No such conclusions are forced upon the one who studies the spectrum phenomenon with the eyes of Goethe. Like the modern experimenter, he, too, is faced with the question 'Discovery or Manufacture?' and he, too, finds the answer to be 'Manufacture'. But to him nature can disclose herself as the real manufacturer, showing him how she goes to work in bringing about the colours, because in following Goethe he is careful to arrange his observations in such a way that they do not veil nature's deeds. 1 'To see is my dower, to look my employ.' Words of the Tower-Watcher in Faust, II, 5, through which Goethe echoes his own relation to the world. 2 The last chapter but two in the edition of 1924. 3 For the drastic and as such very enlightening way in which Eddington presents the problem, the reader is referred to Eddington's own description. 4 Konfession des Verfassers. 5 Colour as quality being no essential factor in the scientific explanation of the spectrum. 6 Contributions to Optics. 7 Outline of a Theory of Colour. 8 See Rudolf Steiner's edition of Goethe's Farbenlehre under Paralipomena zur Chromatik, No. 27. 9 Goethe's own representation of the phenomenon. (The diagram is simplified by omitting one colour on each side.) 10 This is not to be confused with the meaning of 'purple' in modern English usage. 11 This follows from the application of Fourier's Theorem, according to which every vibration of any kind is divisible into a sum of periodic partial vibrations, and therefore is regarded as compounded of these. CHAPTER XV Seeing as 'Deed' - I Having made ourselves so far acquainted with the fundamentals of Goethe's approach to the outer phenomena of colour involved in the spectrum, we will leave this for a while to follow Goethe along another no less essential line of inquiry. It leads us to the study of our own process of sight, by means of which we grow aware of the optical facts in outer space. *