Page:History of botany (Sachs; Garnsey).djvu/192

 are subject to constant modification and improvement; each more general truth has only a temporary value, and endures as long as no new facts militate against it. The distinction therefore between idealism and the inductive method in the domain of natural science comes to this, that the former fits new facts into a scheme of old conceptions, the latter deduces new conceptions from new facts; the one is in its nature dogmatic and intolerant, the other eminently critical; the one is conservative, the other always pressing forwards; the one inclines to philosophic contemplation, the other to vigorous and productive investigation. To this must be added one point of great importance; the idealistic view of nature, rejecting causality, explains nature from notions of design, and is teleological; ethical and even theological elements are thus introduced into natural science.

It is in this form that the distinction between the idealistic view represented by Braun and the modern inductive morphology presents itself to us. If it were the task of this history only to record the discovery of new facts, it would be superfluous to allude to these differences here; but then it would also be impossible to estimate rightly that portion of Braun's long scientific labours which is at once the most original and the most interesting from the historical point of view, and which is to be found not so much in his many descriptive and monographic works, as in his philosophic efforts in the domain of morphology; these moreover deserve our consideration, because they carry out Goethe's half-explained conceptions to their remotest consequences, and express in purer form the idealism which lies at the foundation of the older nature-philosophy. No botanist since Cesalpino has so thoroughly endeavoured to leaven the entire results of inductive investigation with the principles of an idealistic philosophy, and to explain them in its light. Braun's philosophical views not only accompany his knowledge of facts, but everywhere permeate and colour it; in his writings, contributions, and monographs on the most various