perennial one, in order to concentrate on the tiny seed, setting, as it
were, its living seal on it.

This is as far as we can go in describing this mysterious process, at
least at the present stage of our considerations.

*

Our pursuit of Goethe's way of observing the life of the plant has
brought us to a point where it becomes possible to rectify a widespread
error concerning his position as an evolutionary theorist.

Goethe has been honourably mentioned as a predecessor of Darwin. The
truth is, that the idea of evolution emerging from Goethe's mode of
regarding nature is the exact opposite of the one held by Darwin and -
in whatever modified form - by his followers. A brief consideration of
the Darwinian concepts of inheritance and adaptation will show this.

Goethe's approach to his conception of the type is clear evidence that
he did not undervalue the factor of adaptation as a formative element
in nature; we have seen that he became acquainted with it in studying
the same plant species under different climatic conditions. In his
view, however, adaptation appears not as the passive effect of a
blindly working, external cause, but as the response of the spiritual
type to the conditions meeting it from outside.

The same applies to the concept of inheritance. Through inheritance
Goethe saw single, accessory characteristics of a species being carried
over from one generation to the next; but never could the reappearance
of the basic features of the species itself be explained in this way.