I had been searching for some indication that, in Goethe’s view, America actually lacked basalts. Since I couldn’t discover any— and since, on his geotheory, such an absence can be extremely uncommon— I assumed that none existed. However apparently I used to be mistaken. Goethe might have rashly generalized from Karl Bernhard’s assertion that no basalts had but been discovered within the mountains of America to the declare that America had keine Basalte. Or maybe this was simply literary license. I’m undecided as a result of, even for Goethe, the declare that America lacks basalt is fairly uncommon. Basalt is a standard rock sort, and on Goethe’s geotheory it ought to have been abundantly developed in North America. Truly, on any geotheory it ought to have been abundantly developed in North America, no matter whether or not it had but been discovered within the mountains of the East Coast. North America is totally huge!
However maintain on, as a result of the literature on Goethe’s geotheory might have an replace as effectively. In my essay I went together with the prevailing view that Goethe was an unreconstructed neptunist: somebody who regarded rocks like granite and basalt because the residues of a common ocean. However Jennifer Caisley additionally pointed me to this sentence, apparently written by Goethe in 1822:
Weltteil glücklich zu preisen, dass er vulkanische Wirkungen entbehrt, wodurch denn die Geologie der neuen Welt einen weit festern Charakter zeigt als der alten, wo nichts mehr auf festem Fuß zu stehen scheint.
In translation, Goethe is claiming that America is fortunate as a result of “volcanic results are absent” (vulkanische Wirkungen entbehrt). So, geologically-speaking America is steady, not like Europe, “the place nothing appears to relaxation on a stable footing anymore” (wo nichts mehr auf festem Fuß zu stehen scheint). Maybe it is a reference to the loss of life of Napoleon in 1821, or to the repercussions of his earlier army defeat at Waterloo (1815).* Anyway, it strongly means that Goethe had second ideas concerning the origin of basalt, and got here to treat it (like most of his contemporaries) as the results of volcanic discharge. It could be bizarre if Goethe thought that America lacked volcanos and basalt, however did not assume basalt had a volcanic origin.
[* Here is Goethe on Napoleon: “His life was a stride of the demigod. He was in a state of continual enlightenment. His destiny was more brilliant than any the world had seen before him or would see after him. The story of Napoleon produces on me an impression like that of the Revelations of St. John the Divine. We all feel there must be something more in it, but we do not know what.”]