tied the same
knots, and formed and dissipated the same clouds,' found themselves
at the end of centuries in their old position. [Footnote: Whewell.]

With regard to the influence wielded by Aristotle in the Middle Ages,
and which, to a less extent, he still wields, I would ask permission
to make one remark.

When the human mind has achieved greatness and given evidence of
extraordinary power in one domain, there is a tendency to credit it
with similar power in all other domains. Thus theologians have
found comfort and assurance in the thought that Newton dealt with
the question of revelation--forgetful of the fact that the very
devotion of his powers, through all the best years of his life, to
a totally different class of ideas, not to speak of any natural
disqualification, tended to render him less, instead of more competent
to deal with theological and historic questions. Goethe, starting
from his established greatness as a poet, and indeed from his positive
discoveries in Natural History, produced a profound impression among
the painters of Germany, when he published his 'Farbenlehre,' in
which he endeavoured to overthrow Newton's theory of colours. This
theory he deemed so obviously absurd, that he considered its author a
charlatan, and attacked him with a corresponding vehemence of
language.

In the domain of Natural History, Goethe had made really considerable
discoveries; and we have high authority for assuming that, had he
devoted himself wholly to that side of science, he might have reached
an eminence comparable with that which he attained as a poet. In
sharpness of observation, in the detection of analogies apparently
remote, in the classification and organisation of facts according to
the analogies discerned, Goethe possessed extraordinary powers. These
elements of scientific enquiry fall in with the disciplines of the
poet. But, on the other hand, a mind thus richly endowed in the
direction of natural history, may be almost shorn of endowment as
regards the physical and mechanical sciences. Goethe was in this
condition. He could not formulate distinct mechanical conceptions; he
could not see the force of mechanical reasoning; and, in regions where
such reasoning reigns supreme, he became a mere ignis fatuus to those
who followed him.

I have sometimes permitted myself to compare Aristotle with Goethe--to
credit the Stagirite with an almost superhuman power of amassing and
systematising facts,