

Foreword

When you are going to talk about colors, the question naturally arises whether it is necessary to mention light first of all. To this question we will give a short and direct answer: since so many different opinions have been expressed about light so far, it seems superfluous to repeat what has been said or multiply the statements that have been so often repeated.

Actually, after all, all our efforts to express the essence of any thing remain in vain. Actions are what we perceive and full story these actions would embrace - no doubt, the essence of this thing. In vain do we try to describe the character of man; but compare his actions, his deeds, and a picture will arise before you. his character.

Colors are deeds of light, deeds and suffering states. In this sense, we can expect them to clarify the nature of light. Colors and light stand, it is true, in the most exact relationship to each other, however, we must imagine them as inherent in all nature: through nph, nature is completely revealed to the sense of sight.

In the same way, the whole nature is revealed to another sense. Close your eyes, open, sharpen your ears, and from the most gentle breath to the deafening noise, from the simplest sound to the greatest harmony, from the most passionate cry to the meekest words of reason, you will hear nature and only nature that speaks, that reveals its being, its strength, his life and his relationships, so that the blind man, to whom the infinite visible world, can in audible embrace the infinitely living world.

So says nature to the rest of the senses - to the familiar, and the unrecognized and unfamiliar senses; thus she speaks to herself and to us through a thousand manifestations. To the careful observer, she is nowhere dead or mute; and even to the inert earthly body she gave a breastplate, metal, in the smallest parts of which we could see what is happening in the whole mass.

However verbose, confusing, and incomprehensible this language may often seem to us, its elements remain the same. Quietly tilting first one and then the other pan of the scales, nature oscillates here and there, and in this way two sides arise, there arises an up and down, before and after, and all the phenomena that you encounter in space and time are determined by this duality.

These general movements and definitions we perceive most in various ways, sometimes as a simple repulsion and attraction, sometimes as a peeping and again disappearing light, like the movement of air, like a shaking of the body, like oxidation and deoxidation; but they always unite or separate, set things in motion and serve life in one form or another.

Assuming that these two directions are unequal to each other in their action, they tried to somehow express this ratio. Everywhere they noticed and called plus and minus, action and reaction, activity and passivity, advancing and restraining, passionate and moderating, male and female; this is how a language arises, a symbolism that can be used by applying it to similar cases as a likeness, a close expression, a immediately suitable word.

To apply these universal designations, this language of nature also to the doctrine of colors, to enrich and expand this language, relying on the diversity of the phenomena studied here, and thereby facilitate the exchange of higher views among the friends of nature - this is the main task of this work.

The work itself is divided into three parts. The first gives an outline of the doctrine of colors. Innumerable occurrences of phenomena are subsumed in this part under the known basic Phenomena, arranged in an order which the introduction is to justify. Here it can be noted that although we everywhere adhered to experience, everywhere we laid it at the basis, nevertheless we could not pass over in silence the theoretical view, according to which this selection and order of phenomena arose.

And in general, the demand sometimes put forward, although it is not fulfilled even by those who put it, is extremely surprising: to present the evidence of experience without any theoretical connection and leave the reader, the student, to form a conviction for himself to his liking. But when I only look at a thing, it does not move me forward. Every looking turns into looking, every looking into thinking, every thinking into binding, and therefore it can be said that already with every attentive look thrown at the world, we theorize. But to do and apply it consciously, with self-criticism, with freedom and - to use a bold expression - with a certain irony: such a device is necessary so that the abstraction we fear is harmless, and experienced result, which we are waiting for - enough alive and useful.

In the second part we are engaged in the exposure of Newton's theory, which imperiously and influentially closed the way to a free view of color phenomena up to now; we contest a hypothesis which, though no longer considered valid, still retains traditional authority among men. In order that the doctrine of colors should not lag behind, as hitherto, so many better processed parts of natural science, the true meaning of this hypothesis must be clarified, old errors must be eliminated.

Since this second part of our work will seem dry in content, perhaps too harsh and passionate in presentation, then, in order to prepare for this more serious matter and at least somewhat justify this lively attitude towards it, let me give here the following comparison.

Newton's theory of colors can be compared to an old fortress, which was at first founded with youthful haste by the founder, subsequently gradually expanded and furnished by him according to the needs of the time and circumstances, and strengthened to the same extent, in view of hostile collisions.

So did his successors and heirs. They were forced to enlarge the building, to attach it here, to complete it there, to build an outbuilding somewhere else - they were forced, thanks to the growth of internal needs, by pressure external enemies and many accidents.

All these alien parts and outbuildings had to be connected again with the most amazing galleries, halls and passages. What was damaged by the hand of the enemy or the power of time was immediately restored again. As needed, they made deeper ditches, raised walls and did not skimp on towers, towers and loopholes. Thanks to these careful efforts, a prejudice about high value this fortress, despite the fact that architecture and fortification during this time have greatly improved, and in other cases people have learned to arrange much better dwellings and fortifications. But old fortress she was especially honored because she had never been captured, that many assaults had been repulsed by her, not a few enemies had been put to shame, and she had always behaved like a virgin. This name, This glory does not die to this day. It never occurs to anyone that the old building has become uninhabited. Everyone is again talking about> her remarkable strength, her excellent device. Pilgrims go there to worship; sketchy drawings of her are shown in all schools and instill in the receptive youth respect for the building, which meanwhile is already empty, guarded by a few invalids who quite seriously imagine themselves fully armed.

Thus, there is no question here of a long siege or a strife with a dubious outcome. In fact, we find this eighth wonder of the world already as an abandoned monument of antiquity, threatening to collapse, and immediately, without any fuss, we begin to demolish it, from the ridge and roof, in order to finally let the sun into this old nest of rats and owls and open the eyes of the astonished traveler all this incoherent architectural labyrinth, its appearance for the sake of temporary needs, all its random heaps, everything deliberately sophisticated, somehow patched in it. But to throw such a glance is possible only if wall after wall falls, vault after vault, and the garbage is removed as soon as possible.

More than 10 years ago, I accidentally met Anastasia Boronina. I consider it a success in my life. Then, at the end of August 1999, she and her like-minded people held a seminar dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of I.V. Goethe. I looked there just out of curiosity. After whole year she carefully kept a sheet with her phone number, and in her memory - the phrase: “Can't you draw? All the better. Come to class."

A year later, I came. We didn't draw, we worked with color. If it were academic teaching, I would run away from the very first lesson, once again convinced of my mediocrity. But here I was offered to learn and discover the world of color on my own. And I stayed ... for seven whole years.

Currently, Nastya is still teaching classes - during the year in St. Petersburg, and in the summer at the dacha in Vyritsa. And everyone who is sure that he "can't do anything", but at the same time retains curiosity about the world, has the opportunity to take up paint and try to discover it for himself.

Nastya prepared the material below specifically for this page.

Moreover, according to her confession, “it became clear to me that this text alone was not enough. I will write the next one. So to be continued.

Lydia Krusheva

German poet and philosopher, a man who high position in society, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe remained a child in his attitude to the world. But not infantile, but investigating. At the heart of it scientific research in mineralogy, botany, anatomy and optics, there are eternal questions that direct perception poses. Why is the sky blue? Why is the sun red? How do flowers and fruit come from leaves? Is there a difference in bone formation between ungulates and carnivores? And so on. A child who asks these questions does not often get an answer. And an adult, saying goodbye to childhood, says goodbye to interest in the world. Goethe retained this interest, and not just an interest, but a desire to get to the bottom of the truth. At the same time, the writer proceeded from his artistic instinct and reverence for the secrets of Nature.

His theory of color caused laughter among physicists, but over time it became clear that the appeal to phenomena (which was what Goethe was doing) is timeless and is true as long as the physical world exists. The main phenomenon of Goethe's color theory sounds like this: “When light breaks through darkness, we see warm colors (yellow, orange, red). When light illuminates darkness, we see cool colors (blue, blue, purple).”

What does this mean in practice, how to connect these statements with the observation of Nature? First of all, we see two components - darkness and light. Darkness is passive, while light is active. The interaction between them generates color, which is the third component. This third component is present everywhere in the world around us, while the first two in their pure form are the ancestral foundations. For Goethe, these are categories, two opposite forces underlying everything - darkness and light, evil and good, cold and heat, death and life, and so on. Speaking of color, he takes absolute transparency and absolute opacity as two principles. Absolute transparency is a vacuum, opacity is solids that do not transmit light. But between these two states there are a lot of intermediate ones: translucent, barely transparent, cloudy, cloudy, and so on. For light, translucency is darkness, it extinguishes it. For darkness - translucency is light, it highlights it.

The first step from absolute transparency to opacity is the atmosphere, air, a subtle substance, which, however, has a chemical composition and is matter. The atmosphere is between us and the sky. Depending on the chemical composition, it can be more cloudy (for example, closer to the ground) or more transparent. Through it we look into space. The firmament of the sky itself is black, this is confirmed by science. Moreover, from Yuri Gagarin's notes, it is known that when approaching the exit from the atmosphere, the color of the sky changed from blue to blue, dark blue and purple, until it became completely black. Therefore, the atmosphere (intermediate, cloudy environment) is between us and the darkness, and due to their interaction, we see cold colors (blue and purple). How more quantity or turbidity of the atmosphere, especially light colors we see (cyan, blue). The smaller and more transparent the atmosphere, the more intense colors we perceive (indigo, violet).

Let's look through the atmosphere at the Sun. Depending on its position above the horizon, we observe the Sun in warm colors from light yellow to orange, red and even purple. In this case, the atmosphere darkens the light, as it is between us and the Sun. The closer to the horizon, the cloudier the atmosphere (due to various vapors and chemical reactions directly above the Earth), so quite often we see an orange-red Sun at sunset and sunrise. The higher the Sun rises to the zenith, the more transparent and pure the atmosphere, the light is less clouded, so white and light yellow shades are observed.

We observe the same phenomenon when we look at objects that are in the distance. For example, dark mountains are seen by us as blue, blue or purple, depending on the distance, and, accordingly, the thickness of the atmosphere between us and the observed object.

Thus, Goethe's basic phenomenon is true if we take the atmosphere as an intermediate medium. But Goethe did not stop there. He tested the truth of the phenomenon with all possible substances. That is, it began to compact the intermediate turbid medium. First he took the smoke, which showed the same results. When smoke billows in front of dark trees, we see them as blue or blue, and when the smoke obscures the Sun, we see orange and red. The intensity of the color depends on the intensity of the smoke.

Goethe then experimented with muddy water(you can take soapy water at home). Through the muddy water, black velvet is seen as blue, and the light of the light bulb is painted in warm colors.

The same is observed when waxing a black surface - the more layers, the greater the transition from black to purple, blue, blue, until we see just wax (when the black stops showing through). In Nature, these are blueberries and plum fruit, which are covered with a thin cloudy film. Through it, the darker color of berries and fruits is seen as blue and blue.

An even denser substance is translucent paper - tracing paper. Through it you can see light bulb, gradually adding layers of paper until, to our surprise, the light that comes through is intensely colored to a dark purple-red.

The densest substance on earth is a mineral. And in Nature there is a mineral that meets our requirements - this is opal. Its main color is milkiness. It is more transparent and less transparent. In the Middle Ages, the ability of this stone to shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow was appreciated. In Venice, there was the production of "opal glass", which had the properties of a mineral - when you look through it at the light - you see warm colors from yellow to red (depending on the degree of cloudiness), and when you look through it at darkness - you see a cold spectrum from violet to blue.

By his experiments, Goethe proved that regardless of the density and composition of the intermediate semi-transparent medium, the main phenomenon of his theory is true for any observer. The only thing the writer and researcher warned about was: “My theory is not for reading, but for practice, it needs to be done.”

The theory of color, on which Goethe worked for 41 years, consists of six parts. In this article, we have only considered small excerpt from the "Physical Colors" section.

Anastasia BORONINA

It is known that Goethe himself valued his work in color above his own poetic creativity. great poet He did not agree with Newton's theory of light and color and, in contrast, created his own. Goethe's interest in color has been noted since childhood. As W. Voigt and W. Zukker (1983) note, Goethe's sensually visual method was the reason why Goethe's concept was received "with hostility" by his contemporaries. Goethe was accused of dilettantism and advised to do his own thing. Goethe complains about the cold attitude of his contemporaries to his theory in one of his letters to Schiller. We are primarily interested in that part of Goethe's teaching, which he calls the "Sensual-moral action of flowers."

Goethe believed that color "regardless of the structure and form of the material (to which it belongs - author's note) has a certain effect ... on the mood of the soul" (# 758). Thus, the impression caused by color is determined, first of all, by itself, and not by its objective associations. "Individual colorful impressions ... must act specifically and ... cause specific states" (#761). And further, in #762: "certain colors evoke special states of mind." According to these provisions, Goethe associates certain colors with certain psychological states person. Goethe illustrates a similar property of color by describing those changes in “ state of mind”, which occur with a sufficiently long exposure to color on a person, for example, through colored glasses.

Based on these basic provisions of the psychological section of his teaching, Goethe divides the colors into "positive" - yellow, red-yellow (orange) and yellow-red (red lead, cinnabar) and "negative" - blue, red-blue and blue-red. The colors of the first group create a cheerful, lively, active mood, and the second - restless, soft and dreary. Green Goethe referred to the "neutral". Let's take a closer look at psychological characteristics flowers given by Goethe.

Yellow. If you look through the yellow glass, then “the eye will be delighted, the heart will expand, the soul will become more cheerful, it seems that ... it breathes with warmth” (# 769). Pure yellow is pleasant. However, when it is contaminated, shifted towards cold tones (sulfur color) or applied to an “ignoble” surface, yellow acquires a negative sound and negative symbolic meaning. According to Goethe, such yellow symbolizes debtors, cuckolds and belonging to the Jewish nation.

Orange. What is said (positively) about yellow is also true for orange, but to a higher degree. Orange is "more energetic" than pure yellow. Maybe that's why this color, according to Goethe, is more preferred by the French than by the British and Germans.

Yellow-red. The pleasant and cheerful feeling evoked by orange rises to unbearably powerful in bright yellow-red (#774). The active side in this color reaches its highest energy. As a result of this, according to Goethe, energetic, healthy, stern people especially "rejoice" (prefer) this paint. This color attracts savages and children. Causes a sense of shock.

Blue. “Like a color, it is energy: however, it stands on the negative side and, in its greatest purity, is, as it were, an exciting nothingness” (# 779). Goethe subtly feels the "mysticism" of blue and writes about it as creating a strange, inexpressible effect. Blue, as it were, entails, “leaves” a person. Blue as the idea of dark is associated with the feeling of cold. Dominant rooms of blue color seem spacious, but empty and cold. If you look at the world through blue glass, it appears in a sad form.

Red-blue (lilac). This color evokes a feeling of anxiety. The color is lively, but bleak.

Blue-red. The impression of anxiety is greatly increased. Goethe believed that it was very difficult to sustain this color for a long time if it was not diluted.

Pure red Goethe considers as a harmonious combination of the poles of yellow and blue, and therefore the eye finds "ideal satisfaction" in this color (# 794). Red (carmine) gives the impression of seriousness, dignity or charm and goodwill. Darker symbolizes old age, and lighter symbolizes youth.

Speaking of purple, Goethe indicates that it is the favorite color of rulers and expresses seriousness and grandeur. But if you look at the surrounding landscape through the purple glass, then it appears in a terrifying form, as in the day doomsday» (#798).

Green. If yellow and blue are in an equilibrium mixture, green is produced. The eye, according to Goethe, finds real satisfaction in it, the soul "rests". I don't want to and can't go any further (#802).

The impact of individual colors, causing certain impressions and states in a person, thereby, in Goethe's terminology, "limits" the soul, which strives for wholeness. Here Goethe draws a parallel between color harmony and the harmony of the psyche. As soon as the eye sees any color, it comes into an active state. It is in its nature to produce another color which, together with the given one, contains the whole of the color wheel (#805). So the human soul strives for wholeness and universality. These provisions of Goethe, in many respects anticipate the results of experimental studies by S.V. Kravkova links between color perception and vegetative activity nervous system(VNS) of a person. Goethe identifies the following harmonious color combinations: yellow - red-blue; blue - red-yellow; purple - green.

Based on Goethe's teachings about color harmony and wholeness, we can conclude that the psychological impact of, say, yellow color, requires exposure to red-blue (violet) to balance it. There are complementary relationships between the harmonic color pair. These six colors make up Goethe's "color wheel", where harmonious combinations are located opposite each other diagonally.

In addition to harmonious color combinations (leading to integrity), Goethe distinguishes "characteristic" and "uncharacteristic". These color combinations also cause certain spiritual impressions, but unlike harmonious ones, they do not lead to a state of psychological balance.

"Characteristic" Goethe calls such color combinations that make up colors divided into color wheel with one paint.

Yellow and blue. According to Goethe - a meager, pale combination, which lacks (for integrity) red. The impression it creates is what Goethe calls "ordinary" (#819).

The combination of yellow and purple is also one-sided, but cheerful and gorgeous (#820).

Yellow-red in combination with blue-red causes excitement, the impression is bright (#822).

Mixing the colors of a characteristic pair generates a color that is (on the color wheel) between them.

"Uncharacteristic" Goethe calls combinations of two adjacent colors of his circle. Their proximity leads to an unfavorable impression. This is how Goethe calls yellow and green "funny merry", and blue and green - "vulgarly nasty" (# 829).

Goethe assigns an important role in the formation of the psychological impact of color on a person to the lightness characteristics of colors. The "active" side (positive colors) when combined with black wins in terms of impression strength, and the "passive" side (negative colors) loses. And vice versa, when combined with white, the passive side wins more, becoming more "cheerful" and "cheerful" (#831).

Touches on Goethe and intercultural differences in color symbolism And psychological impact colors. He considers love for the bright and colorful to be characteristic of savages, "uncivilized" peoples and children. In educated people, on the contrary, there is a certain "disgust" for colors, especially bright ones. Goethe associates the color of clothing both with the character of the nation as a whole and with the individual. Lively, lively nations, Goethe believes, prefer the intensified colors of the active side. Moderates are straw and red-yellow, with which they wear dark blue. Nations seeking to show their dignity - red with a bias towards the passive side. Young women prefer light shades - pink and blue. Old men - purple and dark green (#838-848).

The value of "Teachings about color" for the psychology of color is very great. What was blamed on Goethe - artistic method, subjectivism, allowed the great German poet consider the subtle relationships between color and the human psyche. The metaphor of the "light-bearing soul of man" received convincing confirmation in Goethe's work. Goethe's color is no longer a symbol of divine, mystical powers. It is a symbol of the person himself, his feelings and thoughts, and, moreover, the symbol is not poetic, but psychological, having a certain, specific content.

Teaching about color. Theory of knowledge

War'nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,

Wie konnten wir das Licht erblicken?

Lebt'nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,

Wie konnt'uns Gottliches entziicken?

Foreword

Actually, after all, all our efforts to express the essence of any thing remain in vain. Actions are what we perceive, and a complete history of these actions would cover, no doubt, the essence of the thing. In vain do we try to describe the character of man; but compare his actions, his deeds, and a picture will arise before you. his character.

In the same way, the whole nature is revealed to another sense. Close your eyes, open, sharpen your ears, and from the most gentle breath to the deafening noise, from the simplest sound to the greatest harmony, from the most passionate cry to the meekest words of reason, you will hear nature and only nature that speaks, that reveals its being, its strength, his life and his relationships, so that the blind, for whom the infinite visible world is closed, can embrace the infinitely living world in what he hears.

We perceive these general movements and definitions in the most varied ways, now as a simple repulsion and attraction, now as a peeping and again disappearing light, as a movement of air, as a shaking of the body, as oxidation and deacidification; but they always unite or separate, set things in motion and serve life in one form or another.

And in general, the demand sometimes put forward, although it is not fulfilled even by those who put it, is extremely surprising: to present the evidence of experience without any theoretical connection and leave the reader, the student, to form a conviction for himself to his liking. But when I only look at a thing, it does not move me forward. Every looking turns into looking, every looking into thinking, every thinking into binding, and therefore it can be said that already with every attentive look thrown at the world, we theorize. But to do and apply it consciously, with self-criticism, with freedom, and - to use a bold expression - with a certain irony: such a device is necessary so that the abstraction that we fear is harmless, and the experimental result that we expect is sufficiently alive and useful.