Second Lecture

And now let us see whether these ideas, which are now being given fully consciously in such clear outlines in elementary spiritual science, whether such ideas - if we look for an intuitive understanding - were always completely foreign to the human race before spiritual science arose. When Fichte delivered a series of lectures in which he sought to transform the way his people were brought up - a transformation such as Pestalozzi had called forth, only more universally - Fichte said that there were certainly many people who could not go along with the idea that one could, as it were, reshape and revive the human race through such thoughts. Such people cling to the old that they can imagine, Fichte said. And now he sought a comparison to express very clearly what they have learned and to which they cling. Fichte sought a comparison, and this comparison is very strange. I will read it to you.