In these words spoken to his secretary, Eckermann, in 1829, a few years
before his death, Goethe gave his opinion on the significance of his
scientific researches in the field of optical phenomena. He knew that
the path he had opened up had led him to truths which belong to the
original truths of mankind. He expressed this by remarking that his
theory of colour was 'as old as the world'.

If in this book we come somewhat late to a discussion of Goethe's
colour-theory, in spite of the part it played in his own scientific
work, and in spite of its significance for the founding of a physics
based on his method, the reasons are these. When Goethe undertook his
studies in this field he had not to reckon with the forms of thought
which have become customary since the development of mechanistic and
above all - to put it concisely - of 'electricalistic' thinking. Before
a hearing can be gained in our age for a physics of Light and Colour as
conceived by Goethe, certain hindrances must first be cleared away. So
a picture on the one hand of matter, and on the other of electricity,
such as is given when they are studied by Goethean methods, had first
to be built up; only then is the ground provided for an unprejudiced
judgment of Goethe's observations and the deductions that can be made
from them to-day.

As Professor Heisenberg, in his lecture quoted earlier (Chapter II),
rightly remarks, Goethe strove directly with Newton only in the realms
of colour-theory and optics. Nevertheless his campaign was not merely
against Newton's opinions in this field. He was guided throughout by
the conviction that the fundamental principles of the whole Newtonian
outlook were at stake. It was for this reason that his polemics against
Newton were so strongly expressed, although he had no fondness for such