{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 181/1918-05-21/p008","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"If we recollect the principal points of our spiritually scientific investigation, we shall everywhere find that it rests on the fact that super-sensible spiritual reality flows into the soul of man. Spiritual Science teaches us that in the course of humanity spiritual life continually streams into men, but that nevertheless what happens on Earth is only an “advance,” insofar as men understand how to awaken into external being what streams into them from the spiritual world. Such a thought should really be able to penetrate our whole feeling and experience. We must above all, be able to bring it into connection with what is known to us, for instance, as the *Science of History*; and we should be able to apply it to the present day from this point of view. We ought to be able to ask ourselves seriously (these things are of course hypotheses but they lead to realities in a true life of thought): What would have happened if Columbus, or anyone else fundamentally connected with the evolution of modern humanity—for instance Gutenberg, discoverer of the art of printing, or even Luther—had been born in the eighth or ninth century or at some other time in history? What would have become of those personalities who bear these names? They would certainly not have figured as they do in history today if they had been born in other times. Of course that could not have happened, for the evolution of the world has its karma; but the hypothetical consideration of such a possibility leads to realities. They would in all probability have become persons of whom external history does not speak. Yet, on the other hand, can you imagine that in such a case, at the approach of the modern age, the art of printing for instance would not have been discovered? Can you imagine that the Reformation would not have come about with the approach of this newer time? You can see from this that the principal thing is that we should look at the *objective facts*, at what has been imparted to mankind from the spiritual world, and that we should learn to a still greater degree than the present time can yet do, to look at man as an *instrument*, through whom reality may enter into Earth life from this virtual world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"VII. Whitsuntide Lecture","site_heading":null,"date":"1918-05-21","location":null,"word_count":387,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/181/1918-05-21/p008","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"LRC0049","book_title":"Anthroposophical Life Gifts","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA181/English/LRC0049/19180521p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"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/181/1918-05-21/p008"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/181/1918-05-21/p008","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 181/1918-05-21/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Erinnern wir uns an die Hauptpunkte unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung, so werden Sie überall finden, daß diese geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung gerade darauf beruht, daß übersinnliche, geistige Wirklichkeit in des Menschen Seele hereinfließt. Sie läßt uns erkennen, diese Geisteswissenschaft, daß im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung fortwährend geistiges Leben in die Menschen einströmt, daß jedoch das, was auf Erden geschieht, insofern nur ein Fortschritt ist, als die Menschen das, was aus der geistigen Welt in sie einströmt, zum äußeren Dasein zu erwecken verstehen. Aber ein solcher Gedanke müßte eigentlich unser ganzes Fühlen und Empfinden durchdringen können. Wir müssen ihn vor allen Dingen in Zusammenhang bringen können mit dem, was uns zum Beispiel als Geschichtswissenschaft bekannt ist, und wir müßten ihn dann von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus auf die Gegenwart anwenden können. Wir müßten uns zum Beispiel fragen können, aber mit Ernst fragen können — diese Dinge sind natürlich Hypothesen, aber sie führen auf Wirklichkeiten in einem realen Gedankenleben -: Was wäre geworden, wenn etwa Kolumbus oder irgend jemand anderer, der wesentlich mit der Entwickelung der neueren Menschheit verbunden ist, zum Beispiel Gutenberg, der Erfinder der Buchdruckerkunst, oder sagen wir selbst Luther, im 9. oder im 8. Jahrhundert, kurz, zu einer andern historischen Zeit geboren worden wären? Was wäre dann mit denjenigen Persönlichkeiten geworden, die diese Namen tragen? - Ganz gewiß wären sie, wenn sie in andere Zeiten geboren worden wären, dasjenige nicht geworden, als was sie uns heute in der Geschichte erscheinen, Natürlich kann das nicht sein, die Weltenentwickelung hat ihr Karma; aber die hypothetische Betrachtung einer solchen Sache führt auf Wirklichkeiten. Sie wären wahrscheinlich Persönlichkeiten geworden, von denen die äußere Geschichte nicht spricht. Aber dennoch können Sie sich auf der andern Seite nicht vorstellen, daß in solchem Falle im Herannahen der neueren Zeit zum Beispiel die Buchdruckerkunst nicht erfunden worden wäre, und daß im Heraufkommen dieser neueren Zeit die Reformation nicht gekommen wäre, können Sie sich auch nicht vorstellen. Daraus aber ersehen Sie, daß die Hauptsache das ist, daß wir auf das hinblicken, was aus der geistigen Welt heraus der Menschheit sich mitteilt, und daß wir lernen, in einem viel größeren Maße noch als es die Gegenwart überhaupt vermag, den Menschen als ein Instrument anzusehen, durch welches das Geistige aus der geistigen Welt in das Erdenleben hereintritt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":372,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/181/1918-05-21/p008"}],"english":["GA 181/1918-05-21/p008"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":372,"en_words":387,"ratio":1.04,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7132,"original_word_count":7047,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"LRC0049","book_title":"Anthroposophical Life Gifts","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA181/English/LRC0049/19180521p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 181/1918-05-21/p008"],"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."}}