XI. Before the Door of the Spiritual Soul

It is plain to see from certain spiritual struggles also, in which men's minds are engaged, that mankind can no longer find their way without much difficulty to the realm of divine spirit, however intently they may seek it. These are difficulties which did not exist in the times when insight could still be procured through Imaginations. Rightly to appreciate what is here meant, one has only to look in a clear light at the persons who stand out as philosophic thinkers. A philosopher cannot be regarded solely with a view to the effect which he has upon his age, and the number of people who have adopted his ideas. He is much rather the expression, the manifestation in person, of his age. What the greater part of mankind carry within them unconsciously as a disposition of soul, as unconscious feelings and life-promptings, the philosopher puts into his ideas. As the thermometer registers the temperature of its surroundings, so he registers the mental condition of his age. The philosophers are as little the cause of the psychology of their age, as the thermometer is of the temperature of its surroundings.