{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 273/1919-01-19/p020","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Contraction, expansion. Goethe sensed this in its elementary stages. Read his *Metamorphosis of Plants*; read his poem *The Metamorphosis of Plants*, and you will see how he follows the particular formation from foliage leaf to foliage leaf, then to petal, stamen, on to pistil; how he describes it as a continuous expansion, contraction, not only in external forms, the saps also expand with their forces and again contract—expand, concentrate; expand, concentrate. When in the eighties of the last century I wrote my first introduction to Goethe's scientific works, I tried to reconstruct his archetypal plant, tried to bring into a picture this expansion, contraction, expansion, contraction—on and on right up to the blossom. No one can really understand life who does not picture it in rhythm, as a progressive rhythmic process. It must be repeatedly emphasised that to imagine evolution as proceeding in a straight line does not help us to a true understanding of life.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"12. In Place of Homunculism and Mephistophelianism","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-01-19","location":null,"word_count":156,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/273/1919-01-19/p020","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"George Adams","identified_edition":"UNK1930","book_title":"The Problem of Faust","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA273/English/UNK1930/19190119p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row"},"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/273/1919-01-19/p020"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/273/1919-01-19/p020","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":"1919-01-19","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 273/1919-01-19/p022","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/273/1919-01-19/p022"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":158,"en_words":156,"ratio":0.99,"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 273/1919-01-19/p022","passage_number":22,"text":"Wiederum auf elementaren Stufen hat das Goethe geahnt. Lesen Sie seine Metamorphose der Pflanzen, lesen Sie nur das Gedicht «Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen», so werden Sie sehen, wie jene eigentümliche Gestaltung, die von Laubblatt zu Laubblatt geht, dann Blütenblatt, dann Staubgefäß, dann Stempel, wie das von Goethe dargestellt wird als ein fortwährendes Ausdehnen, Zusammenziehen, aber nicht in ganz äußerlichen Gebilden nur, sondern auch die Säfte dehnen sich in ihren Kräften aus, ziehen sich wieder zusammen, expandieren, konzentrieren sich. Ich habe versucht, in den achtziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts, als ich meine erste Einführung geschrieben habe zu Goethes naturwissenschaftlichen Werken, nachzukonstruieren die Goethesche Urpflanze, wo ich versuchte, in das Bild hineinzubringen dieses Ausdehnen und Zusammenziehen, Ausdehnen, Zusammenziehen bis in die Blüte hinauf. Also niemand kann das Leben wirklich erfassen, der dieses Leben nicht rhythmisch, in rhythmischem Gange vorstellt. Die geradlinige Entwickelung — das muß immer wieder betont werden - ist eine Idee, die nichtsnutzig ist als eine wirkliche Lebenserfassung.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":158,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/273/1919-01-19/p022"}],"english":["GA 273/1919-01-19/p020"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":158,"en_words":156,"ratio":0.99,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6706,"original_word_count":6662,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"George Adams","identified_edition":"UNK1930","book_title":"The Problem of Faust","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA273/English/UNK1930/19190119p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 273/1919-01-19/p022"],"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."}}