Esoteric Lesson
GA 266a/1908-01-26/p022
·1908-01-26
·
English
LowLow alignmentMost translators re-paragraphed Steiner substantially. The locus identifies the same chapter or section, but paragraph-N to paragraph-N mapping is loose. For exact-quotation precision, compare with the German.
Record: listeners' notes. Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word. Evidence: «Gedächtnisaufzeichnungen von Teilnehmern sowie Notizen von Vorträgen» (Participants' records written from memory, and notes of lectures). Rudolf Steiner Verlag Gesamtverzeichnis 2022, volume subtitle. The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
Through the development of ideas that lead to higher things, of forms of beauty—such as domes, musical compositions, and so on—good demons are formed on Jupiter, and the fundamental [?] ideas take shape there in the physical nature that then unfolds. However, those aspirations and structures that serve only utility will raise evil, wicked demons there and lead to ugly structures. If the pure principle of utility were to gain complete ascendancy here on earth, destruction would come upon the earth, and it would not achieve its goal. “Useful” things are necessary; we can only escape ruin if the principle of beauty is combined with the principle of utility in the design of tools, machines, bridges, etc., or if higher thoughts—for example, in symbols—are expressed in their form.
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