Predisposition, Talent and Education of Human Beings
GA 60
12 January 1911, Berlin
Translated by Antje Heymanns
Predisposition, Talent and Education of Human Beings
When we look at what seems to have run like a kind of Leitmotif through this winter’s lecture cycle, when we focus on what lives within man as his nature and which we observe not only once between birth and death, but which we presuppose to exist in repeated Earth lives—then the question about the foundation of man’s development in his one life, in one earthly incarnation, appears to become quite essential for us, especially in our present time. Because the human being of the present certainly questions and searches when he encounters the peculiar manifestations of predisposition, talent and education of human beings. However, as he is not much inclined to look away from what appears to be manifesting itself in a life, and to focus his gaze instead on the real builder, the actual creator within a human being, then even the questions of this contemporary will easily assume the character of a half-measure, of vagueness. You see, when one presumes that something exists in human nature that like the actual inner enlivening force runs through many lives, then one encounters the completely enigmatic nature of this human being that is worthy of exploration. Then one will want to see questions about predispositions, talents and education in a completely new light, in a very different light from how they can be seen, when one’s gaze focuses only on what is presently so often emphasised: heredity, predispositions inherited from one’s ancestors. It is not as if Spiritual Science wants to turn the eyes away from that what is expressed in inherited characteristics—it is not so that it ignores all careful observations of all that what the outer senses and the intellect focussed on these could say. However, Spiritual Science knows that all this relates to the very essence of man like something that man uses by taking it in, just as in physical life the outer matter is absorbed by the small germ of a living being who determines its own form out of itself; yet what is supposed to enable it to express this form in its external life—the substantial, the material—it acquires from its environment. By and large, we must recognise the way a human being lives as a confluence of everything that comes into being at birth, with that in which man’s essence and individuality will be embedded and from which it draws its spiritual and soul nourishment.
For example, if we as educators have tasks concerned with a human soul who steps into existence and from hour to hour, from week to week reveals more and more of its inner abilities; if we face a human being who is growing up like a holy riddle that we have to solve, that has come to us from infinity so that we provide it with an opportunity to unfold itself and to develop, then a whole sum of new tasks, new views, new possibilities will indeed arise for all human relationships in existence. Thus we see a human being step into existence at birth and presuppose that, in a certain way, he brings the core of his being at birth into existence. If we do not look at catchwords and theories but at facts, then external natural science also shows us how this spirit and soul core of a human being continues to work on a child even after its birth, and how what we encounter as bodily organisation changes, and is plastically shaped under the influence of spirit and soul. External science, for example, can also illustrate how what we must first see as a tool for external activities, how this brain, when it is stepping into existence at birth, is a still an undefined, yet still quite plastically malleable matter in a human being; and how, what he endeavours to absorb of spiritual treasures of his environment, penetrates forming and shaping the plastic matter of our brains like an artist and works on it.
If we make the assumption—and this is a fact and has been mentioned several times already in different contexts—that a human being, who, after birth, would helplessly be placed on a lonely island, cannot acquire the ability to speak, then we must say: The spirit and soul content that we meet wrapped up in language from birth onwards is not something that emerges from man’s inner being, it is not merely attached to his disposition, or something that he receives, as it were, without the influences of his spirit and soul environment—like he receives his second set of teeth at age seven due to inner predisposition—instead speech is something that works on a human being. Speech works like an actual sculptor, who, as it were, forms the brain. We can well follow, also externally, scientifically, this sculpturing of the brain throughout the early times, yes, even for years. If it will then anatomically and physiologically be proven that human language ability, memory for certain language concepts, is bound to one or another organ and each word is, as it were, kept like a book in a library, then we are allowed to ask: What has shaped the brain for this initially? And we can answer: The same that existed as spirit and soul in the language vocabulary in a human being’s environment.
This shows us, that in regard to a human being’s entire soul-development, we have to differentiate everything he experiences in his thoughts, imaginations and feelings—also in his will impulses and emotions—everything, so to speak, that is merely inner experience, from something else that remains an inner experience so that it intervenes in the outer physical organisation, plastically sculptures it, and thus shapes it into a tool for future mental capabilities or future spirit and soul life. This can be illustrated best by tracking one ability of a human being throughout his life, that shows quite different sides, although these different sides have been repeatedly thrown together by external psychology: when we follow our memory.
When we acquire something through our memory, by memorising, then we do this by way of tools, of which one of the main ones is repetition. We have then made it our own, and are able to repeat it. Yet everyone knows the awkward thing—forgetting; because things are forgotten again, disappear from our memory, so that we are unable to reproduce them at a later date. Or aren’t you able to remember how much you had to learn and recite by heart in your youth, and how much of it you are no longer able to recite by heart? But does really everything disappear that we have memorised?
We will now only consider that of which man will say later: I have forgotten it —namely that which he is unable to retrieve so that he can reproduce it. Is it really completely gone? It is present in a similar way to what has already been mentioned, which in normal human life is always forgotten: like the wonderful, rich, first experiences of childhood are forgotten. In our normal human life, we can only remember back to a certain point in time. Yet prior to this point in time we have gained infinitely many impressions. Who would not acknowledge this, if he would observe the development of a child in its first life years in a really unbiased way.
But is it forgotten in the sense we normally speak about forgetting? Is it really not there at all? Does it no longer play a role in the human soul? Yes, it does play an important role in the human soul. Because what our first childhood impressions are like, whether we experience joyful or sad things, love or indifference, these or other outer impressions, on these depends infinitely more than what is usually thought—such as what someone is capable of doing later in life—depends on the overall mood and the entire constitution of his soul.
What is forgotten in the early years is more important than is generally acknowledged, as it forms and shapes us in our soul being. This is also the case with what we learn later—we forget the wording, the thought, but it remains in us as a certain mood of soul. If a person learnt at a certain age, for example, ballads or other literary works about great heroes with very specific tasks, with quite defined characteristics, then he might forget the thoughts and occurrences and so on, and will not be able to reproduce them; but what he has learnt remains within the structure of his own character, maybe as soul strength, or as a way to face life and allow joy and sorrow to approach him.
What we forget turns into moods, sentimental values, yes, into will impulses; it becomes what rests more or less unconscious within our soul life, yet it still works and forms within us. Only sometimes, through very particular processes later in life, it is revealed that those forgotten things are actually not quite forgotten. Because, if one takes relevant measures and places something familiar in front of someone’s soul, then that person will remember something that was seemingly forgotten. Thus one can prove that the memory is still present within him, but something like a blanket has been put over it in the unconscious layers of his soul life. In this way we can really see how what we forget, what disappears from our memory works formative and creative on our soul, and then often reveals itself in the mood with which we face joy and suffering, in our courage, in our bravery or cowardice; or also in our fearfulness and anxiety towards life. What we see sinking down, as it were, out of the treasure trove of memory into our more subconscious, works creatively on our soul itself. Basically, we ourselves are what the things we have forgotten have made of us. Because what else is a human being actually, than the way how he enjoys, how he can be brave, and so on! If we look at a human being not in an abstract but in a concrete way, then we have to say:
The human being is the harmonic interweaving and inter-play of his characteristics, so that he himself is limited by what flows down into deeper levels of his consciousness. We observe this in the course of life.
From all that has been taken into account so far, and from what is still to be added, it can follow that the soul-spiritual that sinks into deeper layers, sinks even deeper when a human being crosses the threshold of death. Because every time when someone, through what he absorbs, wants to work formative on his external physical organisation during his life, he finds that in this life a particular organisation already exists. This is shaped one way or another, he enters life with these or other dispositions. That what is creative in our souls must storm against this. Let's assume that through what we absorb courage could be build up within us as a trait. But if we have an organisation that is more suited to being chicken-hearted than to be a courageous human being, then we must more or less fight against something that we have got in our life from our structure. When we go through the time between death and a new birth, the essence of this human development lies in us creating in advance the archetype, the original shape of our new physical body, for our new physical earthly structure.
There we do not meet any limits and resistances such as are presented to us between birth and death. We build plastically with what we have obtained during life, the basis, the basic strengths for a new corporeality within wider limits than it is the case between birth and death. Hence we may say: Those forgotten concepts, which only affect our soul during our life between birth and death, work to shape our next physical organisation when we step through the portal of death, until the time of our re-incarnation, and work themselves into what is connected with our new bodily structure. In this way, we will stride through birth into our new existence with such dispositions that reach down into even deeper levels of our being than those ideas that were forgotten in the life between birth and death.
From all of this it becomes quite understandable that the human being, because he brought forth from life, from his immediate environment, the causes for the organisation of a new corporeality, that he indeed needs in a certain way the same conditions again.
It is different with animals, where, as we have seen from observations on the ‘human soul and animal soul’ and ‘human spirit and animal spirit’, the organisation is determined by line of heredity. There the animal appears with wholly defined tendencies that want to express themselves plastically, because these tendencies were not derived from the animal’s environment. Let us consider how little an animal acquires from the external world through education or conditioning, and how little it therefore needs a stage, located in the outer world, to bring out again what has been absorbed of educational principles. The human being, however, needs such a stage. Therefore he steps clumsily into this world, steps into the world so that we once again only have to put the finishing touches to the finer formation of his organisation. This explains the living and weaving of man’s individuality, of his true essential beingness, in the early years of his existence. Therefore his spirit organ, his brain, steps plastically determinable, malleable into existence, and basically, only after birth the last decisive pathways, lines and directions are added, that determine how the predispositions must be realised.
This illustrates, how what matters in regard to development needs to be viewed as something that came across from earlier developmental stages, and therefore it is less important to have defined, stubborn educational principles, than to look at each individual human being, at each individuality as a problem, as a holy riddle that needs to be solved, and that it is up to us to create opportunities, so that this riddle is solved in the best possible way.
An education is uncomfortable if it cannot establish any firm educational principles at all, but instead has to appeal to a principle that is related to the artistic within the educator, to observe what emerges from the essential nature of a human being. It is even more inconvenient than someone saying in a regimented way: these or those abilities are to be expressed in this way or that way. But we only have the right attitude towards the growing human being if we regard him in each case as an individuality, as something special in itself.
Although if one insists on seeing things trivially, and some people have a talent for seeing everything trivially, you could say: Individuality does not only show in a human being, but also in each single animal. Of course it shows. No one speaking from the basis of Spiritual Science will deny this. I have often said, that if one speaks about individuality in this sense, then one must be more precise, must be conscious, that if one wants to see things trivially, you can also speak about the biography and individuality of a quill. I knew a man, who—because in his days nibs were still cut from goose quills—was able to distinguish between the quills, because everyone cut their own quills, each one developed a personal relationship with him. And because the latter had an excellent fantasy, he would have been able to write a detailed biography of every single quill. However, as far human beings are concerned, it is not about applying the standard of triviality, but a standard drawn from the depths of realisation.
It is just through such observations that we can see the way and manner in which a human being forms and shapes his actual being, plastically forms his outward appearance, his outer organisation and lives out his actual being in it. From this, in turn, we can see how life happens in the early years and how it reshapes and remodels itself with the development of man, and what it utilises of what it can absorb from its environment. In the first years of a human being’s life we find that it is of very special importance to preserve for him his abilities, so to speak, to intervene plastically, malleably in his physical or body and soul organisation, and that we do not block the opportunity for him to intervene plastically.
We block someone’s opportunity most of all, if we stuff him too early with concepts and ideas that relate only to the external sensory nature and which have the strictest contours, or if he is pinned down to an activity that is theoretically confined to very specific forms. Then there is no variability, no modification, and no opportunity to develop the spirit and soul capabilities, in the way the soul is active from day to day, from hour to hour. Let us assume a father would be a terribly obstinate man, who has adopted the following principle:
My boy must become like I was! Throughout my whole life I have made shoes for my customers in this way, and my boy must make his shoes in the same way. My boy must think like me! Thus, into the environment of this boy a spirit and soul structure is brought, that works on his spirit and soul organisation just like it has worked on the father. Through this, the boy will be pressed into very specific forms, although this should be about exploring the individuality that steps into existence, and then, based on insight gained from this, shaping the spirit and soul organisation.
The educational instinct of humanity has already created a wonderful tool through general consciousness by which the human being in the early years of life is given the possibility to work on the changeable, the modifiable, the flexible of his spirit and soul, so that there is free scope for the forming of the human being. That is ‘play’. This is also the best way to keep a child occupied without giving it concepts that are bound into fixed contours, but such that give the thoughts room for manoeuvre, so that it can wander off here or there.
Only then one will find the course of thought that is predetermined by the inner predisposition. If I tell a fairy tale in such a way that it stimulates the inner activity of the child, without concepts being formed in pre-determined contours, but so that the outlines of the concepts remain flexible, then the child works like someone who tries and by trying attempts to find out what is right. The child works on finding out how its spirituality needs to move so that it can best sculpt its organisation in the way it is internally pre-formed. And it is the same with playing. Play differs from activity that is pressed into solid forms in that when playing one is to a certain extent able to do what one wants—so that one does not have sharp contours in thoughts and mobilities of organs from the outset. Hence, the soul-spiritual organisation of a human being will have an effect again in a free, determinable way. Play and the activity of the spirit and soul of the child in the first years of life, as just described, arise from a deep awareness of what the nature and essence of a human being really are.
Whoever who wants to become a real educator, will, also for the later years, definitely be conscious that indeed each single ability, as it were, must first be studied, recognised and determined in an evolving human being. Yet there is an opportunity to observe certain great principles. Such principles then lead us to the way in which the essential core of a human being, which stretches from birth to birth, utilises the external that lies in the line of heredity.
It is most interesting to focus on the way in which the spirit and soul core of a human being utilises the qualities, characteristics, virtues and so on, of father and mother, of paternal and maternal ancestors in completely different ways to build something new. And indeed: the paternal and maternal qualities are not equally used by the individual core of a human being, instead this is based on a very specific law. Just this law is infinitely instructive. If we attempt to grasp it in its completeness to fully see through it, then we must look at how two things assert themselves in the human soul. One of these is the rationality, to which we now want to add the ability to think in pictures, in concepts, faster or slower, cleverer or dumber. The other is the general direction of will and feeling, of the emotions, the interest that we take in our surroundings. The whole manner of how we are able to perform something, depends on whether we have a spirit that is agile or slow, or dull, or one that penetrates into things; if we are astute or not. What a human being is able to achieve for his fellow human beings and how we achieve it depends on us understanding of how to connect our interests in the right way to what goes on in our surroundings. Some people have good pre-conditions, but they have little interest in their fellow men and the environment. In this case the interest does not draw the abilities out. Hence it is necessary to pay as much attention to the interest within us, as to whether the flexibility of our rationality allows us to achieve this or that for our contemporaries.
Now, we can imagine that the whole kind of interest is linked to the way a human being’s desires are shaped, how the external approach to the entire life is organised, how a human being develops as being clever or clumsy. In short, the whole nature of the soul life—which is connected to our interactions with the external world and our greater or lesser interest and our skilfulness for this outer world—the most important elements for this are inherited by a human being from the father. Our interests and that which from these interests makes us skilful and capable to use our organs and our entire being, is as a rule an inheritance from the father. Thus the soul takes the appropriate elements from the father, so that it can form those characteristics within itself. In contrast, the intellectual agility, with which imaginative activity, pictorial imagination and inventiveness are connected, are received by our individuality when we come into existence at birth as heirloom from the mother’s characteristics. You will find that Schopenhauer has in a certain way hinted at this extraordinarily interesting chapter; he had an inkling of it, however, he was not in a position to also point out the deeper things.
On the other hand we are allowed to also say something else. In a certain way the following is borrowed from the father; how, what lives in the father as his manner of relating to objects, what his interests are, the desires towards objects, how he demands, wants, wills, if he is a brave man who courageously intervenes in life conditions or withdraws faint-heartedly, if he is pedantic or generous, also his characteristics that are connected to the will-impulses. By contrast, all that is flexibility of the soul, of the rationality, we find is passed on from the mother. Now, however, an interesting difference comes to light, which can only be observed when looking at the whole scope of life. Then you will find evidence of this everywhere; namely with regard to sex, there is a immense difference. It can be said that the relationship of a son to his father and mother is wonderfully described in Goethe’s words : “I’ve got my stature from my father, to lead a serious life,” this includes all that is related to the interactions of a human being with the external world. “From my mama I’ve got the cheerful nature, the joy to fabulate,” —this includes the entire nature of the spiritual life.
Yet when we now look at the daughter, it becomes apparent that in a peculiar way, the father’s qualities appear in the daughter so that they are now lifted one level above the nature of the will-impulses, from the nature that expresses itself more in the communications with the environment—into the soul.
Hence we can find a father’s qualities—of course this applies only in the same circumstances—who always courageously steps in, who has a lively interest in this or that, and therefore lives out a certain seriousness in his communications with his environment—are being adopted by the individuality of the daughter in such a way that they are lifted up into the soul, so that a daughter exists with a serious soul life, with the character life of the father translated into the soul which makes, what was probably viscous in the father, more flexible, so that the most important qualities that we encounter in the father as more external, show themselves as more internalised by the daughter.
Therefore we can say: the character traits of the father live on in the soul of the daughter; the soul characteristics of the mother, the alertness of the spirit as well as the talents and abilities that can be developed, live on in the son. Goethe’s mother, the old ‘Mrs Councillor’, was a women who was able to fabulate, in whom the fantasy functioned in the most wonderful way. This went down one level in the son, became an aptitude, an organisation, so that the son Goethe had the ability to give to humanity what lived in the mother. We can see, how the maternal qualities are lowered by one level in the sons, so that they are transformed into organ abilities; whilst the father’s characteristics are lifted up one level by the daughters, so that we encounter them as internalised and spiritualised.
Perhaps nothing is more characteristic than the beautiful contrast between Goethe and his sister Cornelia, who was just like the old Councillor, internalised, spiritualised a quiet, serious nature and thus was able to be for the poet, already in his boyhood, what he needed: an exceptionally good companion. Now take this into account and consider how Goethe, according to his description, felt unable to develop a favourable relationship with his father. This was because the paternal characteristics were externalised in the old Mr Councillor. What Goethe needed were these characteristics, but he could not understand them as they existed in his father, whom they fitted. Spiritualised they lived in his sister, who could thus be such a good comrade to him.
Now walk with me through history and you will see how each step confirms what has been said and how wherever you find hints, you could provide historical confirmation of such a matter. The most beautiful confirmation in this regard we got from the mother of the Maccabees , who with heroic greatness lets her sons face death for what she believes and what her fathers believed, with these great, beautiful words: “I have given you the outer corporeality; but the one who has created the world and human beings, has given you what I could not give you, and he will take care that you will get it back again, if you lose it for the sake of your faith!”
How often will just the maternal element be held up to us in history: from Alexander’s mother and the mother of the Gracchen to our present time, when we see characteristics appear in a person that show that someone is able to affect his surroundings, that he has the strength and talents and also the body and soul organisation for this. We could open the history of great man everywhere, wherever we wanted to: everywhere we will find the maternal characteristics translated in such a way that they have descended one level, and have become abilities placed into life. Let us take the example of Bürger's mother and his father, from whom he has also inherited the willpower characteristic. Basically, he did not have much in common with his father: his father was glad when he did not need to concern himself with the development of the little boy. Yet the mother had a wonderfully agile spirit; it was she who possessed the right grammatical and stylistic expression. This in turn was necessary for the poet, he inherited those traits from his mother, and they just came about because he belonged to the next generation. Or, let us think of Hebbel and the relationship he had with his father. Anyone who knows the poet Hebbel better will sense that in all the rough idiosyncrasies and stubbornness of interests there is a distant echo of his father’s legacy. In this respect, the old master bricklayer Hebbel has bequeathed much to his son. But the son and his mother understood each other. It was the mother who protected her son from becoming a master bricklayer in his birthplace, instead of later giving his dramas to mankind. It is quite touching to read how Hebbel himself tells in his wonderful diaries, what connected him with his mother.
These examples could be multiplied ad infinitum. Yet we should definitely not conclude that things are wrong, just because we believe to be observing life and encounter something different here and there. This would be like someone saying: The physicists verify for us the law of gravity; I will now, by way of installing many contraptions, prove to them, that this law can be impaired. Laws are not there for us to consider every single circumstance, but to focus on what is probable. This it how we must do it in natural science and how we must do it in Spiritual Science. Yet Spiritual Science is not at present advanced enough to proceed in a similar way. If one takes this into account, one finds confirmation of the above law of paternal and maternal heredity everywhere. Yet when looking at a whole human being, one must be clear, that what we call the human soul, and which expresses itself in the entire body and soul structure of man, is nothing simple. Again, one could have an unreserved will for trivialities and ask: ‘Why do you Anthroposophists have the quirk to distinguish three soul-members in the soul, and even multiple members in human nature? You are talking about a sentient soul, an intellectual soul and a consciousness soul. It would be much easier to talk of the soul as of a unitary entity in which one thinks, feels and wills.’ Yes, it is certainly more simple, more convenient—and also trivial. At the same time, this is something that scientific observation of a human being cannot in truth promote. Not out of a desire to divide and to make many words has the structure of the human soul into a sentient soul arisen—which means into the part, that initially establishes contact with the environment and receives perceptions and feelings from outside, and in which desires and instincts also develop. This then is to be separated from the part in which, in a certain sense, what has been gained has already been processed. We activate our sentient soul when we face the outer world, receive from it impressions of colours and sounds, but also by allowing that to come to the surface what we as normal human beings initially cannot control: our drives, desires and passions. But when we withdraw and process within what we have absorbed by way of perceptions and so on, so that what has been stimulated in us by the external world transforms itself into feelings, then we live in our second soul-limb, the intellectual or mind soul. And insofar as we direct and guide our thoughts and are not being kept on a leash, we live in the consciousness soul.
In ‘Occult Science’ or in ‘Theosophy’ you will see, that the three sheaths of the soul have even more relationships—of a different kind—to that what is in the external world. This is so not because we enjoy to categorise, but because what is called the sentient soul is related to the cosmos in a completely different way from what we call the consciousness soul.
It is the consciousness soul that isolates man, that leads him to perceive himself quite rightly as an internally self-contained being. What we call the intellectual soul, is what brings him into a relationship with his environment and the entire cosmos, hence he is a being that appears to be like an extract, like a confluence of the whole world. Through the consciousness soul man lives within himself, isolates himself. The main, most important thing that one experiences in the consciousness soul is that what amongst a man’s aptitudes is the latest one to be developed: The ability to think logically, so that we can form opinions, thoughts and so on. This rests within the consciousness soul. In relation to these characteristics, the individual core of a human being that comes into existence at birth is in fact the most inclined to isolation. This innermost core of a human being is the last to reveal itself. While its sheathing, its bodily organisation is the earliest to emerge, its actual individuality emerges last. But the way a human being currently is—he has been different in the past and will be different in the future—he actually develops his opinions, terms, concepts in the most isolated part of his being. These therefore exert the least influence on the overall construction and detailing of his entire personality and only emerge as aptitudes when the entire personality is already firmly established and plastically shaped.
There we see how the talents of man develop in a particular sequence. Firstly, we see what lives in the least isolated, separated element of the human being, in the sentient- or emotional soul. This has therefore the most strength to intervene in the entire human organisation. Hence we can see that getting close to a child with opinions, theories and ideas is least likely, when this sentient soul wants to shape these most intensely from within. We will only get close to a child when we affect its sentient soul—as I have presented in my essay ‘The Education of the Child from the perspective of Spiritual Science.’ Especially during the first life years one has to ensure not to develop theories or teachings, but that the child is instead encouraged to imitate, that one sets living examples for it to copy. This is of infinite importance, because this urge to imitate appears as one of the very first predispositions that one can influence. Admonitions and teachings are least effective during this time.
The child imitates what it sees, because it must form itself in accordance with its relationship to the external world. We lay the first foundation for the whole personal nature of the child, when during the first seven years we are living examples of what the child is allowed to imitate, when we can guess how we must behave in the presence of the child. However, this is for many a most peculiar educational principle. Most people will ask how the child should behave, and there comes Spiritual Science with its demands: the people should learn from the child how they must behave in its environment—down to words, attitudes and thoughts! Because the child is much more receptive in its soul than is generally believed, especially more receptive than an adult human being.
There are people with a certain sensitivity, who, for example, immediately recognise when a person comes in who is going to spoil the good mood. Even though little attention is paid to this nowadays, it happens incredibly often with children. And what you do in detail is much less important than the kind of person one endeavours to be, what kind of thoughts, of concepts one nurtures. It is not enough, that one keeps silent in front of the child about something, but allows oneself to think thoughts that are not meant to be for the child. But instead our thoughts need to be lived out in such a way that we have the feeling: this may live on in the child and should live on. This is inconvenient, but it is still right!
When the change of teeth has occurred, consideration will be given to what we may call ‘building on authority’—not building on what someone might do, but what he holds within himself as personality. It is most important that a child in the first years of life must be able to imitate what we speak, do and think, and in the second epoch perceives us as a human being on whom it can rely, so that it can say: What he does, is good! It is not so that we are admonishing the child from the seventh to the fourteenth, sixteenth year of life, based on the principle to develop a moral theory to show it that this must be done, that must be stopped—but rather we pass on to the child the best treasure, when its rational or intellectual soul can have the perception: What this human being next to me does, is good! I must refrain from doing, what he refrains from doing! — This is of infinite importance.
Only from the age of about fourteen to sixteen, does the possibility arise for a human being to build upon the most isolated part of his being, on the consciousness-soul, i.e. on that which forms in his consciousness soul: on his opinions, concepts and ideas. However, these must first have a solid foundation, and this must be created. If we do not create this by providing the opportunity through education, as the individuality allows us to recognise, and if we do not thereby clear the way for free development, then the human being will be seized by a different element: by the firmness of his hull nature. Then he externalises himself; his individuality, which goes from life to life, does not intervene, but he becomes a slave to his bodily organisation, which comes from the outside into the human being and subjugates him. Man shows this by not being master of his spiritual and soul part, but by being completely dependent on his body and soul organisation and showing rigid characteristics that are unchangeable. On the other hand, a human being in whom we took care to ensure that his predispositions are realised as far as possible, retains a certain flexibility throughout his whole life, and is also able to cope with new situations in later life. In comparison, in another person the organisation is externalised and takes on rigid forms, and that person retains them throughout his whole life. We live in an epoch, where the individuality of someone is little appreciated and hence there are few opportunities to convince oneself that the individuality is still agile and vigorous and able to cope with new situations and truths. We now arrive at a chapter in which we can gain insight into how some people simply must face life.
How many people, when they have looked into a world view and are convinced of it, try to convince others of it as well. They believe it is a very commendable effort when they say: Since I am seeing it so clearly, I should actually be able to convince everyone else of this! However, this is naivety. Our opinions are not dependent on something being logically proven to us. This is possible in the fewest cases. Because opinions and convictions of a person are formed out of completely different substrata of his soul—out of his will nature, his mind and emotional nature, so that a person can understand your logical arguments quite well, can follow your astute conclusions and then afterwards does not take them in at all, simply because what a person believes and what he professes does not flow from his logic or his understanding, but from the whole personality, namely from those limbs where will and mind arise. However, our thinking is the last of all our dispositions to emerge, when the bodily organisation has long since been completed. This is the most isolated field. This is where we find the least access to other people. We can reach more people, when we seize them in those parts that lie deeper: their mind and will. Here, intervention in bodily organisation still happens. However, if a human being grows up in a very materialistic sphere, lets say, where only material substance is deemed valid, then, during the time of his growing up, a sum of mind and will-impulses are formed that plastically shape his physicality and his brain. Later he can then acquire quite good logical thinking, but this no longer intervenes in the plasticity of his brain. Logical thoughts are the most powerless within the human soul. Therefore it is especially important to also find access to other people in the soul, not just in logic. If someone has already trained his brain in a certain way, then this brain, which only reflects the old concepts over and over again, cannot realise logic anymore because it has become physical. Hence, in regard to such world views, which are build on the purest, the sharpest of logic, as is the case with Spiritual Science, one cannot hope to be effective by going from person to person to convince someone. If someone, who understands the spiritual scientific impulse, would like to believe that he could convince people by persuasion or by way of logic—if for instance someone wants to believe that a spiritual scientist indulges in such illusion—then he is very much mistaken! Because in our era there is a large number of such people who, due to their overall personality, their will nature and emotional nature do not look out for what the spiritual world and spiritual research are. Out of the great mass of people who live around us, those who have a disposition for Spiritual Science will self-select, will go to what they dimly foresee, what they already have within their souls. A selection, a choice can only be made with regard to a worldview based on what is capable to purely encompass logic, human consciousness. Hence the Spiritual Scientist approaches human beings and knows how to differentiate between them: There is someone to whom you can preach for years, he is unable to grasp your thoughts. You first would have to make him conscious of this; would have to speak to his soul, but he himself is not able to reflect from out of his whole soul-toolkit, out of his brain. Another man is built in such a way that he can understand what Spiritual Science shows in its logically developed way, and he therefore also finds his way into what is basically already living in his soul.
In this way and manner we have to face the great cultural tasks of the present or the future. We need to recognise how the total personality of a human being relates to what a person, in the course of his development and education, is able to absorb incrementally of new truths, of such things that really must be united with his personality. When we have once again understood, that basically the soul-spiritual is the shaper, the sculptor, the artist for body and soul, then one will place greater importance on conducting the development of the spirit and soul in a human being in such a way that he can get a handle on it—especially in the years when he is open for education—and is powerful in regard to the way in which he can affect his body and soul. We have to be clear that a lot can be sinned against in this regard. We can see from our presentations, how human preference and so on, contributes much more to the formation of views than pure logic. One could only let pure logic alone speak when desires and instincts are completely silent. Prior to that we must be clear, that if we believe we have one-sidedly shaped a person’s aptitudes in a particular area, then what we have not considered will come to light in a peculiar manner.
Let us assume that we educate a man in such a way that we only bring to expression his abstract talents, as it is often done at school. Then the pure concepts and abstract ideas cannot intervene in the whole soul- and emotional life. This then remains undeveloped, uneducated and will confront us later in all kinds of trivial lifestyles. Later in life, two natures often become apparent. Even in people of high standing—if they have not been able to integrate within themselves what is located in the depth of personality—preferences, inclinations, likings, which are more deeply rooted assert themselves in other ways. Which examinee would not have experienced, that no matter how clever the examiner is who confronts him, who is able to maintain an overview over much of his science—the one-sidedness will come to expression by him having a preference for how the answers he wants to hear have to be worded. And woe betide many an examinee, if he doesn’t know how to put what he has to say into the words the examiner wants to to hear.
In this regard, in a book about psychology by Moriz Benedict, a lot of correct things were said about mistakes in human education. Also this, which is true: When two candidates were tested by two different examiners the misfortune happened that one candidate gave Examiner A answers shaped as if the Examiner B had asked the questions. If he would have given the answers to the other examiner, he would have passed the exam splendidly. And with the other candidate it was the other way round! Hence both failed the exams!
This can illustrate to us how what is indisputable can very well be clothed in logical forms. Yet as soon as we are not able to immerse our ideas in thought-education during our upbringing, no suitable field can be found to work from here formatively on man. How then must we behave towards the human being? In the time in which a person is preferably still being modelled plastically, and in which abstract concepts and ideas are least effective, we must behave in such away that we confront him with as few concepts and ideas as possible, and only with ideas that are as pictorial as possible. For this reason I have stressed that the pictorial, the illustrative—which is as little removed as possible from the actual picture, the form and contour—is taken up conceptually. Because what is absorbed in this way as a picture, as a form or as a figure of fantasy, has great strength to intervene in our bodily organisation. That the pictorial we encounter in the design intervenes in the physical organisation can already be deduced from seeing how little it helps to try and convince someone who is sick, who is in a particular situation, that he should be doing this, and refrain from doing that. This is of little help. But if you set up an apparatus, something like an electrifying machine , so that the sick person can form a picture for himself, and then give him two handles that do not let any current go through—as long as he has the picture in front of his eyes, he will feel the current, and that will help! But wherever it is so beautifully declaimed that imaginative power plays a major role, we must be clear, that this is not about any kind of imaginative power but only about visual imagination.
We live in an age in which it has become customary, to pay very little homage to the following principle of Spiritual Science—that a human being only becomes able to form concepts and ideas between the age of fourteen or sixteen and age twenty-one, twenty-two; that one then picks up concepts that are only to be shaped later. Instead, before this age, people nowadays become mature enough to write newspaper articles, which are either above the line or not up to standard, that are printed and then accepted by people. This then makes it difficult to keep abstract concepts away until the characterised age and to put the pictorial, the illustrative in front of a person’s eyes. Because the illustrative has the power to intervene in the organisation of body and soul.
You can always find confirmation of what I am saying now, however, one does not always pay attention to it. Moriz Benedikt , for example, complains that many college students are often quite clumsy in later life. Why is this so? Because the whole education is so nondescript, so little concerned with the illustrative and adheres only to abstract ideas even when languages are taught. In contrast, we can feel the illustrative that we encounter, right into our hand, because the objects themselves step in front of us as pictures.
It could be said, that if you want to imagine an object, you must move in such a way that you feel with your hand in a circle or in an elliptic shape the growing together with the object in pictures. It is not only imitating the manual dexterity, but also feeling and learning to love objects, that show us how a pictorial, an illustrative imagination twitches in our limbs, makes our limbs agile and mobile. Today we can find many people, who, if a button is torn off, are not able to sew on a new one. This is a great disadvantage. The most important things is, that we are able to intervene in the external world with everything we have. Of course, we cannot learn everything. But we can learn about how the spirit and soul slide down out of the spiritual into body and soul and make our limbs agile. And no one, whom we have instructed in his youth to try and copy the feeling of what is outside of him, will be a clumsy person later in life. Because what already lies below the threshold of our consciousness, can work most essentially on our organisation. This also applies to language. One learns a language best at a time when one is not able to understand the language grammatically, for at that time one learns with the part of the soul-being that belongs to deeper layers.
This is how humanity developed—and this is how the individual human being must develop. Elsewhere I have pointed out how Lorenz Müllner , in a school-director’s speech, drew attention to the St. Peter’s Church in Rome—how magnificent it stands there, how secretly the spatial laws are embedded within the mechanics of the cupola construction, so that one can see the spatial mechanics expressed in the most wonderful way. Now he pointed out though, that only through the laws which Michaelangelo expressed therein, and which Galilei subsequently by way of his high-flying spirit discovered, did Galileo give mechanical science to us. I have also pointed out, that the date of Michaelangelo’s death almost coincides with the birthdate of Galilei, so that the abstract laws of mechanics—which live in the consciousness soul of a human being—appeared later than that, what Michaelangelo had built into the space out of his deeper soul-members. Just as the higher members of the soul develop on the foundation of the lower ones, just as we have to develop our limbs based on our predispositions, so that we can look back on them and gain an understanding of them—so it works in every single life. In each individual life, too, man must be surrounded by human company, must place himself into that which immerses him in a kind of atmosphere, into the spirit and soul of our surroundings. Then, what a human being brings with him into existence, is shaped and built. But the human being does not only bring along what is given to him from the hereditary line, but something that will be determined in the most diverse way by a third, namely by the eternal individuality of the human being. This human individuality needs the inherited characteristics, must acquire and develop them. This also stands higher than that which comes into existence with our individuality. We step into existence at birth: A creative, productive spirituality acquires—when we cannot yet build any concepts—the plastic substances from the hereditary line. Only later the consciousness-soul is added. So we look at something individual within human nature, which plastically forms the capabilities and talents. When we become educators, it is our task to solve, what we consider to be a spiritual riddle, for each human being anew.
This all points us to a mood. When Goethe, at the excavation of Schiller’s bones found his skull and saw the distinctive forms, saw how the human individuality had worked on this, he saw: into this form the liquid spirit of Schiller had to pour itself, so that he could become what he did become, which Goethe was able to express thus:
What greater gain in life can man e'er know
Than when God-Nature will to him explain
How into Spirit steadfastness may flow,
How steadfast, too, the Spirit-Born remain.
Such an expression by Goethe needs to be understood in the context of the situation. If one takes it without looking at what it is that as spirit-made in firm shape is sculptured, misunderstands him. Nor does anyone understand him, who is unaware of the depth of Goethe’s insight into the eternal weaving of an individuality, who goes from birth to birth and always newly reincarnates, and who is the true architect of the human being. How we have received our organs from the spirit, which in turn are organs of spirit, basically could be said by simply using a childish comparison: the clock shows us time, but we could not use it, if it had not first been formed by the human spirit. — We need our brain for thinking in the physical world, but we could not use it for thinking, if the cosmic spirit would not have formed it. And we would not have sculptured it with such an individuality, if not our individuality had poured itself as a spiritual product into our brain, which was formed out of suitable human species substance. Then we understand more deeply, what we were able to say today, and what Goethe meant when he pointed towards that in a human being, which in his nature is determinative for all his talents and capabilities—as if the stars themselves would be perceived like any situation in the world, and how that which effects man’s inner being as something eternal, passes through the threshold of death only to advance to new forms of development. In short, we may summarise what we have observed today, in the mood of Goethe’s thoughts, which he expressed in the “Orphic Primal Words”:
As stood the sun to the salute of planets
Upon the day that gave you to the earth,
You grew forthwith, and prospered, in your growing
Heeded the law presiding at your birth.
Sibyls and prophets told it: You must be
None but yourself, from self you cannot flee.
No time there is, no power, can decompose
The minted form that lives and living grows.
Anlage, Begabung und Erziehung des Menschen
Wenn wir den Blick auf das richten, was sich wie eine Art Leitmotiv durch die bisherigen Vorträge dieses Winterzyklus’ gezogen hat, wenn wir auf jenes im Menschen lebende Wesenhafte sehen, das wir nicht nur einmal zwischen Geburt und Tod beobachten, sondern das wir als in wiederholten Erdenleben daseiend voraussetzen, so wird uns die Frage nach dem, was der Entwickelung eines Menschen in seinem einen Leben, in einer Erdenverkörperung zugrunde liegt, als eine ganz wesentliche insbesondere in unserer Gegenwart erscheinen. Denn der Mensch der Gegenwart steht gewiß fragend und forschend dem eigentümlichen In-die-Erscheinung-Treten von Anlage, Begabung und Erziehung des Menschen gegenüber. Da er aber wenig geneigt ist, den Blick von dem abzuwenden, was uns da erscheint als sich in einem Leben ausgestaltend, und auf den eigentlichen Erbauer, den eigentlichen Schöpfer im Menschen diesen Blick hinzurichten, so werden schon die Fragen dieses Gegenwartsmenschen leicht den Charakter der Halbheit, der Unbestimmtheit in sich tragen. Setzt man nämlich voraus, daß es etwas in der menschlichen Natur gibt, was sich wie das eigentliche innerlich Belebende durch viele Leben hindurchzieht, dann wird einem erst das ganz Rätselhafte, ganz Fragenswerte dieses Menschenwesens entgegentreten. Und man wird die Fragen nach Anlagen, nach der Begabung und Erziehung in einem neuen Lichte betrachten wollen, in einem ganz andern Lichte, als sie betrachtet werden können, wenn man bloß im Auge hat, was die Gegenwart so häufig betont: die Vererbung, die von den Vorfahren vererbten Eigenschaften. Nicht als ob die Geisteswissenschaft den Blick von demjenigen abwenden wollte, was in solchen vererbten Anlagen sich ausspricht, als ob sie die sorgfältigen Beobachtungen alles dessen, was die äußeren Sinne und der auf sie gerichtete Verstand sagen können, außer acht ließe; aber die Geisteswissenschaft weiß, daß dies alles sich zu dem eigentlich Wesenhaften des Menschen wie etwas verhält, was von diesem letzteren so benutzt wird, in sich aufgenommen wird, wie die äußere Materie im physischen Leben aufgenommen wird von dem kleinen Keim eines Lebewesens, der seine Form aus sich selbst heraus bestimmt, aber dasjenige, was ihm möglich machen soll, diese Form im äußeren Leben darzuleben — das Substantielle, das Materielle —, aus seiner Umgebung sich aneignet. So werden wir im großen und ganzen in der Art, wie sich ein Mensch darlebt, einen Zusammenfluß dessen zu erkennen haben, was mit seiner Geburt ins Dasein tritt, und desjenigen, in welches das Wesenhafte und Individuelle des Menschen hineingebettet wird und woraus es seine geistig-seelische Nahrung zieht. Wenn wir zum Beispiel als Erzieher mit Aufgaben einer Menschenseele, die ins Dasein tritt, die von Stunde zuStunde, von Woche zu Woche immer mehr und mehr von ihren inneren Fähigkeiten ausprägt, wenn wir einem heranwachsenden Menschen gegenüberstehen wie einem heiligen Rätsel, das wir zu lösen haben, das von der Unendlichkeit her zu uns gekommen ist, damit wir ihm die Möglichkeiten geben, sich zu entfalten und zu entwickeln, dann wird sich für alles, was menschliche Verhältnisse im Dasein sind, eine ganze Summe von neuen Aufgaben, neuen Anschauungen, neuen Möglichkeiten überhaupt ergeben. Wir sehen also einen Menschen mit der Geburt ins Dasein treten und setzen voraus, daß er in einer gewissen Weise das Kernhafte seines Wesens durch seine Geburt ins Dasein hereinbringt. Auch die äußere Wissenschaft zeigt uns, wenn wir nicht auf Schlagworte und Theorien, sondern auf Tatsachen sehen, wie dieser geistig-seelische Wesenskern des Menschen auch noch nach der Geburt am Kinde arbeitet, wie das, was uns als körperhafte Organisation entgegentritt, sich verändert, plastisch unter dem Einfluß des Geistig-Seelischen gebildet wird. Auch die äußere Wissenschaft kann uns zum Beispiel zeigen, wie das, worin wir zunächst das Werkzeug für äußere Tätigkeiten zu sehen haben, wie das Gehirn eine noch unbestimmte, durchaus noch plastisch bildsame Materie beim Menschen ist, wenn er durch die Geburt ins Dasein tritt, und wie dann das, was er sich aus dem Geistesschatze seiner Umgebung aufzunehmen bemüht, formend und bildend wie ein Künstler auf die plastische Masse unseres Gehirns eindringt und sie bearbeitet. Wenn wir die Voraussetzung machen — was ja eine Tatsache ist und in anderen Zusammenhängen öfter erwähnt wurde —, daß der Mensch, wenn er nach der Geburt hilflos auf eine einsame Insel hinausversetzt würde, die Fähigkeit der Sprache nicht erringen kann, so müssen wir sagen: Der geistig-seelische Inhalt, der in die Sprache gekleidet an uns von der Geburt an herantritt, ist nicht etwas, was aus dem Inneren des Menschen herausdringt, was bloß in seiner Anlage haftet, was der Mensch sozusagen ohne die Einflüsse seiner geistig-seelischen Umgebung erhält, wie er etwa seine zweiten Zähne um das siebente Jahr herum durch die innere Veranlagung erhält, sondern die Sprache ist etwas, was an dem Menschen arbeitet. Sie ist wirklich wie ein Plastiker, der gleichsam das Gehirn formt. Wir können diese Formung des Gehirns in den ersten Zeiten, ja Jahre hindurch, auch äußerlich wissenschaftlich wohl verfolgen. Wenn dann anatomisch, physiologisch nachgewiesen wird: die Sprachfähigkeit des Menschen, das Gedächtnis für gewisse Sprachvorstellungen sei an dieses oder jenes Organ gebunden, jedes Wort sei gleichsam aufgehoben wie ein Buch in der Bibliothek, so dürfen wir auf der anderen Seite fragen: Was hat das Gehirn erst dazu geformt? Und wir können antworten: Dasjenige, was als Geistig-Seelisches in dem Sprachschatz der Umgebung des Menschen da war.
Das zeigt uns, daß wir beim Menschen in bezug auf seine ganze Seelenentwickelung alles, was er in seinen Gedanken, Vorstellungen und Empfindungen erlebt — auch in seinen Willensimpulsen und Gefühlen, was sozusagen bloß innerliches Erleben bleibt —, von etwas anderem unterscheiden müssen, was so innerliches Erleben bleibt, daß es eingreift in die äußere physische Organisation, dieselbe plastisch gestaltet und erst zum Werkzeuge macht für zukünftige Geistesfähigkeiten oder zukünftiges geistig-seelisches Leben. Das können wir ganz anschaulich am besten sehen, wenn wir eine Fähigkeit des Menschen durch sein Leben hindurch verfolgen, die ganz verschiedene Seiten zeigt, obwohl diese verschiedenen Seiten von der äußeren Seelenwissenschaft mehrfach zusammengeworfen wurden: wenn wir unser Gedächtnis verfolgen.
Wenn wir uns etwas durch das Gedächtnis aneignen, wenn wir memorieren, so eignen wir uns dies durch die Mittel an, von denen eines der hauptsächlichsten die Wiederholung ist. Wir haben es dann zu unserem Eigentum gemacht, können es von uns geben. Nun kennt jeder eine mißliche Sache: das Vergessen. Denn die Dinge vergessen sich wieder, schwinden so aus unserem Gedächtnis, daß wir nicht wieder imstande sind, sie in einer späteren Zeit zu reproduzieren. Oder können Sie sich nicht erinnern, wieviel Sie in Ihrer Jugend haben auswendig lernen und hersagen müssen, und wieviel Sie jetzt davon nicht mehr auswendig hersagen können? Aber schwindet denn wirklich alles, was wir gedächtnismäßig aufgenommen haben?
Wir wollen jetzt nur das betrachten, wovon der Mensch später sagt: ich habe es vergessen, — was er also nicht mehr heraufholen kann, so daß er es reproduzieren kann, Ist es gar nicht mehr da? Es ist auf eine ähnliche Weise da wie etwas, was wir auch schon erwähnt haben, was im normalen Menschenleben immer vergessen wird: wie die wunderbaren, reichen ersten Erlebnisse der Kindheitsjahre vergessen werden. Bis zu einem gewissen Zeitpunkt erinnern wir uns im normalen Menschenleben nur zurück. Vor diesem Zeitpunkt aber haben wir unendlich viele Eindrücke gehabt. Wer würde das nicht zugeben, wenn er wirklich unbefangen die Entwickelung eines Kindes in den ersten Lebensjahren beachtet. Aber es ist in dem Sinne vergessen, wie wir gewöhnlich von vergessen sprechen. Ist es aber gar nicht da? Spielt es gar keine Rolle mehr in der Menschenseele? Ja, es spielt eine bedeutende Rolle in der Menschenseele, Denn wie die ersten Kindheitseindrücke sind, ob wir Freudiges oder Trauriges erleben, Liebe oder Gleichgültigkeit, diese oder jene äußeren Eindrücke, davon hängt unendlich mehr, als der Mensch im späteren Leben vermag, von der Gesamtstimmung und der gesamten Verfassung seiner Seele ab, als man gewöhnlich annimmt. Wichtiger ist es, was man in den ersten Jahren vergessen hat, was uns formt und bildet im Seelenwesen, als gewöhnlich zugestanden wird. So ist es auch mit dem, was wir später lernen, wir vergessen es dem Wortlaut, dem Gedanken nach, aber es bleibt in uns als eine gewissen Seelenstimmung zurück. Wenn zum Beispiel ein Mensch in einem gewissen Alter Balladen gelernt hat oder andere Dichtungen von großen Helden mit ganz bestimmten Aufgaben, ganz bestimmten Eigenschaften, so mag er die Gedanken, die Begebenheiten und so weiter vergessen, so daß er sie nicht wieder reproduzieren kann; zurück bleibt aber, was er gelernt hat, im Gefüge seines eigenen Charakters vielleicht als Seelenstärke, als eine Art, sich zum Leben zu stellen und Lust und Leid an sich herankommen zu lassen. Zu Stimmungen, Gefühlswerten, ja zu Willensimpulsen, zu dem, was mehr oder weniger nicht bewußt in unserem Seelenleben ruht, was aber in uns schafft und formt, wird das, was wir vergessen. Nur manchmal zeigt es sich durch ganz bestimmte Vorgänge im späteren Leben, daß ein so Vergessenes doch nicht ganz vergessen ist, daß sich der Mensch, wenn man nämlich die gehörigen Anstalten trifft und ihm etwas Verwandtes vor die Seele bringt, dann doch an etwas Vergessenes erinnert, so daß man nachweisen kann, daß sich nur etwas wie eine Decke in unterbewußten Schichten seines Seelenlebens darübergeschoben hat, daß es aber doch in ihm vorhanden ist. So sehen wir förmlich, wie das, was wir vergessen, was uns aus dem Gedächtnis schwindet, bildend und gestaltend an unserer Seele schafft und sich dann an unserer Stimmung Lust und Leid gegenüber zeigt, an unserm Mut, an unserer Tapferkeit oder Feigheit oftmals, oder auch an unserer Furcht und Angst dem Leben gegenüber. Was wir so gleichsam aus dem Gedächtnisschatze in das Unterbewußtere heruntersinken sehen, wird dann schöpferisch an unserer Seele selber. Wir sind es im Grunde genommen selbst, was die Dinge, die wir vergessen haben, aus uns gemacht haben. Denn was ist der Mensch im Konkreten anderes, als die Art, wie er sich freuen, tapfer sein kann und so weiter! Wenn wir den Menschen nicht abstrakt, sondern ganz konkret ins Auge fassen, müssen wir sagen: Er ist das harmonische Ineinanderweben und Ineinanderspielen seiner Eigenschaften, so daß der Mensch selber von dem bedingt wird, was in tiefere Schichten seines Bewußtseins herunterfließt. Das sehen wir während des Lebens. Aus allem, was bisher berücksichtigt wurde und was noch angeführt werden soll, kann hervorgehen, daß dasjenige, was so geistig-seelisch in tiefere Schichten sinkt, dann noch tiefer sinkt, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet. Denn jedesmal, wenn der Mensch durch das, was er aufnimmt, an seiner äußeren physischen Organisation formen will im Leben, findet er in diesem Leben schon eine bestimmte Organisation vor. Die ist so oder so beschaffen, mit diesen oder jenen Anlagen kommt er ins Leben herein. Dagegen muß anstürmen, was in unserer Seele schöpferisch ist. Nehmen wir an, durch das, was wir in uns aufnehmen, könnte eine Eigenschaft der Tapferkeit in uns herangebildet werden. Wenn wir aber eine Organisation haben, die sich mehr zum Hasenfuß als zum tapferen Menschen eignet, so müssen wir mehr oder weniger gegen etwas anstürmen, was wir im Leben von unserer Organisation haben. Und wenn wir die Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmachen, so liegt das Wesentliche dieser menschlichen Entwickelung darin, daß wir uns das Urbild, die Urgestalt unseres neuen physischen Leibes, unserer neuen physischen Erdenorganisation vorbilden. Da haben wir keine solchen Grenzen und Widerstände, wie sie sich unserer Organisation im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod darbieten, da bauen wir plastisch mit dem, was wir uns im Leben erworben haben, die Grundlage, die Grundkräfte für eine neue Körperlichkeit innerhalb weiterer Grenzen auf, als es zwischen Geburt und Tod der Fall ist. Daher dürfen wir sagen: Was so an vergessenen Vorstellungen während des Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod nur an unserer Seele arbeitet, das arbeitet, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes schreiten, bis zur Zeit der Wiederverkörperung an der Gestaltung unserer nächsten Organisation, arbeitet sich selbst in das hinein, was mit unserer neuen Leibesorganisation zusammenhängt; so daß wir durch die Geburt mit solchen Anlagen zum neuen Dasein schreiten, die in noch tiefere Schichten unseres Wesens heruntergehen als die vergessenen Vorstellungen im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod.
Aus alledem wird es durchaus verständlich sein, daß der Mensch, weil er aus dem Leben, aus der unmittelbaren Umgebung die Ursachen zur Organisation einer neuen Körperlichkeit hergeholt hat, in der Tat auch dieselben Bedingungen in einer gewissen Weise wieder braucht. Anders ist es beim Tier, das seine Organisation, wie wir aus den Betrachtungen über «Menschenseele und Tierseele» und «Menschengeist und Tiergeist» gesehen haben in der Vererbungslinie bestimmt hat. Da tritt das Tier mit den ganz bestimmten, plastisch sich gestalten wollenden Tendenzen auf, weil die Tendenzen nicht aus der Umgebung des Tieres genommen sind. Bedenken wir, wie wenig das Tier durch die Erziehung, durch die Dressur sich aus der äußeren Welt aneignet, hereinnimmt, wie wenig es daher einen Schauplatz braucht, der in der äußeren Welt liegt, um das wieder herauszubringen, was an Bildungsprinzipien hereingenommen ist. Der Mensch aber braucht einen solchen Schauplatz. Daher tritt er ungeschickt in die Welt, tritt so in die Welt, daß wir auch da nur wieder die letzte Hand anzulegen haben an die feinere Ausgestaltung seiner Organisation. Daher das Leben und Weben der Individualität des Menschen, seiner eigentlichen Grundwesenheit, in den ersten Jahren seines Daseins! Daher tritt plastisch bestimmbar, formbar sein Geistesorgan, das Gehirn, ins Dasein, und wird daher im Grunde genommen erst nach der Geburt mit den letzten entscheidenden Bahnen, Linien und Richtungen versehen, wie sich die Anlagen ausleben sollen. Daraus sehen wir, wie das, worauf es in der Entwickelung ankommt, als ein von früheren Daseinsstufen Herüberkommendes zu betrachten ist, und daß es daher weniger darauf ankommen wird, bestimmte, eigensinnige Erziehungsprinzipien zu haben, als darauf, jedes einzelne Menschenwesen, jede Individualität als ein Problem, als ein heiliges Rätsel zu betrachten, das zu lösen ist, und daß es an uns ist, die Gelegenheiten herbeizuschaffen, damit dieses Rätsel in der möglichst besten Weise gelöst werden kann. Unbequem ist eine Erziehung, die überhaupt keine festen Grundsätze aufstellen kann, sondern die an ein dem Künstlerischen verwandtes Prinzip in dem Erzieher appellieren muß, um zu beobachten, was da aus der Wesenhaftigkeit des Menschen herauskommt, unbequemer ist es, als wenn man reglementmäßig sagt: so oder so sind diese oder jene Fähigkeiten zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Aber nur dann stehen wir mit der rechten Gesinnung dem heranwachsenden Menschen gegenüber, wenn wir ihn in jedem einzelnen Falle als eine Individualität, als etwas Besonderes für sich betrachten. Wenn man allerdings die Dinge durchaus trivial nehmen will — manche Leute haben schon einmal die Begabung, alles trivial zu nehmen —, kann man ja sagen: Individualität zeigt sich nicht nur beim Menschen, sondern auch bei einem jeglichen Tier. Gewiß zeigt sie sich. Das wird aber auch keiner leugnen, der aus den Grundlagen der Geisteswissenschaft heraus spricht. Ich habe oft gesagt: wenn man in diesem Sinne von Individualität spricht, muß man genauer darauf eingehen, muß sich bewußt sein, daß, wenn man die Sachen trivial nehmen will, man auch von der Biographie und der Individualität der Schreibfeder sprechen kann. Ich kannte einen Mann, der — weil zu seiner Zeit noch die Schreibfedern aus Gänsekielen geschnitten wurden — schon unterscheiden konnte zwischen den Schreibfedern, denn da sich jeder seine Feder selbst zurechtschnitt, so bekam sie immer ein persönliches Verhältnis zu ihm, und da der Betreffende eine ausgezeichnete Phantasie hatte, so hätte er sehr wohl eine Biographie jeder einzelnen Schreibfeder mit allen Einzelheiten schreiben können. Beim Menschen aber handelt es sich nicht darum, den Maßstab der Trivialität anzulegen, sondern den Maßstab, der aus den Tiefen der Erkenntnis herausgeholt ist.
Nun können wir — da sich gerade durch solche Betrachtungen die Art und Weise herausstellt, wie der Mensch, seine eigentliche Wesenheit formend und gestaltend, seine Außerlichkeit, seine äußere Organisation plastisch bildet und darin seine eigentliche Wesenheit darlebt — an diesem Darleben wieder sehen, wie es in den ersten Jahren geschieht und sich mit der Entwickelung des Menschen umbildet, umgestaltet und, was es aus der Umgebung aufnehmen kann, benützt. Da finden wir in den ersten Lebensjahren des Menschen von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit, daß wir ihm sozusagen seine Fähigkeiten erhalten, plastisch, bildsam einzugreifen in seine körperliche oder leiblich-seelische Organisation, und daß wir ihm nicht die Möglichkeit, plastisch einzugreifen, versperren. Am meisten versperren wir einem Menschen diese Möglichkeit, wenn wir ihn zu früh mit Begriffen und Ideen vollpfropfen, die sich nur auf eine äußere Sinnlichkeit beziehen und welche die strengsten Konturen haben, oder wenn wir ihn auf eine Tätigkeit festnageln, die theoretisch in ganz bestimmte Formen eingeschnürt ist. Da ist keine Variabilität, keine Modifikation, auch keine Möglichkeit, die geistig-seelischen Fähigkeiten herauszubilden, wie sich die Seele von Tag zu Tag, von Stunde zu Stunde berätigt. Nehmen wir an, ein Vater wäre ein furchtbar eigensinniger Mensch, der sich zum Prinzip gemacht hat: Mein Junge muß so werden, wie ich war! Ich habe mein ganzes Leben hindurch die Schuhe so gemacht für meine Kundschaft, und so muß mein Junge seine Schuhe auch machen! Wie ich denke, so muß mein Junge auch denken! — Da wird in die Umgebung dieses Jungen ein geistig-seelisches Gefüge gebracht, das so an seiner geistig-seelischen Organisation arbeitet, wie am Vater gearbeitet worden ist, und der Junge wird dadurch in ganz bestimmte Formen hineingezwängt, während es sich darum handeln sollte, die Individualität, die ins Dasein tritt, zu erforschen, um nach der daraus gewonnenen Erkenntnis die geistig-seelische Organisation zu formen.
Der Erzieher-Instinkt der Menschheit hat schon durch das allgemeine Bewußtsein ein wunderbares Mittel geschaffen, wodurch der Mensch in den ersten Jahren in die Möglichkeit versetzt wird, an dem Veränderlichen, Modifizierbaren, Beweglichen des Geistig-Seelischen zu arbeiten, so daß freier Spielraum für die Ausgestaltung des Menschenwesens gelassen wird. Das ist das Spiel. Das ist auch die Art und Weise, wie wir ein Kind am besten beschäftigen, daß wir ihm nicht Begriffe geben, die in feste Konturen geschnürt sind, sondern solche, die dem Gedanken Spielraum lassen, so daß er da oder dorthin abirren kann. Nur dann findet man den Lauf des Gedankens, der vorbestimmt ist durch die innere Anlage. Erzähle ich ein Märchen, so daß es die geistige Tätigkeit des Kindes anregt, daß nicht sich Begriffe in bestimmten Konturen ausbilden, sondern daß es die Konturen der Begriffe beweglich läßt, dann arbeitet das Kind so, wie jemand arbeitet, der probiert und durch das Probieren das Rechte herauszubekommen sucht. Das Kind arbeitet, um herauszubekommen, wie seine Geistigkeit sich bewegen muß, damit es in der besten Weise seine Organisation herausgestaltet, wie sie innerlich vorgebildet ist. Und so ist es beim Spiel. Das Spiel unterscheidet sich von der in feste Formen geprägten Tätigkeit dadurch, daß man in einem gewissen Grade doch machen kann, was man will, wenn man spielt, daß man nicht von vornherein scharfe Konturen in den Gedanken und Beweglichkeiten der Organe hat. Dadurch wird wieder in einer freien, bestimmbaren Weise auf die geistig-seelische Organisation des Menschen zurückgewirkt. Spiel und die eben charakterisierte geistig-seelische Betätigung für das Kind in den ersten Jahren entspringen einem tiefen Bewußtsein dessen, was die Natur und Wesenheit des Menschen eigentlich ist. Wer ein wirklicher Erzieher werden will, wird auch für die späteren Jahre durchaus das Bewußtsein haben, daß in der Tat jede einzelne Fähigkeit sozusagen zuerst studiert, erkannt, bestimmt werden will an dem sich herausentwickelnden Menschen. Aber es gibt doch die Möglichkeit, gewisse große Grundsätze zu beobachten. Solche Grundsätze führen uns dann erst auf die Art, wie der Wesenskern des Menschen, der von Geburt zu Geburt geht, sozusagen das Außere verwendet, das in der Vererbungslinie liegt.
Da ist es von höchstem Interesse, den Blick hinzulenken auf dieArt, wie der geistig-seelische Wesenskern des Menschen in ganz verschiedener Weise die Merkmale, die Eigenschaften, Tugenden und so weiter von Vater und Mutter, von den väterlichen und mütterlichen Vorfahren benützt, um ein Neues aufzubauen. Und in der Tat: nicht in gleicher Weise werden die väterlichen und mütterlichen Eigenschaften von dem individuellen Wesenskern des Menschen benützt, sondern da liegt ein ganz bestimmtes Gesetz zugrunde. Gerade dieses Gesetz ist unendlich lehrreich. Wenn wir versuchen, es in seiner Vollständigkeit zu fassen, um es zu durchschauen, so müssen wir darauf sehen, wie in der menschlichen Seele zweierlei sich geltend macht. Das eine ist die Intellektualität, zu der wir jetzt auch die Fähigkeit rechnen wollen, in Bildern, in Vorstellungen schneller oder langsamer, gescheiter oder dümmer zu denken, Das andere ist die allgemeine Richtung des Willens und Gefühles, der Affekte, das Interesse, das wir an unserer Umgebung nehmen. Die ganze Art und Weise, wie wir imstande sind, etwas zu leisten, hängt davon ab, ob wir einen beweglichen oder einen langsamen, einen stumpfen oder einen in die Dinge dringenden Geist haben, ob wir scharfsinnig sind oder nicht. Was der Mensch den Mitmenschen leisten kann und wie wir das leisten, hängt davon ab, ob wir im rechten Sinne unsere Interessen mit dem zu verbinden verstehen, was in unserer Umgebung vorgeht. Manche Menschen haben gute Vorbedingungen, aber sie haben an den Mitmenschen und an der Umwelt wenig Interesse. Da liegt die Tatsache vor, daß das Interesse nicht die Fähigkeiten herauslockt. Daher ist es nötig, daß das Interesse in uns ebenso beachtet werde wie das, ob uns die Beweglichkeit unserer Intellektualität gestattet, dieses oder jenes für unsere Mitwelt zu leisten. .
Für die ganze Art des Interesses nun, womit wir auch verbunden denken können die Art und Weise, wie die Begierden des Menschen, wie die äußere Handhabung des ganzen Lebens sich gestaltet, wie der Mensch geschickt oder ungeschickt sich entwickelt, kurz, die ganze Art und Weise des seelischen Lebens, die mit unserem Umgang mit der Außenwelt, mit unserem größeren oder geringeren Interesse und mit unserer Geschicklichkeit für die Außenwelt zusammenhängt — dafür entnimmt der Mensch die wichtigsten Elemente in der Erbschaft von dem Vater, so daß die Interessen und was aus den Interessen uns geschickt, fähig macht, unsere Organe, unseren ganzen Menschen zu gebrauchen, in der Regel Erbgut vom Vater ist. Die Seele nimmt also vom Vater die entsprechenden Elemente, damit sie jene Eigenschaften in sich ausbilden kann. Was dagegen intellektuelle Beweglichkeit ist, womit dann auch Phantasietätigkeit, bildhaftes Vorstellen, Erfindergabe verbunden ist, nimmt unsere durch die Geburt ins Dasein tretende Individualität als Erbstück von den mütterlichen Eigenschaften. Sie finden schon bei Schopenhauer in einer gewissen Weise dieses außerordentlich interessante Kapitel etwas angedeutet; er hatte eine Ahnung davon, war aber nicht in derLage, auf die tieferen Dinge dabei hinzuweisen.
Wir dürfen aber auf der anderen Seite noch etwas anderes sagen. Was im Vater als die Art und Weise lebt, wie er sich zu den Dingen verhält, was er für Interesse, für Begierden gegenüber den Dingen hat, wie er verlangt, wünscht, will, ob er ein Mensch ist, der tapfer in die Lebensverhältnisse eingreift oder der kleinmütig zurückweicht, ob er pedantisch oder großmütig ist, also die Eigenschaften, die mit den Willensimpulsen zusammenhängen, finden wir in einer gewissen Weise vom Vater entlehnt. Alles dagegen, was Beweglichkeit der Seele, der Intellektualität ist, finden wir von der Mutter übergehend. — Nun zeigt sich aber ein interessanter Unterschied, der nur beobachtet werden kann, wenn man auf den ganzen Umfang des Lebens eingeht. Dann werden Sie auch die Belege dafür überall finden. Nämlich in bezug auf das Geschlecht zeigt sich dabei ein gewaltiger Unterschied. Man darf sagen: Für einen Sohn ist im Grunde genommen ganz wunderbar das Verhältnis zu Vater und Mutter in den Goetheschen Worten geschildert: «Vom Vater hab ich die Statur, des Lebens ernstes Führen», das heißt alles, was sich auf den Verkehr des Menschen mit der äußeren Welt bezieht — «vom Mütterchen die Frohnatur, die Lust zu fabulieren», das heißt die ganze Art und Weise des geistigen Lebens. Sehen wir aber jetzt auf die Tochter, so zeigt sich in einer ganz merkwürdigen Weise, daß die väterlichen Eigenschaften bei der Tochter so auftreten, daß sie nun um eine Stufe aus der Natur der Willensimpulse heraufgehoben sind, aus der Natur, die sich mehr ausspricht in dem Verkehr mit der Umgebung — in das Seelische. Daher kann man von einem Vater — das gilt natürlich nur bei gleichen Umständen —, der überall tapfer zugreift, der reges Interesse für dieses oder jenes hat und damit in dem Verkehr mit der Umgebung einen gewissen Ernst auslebt, diese Eigenschaften von der Individualität der Tochter so übernommen finden, daß sie ins Seelische heraufgehoben sind, daß eine Tochter da ist mit einem ernsten seelischen Leben, mit einem ins Seelische umgesetzten Charakterleben des Vaters, die beweglicher macht, was vielleicht beim Vater schwerflüssig ist, so daß die wichtigsten Eigenschaften, die uns beim Vater mehr äußerlich entgegentreten, bei der Tochter sich mehr verinnerlicht zeigen.
Daher können wir sagen: Die Charaktereigenschaften des Vaters leben weiter in dem Seelischen der Tochter, die seelischen Eigenschaften der Mutter, die Regsamkeit des Geistes wie auch Talente und Fähigkeiten, die man ausbilden kann, leben in dem Sohne weiter. Die Mutter Goethes, die alte Frau Rat, war eine Frau, die fabulieren konnte, bei der die Phantasie in der wunderbarsten Weise funktionierte. Das ging bei dem Sohn um eine Stufe herunter, wurde Anlage, Organisation, so daß der Sohn Goethe die Fähigkeit hatte, das der Menschheit zu geben, was in der Mutter lebte. So sehen wir, wie die mütterlichen Eigenschaften bei den Söhnen um eine Stufe heruntergeführt werden, so daß sie zu Organfähigkeiten werden, während die väterlichen Eigenschaften von den Töchtern um eine Stufe hinaufgeführt werden, so daß sie uns verinnerlicht, verseelischt entgegentreten. Dafür ist vielleicht nichts charakteristischer als der schöne Gegensatz Goethes zu seiner Schwester Cornelia, die nun ganz der alte Rat war, die verinnerlicht, verseelischt eine stille, ernste Natur war und daher dem Dichter schon in der Knabenzeit das sein konnte, was er brauchte: ein außerordentlich guter Kamerad. Berücksichtigen Sie das nun und betrachten Sie, wie Goethe nach seiner Beschreibung kein günstiges Verhältnis zu seinem Vater gewinnen konnte. Das war aus dem Grunde, weil die väterlichen Eigenschaften veräußerlicht waren beim alten Herrn Rat. Was Goethe brauchte, waren schon diese Eigenschaften, aber er konnte sie so nicht verstehen, wie sie bei seinem Vater vorhanden waren. Da waren sie richtig. Zur Seele geworden lebten sie in seiner Schwester, die ihm deshalb ein so guter Kamerad sein konnte.
Gehen Sie nun mit mir durch die Geschichte, so werden Sie sehen, wie ein jeder Schritt das Gesagte bestätigt, und wie man überall dort, wo man Hindeutungen hat, historisch eine Bestätigung einer solchen Sache geben könnte. Die schönste Bestätigung in dieser Beziehung haben wir von der Mutter der Makkabäer, die mit einer heroischen Größe ihre Söhne für das, was sie glaubt und was ihre Väter glaubten, dem Tode entgegengehen läßt mit den großen, schönen Worten: «Ich habe euch die äußere Körperlichkeit gegeben; der aber, der Welt und Menschen geschaffen hat, hat euch gegeben, was ich euch nicht geben konnte, und der wird dafür sorgen, daß ihr es wieder erhaltet, wenn ihr es um eures Glaubens willen verliert!» Wie oft wird uns in der Geschichte gerade das mütterliche Element vorgehalten: von der Mutter Alexanders und der Gracchen-Mutter bis in unsere Zeit herein, wenn wir sehen, wie Eigenschaften im Menschen auftreten, daß dieser Mensch fähig ist, auf die Umwelt zu wirken, daß er die Kräfte und Talente und auch die leiblich-seelische Organisation dafür hat. Da könnten wir überall — wo wir wollten — die Geschichte bedeutender Männer aufschlagen: überall werden wir die mütterlichen Eigenschaften so übersetzt finden, daß sie um eine Stufe weiter heruntergeschritten sind, daß sie Fähigkeiten geworden sind, die ins Leben hineingestellt sind. Nehmen wir das Beispiel von Bürgers Mutter und seinem Vater, von dem er auch die Willenseigenschaft geerbt hatte. Mit dem Vater hatte er im Grunde genommen wenig gemein; der Vater war froh, wenn er nicht nötig hatte, sich um die Entwickelung des kleinen Knaben zu kümmern; die Mutter aber hatte einen wunderbar beweglichen Geist, sie war es, die grammatisch und stilistisch den richtigen Ausdruck besaß. Das war wieder nötig für den Dichter; diese Eigenschaften übernahm er von der Mutter, und die ergaben sich eben, weil er der nächsten Generation angehörte. Oder denken wir an Hebbel, wie er zu seinem Vater stand. Wer den Dichter Hebbel genauer kennt, wird in all dem herben Eigenartigen und Eigensinnigen der Interessen schon einen Nachklang fühlen auch von dem väterlichen Erbteil. Der alte Maurermeister Hebbel hat schon vieles in dieser Beziehung auf seinen Sohn vererbt. Aber verstanden haben sich der Sohn und die Mutter, und die Mutter war es, die den Sohn davor behütete, daß Hebbel, statt später seine Dramen der Menschheit zu geben, in seinem Geburtsorte ein Maurermeister geworden wäre. Es ist rührend zu lesen, wie Hebbel selber in seinen wunderbaren Tagebüchern erzählt, was ihn mit seiner Mutter verband.
Diese Beispiele könnten ins Unendliche vermehrt werden. Wir dürfen aber durchaus nicht — weil wir am Leben zu beobachten glauben, daß uns da oder dort ein anderes entgegentritt — daraus den Schluß ziehen, daß die Dinge falsch sind. Das wäre ebenso, wie wenn jemand sagte: Die Physiker beweisen uns das Fallgesetz; ich werde ihnen nun, indem man allerlei Vorrichtungen anbringt, beweisen, daß man das Gesetz beeinträchtigen kann! — Gesetze sind aber nicht dazu da, daß wir jeden Umstand berücksichtigen, sondern das im Auge haben, was in Frage kommt. So müssen wir es in der Naturwissenschaft, so müssen wir es in der Geisteswissenschaft machen. Nur ist die Geisteswissenschaft heute noch nicht weit genug, um in derselben Weise vorzugehen. Wenn man das berücksichtigt, wird man das genannte Gesetz von dem väterlichen und mütterlichen Erbgut überall bestätigt finden können. Man wird aber, wenn man auf das Ganze des Menschen sieht, sich klar sein müssen, daß das, was wir die menschliche Seele nennen, und was sich auslebt in der ganzen, auch leiblich-seelischen Organisation des Menschen, nichts Einfaches ist. Man kann ja wieder rückhaltlos den Willen zur Trivialität haben und sagen: Warum habt ihr Anthroposophen durchaus den Spleen, in der Seele drei Seelenglieder und gar viele Glieder in der menschlichen Natur zu unterscheiden? Ihr redet da von einer Empfindungsseele, von einer Verstandesseele und von einer Bewußtseinsseele. Es wäre doch viel einfacher, von der Seele als einer einheitlichen Wesenheit zu sprechen, in der gedacht, empfunden und gewollt wird. — Einfacher ist es gewiß, bequemer — und trivial auch. Aber das ist auch zugleich etwas, was die wissenschaftliche Betrachtung des Menschen nicht in Wahrheit fördern kann. Denn nicht aus der Sehnsucht, einzuteilen und viele Worte zu machen, entspringt die Gliederung der menschlichen Seele in Empfindungsseele, das heißt in denjenigen Teil, der zunächst mit der Umgebung in Verbindung tritt und die Wahrnehmungen und Empfindungen von außen erhält, in dem sich auch die Begierden und Instinkte entwickeln, und der dann von dem Teil zu trennen ist, in dem schon in einem gewissen Sinne das Gewonnene verarbeitet ist. Unsere Empfindungsseele bringen wir in Tätigkeit, indem wir der Außenwelt gegenüberstehen, von ihr Farben- und Toneindrücke empfangen, aber auch auftauchen lassen, was wir als normale Menschen zunächst nicht in der Hand haben: unsere Triebe, Begierden und Leidenschaften. Wenn wir uns aber zurückziehen und das, was wir durch die Wahrnehmungen und so weiter aufgenommen haben, in uns verarbeiten, so daß das durch die Außenwelt in uns Angeregte sich zu Gefühlen umformt, dann leben wir in dem zweiten Seelengliede, in der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele. Und insofern wir unsere Gedanken lenken und leiten und nicht am Gängelbande geführt werden, leben wir in der Bewußtseinsseele.
In der «Geheimwissenschaft» oder in der «Theosophie» werden Sie sehen, daß die drei Seelenglieder noch viel mehr Beziehungen haben — in anderer Art — zu dem, was in der Außenwelt ist, nicht weil wir an der Einteilung Freude haben, sondern weil das, was wir Empfindungsseele nennen, in ganz anderer Weise zum Kosmos zugeordnet ist als das, was wir Bewußtseinsseele nennen.
Die Bewußtseinsseele ist es, die den Menschen isoliert, die ihn sich so recht als ein innerlich geschlossenes Wesen empfinden läßt. Was wir Verstandesseele nennen, bringt ihn zu der Umgebung und zum ganzen Kosmos in Beziehung, dadurch ist er ein Wesen, das wie ein Extrakt, wie ein Zusammenfluß der ganzen Welt erscheint. Durch die Bewußtseinsseele lebt der Mensch in sich, isoliert sich. Das Hauptsächlichste, was man in der Bewußtseinsseele erlebt, ist das, was man am spätesten unter seinen Anlagen als Mensch zur Entwickelung bringt: die Fähigkeit des logischen Denkens, daß wir Meinungen, Gedanken und so weiter haben. Das ruht in der Bewußtseinsseele. In bezug auf diese Eigenschaften ist der individuelle Wesenskern des Menschen, der durch die Geburt ins Dasein tritt, in der Tat am meisten zur Isolierung veranlagt. Dieser innerste Wesenskern arbeitet sich am spätesten beim Menschen heraus. Während seine Umkhüllung, seine leibliche Organisation sich am frühesten herausschält, schält sich seine eigentliche Individualität am spätesten heraus. Aber wie der Mensch gegenwärtig ist — er war in der Vergangenheit anders und wird in der Zukunft anders sein —, entwickelt er in der Tat seine Meinungen, Begriffe, Vorstellungen in dem isoliertesten Teil seines Wesens. Diese haben daher am wenigsten auf den ganzen Aufbau und die Ausgestaltung seiner Gesamtpersönlichkeit Einfluß und kommen auch erst als Anlage heraus, wenn die Gesamtpersönlichkeit fest gestellt, plastisch gebildert ist.
Da sehen wir, wie die Begabung des Menschen in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge sich entwickelt. Wir sehen zunächst auftreten, was in dem wenigst isolierten, abgesonderten Element des Menschen, in der Empfindungs- oder Triebseele lebt. Das hat aber dafür auch die größte Kraft, in die ganze menschliche Organisation einzugreifen. Daher können wir sehen, wie wir am wenigsten mit Meinungen, 'Theorien, Ideen an das Kind herankommen, wenn diese Empfindungsseele am intensivsten von innen heraus gestalten will. Wir können nur dann an das Kind herankommen, wenn wir auf die Empfindungsseele wirken lassen — dargestellt in meiner Schrift «Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft» —, worauf man besonders in den ersten Lebensjahren zu sehen hat, daß nicht Theorien, Lehren entwickelt werden, sondern daß das Kind zur Nachahmung angehalten wird, daß man ihm vorlebt, was es nachleben soll. Das ist von unendlicher Wichtigkeit, weil dieser Nachahmungstrieb als eine der allerersten Anlagen auftritt, auf die man wirken kann. Die Ermahnungen und Lehren wirken in dieser Zeit am wenigsten. Was das Kind sieht, das macht es nach, weil es sich so bildet, wie es sich in Gemäßheit seines Zusammenhanges mit.der Außenwelt bilden muß. Wir legen den ersten Grundstock für das ganze persönliche Wesen des Kindes, wenn wir ihm in den ersten sieben Jahren vorleben, was es nachleben darf, wenn wir erraten, wie wir uns in der Umgebung des Kindes benehmen müssen. Das ist allerdings ein für viele höchst merkwürdiger Erziehungsgrundsatz. Die meisten Menschen werden fragen, wie sich das Kind benehmen solle, und jetzt kommt die Geisteswissenschaft mit ihren Anforderungen: die Menschen sollen vom Kinde lernen, wie man sich in der Umgebung des Kindes zu benehmen habe — bis auf die Worte, Gesinnungen und Gedanken hin! Denn das Kind ist in seiner Seele viel empfänglicher, als man gewöhnlich glaubt, vor allem empfänglicher als der erwachsene Mensch. Es gibt ja solche Menschen mit einer gewissen Sensitivität, die es sofort merken, wenn zum Beispiel ein Mensch hereinkommt, der die gute Stimmung verdirbt. Das ist beim Kinde, trotzdem es heute wenig beachtet wird, in einem ungeheuren Maße der Fall. Und es kommt viel weniger darauf an, was man im einzelnen unternimmt, als darauf, was man für ein Mensch zu sein sich bemüht, was man für Gedanken, für Vorstellungen hegt. Es genügt nicht, daß man es vor den Kindern verschweigt und sich Gedanken gestattet, die nicht für das Kind sein sollten, sondern unsere Gedanken müssen so ausgelebt werden, daß wir das Gefühl haben: das darf in dem Kinde weiterleben und soll weiterleben. — Das ist unbequem, aber doch richtig! Dann kommt, wenn der Zahnwechsel eingetreten ist, das in Betracht, was wir nennen können: das Bauen auf das — jetzt nicht was der Mensch tut, sondern was der Mensch als Persönlichkeit in sich birgt —, das Bauen auf Autorität. Das ist das Allerwichtigste, daß das Kind in den ersten Lebensjahren nachleben kann, was wir sprechen, tun und denken, und daß es in der zweiten Epoche in uns einen Menschen fühlt, auf den es bauen kann, so daß es sagen kann: Das ist gut, was der tut! — Nicht daß wir vom siebenten bis zum vierzehnten, sechzehnten Lebensjahre dem Kinde die Ermahnung geben aus dem Prinzip heraus, eine Moraltheorie zu entwickeln, ihm zeigen: das muß getan werden, das muß unterlassen werden, — sondern den besten Schatz geben wir dem Kinde mit, wenn es für die Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele die Empfindung haben kann: Gut ist es, was der Mensch neben mir tut; unterlassen muß ich, was er unterJäßt! — Das ist von einer unendlichen Wichtigkeit.
Erst mit dem Eintreten des vierzehnten, sechzehnten Jahres beginnt die Möglichkeit, daß der Mensch auf den isoliertesten Teil seiner Wesenheit, auf die Bewußtseinsseele baut, das heißt auf das, was sich in der Bewußtseinsseele bildet: auf seine Meinungen, Begriffe und Ideen. Die müssen aber erst einen festen Grund und Boden haben, und der muß geschaffen werden. Schaffen wir ihn nicht, indem wir die Gelegenheit herbeiführen durch die Erziehung, wie die Individualität sie uns erkennen läßt, schaffen wir dadurch der Entwickelung nicht freie Bahn, dann wird der Mensch von einem anderen Element ergriffen: von der Festigkeit seiner Hüllennatur. Dann veräußerlicht er sich; dann greift nicht seine von Leben zu Leben gehende Individualität ein, sondern dann wird er zum Sklaven seiner Leibesorganisation, die von außen herein den Menschen unterjocht. Das zeigt der Mensch daran, daß er in seinem geistig-seelischen Teile nicht Herr ist, sondern ganz abhängig von seiner leiblich-seelischen Organisation ist, starre Eigenschaften zeigt, die unveränderlich sind. Ein Mensch dagegen, bei dem wir achtgegeben haben, daß seine AnJagen möglichst herauskommen, der behält sein ganzes Leben hindurch eine gewisse Beweglichkeit, kann sich auch im späteren Leben noch in neuen Situationen zurechtfinden. Bei dem anderen dagegen veräußerlicht sich die Organisation, bekommt starre Formen, und der Mensch behält sie durch das ganze Leben hindurch. Wir leben in einer Epoche, wo die Individualität des Menschen wenig geschätzt wird und wo daher wenig Gelegenheit ist, sich zu überzeugen, daß die Individualität im späteren Leben noch beweglich und regsam ist und sich in neue Situationen und Wahrheiten hineinfinden kann. Da kommen wir auf ein Kapitel, an dem wir einsehen können, wie sich manche Menschen einfach zum Leben stellen müssen.
Wie viele bemühen sich, wenn sie in eine Weltanschauung hineingeblickt haben, so daß sie davon überzeugt sind, nun auch andere davon zu überzeugen. Sie glauben, es ist ein sehr 1öbliches Bemühen, wenn sie sagen: Da ich es so klar einsehe, müßte ich doch eigentlich einen jeden zu dieser Überzeugung bringen können! Das ist aber eine Naivität. Unsere Meinungen hängen gar nicht davon ab, ob uns etwas logisch bewiesen wird. Das ist in den wenigsten Fällen möglich. Denn des Menschen Meinungen und Überzeugungen sind aus ganz anderen Untergründen seiner Seele — aus seiner Willensnatur, seiner Gemüts- und Gefühlsnatur heraus gebildet, so daß ein Mensch ganz gut Ihre logischen Auseinandersetzungen verstehen kann, Ihre scharfsinnigen Schlüsse begreifen kann und sie hinterher gar nicht aufnimmt aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil das, was ein Mensch glaubt und wozu er sich bekennt, nicht aus seiner Logik und seinem Verstehen fließt, sondern aus der Gesamtpersönlichkeit kommt, das heißt aus jenen Gliedern, wo Wille, wo Gemüt aufsteigen. Unsere Gedanken sind aber dasjenige von uns, was am spätesten von allen unseren Anlagen herauskommt, wenn die Körperorganisation längst abgeschlossen ist. Das ist das isolierteste Feld. Dort finden wir am wenigsten den Zugang zu den anderen Menschen, Mehr können wir erreichen, wenn wir sie in den Teilen ergreifen, die tiefer liegen: in dem Gemüt, im Willen. Da wird noch eingegriffen in die Organisation. Wenn aber ein Mensch in einer sehr materialistischen Sphäre aufgewachsen ist, sagen wir da, wo man nur die Materie, den Stoff gelten läßt, da bildet sich während der Zeit seines Aufwachsens eine Summe von Gemüts- und Willensimpulsen, die seine Leiblichkeit und auch sein Gehirn plastisch gestalten. Später kann er sich dann ein ganz gutes logisches Denken aneignen, das greift aber nicht mehr in die Plastik seines Gehirns ein. Logische Gedanken sind das Allerohnmächtigste in der menschlichen Seele. Daher hängt es besonders davon ab, daß wir den Zugang zu anderen Menschen auch in der Seele finden, nicht bloß in der Logik. Wenn jemand sein Gehirn schon in einer gewissen Weise ausgebildet hat, dann formt dieses Gehirn, das nur immer wieder und wieder die alten Vorstellungen reflektiert, weil es körperlich geworden ist, keine Logik mehr um. Daher kann man für solche Weltanschauungen, die auf die reinste, die schärfste Logik gebaut sind wie die Geisteswissenschaft, nicht hoffen, daß man auf die Weise wirken kann, daß man vom einen zum anderen Menschen geht, um ihn zu überzeugen. Wenn jemand, der den geisteswissenschaftlichen Impuls versteht,glauben wollte, er könnte durch Überredung oder durch Logik die Menschen überzeugen, wer etwa glauben wollte, daß sich der Geisteswissenschaftler dieser Illusion hingibt, der irrt sich sehr! Denn es gibt in unserem Zeitalter eine große Anzahl von solchen Menschen, die vermöge ihrer Gesamtpersönlichkeit, ihrer Willens- und Gemütsnatur nicht nach dem sehen, was geistige Welt und geistige Forschung ist. Aus der großen Masse derer, die um uns leben, werden sich diejenigen herauswählen, die den Zug haben zu der Geisteswissenschaft, werden zu dem gehen, was sie dunkel ahnen, was sie schon in der Seele haben. Eine Selektion, eine Auswahl nur kann stattfinden in bezug auf eine Weltanschauung, die auf das gebaut ist, was rein die Logik, das menschliche Bewußtsein umspannen kann. Daher geht der Geisteswissenschaftler heran an die Menschen und weiß zu unterscheiden: Da ist einer, dem kannst du jahrelang predigen, er wird nicht auf deine Gedanken eingehen können. Das mußt du ihm erst zum Bewußtsein bringen; zu seiner Seele kannst du sprechen, aber er selbst kann es sich nicht aus seinem ganzen Seelenwerkzeug, aus dem Gehirn heraus reflektieren. Der andere ist so gebaut, daß er die Möglichkeit hat, auf das einzugehen, was die Geisteswissenschaft in ihrer logisch ausgebildeten Weise zeigt, und der findet sich daher auch hinein in das, was im Grunde genommen schon in seiner Seele lebt. So ist die Art und Weise, wie wir uns in die großen Kulturaufgaben der Gegenwart oder der Zukunft hineinstellen müssen. Nur wenn wir erkennen, wie die Gesamtpersönlichkeit des Menschen sich zu dem verhält, was der Mensch nach und nach im Laufe seiner Entwickelung und Erziehung von neuen Wahrheiten aufnehmen 'kann, von solchen Dingen, die sich nun wirklich mit seiner Persönlichkeit vereinigen müssen, — wenn man wieder einmal eingesehen hat, wie im Grunde genommen das Seelisch-Geistige der Former, der Plastiker, der Künstler ist für das, was Leiblich-Seelisches ist, dann wird man auch einen größeren Wert darauf legen,dieEntwickelung desGeistig-Seelischen beim Menschen so zu betreiben, daß er es — besonders in den Jahren, wo er der Erziehung zugänglich ist — machtvoll in bezug auf die Art, wie er auf das Leiblich-Seelische wirken kann, in die Hand bekommt. Wir müssen uns klar sein, daß in dieser Beziehung viel gesündigt werden kann. Wir sehen ja aus unseren Darstellungen, wie menschliche Vorliebe und so weiter viel mehr zur Formung der Anschauungen beiträgt als die reine Logik. Die reine Logik allein sprechen lassen könnte man erst, wenn überhaupt Begierden und Instinkte völlig schweigen. Vorher muß man sich klar sein, wenn wir glauben, irgendwo auf einem besonderen Gebiete die Anlagen eines Menschen einseitig gebildet zu haben, daß dann in einer merkwürdigen Weise dasjenige zutage tritt, was wir unberücksichtigt gelassen haben.
Nehmen wir an, wir erziehen einen Menschen so, daß wir nur die abstrakten Anlagen zum Ausdruck bringen, wie es in der Schule häufig gemacht wird. Dann können die reinen Begriffe und abstrakten Ideen nicht in das ganze Gemütsund Gefühlsleben eingreifen. Das bleibt dann unentwickelt, ungebildert und tritt uns später in allen möglichen trivialen Lebensführungen hervor. Zwei Naturen sind dann später oft im Leben sichtbar. Selbst bei Leuten, die hochstehen, macht sich — wenn sie nicht in sich haben hineinentwickeln können, was in den Tiefen der Persönlichkeit sitzt — Vorliebe, Neigung, Sympathie, die tiefer sitzt, in anderer Weise geltend. Welcher Prüfling hätte es nicht erfahren, wenn er einem noch so gescheiten Examinator gegenübersteht, der vieles in seiner Wissenschaft zu überschauen vermag, wie diese Einseitigkeit dadurch zum Ausdruck kommt, daß er eine Vorliebe dafür hat, wie er gerade die Antworten hören will! Und wehe manchem Prüfling, wenn er das, was er sagen soll, nicht in die Worte zu kleiden versteht, wie der Examinator sie haben will!
In einem Buche über Seelenkunde von Moriz Benedikt ist gerade über die Fehler der menschlichen Erziehung nach dieser Richtung hin manches Richtige gesagt. Auch das, was eine Wahrheit ist: daß einmal zwei Prüflinge geprüft wurden von zwei Examinatoren, und es stellte sich das Malheur heraus, daß zum Examinator A. der eine zu Prüfende die Antworten so gab, wie wenn der Examinator B. die Fragen gestellt hätte. Hätte er diesem die Antworten geben dürfen, so hätte er die Prüfung glänzend bestanden. Und der andere der Kandidaten war in dem umgekehrten Fall. Daher fielen beide durch!
Das kann uns zeigen, wie ganz gut in logische Formen einzukleiden ist, was unanfechtbar ist. Sobald wir aber nicht in der Lage sind, unsere Begriffe in die Gedankenerziehung während der Erziehung einzutauchen, ist kein geeignetes Feld zu finden, um von hier aus am Menschen zu bilden. Wie müssen wir uns denn dann zum Menschen verhalten? Wir müssen uns so verhalten, daß wir in der Zeit, wo der Mensch vorzugsweise noch plastisch gebildet werden soll und wo abstrakte Begriffe und Ideen am wenigsten wirksam sind, ihm möglichst wenig mit abstrakten Begriffen und Ideen kommen, sondern mit solchen Ideen, die möglichst bildhaft sind. Deshalb habe ich so hervorgehoben, daß das Bildhafte, das Anschauliche, welches sich möglichst wenig von dem entfernt, was Bild, Gestalt, Umriß hat, in die Begriffe aufgenommen wird. Denn was so als Bild, als Gestalt oder als Gestalt der Phantasie aufgenommen wird, hat eine große Kraft, in unsere Leibesorganisation einzugreifen. Daß das Bildhafte, was uns in der Gestaltung entgegentritt, in die Leibesorganisation eingreift, können Sie schon daraus entnehmen, daß Sie sehen, wie wenig es hilft, wenn Sie einem Kranken, der in einer bestimmten Situation ist, einreden: Das sollst du tun, das sollst du lassen. — Das hilft sehr wenig. Wenn Sie aber einen Apparat hinstellen, der einer Elektrisiermaschine ähnlich ist, so daß sich der Kranke dieses Bild machen kann, ihm zwei Handgriffe in die Hand geben, gar keinen Strom durchlassen, — wenn er nur das Bild vor sich hat, dann verspürt er den Strom, und dann hilft’s! Überall aber, wo so schön deklamiert wird, daß die Einbildungskraft eine große Rolle spielt, müssen wir uns klar sein, daß es sich dabei nicht um jede Einbildungskraft handelt, sondern nur um die bildliche.
Wir leben in einem Zeitalter, in welchem es nach und nach Usus geworden ist, daß dem Grundsatz der Geisteswissenschaft: daß der Mensch erst zwischen dem vierzehnten, sechzehnten Jahre und dem einundzwanzigsten, zweiundzwanzigsten Jahre fähig wird, Begriffe und Ideen auszubilden, daß man da Begriffe aufnimmt, die erst später ausgebildet werden sollen — sehr wenig gehuldigt wird; sondern heute wird der Mensch schon vor Ablauf dieses Lebensalters reif, um über und unter dem Strich Zeitungsartikel zu schreiben, die gedruckt und dann von den Leuten hingenommen werden. Da ist es dann schwer, abstrakte Begriffe bis zu dem charakterisierten Zeitalter fernzuhalten und das Bildhafte, das Anschauliche dem Menschen vor Augen zu führen. Denn das Bildhafte hat die Kraft, in die leiblich-seelische Organisation einzugreifen.
Was ich jetzt sage, können Sie immer bestätigt finden, nur gibt man nicht immer darauf acht. Moriz Benedikt klagt zum Beispiel darüber, daß viele Gymnasiasten oft im späteren Leben so ungeschickt sind. Woher kommt das? Weil die ganze Erziehung so unanschaulich ist, so wenig auf das Anschauliche eingeht und sich nur an abstrakte Begriffe hält, sogar bei dem Lehren der Sprachen. Dagegen können wir Bildhaftes, das an uns herantritt, weil die Gegenstände selbst uns in Bildern entgegentreten, bis in die Hand hinein fühlen. Da könnte man sagen: Wenn du einen Gegenstand vorstellen willst, mußt du dich so bewegen, daß du mit der Hand im Kreise oder in der Elipse das Zusammenwachsen fühlst mit dem Gegenstande in Bildern. Nicht bloß das Nachahmen in der Handfertigkeit, sondern das Fühlen und Liebenlernen der Dinge zeigt uns, wie bildhaftes, anschauliches Vorstellen uns in die Glieder zuckt, uns die Glieder gelenkig und beweglich macht. Wir können ja heute viele Menschen finden, die, wenn ihnen ein Knopf abgerissen ist, sich keinen neuen wieder annähen können, Das ist ein großer Nachteil. Das Wichtige ist, daß wir mit allem, was wir haben, eingreifen können in die Außenwelt. Alles können wir natürlich nicht lernen. Aber das können wir lernen, wie das Geistig-Seelische herunterrutscht aus dem Geistigen in das Leiblich-Seelische und unsere Glieder geJlenkig macht. Und niemand, den wir in der Jugend angewiesen haben, dasjenige nachzufühlen, was außer ihm ist, wird später im Leben ein ungeschickter Mensch sein. Denn was schon unter der Schwelle unseres Bewußtseins liegt, kann am wesentlichsten an unserer Organisation arbeiten. Das gilt auch in bezug auf die Sprache. Man lernt eine Sprache am besten in der Zeit, wo man noch gar nicht in der Lage ist, diese Sprache grammatisch zu verstehen, denn da lernt man mit dem Teil der Seelenwesenheit, der tieferen Schichten angehört.
So hat sich die Menschheit entwickelt — so muß sich der einzelne Mensch entwickeln. Ich habe schon an anderer Stelle darauf hingewiesen, wie Laurenz Müllner bei einer Rektoratsrede aufmerksam machte auf die Peterskirche in Rom, wie sie großartig dasteht, wie da hineingeheimnißt sind die Raumesgesetze in die Mechanik des Kuppelbaues, so daß man die Raumesmechanik in der wunderbarsten Weise zum Ausdruck gebracht sieht. Nun wies er aber darauf hin, daß die Gesetze, welche Michelangelo darin zum Ausdruck gebracht hat, dann Galilei durch seinen hochfliegenden Geist gefunden hat und uns dadurch erst die mechanische Wissenschaft gegeben hat. Ich habe auch darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß der Todestag Michelangelos fast zusammenfällt mit dem Geburtstage Galileis, so daß die abstrakten Gesetze der Mechanik — was in der Bewußtseinsseele des Menschen lebt — später aufgetreten sind als das, was aus den tieferen Seelengliedern heraus Michelangelo in den Raum hineingebaut hat. Wie sich die höheren Seelenglieder auf GrundJage der niederen entwickeln, wie wir auf Grundlage der Anlagen unsere Glieder ausbilden müssen, um dann auf sie zurückzuschauen und einen Begriff von ihnen zu bekommen, so ist es auch im einzelnen Leben. Auch im einzelnen Leben muß der Mensch von der menschlichen Gesellschaft umgeben sein, muß sich hineinstellen in das, was ihn wie in eine Atmosphäre taucht, in das Geistig-Seelische unserer Umgebung. Dann wird das, was der Mensch in das Dasein hereinbringt, geformt und gebildet. Aber der Mensch bringt nicht nur herein, was ihm aus der Vererbungslinie mitgegeben wird, sondern das wird in der mannigfaltigsten Weise durch ein Drittes, durch die ewige Individualität des Menschen bestimmt. Diese Individualität des Menschen braucht die vererbten Eigenschaften, muß sie sich aneignen und ausbilden. Das steht auch höher als das, was mit unserer Individualität ins Dasein tritt. Wir treten mit der Geburt ins Dasein: eine schaffende, produktive Geistigkeit eignet sich, wo wir noch nicht Begriffe bilden können, den plastischen Stoff aus der Vererbungslinie an. Später erst wird die Bewußtseinsseele hinzugefügt. So sehen wir auf ein Individuelles in der Menschennatur, das plastisch die Fähigkeiten und Talente gestaltet. Wenn wir Erzieher werden, ist es unsere Aufgabe, daß das, was wir so als ein geistiges Rätsel betrachten, bei jedem Menschen von neuem gelöst werden muß.
Das alles weist uns auf eine Stimmung hin. Als Goethe bei der Ausgrabung von Schillers Knochen dessen Schädel fand und sah, wie da die Formen ausgeprägt sind, wie die menschliche Individualität daran gearbeitet hat, als er sah: in diese Form mußte sich der flüssige Geist Schillers hineingestalten, damit er das werden konnte, was er geworden ist — konnte Goethe das mit den Gedanken ausdrücken:
Was kann der Mensch im Leben mehr gewinnen,
Als daß sich Gott-Natur ihm offenbare,
Wie sie das Feste läßt zu Geist verrinnen,
Wie sie das Geisterzeugte fest bewahre!
Einen solchen Ausspruch Goethes muß man aus der Situation heraus verstehen. Wer ihn nimmt, ohne darauf zu sehen, was sich als Geist-Erzeugtes in der festen Form ausprägt, versteht ihn falsch. Der aber auch versteht ihn nicht, der nicht weiß, wie tief Goethe Einsicht in das ewige Weben einer Individualität hatte, die von Geburt zu Geburt geht und sich immer wieder neu verkörpert und der eigentliche Architekt des Menschen ist. Wie wir vom Geiste die Organe erhalten haben, die wieder Organe des Geistes sind, das kann man im Grunde genommen durch einen kindlichen Vergleich in einfacher Weise sagen: Die Uhr zeigt uns die Zeit an, aber wir könnten sie nicht brauchen, wenn sie nicht erst der menschliche Geist geformt hätte. — Unser Gehirn brauchen wir zum Denken in der physischen Welt, aber wir könnten es nicht zum Denken brauchen, wenn es der Weltengeist nicht geformt hätte. Und wir würden es nicht mit einer solchen Individualität ausgebildet haben, wenn nicht unsere Individualität selbst sich ausgegossen hätte als ein Geist-Erzeugtes in unser so aus dem Menschengattungsmäßigen heraus gebildetes Gehirn. Da verstehen wir tiefer, was wir heute äußern konnten, und was Goethe meinte, indem er auf dasjenige im Menschen hinwies, was im Wesen des Menschen für alle seine Talente und Fähigkeiten bestimmend ist, wie wenn die Sterne selber aufgefaßt würden wie irgendeine Situation der Welt, und wie das, was sich auswirkt im Inneren des Menschen als ein Ewiges, nur darum durch die Pforte des Todes geht, um zu neuen Entwickelungsformen vorzuschreiten. Kurz, wir dürfen zusammenfassen, was wir heute betrachtet haben, in die Stimmung der Goetheschen Gedanken, die er äußert in den «Orphischen Urworten»:
Wie an dem Tag, der dich der Welt verliehen,
Die Sonne stand zum Gruße der Planeten,
Bist alsobald und fort und fort gediehen
Nach dem Gesetz, wonach du angetreten.
So mußt du sein, dir kannst du nicht entfliehen,
So sagten schon Sibyllen, so Propheten;
Und keine Zeit und keine Macht zerstückelt
Geprägte Form, die lebend sich entwickelt!
Human Nature, Talent, and Education
If we focus on what has been a kind of leitmotif running through the lectures in this winter cycle so far, if we look at that essential being living within human beings, which we observe not only once between birth and death, but which we assume to exist in repeated earthly lives, then the question of what underlies the development of a human being in his or her one life, in one earthly incarnation, will appear to us as a very essential one, especially in our present time. For the people of today certainly stand questioning and searching before the peculiar manifestation of human disposition, talent, and education. But since they are not very inclined to turn their gaze away from what appears to us as unfolding in one life and to direct that gaze toward the actual builder, the actual creator in human beings, the questions of contemporary human beings will easily take on a character of incompleteness and vagueness. For if one assumes that there is something in human nature that runs through many lives as the actual inner animating force, then one will be confronted with the completely mysterious, completely questionable nature of this human being. And one will want to consider the questions of aptitude, talent, and education in a new light, in a completely different light than they can be considered when one focuses solely on what the present so often emphasizes: heredity, the characteristics inherited from one's ancestors. It is not as if spiritual science wants to turn its gaze away from what is expressed in such inherited predispositions, as if it disregarded the careful observations of everything that the outer senses and the intellect directed toward them can say; but spiritual science knows that all this relates to the actual essence of the human being as something that is used by the latter, absorbed into itself, just as external matter in physical life is absorbed by the small germ of a living being, which determines its form from within itself, but which acquires from its surroundings that which is to enable it to live out this form in external life — the substantial, the material. Thus, in the way a human being lives, we will generally recognize a confluence of what comes into existence with his birth and that in which the essential and individual nature of the human being is embedded and from which it draws its spiritual and soul nourishment. When, for example, as educators, we are faced with the tasks of a human soul entering into existence, which from hour to hour, from week to week, increasingly develops its inner abilities, when we face a growing human being as a sacred mystery which we have to solve, which has come to us from infinity, so that we can give it the opportunities to unfold and develop, then a whole range of new tasks, new views, and new possibilities will arise for everything that constitutes human relationships in existence. So we see a human being entering existence at birth and assume that in a certain way they bring the core of their being into existence through their birth. External science also shows us, if we look at facts rather than slogans and theories, how this spiritual-soul core of the human being continues to work in the child even after birth, how what we perceive as physical organization changes and is plastically formed under the influence of the spiritual-soul. External science can also show us, for example, how what we initially see as the tool for external activities, how the brain is still an undefined, thoroughly plastic and malleable matter in humans when they come into existence through birth, and how then what he endeavors to absorb from the spiritual treasure of his environment penetrates and works on the plastic mass of our brain, shaping and forming it like an artist. If we assume — which is a fact and has been mentioned frequently in other contexts — that if a human being were to be transported helplessly to a desert island after birth, they would not be able to acquire the ability to speak, then we must say: The spiritual and emotional content that comes to us clothed in language from birth is not something that emerges from within the human being, something that is merely inherent in his constitution, something that the human being receives, so to speak, without the influences of his spiritual -spiritual environment, just as he receives his second teeth around the age of seven through his inner predisposition. Rather, language is something that works on the human being. It is truly like a sculptor who, as it were, shapes the brain. We can observe this shaping of the brain in the early stages, indeed over years, scientifically and externally. When it is then proven anatomically and physiologically that a person's ability to speak, their memory for certain linguistic concepts, is linked to this or that organ, that every word is stored, as it were, like a book in a library, we may ask on the other hand: what shaped the brain to do this in the first place? And we can answer: that which was present as spiritual and soul-related in the vocabulary of the human being's environment.
This shows us that, in relation to the whole development of the human soul, everything that a person experiences in their thoughts, ideas, and feelings — including their impulses of will and emotions, which remain, so to speak, purely inner experiences — from something else that remains so internal that it intervenes in the external physical organization, shapes it plastically, and only then makes it a tool for future spiritual abilities or future spiritual-soul life. We can see this most clearly when we follow a human ability throughout a person's life that shows very different sides, even though these different sides have been repeatedly conflated by external psychology: when we follow our memory.
When we acquire something through memory, when we memorize, we acquire it by means of repetition, which is one of the most important means. We have then made it our own and can give it away. Now everyone knows a troublesome thing: forgetting. For things are forgotten again, they disappear from our memory in such a way that we are no longer able to reproduce them at a later time. Or can you not remember how much you had to learn by heart and recite in your youth, and how much of it you can no longer recite by heart now? But does everything we have absorbed in our memory really disappear?
Let us now consider only what people later say: I have forgotten it — that is, what they can no longer recall so that they can reproduce it. Is it no longer there at all? It is there in a similar way to something we have already mentioned, something that is always forgotten in normal human life: how the wonderful, rich first experiences of childhood are forgotten. Up to a certain point in normal human life, we only remember things from the past. Before that point, however, we have had an infinite number of impressions. Who would not admit this if they really observed the development of a child in its first years of life with an open mind? But it is forgotten in the sense that we usually speak of forgetting. But is it not there at all? Does it no longer play any role in the human soul? Yes, it plays a significant role in the human soul. For how our first childhood impressions are, whether we experience joy or sadness, love or indifference, this or that external impression, depends infinitely more than people in later life are able to on the overall mood and the entire constitution of their soul than is usually assumed. What we forget in our early years, what shapes and forms our soul, is more important than is usually acknowledged. The same is true of what we learn later in life: we forget the words, the thoughts, but it remains within us as a certain mood of the soul. For example, if a person has learned ballads or other poems about great heroes with very specific tasks and characteristics at a certain age, they may forget the thoughts, events, and so on, so that they cannot reproduce them again; but what they have learned remains, perhaps in the structure of their own character as strength of soul, as a way of facing life and allowing pleasure and suffering to come to them. What we forget becomes moods, emotional values, even impulses of the will, that which more or less unconsciously rests in our soul life, but which creates and shapes us. Only sometimes do certain events in later life show that what has been forgotten is not entirely forgotten, that if the right steps are taken and something related is brought before the person's soul, then remembers something forgotten, so that one can prove that only something like a blanket has been thrown over it in the subconscious layers of his soul life, but that it is still present in him. Thus we see how what we forget, what disappears from our memory, shapes and forms our soul and then manifests itself in our moods of joy and sorrow, in our courage, in our bravery or cowardice, or even in our fear and anxiety about life. What we see sinking down from the treasure trove of our memory into the subconscious then becomes creative in our soul itself. Basically, it is we ourselves who have made ourselves what we have forgotten. For what is a human being in concrete terms other than the way he can rejoice, be brave, and so on! If we look at human beings not abstractly but very concretely, we must say: they are the harmonious interweaving and interplay of their characteristics, so that human beings themselves are conditioned by what flows down into the deeper layers of their consciousness. We see this during our lives. From everything that has been considered so far and what is yet to be mentioned, it can be seen that what sinks so deeply into the deeper layers of the spirit and soul sinks even deeper when the human being passes through the gate of death. For every time the human being wants to shape his outer physical organization in life through what he takes in, he already finds a certain organization in this life. It is constituted in one way or another, and the individual enters life with these or those predispositions. What is creative in our soul must strive against this. Let us assume that through what we take in, a quality of courage could be developed in us. But if we have an organization that is more suited to a coward than to a brave person, then we must more or less fight against something that we have in life from our organization. And when we go through the time between death and a new birth, the essence of this human development lies in the fact that we form the archetype, the archetypal form of our new physical body, our new physical earthly organization. There we have no such limitations and resistances as those that present themselves to our organization in life between birth and death. There we build, with what we have acquired in life, the foundation, the basic forces for a new physicality within broader limits than is the case between birth and death. Therefore, we may say: What works on our soul in the form of forgotten ideas during life between birth and death continues to work when we pass through the gate of death, until the time of reincarnation, on the formation of our next organization, working its way into what is connected with our new bodily organization; so that through birth we step into a new existence with such predispositions that go down into even deeper layers of our being than the forgotten ideas in life between birth and death.
From all this, it will be quite understandable that human beings, because they have drawn the causes for the organization of a new physicality from life, from their immediate surroundings, in fact need the same conditions again in a certain way. The situation is different for animals, which, as we have seen from the considerations on “Human Soul and Animal Soul” and “Human Spirit and Animal Spirit,” have determined their organization in the line of inheritance. Animals appear with very specific tendencies that want to form themselves plastically, because these tendencies are not taken from the animal's environment. Let us consider how little the animal acquires from the outside world through training and how little it therefore needs a setting in the outside world in order to bring out what it has taken in in terms of educational principles. Human beings, however, need such a setting. That is why they enter the world clumsily, in such a way that we have to put the finishing touches to the finer details of their organization. Hence the life and weaving of human individuality, their actual fundamental nature, in the first years of their existence! That is why his mental organ, the brain, comes into being in a plastically determinable, malleable form, and that is why, basically, it is only after birth that it is provided with the final decisive paths, lines, and directions in which the predispositions are to be lived out. From this we see how what is important in development must be regarded as something that comes over from earlier stages of existence, and that it is therefore less important to have specific, rigid educational principles than to regard each individual human being, each individuality, as a problem, as a sacred mystery to be solved, and that it is up to us to create the opportunities for this mystery to be solved in the best possible way. An education that cannot establish any firm principles at all, but must appeal to a principle related to the artistic in the educator in order to observe what emerges from the essence of the human being, is uncomfortable; it is more uncomfortable than saying, according to the rules, that these or those abilities are to be expressed in this or that way. But we can only approach the growing human being with the right attitude if we regard him in each individual case as an individuality, as something special in himself. If, however, one wants to take things as completely trivial — some people have a talent for taking everything as trivial — one can say that individuality is not only evident in human beings, but also in every animal. Certainly it does. But no one who speaks from the foundations of spiritual science will deny that. I have often said: when one speaks of individuality in this sense, one must go into it in more detail, one must be aware that if one wants to take things trivially, one can also speak of the biography and individuality of the quill pen. I knew a man who — because in his day quill pens were still cut from goose quills — was already able to distinguish between quill pens, because since everyone cut their own quill, it always had a personal relationship with them, and since the person in question had an excellent imagination, he could very well have written a biography of each individual quill pen with all the details. In the case of humans, however, it is not a matter of applying the yardstick of triviality, but rather the yardstick that is drawn from the depths of knowledge.
Now we can — since it is precisely through such observations that the way in which the human being, forming and shaping his actual essence, plastically forms his exteriority, his external organization, and lives out his actual essence in it — we can see again in this living out how it happens in the first years and is transformed, reshaped, and used by the human being as he develops, taking in what he can from his environment. We find it particularly important in the first years of a person's life that we preserve, so to speak, their ability to intervene plastically and malleably in their physical or physical-soul organization, and that we do not block their ability to intervene plastically. We block this possibility most when we fill a person too early with concepts and ideas that relate only to external sensuality and have the strictest contours, or when we pin them down to an activity that is theoretically constricted to very specific forms. There is no variability, no modification, and no opportunity to develop mental and emotional abilities as the soul matures from day to day, from hour to hour. Let us assume that a father is a terribly stubborn person who has made it his principle: My boy must become like I was! I have made shoes for my customers this way my whole life, and so my boy must make his shoes this way too! My boy must think the way I think! — This introduces a mental and spiritual structure into the boy's environment that works on his mental and spiritual organization in the same way that it worked on his father, and the boy is thus forced into very specific forms, whereas the aim should be to explore the individuality that is coming into being in order to shape the mental and spiritual organization based on the knowledge gained from this.
Humanity's instinct for education has already created a wonderful means through general consciousness, whereby human beings in their early years are given the opportunity to work on the changeable, modifiable, and flexible aspects of the spiritual and soul life, so that there is free scope for the development of the human being. That is play. This is also the best way to engage a child, not by giving them concepts that are tied up in fixed contours, but ones that leave room for thought, so that it can wander here and there. Only then can one find the course of thought that is predetermined by inner disposition. If I tell a fairy tale in such a way that it stimulates the child's mental activity, so that concepts do not form within certain contours, but rather that the contours of the concepts remain flexible, then the child works in the same way as someone who tries things out and seeks to find the right answer through trial and error. The child works to find out how its mind must move in order to develop its organization in the best way, as it is preformed internally. And so it is with play. Play differs from activities that are fixed in form in that, to a certain extent, one can do what one wants when one plays, in that one does not have sharp contours in one's thoughts and movements of the organs from the outset. This in turn has a free, determinable effect on the mental and spiritual organization of the human being. Play and the mental and spiritual activity just described for children in their early years spring from a deep awareness of what the nature and essence of the human being actually is. Anyone who wants to become a true educator will also be aware in later years that every single ability must first be studied, recognized, and determined in the developing human being. But it is still possible to observe certain general principles. Such principles then lead us to the way in which the core of the human being, which passes from birth to birth, uses, so to speak, the external aspects that lie in the line of heredity.
It is therefore of the utmost interest to turn our attention to the way in which the spiritual-soul core of the human being uses the characteristics, qualities, virtues, and so on, of the father and mother, of the paternal and maternal ancestors, in very different ways to build something new. And indeed, the paternal and maternal characteristics are not used in the same way by the individual core of a person's being, but there is a very specific law underlying this. It is precisely this law that is infinitely instructive. If we try to grasp it in its entirety in order to understand it, we must look at how two things come into play in the human soul. One is intellectuality, to which we now also want to add the ability to think in images and ideas more quickly or more slowly, more intelligently or more stupidly. The other is the general direction of the will and feelings, the emotions, the interest we take in our surroundings. The whole way in which we are able to achieve something depends on whether we have a flexible or a slow, a dull or a penetrating mind, whether we are astute or not. What human beings can achieve for their fellow human beings and how we achieve it depends on whether we know how to combine our interests in the right way with what is going on in our environment. Some people have good prerequisites, but they have little interest in their fellow human beings and the environment. The fact is that interest does not elicit abilities. Therefore, it is necessary that we pay attention to our interest as well as to whether the agility of our intellect allows us to achieve this or that for our fellow human beings.
For the whole nature of interest, with which we can also connect the way in which human desires are formed, the external handling of our whole life, how humans develop skillfully or unskillfully, in short, the whole nature of our spiritual life, which is connected with our interaction with the outside world, with our greater or lesser interest and with our skillfulness for the outside world — for this, humans derive the most important elements from their inheritance from their father, so that the interests and what makes us skilled and capable of using our organs, our whole being, are usually inherited from the father. The soul thus takes the corresponding elements from the father so that it can develop those qualities within itself. On the other hand, intellectual agility, which is also connected with imagination, pictorial representation, and inventiveness, is inherited from the mother's qualities by our individuality, which comes into being at birth. You will find this extremely interesting chapter hinted at in a certain way in Schopenhauer; he had an inkling of it, but was not in a position to point out the deeper things involved.
On the other hand, however, we can say something else. What lives in the father as the way he relates to things, what interests and desires he has in relation to things, how he demands, wishes, wants, whether he is a person who bravely intervenes in life's circumstances or who timidly retreats, whether he is pedantic or magnanimous, in other words, the qualities associated with the impulses of the will, we find in a certain way borrowed from the father. On the other hand, everything that is agility of the soul, intellectuality, we find passed on from the mother. — Now, however, an interesting difference becomes apparent, which can only be observed when one considers the whole scope of life. Then you will also find evidence of this everywhere. Namely, with regard to gender, a tremendous difference becomes apparent. It can be said that, for a son, the relationship to his father and mother is described wonderfully in Goethe's words: “From my father I have my stature, the serious conduct of life,” that is, everything that relates to human interaction with the outside world — “from my mother, a cheerful nature, the desire to tell stories,” that is, the whole manner of spiritual life. But if we now look at the daughter, we see in a very remarkable way that the paternal characteristics appear in the daughter in such a way that they are now raised one level from the nature of the impulses of the will, from the nature that is more evident in interaction with the environment — into the soul. Therefore, one can say of a father — this applies, of course, only under the same circumstances — who is brave in everything he does, who has a lively interest in this or that and thus lives out a certain seriousness in his interactions with his surroundings, can see these characteristics taken over by the daughter's individuality in such a way that they are elevated to the soul, that there is a daughter with a serious soul life, with a character life of the father translated into the soul, which makes more flexible what is perhaps sluggish in the father, so that the most important characteristics, which we encounter more externally in the father, are more internalized in the daughter.
Therefore, we can say: the character traits of the father live on in the soul of the daughter, while the soul traits of the mother, the liveliness of the spirit as well as talents and abilities that can be developed, live on in the son. Goethe's mother, the old Mrs. Rat, was a woman who could tell stories, whose imagination worked in the most wonderful way. This was reduced by one level in her son, becoming disposition and organization, so that Goethe had the ability to give to humanity what lived in his mother. So we see how the maternal qualities are lowered by one level in the sons, so that they become organic abilities, while the paternal qualities are raised by one level in the daughters, so that they confront us in an internalized, soulful way. Perhaps nothing is more characteristic of this than the beautiful contrast between Goethe and his sister Cornelia, who was now quite like the old councilor, who was internalized, soulful, a quiet, serious nature, and therefore could be what the poet needed even in his boyhood: an extraordinarily good companion. Consider this now and consider how, according to his description, Goethe was unable to gain a favorable relationship with his father. This was because the paternal qualities were externalized in the old councilor. What Goethe needed were these very qualities, but he could not understand them as they existed in his father. They were right there. They had become part of his sister's soul, which is why she could be such a good companion to him.
Now go through history with me, and you will see how every step confirms what has been said, and how, wherever there are indications, historical confirmation of such a thing can be given. The most beautiful confirmation in this regard comes from the mother of the Maccabees, who, with heroic greatness, sends her sons to their deaths for what she believes and what her fathers believed, with the great, beautiful words: “I have given you your physical bodies, but the One who created the world and mankind has given you what I could not give you, and He will see to it that you receive it back if you lose it for the sake of your faith!” How often in history are we confronted with the maternal element: from Alexander's mother and the Gracchus mother to our own time, when we see how qualities appear in people that enable them to influence their environment, that they have the strength and talent and also the physical and mental constitution to do so. We could open the history of important men anywhere we wanted: everywhere we would find maternal qualities translated in such a way that they have descended one step further, that they have become abilities that are placed in life. Let us take the example of Bürger's mother and his father, from whom he also inherited his willpower. He had little in common with his father; his father was happy when he did not have to worry about the little boy's development; but his mother had a wonderfully agile mind, and it was she who possessed the correct expression in terms of grammar and style. This was necessary for the poet; he inherited these qualities from his mother, and they arose precisely because he belonged to the next generation. Or let us think of Hebbel and his relationship with his father. Anyone who knows the poet Hebbel more closely will already sense an echo of his father's legacy in all his harsh idiosyncrasies and stubborn interests. The old master mason Hebbel passed on much to his son in this regard. But the son and mother understood each other, and it was the mother who protected her son from becoming a master mason in his hometown instead of later giving his dramas to humanity. It is touching to read how Hebbel himself recounts in his wonderful diaries what connected him to his mother.
These examples could be multiplied ad infinitum. However, we must not conclude that things are wrong simply because we believe we observe in life that here or there something different occurs. That would be like someone saying: Physicists prove the law of gravity to us; I will now prove to you, by installing all kinds of devices, that the law can be impaired! But laws are not there so that we can take every circumstance into account, but so that we can keep in mind what is relevant. This is how we must proceed in the natural sciences, and this is how we must proceed in the spiritual sciences. Only, spiritual science is not yet far enough advanced to proceed in the same way. If we take this into account, we will find that the aforementioned law of paternal and maternal heredity is confirmed everywhere. But when we look at the whole human being, we must realize that what we call the human soul, which lives out its life in the entire physical and spiritual organization of the human being, is not a simple thing. One can, of course, unreservedly indulge in triviality and say: Why do you anthroposophists have this peculiar habit of distinguishing three soul members in the soul and even many members in human nature? You talk about a sentient soul, a rational soul, and a conscious soul. It would be much simpler to speak of the soul as a unified entity in which thinking, feeling, and willing take place. It is certainly simpler, more convenient — and also trivial. But at the same time, it is something that cannot truly promote the scientific study of human beings. For it is not out of a desire to classify and use many words that the human soul is divided into the sentient soul, that is, the part that first comes into contact with the environment and receives perceptions and sensations from outside, in which desires and instincts also develop, and which must then be separated from the part in which what has been gained is already processed in a certain sense. We activate our feeling soul by facing the outside world, receiving impressions of colors and sounds from it, but also allowing what we as normal human beings do not initially have control over to emerge: our drives, desires, and passions. But when we withdraw and process within ourselves what we have taken in through our perceptions and so on, so that what has been stimulated in us by the outside world is transformed into feelings, then we live in the second part of the soul, the intellectual or emotional soul. And insofar as we direct and guide our thoughts and are not led by the hand, we live in the consciousness soul.
In “Secret Science” or in “Theosophy,” you will see that the three soul members have many more relationships — of a different kind — to what is in the outside world, not because we enjoy classification, but because what we call the sentient soul is related to the cosmos in a completely different way than what we call the conscious soul.
It is the consciousness soul that isolates human beings, that makes them feel like inwardly closed beings. What we call the intellectual soul brings them into relation with their surroundings and with the whole cosmos, making them beings that appear like an extract, like a confluence of the whole world. Through the consciousness soul, human beings live within themselves, isolating themselves. The most important thing experienced in the consciousness soul is that which is developed latest among human abilities: the capacity for logical thinking, for having opinions, thoughts, and so on. This resides in the consciousness soul. In relation to these qualities, the individual core of the human being, which comes into existence through birth, is in fact most prone to isolation. This innermost core develops last in humans. While its outer shell, its physical organization, develops earliest, its actual individuality develops last. But as human beings are at present — they were different in the past and will be different in the future — they do indeed develop their opinions, concepts, and ideas in the most isolated part of their being. These therefore have the least influence on the entire structure and formation of their overall personality and only emerge as predispositions when the overall personality has been firmly established and plastically formed.
Here we see how human talent develops in a certain sequence. We first see what lives in the least isolated, separate element of the human being, in the feeling or instinctual soul. But this also has the greatest power to intervene in the entire human organization. Therefore, we can see how we can least approach the child with opinions, theories, and ideas when this feeling soul wants to shape itself most intensely from within. We can only approach the child if we let the feeling soul take effect — as described in my book “The Education of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science” — whereby it is particularly important in the first years of life to ensure that theories and doctrines are not developed, but that the child is encouraged to imitate, that we exemplify what it should emulate. This is of infinite importance because this urge to imitate is one of the very first dispositions that can be influenced. Admonitions and teachings have the least effect during this period. Children imitate what they see because they develop in accordance with their relationship to the outside world. We lay the first foundation for the child's entire personality when we show them what they can emulate during the first seven years, when we guess how we should behave in the child's environment. This is, of course, a highly unusual educational principle for many people. Most people will ask how the child should behave, and now spiritual science comes in with its demands: people should learn from the child how to behave in the child's environment — down to the words, attitudes, and thoughts! For the child is much more receptive in its soul than is commonly believed, especially more receptive than the adult human being. There are people with a certain sensitivity who immediately notice when, for example, someone enters the room who spoils the good mood. This is also the case with children to an enormous extent, even though little attention is paid to it today. And it matters much less what one does in detail than what kind of person one strives to be, what thoughts and ideas one cherishes. It is not enough to hide it from children and allow oneself thoughts that should not be for the child; rather, our thoughts must be lived out in such a way that we feel: this may live on in the child and should live on. — That is uncomfortable, but it is right! Then, when the change of teeth has taken place, what we might call building on what the person has within them as a personality — not what they do — and building on authority comes into consideration. The most important thing is that in the first years of life, the child can live out what we say, do, and think, and that in the second epoch, the child feels that there is a person within us on whom they can rely, so that they can say: What this person does is good! — Not that from the age of seven to fourteen or sixteen we admonish the child out of a principle of developing a moral theory, showing them: this must be done, this must be refrained from — but we give the child the greatest treasure when they can have the feeling for the intellectual or emotional soul: What the person next to me does is good; I must refrain from what they do! — That is of infinite importance.
Only with the onset of the fourteenth or sixteenth year does the possibility arise for the human being to build on the most isolated part of his being, on the consciousness soul, that is, on what is formed in the consciousness soul: on his opinions, concepts, and ideas. But these must first have a firm foundation, and that foundation must be created. If we do not create it by providing opportunities through education, as individuality allows us to recognize, if we do not thereby create a free path for development, then the human being is seized by another element: the solidity of his physical nature. Then he becomes externalized; then his individuality, which passes from life to life, does not intervene, but he becomes a slave to his physical organization, which subjugates the human being from outside. This is shown by the fact that the human being is not master of his spiritual-soul part, but is completely dependent on his physical-soul organization, displaying rigid characteristics that are unchangeable. A person, on the other hand, in whom we have taken care to bring out his or her talents as much as possible, retains a certain flexibility throughout his or her life and can still find his or her way in new situations later in life. In the other person, on the other hand, the organization externalizes itself, takes on rigid forms, and the person retains them throughout his or her life. We live in an age where human individuality is little valued and where there is therefore little opportunity to convince ourselves that individuality remains flexible and agile in later life and can adapt to new situations and truths. This brings us to a chapter in which we can see how some people simply have to face up to life.
How many people, once they have gained insight into a worldview, strive to convince others of it? They believe it is a very noble endeavor when they say: Since I see it so clearly, I should be able to convince everyone else of this conviction! But that is naive. Our opinions do not depend at all on whether something is proven to us logically. That is possible in very few cases. For human opinions and convictions are formed from completely different foundations of the soul — from the nature of the will, the nature of the mind and feelings, so that a person can understand your logical arguments very well, can comprehend your astute conclusions, and yet not accept them afterwards for the simple reason that what a person believes and professes does not flow from their logic and understanding, but comes from their entire personality, that is, from those parts where will and mind arise. But our thoughts are the part of us that emerges last of all our faculties, when the physical organization has long since been completed. This is the most isolated field. This is where we find the least access to other people. We can achieve more if we grasp them in the parts that lie deeper: in the mind, in the will. There, we can still intervene in the organization. But if a person has grown up in a very materialistic sphere, say, where only matter, substance, is considered valid, then during their growing up a sum of mind and will impulses is formed which shapes their physicality and also their brain plastically. Later, they can then acquire quite good logical thinking, but this no longer intervenes in the plasticity of their brain. Logical thoughts are the most powerful thing in the human soul. Therefore, it is particularly important that we find access to other people in the soul, not just in logic. If someone has already trained their brain in a certain way, then this brain, which only reflects the old ideas over and over again because it has become physical, no longer reshapes logic. Therefore, for worldviews that are based on the purest, sharpest logic, such as spiritual science, one cannot hope to have an effect by going from one person to another to convince them. If someone who understands the spiritual scientific impulse wanted to believe that they could convince people through persuasion or logic, if someone wanted to believe that spiritual scientists indulge in this illusion, they would be very much mistaken! For in our age there are a large number of people who, by virtue of their overall personality, their nature of will and disposition, do not see what the spiritual world and spiritual research are. From the great mass of those who live around us, those who have an affinity for spiritual science will choose to go to what they dimly sense, what they already have in their souls. A selection, a choice, can only take place in relation to a worldview that is based on what pure logic and human consciousness can encompass. Therefore, the spiritual scientist approaches people and knows how to distinguish: there is one to whom you can preach for years, but he will not be able to respond to your thoughts. You must first make him aware of this; you can speak to his soul, but he himself cannot reflect on it from his entire soul apparatus, from his brain. The other is built in such a way that he has the ability to respond to what spiritual science shows in its logically developed way, and therefore he also finds his way into what is basically already alive in his soul. This is the way we must approach the great cultural tasks of the present or the future. Only when we recognize how the whole personality of the human being relates to what the human being can gradually absorb in the course of his development and education from new truths, from things that must now really unite with his personality — when we have once again understood how, in essence, the soul-spiritual aspect of the sculptor, the sculptor, the artist, is to what is physical and soul-related, then we will also attach greater importance to developing the spiritual-soul aspect in human beings in such a way that they — especially in the years when they are receptive to education — gain a powerful grasp of how they can influence the physical-soul aspect. We must be clear that much sin can be committed in this regard. We can see from our descriptions how human preferences and so on contribute much more to the formation of views than pure logic. Pure logic alone could only be allowed to speak when desires and instincts are completely silent. Before that, we must be clear that if we believe we have developed a person's aptitudes in a one-sided way in a particular area, then what we have neglected will come to light in a remarkable way.
Let us assume that we educate a person in such a way that we only express their abstract aptitudes, as is often done in school. Then pure concepts and abstract ideas cannot influence their entire emotional and mental life. This remains undeveloped, uneducated, and later manifests itself in all kinds of trivial lifestyles. Two natures often become apparent later in life. Even in people of high standing, if they have not been able to develop what lies deep within their personality, their deeper preferences, inclinations, and sympathies assert themselves in other ways. What examinee has not experienced, when faced with an examiner who is as intelligent as he is capable of overseeing many aspects of his science, how this one-sidedness is expressed in his preference for hearing the answers he wants to hear! And woe betide the examinee if he does not know how to put what he has to say into the words the examiner wants to hear!
In a book on psychology by Moriz Benedikt, many true things are said about the mistakes of human education in this regard. One such truth is that once, two examinees were examined by two examiners, and it turned out that one of the examinees gave the answers to examiner A as if examiner B had asked the questions. Had he been allowed to give the answers to this examiner, he would have passed the exam with flying colors. And the other candidate was in the opposite situation. Therefore, both failed!
This can show us how well it is possible to clothe what is indisputable in logical forms. But as soon as we are unable to immerse our concepts in the education of thought during upbringing, no suitable field can be found from which to educate people. How, then, should we behave toward people? We must behave in such a way that, at a time when human beings are still primarily being formed plastically and when abstract concepts and ideas are least effective, we present them with as few abstract concepts and ideas as possible, but rather with ideas that are as pictorial as possible. That is why I have emphasized that the pictorial, the vivid, which is as close as possible to what has form, shape, and outline, should be included in the concepts. For what is taken in as an image, a form, or a figure of the imagination has a great power to intervene in our physical organization. You can already see from the fact that it is of little help to tell a patient in a certain situation what they should and should not do that the pictorial, the form that confronts us in the design, intervenes in the physical organization. That helps very little. But if you set up a device similar to an electrifying machine so that the sick person can form this image, give them two handles, do not let any current pass through, — if they only have the image in front of them, then they feel the current, and then it helps! But wherever it is so beautifully proclaimed that the power of imagination plays a major role, we must be clear that this does not refer to every kind of imagination, but only to the visual imagination.
We live in an age in which it has gradually become customary to pay very little attention to the principle of spiritual science: that it is only between the ages of fourteen, sixteen, and twenty-one, twenty-two that human beings become capable of develop concepts and ideas, that one absorbs concepts that are only to be developed later — is very little honored; instead, today, people become mature before reaching this age, able to write newspaper articles that are printed and then accepted by the public. It is then difficult to keep abstract concepts at bay until the age characterized above and to present people with images and vivid examples. For images have the power to intervene in the physical and mental organization.
What I am saying now can always be confirmed, but people do not always pay attention to it. Moriz Benedikt, for example, complains that many high school students are often so clumsy in later life. Where does this come from? Because the whole education system is so unimaginative, pays so little attention to the vivid and sticks only to abstract concepts, even when teaching languages. In contrast, we can feel pictorial images that approach us, because the objects themselves confront us in images, right down to our hands. One could say: if you want to imagine an object, you must move in such a way that you feel, with your hand in a circle or ellipse, the merging with the object in images. Not merely imitation in manual dexterity, but feeling and learning to love things shows us how pictorial, vivid imagination tugs at our limbs, making them flexible and mobile. Today, we can find many people who, when a button comes off, cannot sew on a new one. That is a great disadvantage. The important thing is that we can intervene in the outside world with everything we have. Of course, we cannot learn everything. But we can learn how the spiritual-soul descends from the spiritual into the physical-soul and makes our limbs flexible. And no one whom we have taught in their youth to feel what is outside themselves will be a clumsy person later in life. For what lies below the threshold of our consciousness can work most essentially on our organization. This also applies to language. The best time to learn a language is when one is not yet able to understand it grammatically, because then one learns with the part of the soul that belongs to the deeper layers.
This is how humanity has developed — this is how the individual must develop. I have already pointed out elsewhere how Laurenz Müllner, in a rector's speech, drew attention to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, how magnificent it stands, how the laws of space are mysteriously woven into the mechanics of the dome construction, so that one sees the mechanics of space expressed in the most wonderful way. But he also pointed out that the laws Michelangelo expressed in it were then discovered by Galileo through his soaring spirit, and that this gave us the science of mechanics. I also pointed out that the anniversary of Michelangelo's death almost coincides with Galileo's birthday, so that the abstract laws of mechanics — which live in the consciousness soul of human beings — appeared later than what Michelangelo built into space from the deeper soul members. Just as the higher soul members develop on the basis of the lower ones, just as we have to develop our limbs on the basis of our predispositions in order to then look back on them and gain an understanding of them, so it is in individual life. In individual life, too, human beings must be surrounded by human society, must place themselves in what immerses them as if in an atmosphere, in the spiritual-soul life of our environment. Then what the human being brings into existence is shaped and formed. But the human being does not only bring in what is given to him from his hereditary line, but this is determined in the most manifold ways by a third factor, by the eternal individuality of the human being. This individuality of the human being needs the inherited characteristics, must acquire and develop them. This is also higher than what enters into existence with our individuality. We enter into existence at birth: a creative, productive spirituality appropriates the plastic material from our hereditary line at a time when we are not yet able to form concepts. Only later is the consciousness soul added. Thus, we see something individual in human nature that plastically shapes abilities and talents. When we become educators, it is our task to ensure that what we regard as a spiritual mystery must be solved anew in every human being.
All this points to a mood. When Goethe found Schiller's skull during the excavation of his bones and saw how the forms were pronounced, how human individuality had worked on it, when he saw that Schiller's fluid spirit had to shape itself into this form in order to become what it had become — Goethe was able to express this with the thoughts:
What more can man gain in life
Than that God-Nature reveals itself to him,
How it allows the solid to flow into spirit,
How it preserves what is spiritually created!
Such a statement by Goethe must be understood in context. Anyone who takes it without seeing what is expressed in solid form as spirit-generated will misunderstand it. But those who do not know how deeply Goethe understood the eternal weaving of an individuality that goes from birth to birth and is constantly reincarnated, and which is the true architect of the human being, will also misunderstand it. How we have received the organs from the spirit, which are again organs of the spirit, can basically be explained in a simple way by using a childlike comparison: The clock shows us the time, but we could not use it if the human spirit had not first formed it. We need our brain to think in the physical world, but we could not use it for thinking if the world spirit had not formed it. And we would not have developed it with such individuality if our individuality itself had not poured itself out as a spirit-generated entity into our brain, which was formed from the human species. This gives us a deeper understanding of what we were able to express today and what Goethe meant when he pointed to that in human beings which determines all their talents and abilities, as if the stars themselves were understood as some situation in the world, and as if that which has an effect within human beings as something eternal only passes through the gate of death in order to advance to new forms of development. In short, we may summarize what we have considered today in the spirit of Goethe's thoughts, which he expresses in the “Orphic Primordial Words”:
As on the day that brought you into the world,
The sun stood in greeting to the planets,
You immediately and continuously flourished
According to the law by which you began.
You must be this way, you cannot escape it,
So said the Sibyls, so said the prophets;
And no time and no power can destroy
The form that has been shaped and develops itself!