XI

were significant overall. For every insightful person will feel how difficult it is to isolate the Theory of Colors original: "Farbenlehre"; Goethe’s comprehensive study of how we perceive color, which he viewed as a poetic and scientific whole—which, as it were, winds its way through everything—from the rest of knowledge to some extent, and yet still keep it all held together.

And so, in order not to lack a continuous thread, we have interspersed general observations, briefly indicated the course of the sciences original: "Wissenschaften"; in this period, this term referred to all systematic branches of knowledge, including the arts and humanities in various epochs, and sought to carry through and connect the theory of colors with them. It cannot be denied that in this process much has been governed by chance, and much owes its origin to a momentary mood. Meanwhile, one will perhaps forgive a few whims in an otherwise serious collection, at a time when entire fickle books original: "wetterwendische Bücher"; likely a critique of the rapidly changing literary and scientific fashions of the early 19th century are received with pleasure and applause.

How much remains to be added will only become truly clear in the future, when the attention of many is directed toward this subject. Despite all efforts, various books have not come into our hands; one will also find that the memoirs of the Academies referring to the great scientific societies of Europe, such as those in Paris or Berlin, journals, and other such collections have not ge-