A meeting with Rudolf Steiner, and with the work arising
from his teachings. II. III. IV. VI. The disappearance of this memory in the past, and its
re-appearance in modern times. Traherne, a 'Reidean before Reid was born'. VII. VIII. The formula F=ma. IX. The four
Elements. The old concept of 'Chaos'. Young and old matter. X. The
laws of Conservation, their origin and their validity. Joule and Mayer. Heat, the fourth state of
matter. Homeopathy, an example
of the effect of dematerialized matter. XI. The functional concept of matter. XII. XIII. Modern
physics, no longer a 'natural' science. XIV. First results of his own studies. XV. The 'inner
light'. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XX. XXI. Leaf-metamorphosis
III. Leaf-metamorphosis
IV. It is to him, also, that we
owe the possibility of carrying on Goethe's efforts in the way required
by the needs of our own time. The following pages contain results of the author's work along the path
thus opened up by Goethe and Rudolf Steiner - a work begun twenty-seven
years ago, soon after he had made the acquaintance of Rudolf Steiner. The chapters
are stages on a road which has to be travelled, and each stage is
necessary for reaching the next. I am sure, too, that
although what I have to say in this chapter is personal in content, it
is characteristic of many in our time. I myself, however, soon began
to feel differently. Indeed, it was the
wish to take an active part in this progress that had led me to choose
my profession. Now, however, the war stood there as a gigantic social
deed which I could in no way regard as reasonably justified. Pursued by these questions, I decided after a while to give my studies
a new turn. Why was this? And in so doing
they had enhanced the quality of human living, whereas the influence of
science has had just the opposite effect. Thus far I could go through my own observation and reflexion, but no
further. Obviously, the laws of the development of human consciousness cannot be
discovered from a standpoint within the modern form of that
consciousness. In the
circles where my work lay, an intense controversy was just then raging
round Einstein's ideas. Although it was the title of this lecture that drew me to the Stuttgart
Conference (circumstances prevented me from hearing just this lecture),
it was the course given there by Rudolf Steiner himself which was to
prove the decisive experience of my life. In the course of a comprehensive historical survey the lecturer
characterized, in a way I found utterly convincing, the present
mathematical interpretation of nature as a transitional stage of human
consciousness - a kind of knowing which is on the way from a past
pre-mathematical to a future post-mathematical form of cognition. Moreover, it
became clear to me that one who could speak as he did about the stages
of human consciousness past, present and future, must have full access
to all of them at will, and be able to make each of them an object of
exact observation. For me, as for them, Goethe had always been
the great thinker revealing his thoughts through poetry. There was one of the clinics, where qualified doctors were
applying the same knowledge to the study of illness and the action of
medicaments. On this occasion I told him of my
general scientific interests, and how I hoped to follow them up later
on. In the course of his exposition, Heisenberg also speaks of Goethe, in
whose scientific endeavours he perceives a noteworthy attempt to set
scientific understanding upon a path other than that of progressive
self-restriction. And this
is, indeed, the character of the world-picture of modern physical
science. As a result, modern science is prevented from conceiving any valid idea
of 'force'. To answer the second
problem, simple self-observation is required. Here all processes are of a strictly rhythmic nature, as is
shown by the process of breathing and the pulsation of the blood. This process, however, is one which, if we take the word in its
widest sense, we may call, ageing. All organic bodies, and equally that
of man, are originally traversed throughout by life. And the nature of the soul at this
stage is volition throughout. The following observations will enable us to
answer this question. In this early period of his life the human being still feels the world
as part of himself, and himself as part of the world. Consequently, his
relation to the objects around him and to his own body is one and the
same. In this state
the salt is one with its solvent; there is no visible distinction
between them. Of all senses, the sense of sight has in greatest measure the qualities
of a 'conceptual sense'. As a result,
the word 'tragedy' itself has deteriorated in its meaning and is
nowadays used mostly as a synonym for 'sad event', 'calamity' 'serious
event', even 'crime' (Oxford Diet.). In its original meaning, however,
springing from the dramatic poetry of ancient Greece, the word combines
the concept of calamity with that of inevitability; the author of the
destructive action was not held to be personally responsible for it,
since he was caught up in a nexus of circumstances which he could not
change. This, however, does not mean
that man's scientific labours, carried out under the historically given
restrictions, great and successful as these labours were and are, have
not led to calamitous effects such as we found indicated by Professor
Carrel. Heisenberg's name has become known above all by his formulation of the
so-called Principle of Indeterminacy. 4 Both words, kinematics and kinetics, are derivatives of the Greek
word kinein, to move. Kinetics is
applied kinematics, or, as pointed out above, dynamics treated with
kinematic concepts. From the 'I doubt, therefore I am', he was led
in this way to the 'I think, therefore I am'. Compared with the more refined methods of present-day thought, Hooke's
procedure may strike us as somewhat primitive. (Treatise
of Human Nature.) For ordinary things, light provides this. On the other hand, if a
'light' is used whose wave-length is too big to have any influence on
the object's condition of movement, it precludes any exact
determination of the object's location. The law he seeks, however, requires that both should be known at the
same time. ... ... ... ... Here he came, all unexpectedly, upon ... electricity. Thereby man found himself,
with a consciousness completely blind to dynamics, within a sphere of
only too real dynamic forces. The following description will show what
results this has had for man and his civilization. To do this we need only compare the present
relationship between production and consumption in the economic sphere
with what it was before the power-machine, and especially the
electrically driven machine, had been invented. Almost all the work was done by human beings, with
some help, of course, from domesticated animals. Owing to the very nature of
physical matter, it cannot be heaped up where it is required in
unlimited quantities. (Phil. Trans. 1773.) . In the course of his investigations - he carried them on for a long
time - Galvani was astonished to observe that some of his specimens,
which he had hung on to an iron railing by means of brass hooks,
sometimes fell to twitching even when the sky was quite clear and there
was no sign of thunder. 'I was almost at the point of
ascribing the occurrence to atmospheric electricity,' Galvani tells us. He tried
with other metals and, for checking purposes, with non-metals as well. It is this quality of the cells and
piles constructed by Volta that laid open the road for electric force
to assume that role in human civilization which we have already
described. . . (And this, as our further
survey will show, is still true, even to-day.) This he did by comparing the
behaviour of the electrical force to the currents of an elastic fluid -
that is, of a material substance. But the
decisive step in this sphere of research was taken by the English
physicist, William Crookes. Thus he proved for the first
time visibly, so to say, the double nature - material and supermaterial
- of electricity. What spiritism
denied, electricity seemed to grant. On the other hand, it says much for the courage and open mindedness of
Crookes that he refused to be held back from what was for him the only
possible way of extending the boundaries of science beyond the given
physical world. Moreover, it was only natural that in his search for a
world of a higher order than the physical he should, as a man of his
time, first turn his attention to spiritistic occurrences, for
spiritism, as it had come over to Europe from America in the middle of
the nineteenth century, was nothing but an attempt by the
onlooker-consciousness to learn something in its own way about the
supersensible world. As we have said, Maxwell's use of a
material analogy as a means of formulating mathematically the
properties of electro-magnetic fields of force had led to results which
brought electricity into close conjunction with light. However, this accidental discovery had far-reaching consequences. These were found to
give off a radiation similar to X-rays, and to give it off naturally
and all the time. '4
Let us add a further detail from this picture of the atom, as given in
Eddington's Philosophy of Physical Science. He fills up
a bung-hole, saying he is removing a positron.' 4 Eddington's italics. On the other hand, he
allows that we can think of a form of reason which in every respect is
the opposite of our own, without meeting any logical inconsistency. His sole object was to
show that, if one accepted this definition, one must not go as far as
Hume in the application of this power. Still less can it do
this in regard to man, a being who in his actions is integrated into
higher purposes. For,
'nature speaks upwards to the known senses of man, downwards to unknown
senses of his'. These things, however, do
not determine the value or otherwise of his scientific labours. As a living organism, the plant is involved in an endless
process of becoming. It shares this characteristic, of course, with the
higher creatures of nature, and yet between it and them there is an
essential difference. The following exposition, however, does
not aim at rendering in detail Goethe's own botanical researches,
expounded by him in two extensive essays, Morphology and The
Metamorphosis of Plants, as well as in a series of smaller writings. A number of incisions, hardly
yet indicated in the first leaf, have become quite conspicuous. The
same process can also be tried retrogressively, and so repeated forward
and backward. This
principle, however, is not confined to this part of the plant's
organism. Now we
observe that in the calyx this stage is not improved on, but that the
plant recurs to a much simpler formation. In this case the calyx stage, we may say, is
attained at one leap. Now, in the
flower, matter is overcome to a still higher degree. Compared with the leaf, the flower is a dying organ. This dying,
however, is of a kind we may aptly call a 'dying into being'. Yet this tiny, inconspicuous thing bears in it the power of
bringing forth a whole new plant. Goethe did not take such a step easily, for it was one of his
scientific principles never to think out an idea prematurely. The
ur-plant will be the strangest creature in the world, for which nature
herself should envy me. There, all the different organs of the plant-leaf, blossom, fruit, etc. Just as in the single plant organism
the different parts are a graduated revelation of the ur-plant, so are
the single kinds and species within the total plant world. Because of this, the views he
had come to were regarded as scientifically unfounded. He called it the type. Let us look back once again on the way in which we first tried to build
up the picture of leaf metamorphosis. Were the plant to follow this principle only, its
lateral shoots would all stand vertically one above the other. And when a pollen grain lands on a
pistil and joins with the ovule prepared in the ovary, the two
components are united again. This he found in the branching and reuniting of the veins in
the leaves, known as anastomosis. Nothing compelled him, therefore, to ascribe it in the same
form to the plant. In this
impressive sight nature offered him a picture of 'the female and male,
the one that needs and the one that gives, side by side in the vertical
and spiral directions'. 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. Moreover, the excess of reflexion going
on around him in the intellectual life of his younger days inclined him
to guard himself with a certain anxiety against philosophical
cogitations. True to his own principle, he had then turned to
the microscope for his eyes to confirm what his mind had already
recognized. 1 Critique of Judgment, II, 11, 27. Kant, through his inquiry
into man's Urteilskraft, arrived at the conclusion that man is denied
the power of Anschauung (intuition). Moreover, they
suffered decisive misunderstanding and distortion through the efforts
of well-meaning disciples. The following passage from the first chapter of the Inquiry reveals
Reid as a personality who was not dazzled to the same extent as were
his contemporaries by the brilliance of the onlooker-consciousness:
'If it [the mind] is indeed what the Treatise of Human Nature makes it,
I find I have been only in an enchanted castle, imposed upon by
spectres and apparitions. Des
Cartes no sooner began to dig in this mine, than scepticism was ready
to break in upon him. He did what he could to shut it out. But, alas! (Chapter I,
Sections vi-vii.) If a body moves, it
must exist, no doubt; but if it is at rest, it must exist likewise.' The following summarizes the position to which Reid is led when he
includes the whole human being in his philosophical inquiries. But this opposition is only apparent. (I, 5.) In one direction Reid finds himself led to the outer boundary of the
body, where sense perception has its origin. Just as each man learns to think through speaking, so did
humanity as a whole. For this, Reid lacked the sufficient
detachment from his own thoughts. This requires that (keeping to Mr.
Eraser's picture) we consider separately the two pillars supporting the
roof of the temple's forecourt: speech and sense-impressions. In the contemporary state
of language, which Reid calls artificial language, we must see a
development from a former condition, which Reid calls natural language. When the adult of to-day uses language in its artificial state, words
are only signs for things signified by them. ... However this may be, it need not concern us here; what matter to us are
Reid's actual observations. How, then, do we receive the
conviction of the latter's existence? Reid's answer is, by entering
into an immediate intuitive relationship with it. 'We must become as little children again, if we will be philosophers!' The following passage from Augustine's Confessions shows clearly how he
was compelled to think about the nature of the little child:
'This age, whereof I have no remembrance, which I take on others'
words, and guess from other infants that I have passed, true though the
guess be, I am yet loath to count in this life of mine which I live in
this world. For no less than that which I lived in my mother's womb, is
it hid from me in the shadows of forgetfulness. ), is the
picture of man which must have lived in him for him to teach as he did. In Greek ιδÎα (from ιδεá¿Î½, to see) means something of
which one knows that it exists, because one sees it. The truth is that an original faculty faded away
with increasing age, somewhat as happened with Reid when he could no
longer continue his philosophical work along its original lines. Wade in her work,
Thomas Traherne. By the gift of God they attended me into the
world, and by His special favour I remember them till now. They are unattainable by books, and
therefore I will teach them by experience.' (Ill, 1.) My knowledge was
Divine. I knew by intuition those things which since my Apostacy, I
collected again by the highest reason. All Time was Eternity,
and a perpetual Sabbath. (Ill, 1, 2.) The World resembled his ETERNITIE,
In which my Soul did Walk;
And evry Thing that I did see
Did with me talk. (xviii, 2-4.) (xix, 14.) He says: 'In the
littleness of children didst Thou, our king, give us a symbol of
humility when Thou didst say: Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.' Of the first passage only the last sentence is taken, and
this in Augustine's mind is fused into one with the second passage. (Ill, 5.) (John iii, 3.) The following passage from the poem, My Spirit, gives
a detailed picture of the early state in which the soul has experiences
and perceptions quite different from those of its later life. '... Where we now read 'true Ideas', there
originally stood 'fair Ideas'. In this condition the soul has only a dim and undifferentiated
awareness of its connexion with a spatially limited body ('I was within
a house I knew not, newly clothed with skin') and it certainly knows
nothing at all of the body as an instrument, through which the will can
be exercised in an earthly-spatial way ('My body being dead, my limbs
unknown'). ...
Then was my soul my only All to me, a living endless eye, scarce
bounded with the sky'). Indeed, compared with Berkeley's eye-picture of the world, that of Reid
is in every respect a 'limb-picture'. If children grew up according
to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses. 4 Confessions, Book I, Chapter 8. 5 As we have seen, the word had better luck with Goethe. 6 Wordsworth, with all his limitations, had a real affinity with Goethe
in his view of nature. Mr. Norman Lacey gives some indication of this
in his recent book, Wordsworth's View of Nature. 9 Oxenford's translation. The following words of Ruskin from The Queen of the Air reveal him at
once as a true reader in the book of nature:
'Over the entire surface of the earth and its waters, as influenced by
the power of the air under solar light, there is developed a series of
changing forms, in clouds, plants and animals, all of which have
reference in their action, or nature, to the human intelligence that
perceives them.' (II, 89.) (Lect. X.) In thus opposing form and force to each other, Ruskin is actually
referring to two kinds of forces. (II,
59. (II, 60.) Obviously, a mind capable of looking at nature in this way could not
accept such a picture of evolution as was put forward by Ruskin's
contemporary, Darwin. (II, 60.) On the other hand, his
contribution consists of a definite discovery which he himself
methodically and consciously achieved, and it is the content of this
discovery, together with the method of research leading to it, which
will supply us ever and again with a model for our own procedure. In fact, however, he did something essentially
different. Obviously, for a science based on mere
onlooking there is no objection to breaking up an established system
into ever more subdivisions in order to keep it in line with an
increasingly detailed outer observation. By adding Howard's nimbus formation to this system, we destroy
its symmetry. Concerning Linnaeus, however, this is to be understood
in a negative sense. Should it continue for an indefinite period, the
earth would be drowned. Just as little would he permit himself lightly to
assume influences of an extra-terrestrial nature, such as those of the
moon. Not that he would have had anything against such things, if they
had rested on genuine observation. Alongside the alternating phases of contraction and expansion within
the atmosphere, Goethe placed the fact that atmospheric density
decreases with height. This is the concept of the ur-phenomenon (Urphänomen). Moreover, in the names which Howard had chosen for designating the
basic cloud forms, Goethe saw the dynamic element in each of them
coming to immediate expression in human speech.7 He therefore always
spoke of Howard's system as a 'welcome terminology'. I had to make up the word
'hygrosphere' (after hygrometer, etc.) (Inq., VI, 19.) 6 See Inq., VI, 13. 7 Stratus means layer, cumulus - heap, cirrus - curl. 9 Genesis ii, 19, 20. Illusion, in the sense used here, belongs to those
things in man's existence which are truly to be called tragic. It loses
this quality, and assumes a quite different one, only when man, once
the time has come for overcoming an illusion, insists on clinging to
it. An instrument of this kind is the
thermometer. In one the column will fall, in the other it will
rise. The truth of the matter is that, in so far as
there is any subjective element in the experience and measurement of
heat, it does not lie on the side of our sense of warmth, but in our
judgment of the significance of thermometrical readings. In Fig. 1, a diagrammatical representation is given of the
parallelogram of movements. Thus in Fig. 2, R exercises upon P the same effect as F1 and F2
together. The more massive the
object, the greater will be the force necessary for accelerating it. It is written
c = s / t, or s = ct. The truth is that c represents a spatial distance just as s
does, with the difference only that it is a certain unit-distance. 'Time', in physics, is always a
pure number without any cosmic quality. Were it otherwise, then the equation F=ma could certainly not serve as
a logical link between the Velocity and Force parallelograms. Let us look at the equation F=ma as a means of splitting
of the magnitude F into two components m and a. As we see, in this experience of force that of mass is at once implied. This implies that there is
no such thing as acceleration as a self-contained entity, merely
attached to mass in an external way. This, however, is all that can be learnt in this way. 3. In those times, therefore, he was under no illusion as to the
reality of force in the world. 'We must become as little children again, if we will be
philosophers', is as true for science as it is for philosophy. For as such they occur naturally only as ultimate, never
as primeval conditions. Obviously, man's
onlooker-consciousness is unable to conceive of any other kind of
causation. Let
us therefore ask what happens when we move, say, one of our limbs or a
part of it. This is known to be inertia. This
property is closely linked up with another one, weight. Try now to move the arm upward, pressing
it against the wall as if you wanted to shift the latter. Apply all
possible effort to this attempt, and maintain the effort for about one
minute. Having thus ascertained by direct experience that there is a state of
matter in which inertia is, to say the least, greatly diminished, we
find ourselves in need of giving this state (which is present
throughout nature wherever material changes are brought into existence
magically) a name of its own, as we did with the two types of
causation. This is the term 'alert'. Moreover, it is so remote from current notions that
anyone who now calls attention to van Helmont's discovery is quite
likely to be met with incredulity. As a result, there is no account of
the event that puts it in its true setting. For he found it to be, at the same time,
'much finer than vapour and much denser than air'. The word was CHAOS. By shortening it a little, he
derived from it the new word GAS. ('I
have called this mist Gas, owing to its resemblance to the Chaos of the
ancients. For van Helmont, Air
was one of the four 'Elements', EARTH, WATER, AIR, and FIRE. Of these,
the first two were held to constitute the realm of the 'created
things', the other two that of the 'uncreated things'. Only its position was seen to be elsewhere - between Earth and Water on
the one hand, Air and Fire on the other. Polarity concepts are certainly not foreign to the scientific
mind, as the physics of electricity and magnetism show. In its original sense the word meant
the exact opposite. For this state of matter the term 'vapour' had become
customary, and it was used by van Helmont in this sense. By its very
properties, Vapour belonged to the realm of the created things, whereas
Air did not. One need think only of the words Brahma and Atma of the ancient
Indians, the Pneuma of the Greeks, the Spiritus of the Romans. So
long as this condition prevailed, people could expect that by changing
their manner of breathing they had a means of bringing the soul into
stronger relationship with spiritual Powers, as is attempted in Eastern
Yoga. Yet, together with the recognition of this difference there arises
another question. The
truth is quite different. Moreover, just as the highest plants, seen with
Goethe's eyes, are the spiritual originators of the whole realm of
plants - the creative Idea determining their evolution - so we see man,
the highest product of earth evolution, standing behind this evolution
as its Idea from the first, and determining its course. Only in cases of necessity was a new fire lit, and then the only way
was by the tedious rubbing together of two pieces of dry wood. Historically, much the best known is the Roman usage in
the Temple of Vesta. On the other hand, it was thought essential
for this 'everlasting' fire to be newly kindled once a year. In Anglo-Saxon
speaking countries, fires of this kind were known as 'needfires'. We are now in a
position to go into the other question, that of weight or gravity. It occurs in his essay, The
Storm-Cloud of the Ninteenth Century. There is, for instance, the fact that animals often show a premonition
of volcanic or tectonic disturbances. They become restive and hide, or,
if domestic, seek the protection of man. He
had not noticed anything and when I returned I found the master still
in the same position, gazing at the sky. "Listen," he said, "this is an
important moment; there is now an earthquake or one is just going to
take place." When asked about the weather conditions, the old
man said: 'It was very cloudy, very still and sultry.' Although it
remains true that the suction arising from the diminished air pressure
over the hole cannot account for the intense increase of ebullition in
the hole itself, not to speak of the participation of the entire region
in this increase, there is the fact that the whole event starts with a
suctional effect. As we know of mass through a definite sense-perception, so we know of
heat. Moreover, Fire forms part of the ever 'youthful' realm
of the world, whereas anything which exists as a spatially discernible
entity, capable of being moved about mechanically, must have grown
cosmically 'old'. Joule, a
brewer, was a man of practical bent. This he regarded as proof of the mechanical theory of heat, which he
had taken from Rumford and Davy. It was by quite a different path that the Heilbronn doctor, Mayer,
arrived at his results. This judgment, however,
was only piling one wrong upon another. This is subject to variations due to the presence of other
physical masses, which carry their own fields of gravity. As we have seen, it is the centrically orientated gravity-field which
gives the ball its permanency of shape. Consequently, the dynamic
orientation of the material constituting its body is directed towards
the interior of the body itself. Now, the moment we bring heat to bear on the body we find its surface
moving in the outward direction. Hence, it is all the time
under the sway of both gravitational pressure and anti-gravitational
suction. To ordinary scientific thinking this may sound paradoxical, but in
reality it is not. The passage of a portion
of matter from solid to liquid thus signifies that it ceases to possess
a centre of gravity of its own and is now merely obedient to the
general gravity-field of the earth. Moreover, the evidence assembled ever since
Professor A. Wegener's first researches suggests that the continents
are clod-like formations which 'float' on an underlying viscous
substance and are able to move (very slowly) in both the vertical and
horizontal directions. Wherever land meets sea, there levity tends to prevail over gravity. This is the process of assimilation of
carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air. A similar but even more far-reaching process is exhibited
by the Tillandsia as regards the three substances referred to above. The functions appear now as the cause, and the soil-elements
as the effect. In the condition in which this material is offered
to the plant, it is truly 'old' material. Thus, by trying
to give help to the plant in this way, we injure it at the same time. For by forcing it to perform the operation described, its general
life-forces are diminished. So far then, as
serves the purpose of this book, we shall deal with it here. The degree of dilution thus arrived at is 1:10,
usually symbolized as Ix. The degree of dilution is now 1:100,
or 2x. This process is continued as far as is found necessary for a
given purpose. Moreover, we can carry the dilutions as far as we please without
destroying the capacity of the substance to produce physiological
reactions. Yet the biological and other reactions
continue long after this, and are even enhanced. This showed that there was need for a fifth stage, at the top of the
series, to establish a balanced polarity. We can now clear up this
question of a fifth stage, as follows. Now, in the
meteorological realm it is once more phosphorus which gives us an
instance of this kind. This is the interpretation of thunderstorms, and particularly of
lightning, which has held sway since the days of Benjamin Franklin. It is this combination of kinship and polar opposition which led people
of old to regard both lightning in the heights and seismic disturbances
in the depths as signs of direct intervention by higher powers in the
affairs of men. There is, however, an occurrence of this kind also on the
purely mineral level of nature, and it is this which has particular
significance for our present study of matter. The following
glance over the history of chemistry will show this. As we have seen, one outcome of this one-sided view of combustion was
the modern concept of the chemical element. In this state both are combustible. Apart
from this similarity, there is a great difference between them, as the
way of storing them illustrates. In Fig. There, 'body' and 'soul' represented a polarity which is obviously one
of the first order. Fig. As a result, Earth and Fire, besides representing
opposite poles, are also neighbours in the diagram. Water clings to the side of a vessel; again,
quicksilver does not. On the other hand, the quality of moistness in
a solid substance appears in the adhesive power of glue. 5, the
four qualities in their respective combinations constitute the four
elements. Moreover, a
comparison with our description of the four stages of matter, given in
the previous chapter, would show how far the conceptual content of the
old doctrine covers the corresponding facts when they are read by the
eye of the modern reader in nature, notwithstanding the changes nature
has undergone in the meantime. As such, they characterize precisely those polar
relationships of the second order on which the threefold structure of
man, we found, is based. Consequently, sulphur is found in the protein-substances of
the human body wherever they are bearers of metabolic processes, while
the presence of phosphorus is characteristic of the nerves and bones. In this case the abnormal
predominance of the quality 'dry' can be counteracted by the medical
application of sulphur. There, sulphur points unmistakably to the earth's
volcanism. This is typical of functional sulphur. It is this process which we
must now examine more closely. Floating in this state, the vapour condenses and
crystallization proceeds. Imagine a snow-covered field glistening in the sun on a clear, quiet
winter's day. As far as we can see, there is no sign of life, no
movement. Now, in the transparent crystal matter retains this
kinship to light even in its solid state. A similar message comes from the, often so mysterious, colouring of the
crystals. We
refer to the pink crystals of tourmaline, whose colour comes from a
small admixture of lithium. In fact, they are
'frozen flames'. It is this fact, known from ancient intuitive experience, which
prompted man of old to attribute particular spiritual significance to
the various precious stones of the earth and to use them
correspondingly in his rituals. Just as in the latter we observe levity taking hold
of ponderable matter and moving it in a direction opposite to the pull
of gravity, so in crystallization we see imponderable matter passing
over from levity into gravity. This
element is carbon. In Fig. As a result of these endeavours, concepts were formed
which in their literal meaning seemed to apply merely to outwardly
perceptible substances, while in truth they stood for the spiritual
functions represented by those substances, both within and outside the
human organism. The following example will serve to explain, to start with,
what we mean by saying that mathematics has hitherto been used
abstractly. Some of them have been more or less
fully worked out, while in certain instances all that has been done is
to show that they are mathematically conceivable. . .). As a result of the continued rotation of b, however, P does
not remain in infinity, but returns along a from the other side. Hence, when P disappears into infinity on one side of our
own point of observation, it is at the same time in infinity on the
other side. In order words, an unlimited straight line has only one
point at infinity. The following exercise will help us towards further clarity concerning
the nature of geometrical infinity. This property of a plane at infinity, however, is really a property of
any plane. This
we do by transferring ourselves into the infinite plane and envisaging,
not the plane from the point, but the point from the plane. As a result of this we do not arrive at one point in the plane, with
the latter extending round us on all sides, but we are present in the
plane as a whole everywhere. No point in it can be characterized as
having any distance, whether finite or infinite, from us. from us). Having thus dropped the one-sided conception of infinity, we must look
for another characterization of the relationship between a point and a
plane which are infinitely distant from one another. This requires,
first of all, a proper characterization of Point and Plane in
themselves. As such, they form a
polarity of the first order. Which sort
of space this is, depends on the relationship in which they are
envisaged. By G. Adams this space has been appositely called archetypal
space, or ur-space. All actions of dynamic entities, such as that of the
ur-plant and its subordinate types, start from this plane. As we were formerly led to experiences
of man's early life on earth, so we are now led to his embryonic and
even pre-embryonic existence. The following are relevant
passages from these two poems. . .' There he says of his own soul that it -
... being Simple, like the Deity,
In its own Centre is a Sphere,
Not limited but everywhere. In a space of this kind there is no Here and
There, as in Euclidean space, for the consciousness is always and
immediately at one with the whole space. Traherne himself italicized the
word 'instantaneous', so important did he find this fact. To define the sphere in this
way is in accord with our post-natal, gravity-bound consciousness. Fig. 8
indicates this schematically. Here the radius, a straight line, is
clearly the determining factor. There is, on the one hand, the process of assimilation
(photosynthesis), so characteristic of the leaf. As a result, the single animal body shows the sphere-radius
polarity much less sharply. Not so electricity. we first ask, 'How does electricity arise?' This is the rousing of the electric state in a body by rubbing
it with another body of different material composition. This
resistance is due to a characteristic of matter, commonly called
cohesion. Indeed, cohesion increases as we pass from the gaseous,
through the liquid, to the solid state of matter. Obviously, friction always requires a certain pressure. Again, the levity thus becoming free appears as external heat. We will now apply this picture of the process of friction to the
instance when, as a result of this action, electricity appears. Obviously, if we wish to understand the qualitative difference between
the two kinds of electricity, we must investigate the qualitative
difference in the material substances, which give rise to electricity
when they are rubbed together. They are the so-called
piezo-electricity and pyro-electricity. Just as in the case of frictional electricity, the kind of
electricity which is supplied by a certain metal depends on whether the
other metal with which it is coupled stands to the right or to the left
of it in the series.1
Let us now see what happens in a galvanic cell when the two different
metals are simultaneously exposed to the chemical action of the
connecting fluid. This process suffers a certain
alteration through the presence of the second metal, which sets up an
alchemic tension between the two. This arose
with Volta's invention. Just as in the case of atomism, they seemed to prove the
validity of the preconceived idea of the current. As a result of all this the theory of electricity has fallen apart into
several conceptual realms lying, as it were, alongside one another,
each consistent in itself but lacking any logical connexion with the
others. To do this must therefore be our first task, if
we want to attain to a realistic picture of electromagnetism. Such a surface, therefore, is always an equipotential. In the
language of alchemy, conductivity is a mercurial property. In the
presence of such a body, therefore, no Salt-Sulphur contrasts can
obtain. Volta himself saw this quite correctly. Since magnetism
is the still unknown entity among the three, we must now deal with it. (Only when we have learnt all we can from this, shall we proceed to ask
how magnetism comes into being.) Obviously, we shall find this basic
phenomenon in the effect of a magnet on a heap of iron filings. Let us, to begin with, compare a mass of solid iron with the same
quantity of it in powdered form. An electric field, therefore, always has both qualities,
those of levity and of gravity. Yet, between these two manifestations of heat there
is an essential qualitative difference. As the result of
a certain coupling with gravity, it too has somehow remained
polarically split. It is this direction which remains a
characteristic of both the magnetic and the thermal fields. Obviously, therefore, it is in this radial
direction that the transformation of the electrical into the
thermo-magnetic condition of space must take place. This process is called electromagnetic induction. In bodies subject to
gravity, this tendency reveals itself as their inertia. A similar loosening of the
coherence of the magnetic field takes place when its field-lines are
cut by the movement of the conductor across it. Plate A, Fig. iii, shows the distribution
of the two polar electric forces in the human body. As might be expected, this line
runs through the heart. Here the asymmetry, characteristic of the human body, comes
to expression. Fig. Here
we see on the positive side radial forms appear, on the negative side
planar-spherical forms. radial-nature, corresponding to positive
electricity. Moreover, this must hold good equally for the fields of
magnetic force generated by naturally magnetic or artificially
magnetized pieces of iron. 1 Note that the series starts on the left with graphite, i.e. with
carbon. This substance appears here as a metal among metals, and indeed
as the most 'noble' of all. Excellent poets have lived at the same time as myself; poets more
excellent have lived before me, and others will come after me. It was for this reason that his polemics against
Newton were so strongly expressed, although he had no fondness for such
controversies. He found, however, as time went on,
that in this way he came no nearer his goal. 'I well remember
that everything looked coloured, but in what manner I could no longer
recollect. into the question, 'How
does colour arise?' The following remarks of
Goethe's, reported by his secretary Riemer, will give the reader a
picture of what Goethe meant by this term, clear enough to allow us to
use the German word. 'Light and Dark have a common field, a space, a
vacuum in which they are seen to appear. the first slightest filling of space, the first
disposition, as it were, to the corporeal, i.e. i). (See the arrow in Fig. i.) Prismatic phenomenon and macrotelluric
phenomenon were seen to correspond in this direction, too. Faithful to his question, 'How does colour arise?' ii).9 Obviously, this distance can be altered by altering the
distance between the two borders. iii). Like green, it is of a neutral character, but at the
same time its quality is opposite to that of green. In Newtonian
optics, which assumes colour to be derived from light only, this colour
has naturally no existence. As with green, we experience peach-blossom as a colour that
leaves us in equilibrium. Furthermore, there is a corresponding difference in the effect the
knowledge of such truth has on the human mind. Moreover, as Eddington shows, the question whether the optical
contrivance 'sorts out' from the chaotic light a particular
periodicity, or whether it 'impresses' this on the light, becomes just
'a matter of expression'.11 So here, too, the modern investigator is
driven to a resigned acknowledgment of the principle of Indeterminacy. and he,
too, finds the answer to be 'Manufacture'. 1 'To see is my dower, to look my employ.' Words of the Tower-Watcher
in Faust, II, 5, through which Goethe echoes his own relation to the
world. 4 Konfession des Verfassers. 7 Outline of a Theory of Colour. 27. It leads us to the study of our own
process of sight, by means of which we grow aware of the optical facts
in outer space. There, for the first time in the
history of modern science, a bridge is built between Physics,
Aesthetics and Ethics. Goethe, in giving his views on the
connexion between light and the eye, says: 'The eye owes its existence
to light. Unless there lived within us God's own might, How could the
Godlike give us ecstasy?1
(Trans. It is
there that light creates for itself the organ through which, as
manifest light, it eventually enters into human consciousness. So, too, outer vision by means of the physical apparatus of the
eye was preceded by an inner vision. The passage quoted from the Introduction to
his Farbenlehre shows how, in all that he strove for, he kept this goal
in view. This is the more remarkable in view of the significance
which Turner, with whom Ruskin stood in such close connexion, ascribed
to it from the standpoint of the artist. Having established this, we have a basis for an understanding of the
complete process of vision. This indicates that
in dream vision the blood in the eye is active, just as it is in waking
vision. If we apply the common sense of the Hans Andersen child to this, we see
where it actually leads. In this contradiction and others of the
same kind to which nowadays every child is exposed repeatedly and
willy-nilly in school lessons and so on - we must seek the true cause
of the moral uncertainty so characteristic of young people today. Thus, inhalation presupposes
exhalation; thus every systole, its diastole. Consequently he summarizes his reflexions on coloured afterimages and
their reversals of colour in these words: 'The eye demands actual
completeness and closes the colour-circle in itself.' (Fig. 10.) Only in this case the eye is not
affected by simple light, but by light of a definite colouring. In such a case we see the contrasting colour as
coloured after-image. Although it does in
fact offer such a proof, we have good reason for not making this use of
it here. 2 Inquiry, VI, 1. The italics are Reid's. 76f.). This is, in fact, an encounter between light, typifying levity, and the
density of the material world, typifying gravity. All this shows how illusory it is to speak of 'white' light as
synonymous with simple light, in distinction to 'coloured' light. And
yet this has been customary with scientists from the time of Newton
until today, not excluding Newton's critic, Eddington. This is, therefore, how
Goethe spoke of it. To say that light is invisible, however, does not mean that it is
wholly imperceptible. We feel how the light calls on the consciousness
to participate, as it were, in the world outside the body. This is
easier than the direct perception of light, for in the dark one is not
distracted by the sight of surrounding objects. We
have a distinct perception of both, but not of anything 'visible' in
the ordinary sense. With regard to our visual experience of white and black, it is quite
different. (Inq., VI, 12.) There can be no doubt that at still
higher altitudes the colour of the sky passes over into violet and
ultimately into pure black. This distinction cannot satisfy us any more. Having thus established the connexion of the two poles of the
colour-scale with the spherical and radial structure of space, we are
now able to express the Goethean ur-phenomenon in a more dynamic way as
follows: On the one hand, we see the blue of the heavens emerging when
levity is drawn down by gravity from its primal invisibility into
visible, spherical manifestation. Here,
once more, we see with what objectivity the human senses register the
facts of the outer world. Thus the colour-polarity in its primal form, made manifest by the
heavens, differs as much from the corresponding polarity shown by the
vacuum tube, as does the lightning in the heights from the electric
spark. Artists are well aware of this
asymmetry, as of others in the human countenance, and are careful to
depict it. A convenient
method is to exercise the two eyes in complete darkness, in the
following way. Fig. Consequently the two parts of the eye are
differentiated in such a way that the posterior part, which has grown
forth radially from the embryonic organism, as the life-filled element
represents the sulphur-pole of the total eye, while the anterior part,
with its much more crystalline nature, having grown spherically towards
the organism, represents the eye's salt-pole. To the dim light, clearly, our eyes will respond more with
the 'left-eyed' than with the 'right-eyed' form of vision. 134f.). Obviously, we cannot be satisfied with such a reduction of wholes into
single geometrically describable parts, followed by a reassembling of
these parts into a whole. Only, what is
propagated in this way is not the entity we comprise under the concept
of 'light'. In my opinion one must do this,
or quite give up all hope of ever grasping anything in physics.' Of what happens within the
beam, once it is established, these observations tell nothing at all. (Chapter XIV. On the other hand, given the speed of the train, the angle which the
line connecting the two holes forms with the true direction of the
course of the projectile - the so-called angle of aberration - provides
a measure of the speed of the projectile. 12a). 12b.). Hence,
it sees P in the position of P'. This is thought to be the origin of
the impression that the whole bottom of the vessel is raised. What
connects the two is the fact that the rate of the alteration of depth,
and the rate of change of the direction of light, are the same for the
same media. The latter phenomenon we met once before, though without reference to
its quantitative side, when in looking at a landscape we found how our
experiences of depth change in conformity with alterations in
atmospheric conditions. 13). Obviously, we expect the externally observable narrowing of the
light-cone and the subjectively experienced change of optical depth to
show the same ratio. In Fig. 13 this is shown by the two distances, a-b and a'-b'. This law
was itself the result of pure observation, but was clothed in a
conceptual form devoid of reality. 3 The assumption is that the wave-velocity differs from the
group-velocity, if at all, by a negligible amount. The dimming effect of the medium, therefore,
has a different magnitude at each point of the width of the beam. Obviously, the ratio between levity and gravity inside such a
light-realm, instead of being constant, varies from one side to the
other. In this case, clearly,
the effect of the transverse field-gradient on such a leap will be
different, depending on the relation between the directions of the two
(see small arrows in Fig. i). Consequently Dark and Light here come to oppose
one another, and the former, on its way out of the light-area, gains in
relative strength. On the blue-violet side, space itself seems to fluoresce
mysteriously5. There it meets us in the form of the rainbow, which we shall
now be able to read as a chapter in the great book of nature. There can be no doubt that the image is that of the sun-disk,
shining in the sky. And this is how we have now learnt to see it again. Now, in the way Ruskin represents the second and third stages they seem
to be exclusive of one another. That was as far as he could go, in his
own day. The following is an example
of the practical possibilities that open up in the field we are
discussing if we apply the knowledge gained through our new approach to
the forces working in nature. This discovery,
however, is in two respects typical of modern science. There is, to
begin with, the fact that the colour-band visible on the observation
screen is only apparently confined to the surface of the screen. Moreover, with ordinary optical means it is possible to produce only
one type of spectrum at a time, so that each is left in need of being
complemented by the other. The
ultraviolet manifests through chemical effects, the infra-red through
thermal effects. So far physical investigation is able to lead us, but no further. This stronger agent,
according to Rudolf Steiner, is magnetism. On the other hand, the present world-situation, which to so high a
degree is determined by the vast liberation of the sub-physical forces
of the earth, makes one feel it is essential not to close the
considerations of the fields of knowledge dealt with in these chapters,
without a hint at the practical possibilities which arise from a
continuation of Goethe's strivings in this field. IV, p. 248, in Kürschner's
edition). (I am
indebted to Fr. Julius, teacher of Natural Science at the Free School
in The Hague, for this suggestion.) I look through it and not with it. WILLIAM BLAKE. On the other
hand, it lacks that objective conformity to law characteristic of the
after-images which mirror the order of the external world. Consequently we find among the descriptions which Traherne gives of the
mode of perception peculiar to man when the inner light, brought into
this world at birth, is not yet absorbed by the physical eye, many
helpful characterizations of the nature of Imaginative perception, some
of which may be quoted here. This is the condition of soul of which Traherne says in the same poem
that through it a man is still a recipient of the 'true Ideas of all
things'. In this condition the object of sight is not the corporeal
world which reflects the light, but light itself, engaged in the
weaving of the archetypal images. But being once debas'd, they soon becom
Less activ than they were before.' A similar function on our own
path of study was performed by our occupation with the old doctrine of
the four elements and the basic concepts of alchemy. For this, we need a
'technique' of reading that cannot be attained along these lines alone. A similar need, though now in an amplified form, arises at the present
stage of our studies. And here, out of the wealth of knowledge conveyed
by Rudolf Steiner from the realm of supersensible Imagination, it is
his characterization of the four modifications of levity which will now
give the guidance necessary for our own observation. These things are, of course, well-known
facts. The following passages from Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants are a
classical example of observation of the activity of the light-ether in
the plant. They are taken from the second part of the essay, where
Goethe is describing leaf-development:
'While the leaves owe their first nourishment principally to the more
or less modified watery parts, which they draw from the stem, they are
indebted for their increased perfection and refinement to the light and
air. All this, if not entirely caused by subtle forms of air, is at
least very much furthered by them. No such
explanation, clearly, is open to us. For the world of external objects
is a whole, and so is its image appearing in the camera. Equally, the
light entering the camera is not a sum of single rays. Two points,
however, may be brought forward at once. The one is never
present without the other, and in some way they are causally connected. A simple example will illustrate this. Let us look at a number of similar objects, say a group of five apples. In fact, the
process of counting is a process of pure abstraction. Thus the conception of number is created solely within the human mind,
which applies it to things from outside. The apple
itself is just as much 'five' as it is 'round', 'sweet', etc. There, the step from one to two
is made by joining together two units from outside. by the one comprising the many,
the latter appearing as parts of the whole. In such a case two is part
of one and so are three, four, five, etc. On the other hand, in the arabic conception of
number the steps necessary to reach zero are finite. Having thus reached One, nothing can stop us
from going beyond it by one more such step. The arabic numeral system,
therefore, is the only one to possess its own symbol for zero. This requires the action of a fourth kind of ether,
the life-ether, ranged above the other three. Each stage in the etheric has its reflexion in the
physical, as the above table shows. The latter by itself is as it were fluid. is quite wrongly put. And a Spirit aëreal
Informs the cell of Hearing, dark and blind. Obviously, this
interaction must be brought about by a further kind of force to which
gravity and levity are subordinate. Here, therefore, the
warmth-ether takes the lead and acts in such a way that the higher
kinds of ether are able to come to expression in material processes of
the body. As a result, consciousness lights up in this part of the
body. With
each diastole it becomes more akin to the pole below, and with each
systole more akin to the pole above. Here, therefore, the lighting up
of consciousness is only partial. The animal, too, is polarized into
motion and sensation. (What makes the animal differ from man need not
concern us here, for it belongs to a dynamic realm other than the one
we are now studying. Consequently, there is also motion in the
plant, although this is confined to internal movements leading to
growth and formation. Not so with the plant. There is, as already mentioned, the rhythmic occurrence of the seasons
in connexion with the varying relative positions of earth and sun. Alongside this we may put the rhythm of the tides, coincident with the
phases of the moon. There is, after all, the fact that the orbits
which the heavenly bodies appear to follow when viewed in this way,
assume a particular geometrical character which cannot be accidental. We have already come across some examples of the
outstanding share taken by the Moon in the events of the earth's watery
sphere. This is the time in man's life when Saturn returns
for the first time to the position in which it stood relatively to the
earth at his birth, or, more correctly, at his conception. If form and order are to become
manifest in the realm of earthly substance, both require the assistance
of Mars. Not so in the sphere of acoustics. Heisenberg could, of
course, have said the same of the science of acoustics in regard to one
born deaf. Moreover, by uttering the various vowels of his
language, man is able to impart varying colour to the sounds of his
speech. This is the thunder-storm, constituted for our
external perception by the two events: lightning and thunder. This substance is converted by stages
from the state of light and heat via that of air into the liquid and,
in certain cases, into the solid state (hail). In this case, too, the muscular system is the organ through
which certain astral impulses, this time arising out of the body's own
astral member, come to expression. Moreover, the movement of the
muscles, though not outwardly perceptible, is quite similar to acoustic
movements outside the body. In this case, however, a lack of equilibrium would
result not in pain, but in ecstasy. As a result, optical impressions are
accompanied by dim sensations of sound, and aural impressions by dim
sensations of colour. The following is a
passage from the description of the impressions which were his before
his soul was overcome by this change:
'Then did I dwell within a World of Light
Distinct and Seperat from all Mens Sight,
Where I did feel strange Thoughts, and such Things see
That were, or seemd, only reveald to Me ...
'... A Pulpit in my Mind
A Temple, and a Teacher I did find,
With a large Text to comment on. No Ear,
But Eys them selvs were all the Hearers there. And evry Stone, and Evry Star a Tongue,
And evry Gale of Wind a Curious Song. But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.' and so I have chosen mine, and
before all others, Kepler. In my ante-room he has ever a niche of his
own, with his bust in it.' The following will
show that this belief is founded on an illusory conception of the kind
we met before. Nothing, for instance, is said about the dynamic cause of the
movements. This procedure, however, useful as it may be for the purpose of
calculation, is contrary to observation. The following
analysis will show this. In its original form, we find spatial extension compared with
spatial extension, and temporal extension with temporal extension. Still, it is all spectator's work, and for the spectator
time is conceivable and measurable only as a rate of spatial
displacement. Now, in the form in which the spatial magnitudes occur,
they express something which is directly conceivable. It receives its character
from its interval-relation to some other tone, say, 'G', together with
which it forms a Fifth. In
the case of the Fifth this is 4:9. It is this ratio, therefore, which
underlies our experience of a Fifth. That his search was not in
vain, our examination of the third law has shown. Yet, in this respect also Kepler proves to have
remained true to himself. There is, on the one hand, the form in which
Kepler pronounced his discovery; there is, on the other, the context in
which he made this pronouncement. We have already pointed out that the
third law forms part of Kepler's comprehensive work, Harmonices Mundi. For Kepler this was different. See L. Kolisko,
The Moon and Plant Growth. 8 See L. Kolisko: Working of the Stars in Earthly Substances, and other
publications by the same author. (As an
example: the author's muscular pitch, not a particularly high one, has
a frequency of approx. 13 The natural question why Kepler himself did not take this step, will
be answered later on. This is the name, I. Where
life prevails, we are met by the phenomena of birth and death. So
long as an organism is alive, its form is maintained by the ether-body
present in it. But it is a working of the astral forces
from outside, very much as the ether works on the mineral. Here, however, the
succession of stages we have outlined comes to a conclusion. They are the acquisition of the faculties of walking, speaking
and thinking. What we shall here say about them has, in essentials,
already been touched upon in earlier pages. Here, however, we are
putting it forward in a new light. Consequently, each of the three achievements
comes to pass at a different level of consciousness-sleeping, dreaming,
waking. In the course of acquiring speech he gains a dim awareness, as
though in dream, of his efforts. Otherwise he would, as some
mentally inhibited children do, call all other people 'I' and himself
'you'.) Consequently, the I can here press forward most powerfully into the
physical body and on into the dynamic sphere to which the body is
subject. Moreover, there is no other action for which the I receives so
little stimulus from outside. As
these sounds approach the human being they set the astral body in
movement, as we have seen. Here, therefore, the I is active essentially within the astral
body which has received its stimulus from outside. But precisely because this is so, the etheric body is dominated
very strongly by the forces to which the physical head owes its
formation. This, too, is not fundamentally new to us. Here, therefore, it is itself least
active. Only, as is natural, the sequence of steps is reversed. And here, too, the functions are reversed. When Rudolf Steiner chose for it the word
Intuition he applied this word, also, in its truest meaning.