Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution, with Abstracts of the Discourses Volume 9 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt: ...I abandoned the ' Farbenlehre, ' and looked up to Goethe on that side where his greatness was uncontested and supreme. But in the month of May, 1878, Mr. Carlyle did me the honour of calling upon me twice; and I, not being at home at the time, visited him in Chelsea soon afterwards. He.was then in his eighty-third year, and looking in his solemn fashion towards that portal to which we are all so rapidly hastening, he remembered his friends. He then presented to me, as "a farewell gift," the two octavo volumes of letterpress and the single folio volume, consisting in great part of coloured diagrams, which are here before you. Exactly half a century ago these volumes were sent by Goethe to Mr. Carlyle. They embrace the 'Farbenlehre, '--a title which may be translated, though not well translated, ' Theory of Colours'--and they are accompanied by a long letter, or rather catalogue, from Goethe himself, dated the 14th of June, 1830, a little less than two years before his death. My illustrious friend wished me to examine the book, with a view of setting forth what it really contained. This year for the first time I have been able to comply with the desire of Mr. Carlyle; and as I knew that your wish would coincide with his, as to the propriety of making some attempt to weigh the merits of a work which exerted so great an influence in its day, I have not shrunk from the labour of such a review. The average reading of the late Mr. Buckle is said to have amounted to three volumes a day. But they could not have been volumes like those of the 'Farbenlehre.' For the necessity of halting and pondering over its statements was so frequent, and the difficulty of coming to any undoubted conclusion regarding Goethe's real conceptions was often so great, as to invoke...