carried on in the presence of a large audience; it can no longer be referred to secret committees, or be settled or suppressed behind closed doors.’” In my book on “The General Morphology of Organisms” I have placed as headings to the different books and chapters a selection of the numerous interesting and important sentences in which Goethe clearly expresses his view of organic nature and its constant development. I will here quote a passage from the poem entitled, “The Metamorphosis of Animals” (1819). “All members develop themselves according to eternal laws, And the rarest form mysteriously preserves the primitive type, Form therefore determines the animal’s way of life, And in turn the way of life powerfully reacts upon all form. Thus the orderly growth of form is seen to hold Whilst yielding to change from externally acting causes.”[3] Here, clearly enough, the contrast between two different organic constructive forms is intimated, which are opposed to one another, and which by their interaction determine the form of the organism; on the one hand, a common inner original type, firmly maintaining itself, constitutes the foundation of the most different forms; on the other hand, the externally active influence of surroundings and mode of life, which influence the original type and transform it. This contrast is still more definitely pointed out in the following passage:— “An inner original community forms the foundation of all organization; the variety of forms, on the other hand, arises from the necessary relations to the outer world, and we may therefore justly assume an original difference of conditions, together with an uninterruptedly progressive transformation, in order to be able to comprehend the constancy as well as the variations of the phenomena of form.”