Goethe's Theory of ColoursGoethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Philosophy
Goethe's Theory of Colours
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Color
The anonymous French work before alluded to, among other interesting
examples, contains a chapter on shadows cast by the upper light of the
sky and coloured by the setting sun. The effect of this remarkable
combination is, that the light on a wall is most coloured immediately
under a projecting roof, and becomes comparatively neutralised in
proportion to its distance from the edge of the darkest shade.
NOTE G.--Par. 98.
"The simplest case of the phenomenon, which Goethe calls a subjective
halo, and one which at once explains its cause, is the following.
Regard a red wafer on a sheet of white paper, keeping the eye
stedfastly fixed on a point at its center. When the retina is
fatigued, withdraw the head a little from the paper, and a green halo
will appear to surround the wafer. By this slight increase of distance
the image of the wafer itself on the retina becomes smaller, and the
ocular spectrum which before coincided with the direct image, being
now relatively larger, is seen as a surrounding ring."--S. F. Goethe
mentions cases of this kind, but does not class them with subjective
halos. See Par. 30.
NOTE H.--Par. 113.
"Cases of this kind are by no means uncommon. Several interesting
ones are related in Sir John Herschell's article on Light in the
Encyclopædia Metropolitana. Careful investigation has, however, shown
that this defect of vision arises in most, if not in all cases, from
an inability to perceive the red, not the blue rays. The terms are so
confounded by the individuals thus affected, that the comparison of
colours in their presence is the only criterion."--S. F.
NOTE I.--Par. 135.
The author more than once admits that this chapter on "Pathological
Colours" is very incomplete, and expresses a wish (Par. 734) that some
medical physiologists would investigate the subject further. This was
afterwards in a great degree accomplished by Dr. Johannes Müller, in
his memoir "Über die Phantastischen Gesichtserscheinungen." Coblentz,
1826. Similar phenomena have been also investigated with great labour
and success by Purkinje. For a collection of extraordinary facts of the
kind recorded by these writers, the reader may consult Scott's Letters
on Demonology and Witchcraft.[1] The instances adduced by Müller and
others are, however, intended to prove the inherent capacity of the
organ of vision to produce light and colours. In some maladies of the
eye, the patient, it seems, suffers the constant presence of light
without external light. The exciting principle in this case is thus
proved to be within, and the conclusion of the physiologists is that
external light is only one of the causes which produce luminous and
coloured impressions. That this view was anticipated by Newton may be
gathered from the concluding "query" in the third book of his Optics.
[1] See also a curious passage on the beatific vision of the monks of
Mount Athos, in Gibbon, chap. 63.
NOTE K.--Par. 140.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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