II. Introductory Explanations Concerning the Nature of Man

When you watch a tear falling, this tear is but the physical expression of sorrow, which is an inner process, Now look upon the mineral world: these minerals are dumb! You cannot perceive in them any joy or sorrow, nor any other inner life. The stone has no feelings and no consciousness, such as we have. To a spiritual scientist this stone appears like the nails upon our fingers, or like the teeth. Observe one of your finger nails: it has no feeling, no consciousness, nevertheless the nail forms part of your being. There must be something within us which brings about the formation of nails and teeth, and in the same way there must be something in the world outside which produces minerals. The nails themselves have no consciousness, but they form part of something which is endowed with consciousness. If a small beetle creeps over one of our nails, this nail perhaps appears to it as a mineral. This is the case when we creep over the earth, without being aware that behind this mineral earth there is consciousness, even as there is, consciousness behind our nails. Later on we shall see what kind of consciousness lies at the foundation of the mineral world. This Ego-consciousness of the mineral world lies high above us, even as, for instance, the consciousness, of the small beetle creeping over our nail is surpassed by our own consciousness behind the nails.