{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 143/1912-05-08/p007","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Now the question might arise—and it often does—why did those lofty Individualities choose Madame Blavatsky as their instrument? They did so because in spite of everything she was the most suitable. Why did the choice not fall upon one of the learned specialists dealing with the science of Comparative Religion? We need think only of the greatest, most highly respected authority on oriental religions, the renowned Max Müller, and his own pronouncements will tell us why he could not have proclaimed what had to be communicated through the human instrument of Madame Blavatsky. When the religious systems of the East and the expositions of them through Madame Blavatsky became known, Müller said: ‘If, somewhere in the street, a pig is seen and is grunting, that is not considered very remarkable, but if a human being walks along the street grunting like a pig, that is considered remarkable indeed.’—The implication is that one who is not prepared to distort the religious systems of the East in the style of Max Müller is like a man who grunts like a pig. In any case the comparison does not seem to me very logical, for why should one be astonished when a pig grunts; but if a human being grunts, that would be a feat of which by no means everyone is capable. The comparison is rather lame, but that it could be made at all shows clearly enough that Max Müller was not the right personality.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Ancient Wisdom and the Heralding of the Christ Impulse","site_heading":null,"date":"1912-05-08","location":null,"word_count":244,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/143/1912-05-08/p007","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Dorothy S. Osmond","identified_edition":"Singles","book_title":"Ancient Wisdom and the Heralding of the Christ Impulse","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA143/English/Singles/19120508p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/143/1912-05-08/p007"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/143/1912-05-08/p007","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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 143/1912-05-08/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Man könnte nun die Frage aufwerfen, und sie wird oft aufgeworfen: Warum haben denn jene hohen Individualitäten gerade Frau Blavatsky als Werkzeug ausgesucht? Weil es trotzdem das geeignetste war. Warum ist denn nicht einer der gelehrten Herren, die vergleichende Religionswissenschaft trieben, zu diesem Instrumente ausersehen worden? Wir brauchen nur den größten, verehrungswürdigsten Kenner der orientalischen Religionssysteme, den großen Max Müller, ins Auge zu fassen, und wir werden an seinen eigenen Aussprüchen sehen, warum er nicht hat verkünden können dasjenige, was durch das menschliche Instrument von Frau Blavatsky mitgeteilt werden mußte. Er hatte ein sonderbares Urteil über dasjenige, was H. P. Blavatsky über die orientalische Religionsweisheit gab; er sagte: Wenn irgendwo auf der Straße gesehen wird ein Schwein, das grunzt, dann findet man das gar nicht merkwürdig, wenn aber ein Mensch auf der Straße geht und grunzt wie ein Schwein, dann findet man das sehr merkwürdig. Es sollte also gesagt werden: wer das, was orientalisches Religionssystem ist, nicht im Sinne von Max Müller verballhornt, der sei wie ein Mensch, der grunzt wie ein Schwein. Auch sonst scheint mir nicht viel Logik in dem Vergleich zu stecken, denn, was hätte man wohl für einen Grund, besonders erstaunt zu sein, wenn ein Schwein grunzt; dagegen wenn ein Mensch grunzt, dann ist das doch schon eine Kunst, das kann nicht ein jeder. Dieser Vergleich ist also etwas hinkend, aber daß er überhaupt gemacht werden konnte, das zeigt, daß die Persönlichkeit von Max Müller nicht die richtige war.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":243,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/143/1912-05-08/p007"}],"english":["GA 143/1912-05-08/p007"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":243,"en_words":244,"ratio":1.0,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.06,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7582,"original_word_count":7177,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Dorothy S. Osmond","identified_edition":"Singles","book_title":"Ancient Wisdom and the Heralding of the Christ Impulse","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA143/English/Singles/19120508p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 143/1912-05-08/p007"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}}