{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 175/1917-03-27/p013","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"In my last lecture I drew your attention to an important book *Des Erreurs et de la Vérité* by Saint-Martin.[^3] This book is undoubtedly a late product of its kind since it is inspired by ancient traditions which are now outmoded. None the less it still speaks from out of these traditional insights. I have recently quoted to you several extracts from this book which modern man is at a loss to understand. But if we accept the point of view of Saint-Martin we shall find that his book presents certain ideas which seem absurd to modern man, unless we are prepared to regard them as pure fantasy—and today almost everything of this nature is regarded as fantasy. Saint-Martin suggests that the human race has fallen from spiritual heights to the world of terrestrial existence. Today, many who are not confirmed materialists are still willing to tolerate theoretically the idea that the present human race can be traced back to a far-distant time when, with a certain part of its being, it stood at a far higher level than at the present time. Despite the materialistic character of Darwinism which assumes that man is descended from animal ancestry, there are others however who believe in his divine origin where he was originally in touch with divine traditions. But when we pass from these abstract notions to the concrete statements of Saint-Martin, statements which are found in Saint-Martin only because they are associated with primeval traditions from the ancient epoch of clairvoyance, we discover that modern man is at a loss to understand them. What can the man of today who has a thorough knowledge of chemistry, geology, biology and physiology, etc. and who has also assimilated that curious amalgam called philosophy—what can such a man think when he learns from Saint-Martin that our present human condition is the consequence of the “Fall”. Originally the human race had been differently constituted. Man, according to Saint-Martin, was originally equipped with a crossbow and a coat of mail. Thanks to the coat of mail he was able to prove himself in the hard struggle which was his lot. He has now lost the coat of mail which was originally part of his organism. He was also armed with a lance of bronze which could inflict wounds like fire. With this lance he could overcome elementary beings in the spiritual battle which faced him. And in the place where he originally dwelt he had seven trees at his disposal and each of these trees had 16 roots and 490 branches. He has now forsaken his former dwelling; he has fallen from his high estate.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture I","site_heading":"Reality-Based Thinking and the Spirit's Suppression","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":"1917-03-27","location":null,"word_count":440,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/175/1917-03-27/p013","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1972","book_title":"Building Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA175/English/RSP1972/19170327p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"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/175/1917-03-27/p013"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/175/1917-03-27/p013","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":"1917-03-27","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 175/1917-03-27/p012","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/175/1917-03-27/p012"},{"locus":"GA 175/1917-03-27/p013","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/175/1917-03-27/p013"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":479,"en_words":440,"ratio":0.92,"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 175/1917-03-27/p012","passage_number":12,"text":"Ich habe Sie das letzte Mal aufmerksam gemacht auf ein bedeutsames Buch, auf das Buch «Des erreurs et de la vérité» von Saint-Martin. Dieses Buch ist ja gewiß ein Spätprodukt seiner Art, insofern ein Spätprodukt seiner Art, als es aus schon recht schattenhaft gewordenen Traditionen von alten Einsichten heraus spricht, aber eben doch noch aus diesen Traditionen heraus spricht. Nun habe ich Ihnen schon neulich mancherlei angeführt aus diesem Buche, bei dem der moderne Mensch nicht recht etwas sich denken kann. Aber wenn man nun folgende Anschauung nimmt, die sich bei Saint-Martin findet, so wird man erst recht sehen, wie bei Saint-Martin eben Dinge leben, die dem modernen Menschen, wenn man sie nicht als Dichtung nehmen darf — und als Dichtung nimmt man ja heute ungefähr alles —, der hellste Wahnsinn sind. So gibt Saint-Martin die Andeutung, daß das Menschengeschlecht, wie es jetzt ist, aus einem alten, uralten Zustand heruntergesunken ist in den gegenwärtigen Zustand. Mit einer gewissen Abstraktheit lassen sich ja das heute manche Menschen, die nicht auf die materialistische Weltanschauung schwören, noch gefallen, daß man das heutige Menschengeschlecht zurückverfolgt in ältere Zeiten, in denen es gewissermaßen mit einem Teil seines Wesens höher stand. Es gibt ja immerhin, trotz der materialistischen Färbung des Darwinismus, die da annimmt, daß der Mensch sich bloß von der Tierheit herauf entwickelt hat, noch andere Menschen, die der Meinung sind, daß der Mensch von einer gewissen Ursprungshöhe, in der es ja, wie ich ausgeführt habe, göttliche Urtraditionen gegeben hat, heruntergestiegen sei. Aber wenn es über dieses Abstrakte hinausgeht und zu solchen konkreten Behauptungen kommt, wie sie bei Saint-Martin sich finden, und bei Saint-Martin nur deshalb sich finden, weil sie an uralte Traditionen anknüpfen aus der alten Hellseherzeit, dann, ja dann kann sich eben der moderne Mensch bei solchen Dingen gar nichts mehr vorstellen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":299,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/175/1917-03-27/p012"},{"locus":"GA 175/1917-03-27/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Was soll sich denn der heutige Mensch, der seine Chemie, seine Geologie, seine Biologie, Physiologie und so weiter von Grund aus kennt und auch jenes merkwürdige Gebilde, das man heute Philosophie nennt, in sich aufgenommen hat, was soll er sich denn vorstellen, wenn Saint-Martin sagt: So wie das Menschengeschlecht heute ist, so ist es erst nach dem Fall geworden; es war ursprünglich ganz anders. Der Mensch hatte ursprünglich eine Art undurchdringlicher Rüstung. Diese Rüstung ist ihm verlorengegangen. Sie gehörte ursprünglich zu seiner organischen Wesenheit. Mit dieser Rüstung konnte er den großen Streit bestehen, der ihm eigentlich auferlegt war in der Urzeit. Und es hatte der Mensch in der Urzeit eine eherne Lanze. Diese eherne Lanze konnte so verwunden, wie Feuer verwundet. Und mit dieser ehernen Lanze konnte der Mensch jenen Streit bestehen gegen ganz andere als menschliche Wesen, der ihm auferlegt war in jener Zeit. Und es hatte der Mensch zu seiner Verfügung an jenem Orte, wo er ursprünglich war, sieben Bäume. Jeder dieser Bäume hatte 16 Wurzeln und 490 Zweige. Diesen Ort hat der Mensch verlassen. Er ist heruntergesunken.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":180,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/175/1917-03-27/p013"}],"english":["GA 175/1917-03-27/p013"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":479,"en_words":440,"ratio":0.92,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.97,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6812,"original_word_count":7035,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1972","book_title":"Building Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA175/English/RSP1972/19170327p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 175/1917-03-27/p012","GA 175/1917-03-27/p013"],"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."}}