{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 96/1906-10-08/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Where do the great impulses, ideas, mental creativeness originate? Here we come to a sphere in which we can begin to understand how the occult brotherhoods of earlier centuries and millennia worked. Take an example, though a modern materialistic thinker would never think of it. An ardent, enthusiastic youth living in the 18th century, someone with the gifts for great things, needed just the stimulus of something that may look like a chance happening, something utterly insignificant. He met, as if by chance, someone who seemed indifferent. This person said a few words to the young man that appeared to make no special impression. I am saying ‘appeared’, for something did happen in the enthusiastic young man’s soul. The encounter during which those seemingly insignificant words were said did have significance after all. So what did actually happen? Something of the greatest significance for civilization came from an insignificant incident that appeared to be a matter of chance. The brothers who are the true and greatest guardians of humanity’s treasure of wisdom are in this world. They may be walking about among us; we may meet them. But they wear a magic hat as far as ordinary people are concerned. It is up to them to recognize a brother, for the brothers never identify themselves. In past centuries they were even harder to recognize than they are today. What mattered, however, was their influence. Imagine such a brotherhood of occult initiates. One of the brothers approaches the young man as though by chance. But chance events like these are brought about by the wisdom of this world. A few insignificant words ignite a spark in the young man’s mind that is of the greatest conceivable importance for our civilization. The young man was Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[^2] An event that seemed of no significance sowed a seed that led Rousseau to develop his philosophy. There is nothing random about the powerful impulses that came into our civilization with it. They are not apparent in the ordinary history of civilization but quietly let the stream of wisdom continue that is in the care of the brotherhood. The decision as to what will serve the needs of humanity is made in the brotherhood. The brothers are wise, they are prophets. They know what humanity needs. And when the need arises they'll send one of the brethren into the world to bring a new impetus into evolution.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"VI. Spiritual Insight Offering Greatest Liberation II: The Mission of the Spiritual Science Movement","site_heading":null,"date":"1906-10-08","location":null,"word_count":402,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/96/1906-10-08/p009","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Anna Meuss","identified_edition":"CMP2001","book_title":"Original Impulses fo the Science of the Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA096/English/CMP2001/19061008p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"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/96/1906-10-08/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/96/1906-10-08/p009","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":"1906-10-08","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 96/1906-10-08/p010","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/96/1906-10-08/p010"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":398,"en_words":402,"ratio":1.01,"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 96/1906-10-08/p010","passage_number":10,"text":"Woher kommen die großen Impulse des Gedankens, des geistigen Schaffens? Da berühren wir nun das Gebiet, durch das uns klar werden kann, wie die okkulten Bruderschaften in den verflossenen Jahrhunderten und Jahrtausenden wirkten. Nehmen wir ein Beispiel. Der materialistische Denker von heute würde allerdings auf dieses Beispiel nicht kommen. Ein feuriger, enthusiastischer Jüngling des 18. Jahrhunderts, mit einer Anlage zum Großen, brauchte nur einen Anstoß durch ein Ereignis, das wie ein Zufall, wie etwas höchst Unbedeutendes aussieht. Er begegnet wie zufällig einer anscheinend gleichgültigen Persönlichkeit. Diese spricht zu dem Jüngling Worte, die scheinbar auf ihn keinen besonderen Eindruck machen. Ich sage: scheinbar, denn es geht doch in der Seele dieses enthusiastischen Jünglings etwas vor. Die Begegnung, in deren Verlauf diese scheinbar unbedeutenden Worte gesprochen wurden, hatte doch eine Bedeutung. Was ist da eigentlich geschehen? In ein unbedeutendes Ereignis, das scheinbar vom Zufall beherrscht ist, hüllt sich etwas von höchster kultureller Bedeutung. Diejenigen Brüder, welche die eigentlichen höchsten Hüter des Weisheitsschatzes der Menschheit sind, befinden sich in dieser Welt. Sie gehen vielleicht unter uns herum, wir können ihnen begegnen. Aber für die gewöhnliche Menschheit tragen sie eine Tarnkappe. Sache der anderen ist es, sie zu erkennen. Sie selber geben sich nie zu erkennen. In den verflossenen Jahrhunderten war es noch schwerer, sie zu erkennen, als heute. Darauf kam es auch nicht an, daß man sie erkannte. Was aber das Wesentliche war, das war ihr Wirken. Denken Sie sich eine solche Bruderschaft von verborgenen Eingeweihten. Einer dieser Brüder tritt wie durch einen Zufall an den Jüngling heran. Aber solche Zufälle werden durch die Weisheit der Welt herbeigeführt. Durch einige unbedeutende Worte wird etwas in dem Jüngling entzündet, was kulturell das denkbar Wichtigste ist. Dieser Jüngling heißt Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In einem scheinbar zufälligen Ereignis wurde so der Keim dazu gelegt, daß es einen Rousseauismus geben konnte und daß durch ihn starke Impulse in das Kulturleben einflossen. Die Impulse, die von den Schriften Rousseaus ausgingen, sind nichts Zufälliges, auch nicht etwas, was sich der Betrachtungsart der äußeren Kulturhistorie erschließt, sondern sie sind das leise Fortgehen des Stromes der Weisheit, wie sie in der Bruderschaft bewahrt wird. In der Bruderschaft wird beschlossen, was der Menschheit frommt. Die Brüder sind Weise, sie sind Propheten. Sie wissen, was für die Menschheit erforderlich ist. So senden sie, wenn es notwendig ist, einen der ihren hinaus in die Welt, um der Entwickelung einen neuen Einschlag zu geben.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":398,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/96/1906-10-08/p010"}],"english":["GA 96/1906-10-08/p009"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":398,"en_words":402,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.15,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6420,"original_word_count":5599,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Anna Meuss","identified_edition":"CMP2001","book_title":"Original Impulses fo the Science of the Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA096/English/CMP2001/19061008p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 96/1906-10-08/p010"],"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."}}