{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 105/1908-08-06/p028","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Let us now try to understand the practical result of these things. Imagine a man of a far distant future who perceives in every plant what I have just told you of its longing to absorb the soul of the sun. This man will have, at a higher spiritual stage, something that the animal has at a lower stage—when grazing in a meadow it chooses the plants that are of use to it and leaves others alone—an unconscious instinct, but really it is higher spirits who guide the animal. The man of the future will approach plants that are of use to him consciously; not as now when he reflects on which yield the best substances for his body; he will then have a vital relationship to every plant, for he will know what it is they have absorbed, and what passes from them to him. Eating will not be to him a mean occupation, but an act consummated with soul and spirit, for he will know that everything he eats is the external form of something spiritual. In our immediate age, when men know little about the vital inward relations between themselves and the world, all kinds of substitutes are made use of. Why have the Initiates of all ages urged people to say grace before eating? The grace should be a token of the recognition that, together with the food, something spiritual enters into man.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture III","site_heading":"The Hierarchical Structure of Earth's Four Kingdoms","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1908-08-06","location":null,"word_count":237,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/105/1908-08-06/p028","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:embedding","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"H. Collison","identified_edition":"HC1931","book_title":"Universe, Earth and Man","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA105/English/HC1931/19080806p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/105/1908-08-06/p028","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1908-08-06","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 105/1908-08-06/p016","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/105/1908-08-06/p016"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":319,"en_words":481,"ratio":1.51,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 105/1908-08-06/p016","passage_number":16,"text":"Und nun werden Sie begreifen, wie diese Dinge praktisch werden können. Denken Sie sich einen Menschen der fernen Zukunft, der das, was eben gesagt worden ist von den sehnsüchtigen Wünschen der Pflanzen, die Sonnenseele einzusaugen, einer jeden Pflanze gegenüber empfindet. Dieser Mensch wird auf einer höheren, spirituellen Stufe etwas haben, was das Tier auf einer niedrigen Stufe hat, wenn es über eine Weide geht und die Pflanzen, die ihm gerade taugen, abpflückt und die anderen stehen läßt. Ein unbewußter Instinkt, das heißt in Wirklichkeit höhere Geister, lenken das Tier. In bewußter Weise wird der Mensch der Zukunft sich den Pflanzen nähern, die ihm taugen; nicht wie heute, wo er nachdenkt, was die beste Substanz für seinen Leib gibt, sondern einen lebendigen Bezug wird er haben zu jeder einzelnen Pflanze, denn er wird wissen, daß, was die Pflanzen eingesogen haben, auch als solches in ihn übergeht. Das Essen wird nicht eine niedrige Beschäftigung für ihn sein, sondern etwas, was mit Seele und Geist vollbracht wird, weil er wissen wird, daß alles, was er verzehrt, die äußere Gestalt für ein Seelisches ist. Für unsere Zeit, für unser Zwischenzeitalter, wo die Menschen nicht so viel wissen können von den lebendigen seelischen Beziehungen zwischen sich und der Welt, mußten allerlei Surrogate geschaffen werden. Warum haben zu allen Zeiten die Eingeweihten den Menschen dazu angehalten, zu beten vor dem Essen? Das Gebet sollte nichts anderes sein als eine Dokumentierung dafür, daß beim Essen ein Geistiges in den Menschen einfließt. So sehen wir die Empfindungs- und Gefühlswelt eine andere werden, wenn der Mensch wirkliche Weisheit in sich aufnimmt. Mit einer Sicherheit, wie auf niederer Stufe der Instinkt des Tieres, wird der Mensch in strahlender, heller Klarheit wissen, was er tut; er wird es wissen, weil er die Seele dessen erkennen wird, was er mit sich vereint. Selbst bis in dies Gebiet hinunter können wir verfolgen, welch einen praktischen Wert die Geisteswissenschaft für die Zukunft hat.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":319,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/105/1908-08-06/p016"}],"english":["GA 105/1908-08-06/p027","GA 105/1908-08-06/p028","GA 105/1908-08-06/p029"],"method":"embedding","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":319,"en_words":481,"ratio":1.51,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.99,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5028,"original_word_count":5094,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"H. Collison","identified_edition":"HC1931","book_title":"Universe, Earth and Man","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA105/English/HC1931/19080806p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 105/1908-08-06/p016"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}