Letters to the Editor
RE: Dementia � Anthroposophical Perspectives
Dear Frank Thomas Smith,
I�m wondering if you would permit me to reprint your review, with credit and pointer to Southern Cross Review, in being human, the publication for members and friends of the Anthroposophical Society in America. If you are not familiar with it, the last issue is online:
http://www.anthroposophy.org/bh
Thank you for all your good work of many years!
John H Beck
Director of Communications, Anthroposophical Society in America
Excellent. Thank you!! I ordered it. I look forward to someone translating Judith von Halle�s book on Anne Catherine Emmerich.
Skip Shook
RE: Ven, Nena and Elizabeth Taylor by Victorino Briones
What a beautiful story. Now I want to hear the next chapter.
Jenanninga
RE: SCR Nr. 100
Frank,
Querido, recordado y admirado. Congratulaciones por el n�mero "100", las creaciones son f�ciles... los mantenimientos dif�ciles... pero el logro de la continuidad con calidad, arte y amor es: � LO MAS ! todo mi agradecimiento, todo mi respeto, toda mi admiraci�n por tu tarea y por la labor de Mar�a Teresa (de darte de comer).
la Luna Llena de hoy alumbra la southerncrooss ! �And please do not underestimate 'Letters to the Editor', where there's some interesting comments � pro and contra.�
Enviar� muchas cartas al Editor... en la pr�xima encarnaci�n. En la actual todav�a no engancho con la red fluently.
Pero s� : I enjoy your work. GRACIAS
un abrazo fraterno,
Flora Drosos
C�rdoba, Argentina
Major congratulations and appreciation go out to our very own Anthro Sage, Frank Thomas Smith on his 100th Anniversary issue of SCR. While this prolific accomplishment is significant, Frank's longstanding support, knowledge and existential involvement with Spiritual Science has immeasurably enriched all students of Dr Steiner and continues to do so. On these social media 'sites' where opinion so often becomes assumption and neurosis tend to filter discussion, Frank has long maintained a sanity and wisdom based on long experience. His voluminous translations have enlightened tens of thousands of seekers. Few have made so marvelous a contribution. Thank you Frank.
John Harris
USA
RE: Nature Spirits
Dear Frank,
I live in Geneva, Switzerland and have followed Anthroposophy for quite a few years. Thank you for publishing very interesting articles and Steiner's Conferences on your website.
I have two grandchildren who go to Steiner school in the UK. Unfortunately, they will be leaving this school as the whole family is moving to Switzerland. I love the children's stories you publish, especially the one you published on Southern Cross Review No. 94, The Nature Spirits, and I thought it would be nice to print a few copies and give them to the children in the school as a farewell and end-of-year present. I wanted to ask your permission first. I don't mind paying copyrights. Please let me know.
Thanks and kindest regards,
Marina Filippin
Geneva, Switzerland
Obviously permission was granted without charge. (Ed.)
Your web site says that the First Class Volumes I , II, and III are available as� pdf files.� I am a First Class Member, and I would like toacquire these files, as I am elderly and live too far away from where the lessons are read.
Thank you for your help.
(Name withheld upon request.)
Hi Frank, Thanks for all your work, I Tell all My English Friends about it.
Regards,
Mark Rossell
Thank you! And I greatly appreciate the ebooks, as well as the time and effort to make your translations available. Thank you again! - Dominic Nigito
RE: My Heart is promised to The King
I found the story very moving. It reminded me of at least one other central Asian story about an ailing king and the extreme cure involving the death of others. (In that story, the extreme cure is fabricated in order to attract enough prayers prayers for the king's well-being to cure him.) The ending surprised me, since the king had expressed his deep reluctance to take someone else's life to save his own. I expected it to end with the king being too frail to be eligible for a heart transplant.
Paul Perkal
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
RE: The Invisible String by John Davy
Dear Frank,
in general the Davy article is ok - as far as it goes. The sequel may well fill in some of the gaps, of course.
For a more up-to-date consideration of the "peppered moth" story I would recommend the following: http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/Moths/moths.html. After Davy wrote his article, Kettlewell's experiments and conclusions were severely criticised and for a long time "industrial melanism" was abandoned as a proof of Darwinism. It seems that it has been partially restored - with reservations - as the article at the link points out.
I was pleased to see the reference to de Beer's book "Embryos and Ancestors". But Davy did not (unless it's in the sequel) appear to appreciate the extent to which the evidence de Beer presented actually refuted Darwinism rather than confirming it.
Some years ago I summarised the evidence de Beer had presented in an essay which was subsequently published in the science magazine of the Goetheanum. I attach a copy here.
Rudolf Steiner referred to evolution theory as "the greatest cultural deed of the 19th century". It was necessary to break through the 'dead' idea of an essentially static universe. Evolution was a necessary element of the truth of reincarnation. It was certainly not the greatest scientific achievement. Darwin's reputation as one of the greatest scientists the world has known is certainly undeserved. In fact, he committed one of the cardinal sins of science - fitting facts to a conclusion already decided on.
Goethe had some wise words to say on that matter:
�We can never be too careful in our efforts to avoid drawing hasty conclusions from experiments or using them directly as proof to bear out some theory. For here at this pass, this transition from empirical evidence to judgment, cognition to application, all the inner enemies of man lie in wait: imagination, which sweeps him away on his wings before he knows his feet have left the ground; impatience; haste; self-satisfaction; rigidity; formalistic thought; prejudice; ease; frivolity; fickleness � this whole throng and its retinue. Here they lie in ambush and surprise not only the active observer but also the contemplative one who appears safe from all passion.�
�I would venture to say we cannot prove anything by one experiment or even several experiments together, that nothing is more dangerous than the desire to prove some thesis directly through experiments. ... Every piece of empirical evidence we find, every experiment in which this evidence is repeated, really represents just one part of what we know. ... Every piece of empirical evidence, every experiment, must be viewed as isolated, yet the human faculty of thought forcibly strives to unite all external objects known to it. ...�
�We often find that the more limited the data, the more artful a gifted thinker will become. As though to assert his sovereignty he chooses a few agreeable favorites from the limited number of facts and skillfully marshals the rest so they never contradict him directly. Finally he is able to confuse, entangle, or push aside the opposing facts and reduce the whole to something more like the court of a despot than a freely constituted republic.�
Best regards,
Paul Carline
UK
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