{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 232/1923-12-01/p035","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"If we now go back to still earlier times, we shall find that everything is even more transient, even more evanescent. Think of the grandeur and majesty of the vista I described to you: those mobile, wax-like silica formations in which pictures of the plant-world appear, fill themselves with the soft albuminous substance and produce in the Earth’s environment the phenomena of ‘greening’ and fading. Think of all this and you will say to yourselves: In contrast to the plants growing out of the Earth today with their firmly formed roots and leaves or to our present trees with their strong trunks, this is as ephemeral as a cloud. How fleeting these earlier forms are if compared with an oak of today— the oak itself does not pride itself on its natural characteristic, it is usually the people living around such trees who are guilty of pride, for they mistake their frequent weakness for the hardiness of the oak! Compare this quality of our present oaks with those ancient, ethereal plant-formations, appearing and passing away like shadowy mists in the atmosphere, condensing and then vanishing away. Or to take cruder examples, compare a thick-skinned hippopotamus or elephant or a similar animal with those earlier creatures which emerged from the universal albumen, were laid hold of by the chalk and becoming rather more solid as a result developed the rudiments of bones and were drawn down into the animality of the Earth—I use this expression more as an adjective. Compare the Earth’s present density, shall I say the ‘elephantine’ density of the Earth today with the conditions that once existed, and you will no longer be able to doubt that the further back you go into the past the more fleeting and evanescent are the phenomena.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"5. Mineral, Plant And Animal Creation","site_heading":null,"date":"1923-12-01","location":null,"word_count":295,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/232/1923-12-01/p035","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"E. H. Goddard and Dorothy S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1972","book_title":"Mystery Knowledge & Mystery Centres","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA232/English/RSP1972/19231201p01.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/232/1923-12-01/p035"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/232/1923-12-01/p035","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 232/1923-12-01/p035","passage_number":35,"text":"Und wenn Sie sich nun denken, daß man zurückkommt in noch frühere Zeiten, so wird das alles noch flüchtiger, noch verschwebender. Betrachten Sie nur den grandiosen, den majestätischen Anblick, den ich Ihnen vorhin geschildert habe: diese wachsartig verfließenden Kieselsäurebildungen, in denen auftreten Bilder der Pflanzenwelt, die sich vollsaugen mit der weichen Albumine, mit der weichen Eiweiß-Substanz, die dadurch ein Grünendes und Vergrünendes in der Erdenumgebung darbieten - man schaut hinauf dazu. Denken Sie an diese Dinge, und Sie werden sich sagen können: Gegenüber den heutigen, aus fester Wurzel mit festen Blättern aus der Erde herauswachsenden Pflanzen oder gar gegenüber den heutigen Bäumen mit ihren erstarkten Stämmen, ist das alles flüchtiges Gebilde. Wie flüchtig ist das gegenüber einer heutigen Eiche, die zwar nicht selbst stolz ist auf ihre Eichigkeit, auf die aber stolz sind gewöhnlich die Umwohner, weilsie sich verwechseln in ihrer oftmaligen Schwäche mit der Eichigkeit der Eiche! Wenn Sie vergleichen diese Eichigkeit der heutigen Eiche mit diesen, ich möchte sagen, duftig entstehenden, duftig vergehenden, wie Schatten in der Atmosphäre auflebenden, sich verdichtenden, wieder verschwindenden Pflanzengebilden; oder wenn Sie vergleichen — nehmen wir gleich krasse Fälle - ein heutiges Nilpferd oder einen heutigen Elefanten in ihrer dicken Haut oder andere im Fleische lebende Wesenheiten mit den Wesenheiten der damaligen Zeit, die da als gerinnendes Eiweiß aus diesem allgemeinen Eiweiß herausgehen, dann vom Kalk erfaßt werden und in einer dadurch etwas dichteren Weise in Knochenandeutungen heruntergezogen werden ins Getierische der Erde - ich muß dieses mehr als Eigenschaftswort gebrauchen: ins «Getierische» der Erde -, wenn Sie sich das alles anschauen, wenn Sie sich die heutige Dichtigkeit, ich möchte sagen, die heutige Elefantitis der Erde anschauen gegenüber dem, was da einmal war, dann werden Sie nicht mehr zweifeln können, daß, wenn man noch weiter zurückgeht, man eben in ein noch Flüchtigeres kommt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":300,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/232/1923-12-01/p035"}],"english":["GA 232/1923-12-01/p035"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":300,"en_words":295,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.89,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":4960,"original_word_count":5577,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and Dorothy S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1972","book_title":"Mystery Knowledge & Mystery Centres","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA232/English/RSP1972/19231201p01.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 232/1923-12-01/p035"],"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."}}