Let us try to understand how
Truth, Beauty and Goodness are related, as concrete realities, to the being of
man.
As the human being stands
before us we see, in the first place, his physical body � nowadays the object
of purely external observation. How the single organs, the form and functions
of the body have been built up in pre-earthly existence � of this people are
wholly unaware. In his pre-earthly existence man lives in a world of pure
Spirit, where, in communion with higher Beings, he is engaged in building up
the spiritual prototype, the spirit-form of his physical body. The physical
body here on earth is but an after-copy of the spirit-germ that is elaborated,
in a certain sense, by man himself in pre-earthly existence.
In earthly life the human
being is conscious of his physical body, but does not know what this implies.
We speak of Truth, little realizing that a feeling for truth is connected with
our consciousness of the physical body. When man is confronted by a simple
fact, he may either form an idea that harmonizes strictly with it and thus is
true, or, from inaccuracy, laziness or positive aversion to truth, he may
evolve an idea that does not coincide with the fact. When he thinks the truth,
he is in harmony with the feeling he has of his physical body, and also with
his sense of the connection between this physical body and pre-earthly
existence. If out of laziness or untruthfulness he forms an idea that is not
in accordance with the fact, it is as if he cut the thread that binds him to
pre-earthly existence. Untruth severs this thread. In pre-earthly existence a
delicate spiritual woof is spun, and this is concentrated into an after-copy �
the physical body. Many threads connect this physical body with pre-earthly
existence, and they are severed by untruthfulness. The purely intellectual
consciousness that is a characteristic quality in the early stages of the
Consciousness Soul (see Note
1)
does not realize that such a severance takes place. And that is why man is
subject to so many illusions as to his connection with cosmic existence.
For the most part today, man
regards his bodily health from a purely physical point of view. But when,
through untruthfulness, he severs the threads that bind him with pre-earthly
existence, this works right down into his physical body, and especially into
the constitution of the nervous system. The feeling he has of his physical
body gives him his �spiritual sense of being� in the universe. And this
spiritual sense of being depends upon maintenance of the threads proceeding
from the physical body to pre-earthly existence. If they break, man must
create a substitute for his healthy sense of being � and he does so,
unconsciously. He is then led, unconsciously, to ascribe to himself a �normal�
sense of being. But even here he has fallen into an inner uncertainty that
makes itself felt even in the physical body. Is this purely spiritual sense of
being that we find existing with greater and greater intensity the farther we
go back in history present in man today?
How often it is the case
that someone would like to be important not by virtue of his own spiritual
life, but by virtue of some profession or title. He likes to have some such
title as �Secretary� or �Notary,� and then imagines he is of importance when
convention thus describes him. The essential thing, however, is that he shall
be able to realize his existence inwardly, apart from all externalities.
What is it that can
strengthen man in this sense of being? In earthly existence we live in a world
that is but a copy of true reality. Indeed, we only understand this physical
world correctly when we realize it to be a copy of reality. It behooves us,
however, to feel the true reality within us; we must be aware of our
connection with the spiritual world. And this is only possible if the bond
that links us with pre-earthly existence remains intact.
This bond is strengthened by
a love of truth and Integrity. Nothing establishes man's true and original
sense of existence so firmly as a feeling for truth. To feel himself in duty
bound first to �prove all things� he utters, to set due restraint on all his
words � this helps to consolidate the sense of existence that is worthy of his
being. To be aware of the spirit within the physical body � with this, indeed,
the sense of being is connected. There is, in effect, an intimate kinship
between the physical body and this ideal of Truth.
We acquire the etheric body
(or body of �formative forces�) only a short time before the descent from
pre-earthly to earthly existence. We draw the forces of the etheric world
together, as it were, to build up our own etheric body. Now in earlier epochs
of evolution man had a better understanding of the etheric body than he has
today. Indeed, instead of feeling the reality of the etheric body, he is
nowadays apt to scoff at the very idea.
The sense of the reality of
the etheric body is strengthened by the experience of Beauty. When truth and
truthfulness enter the realm of real experience, we are, in a sense, living
rightly in the physical body. A highly developed sense of beauty gives us a
right relation to the etheric body of formative forces. Whereas Truth is
connected with the physical body, Beauty is connected with the etheric body.
This will become clear if we
think of the significance of beauty as manifested in art. If we have before us
a human being of flesh and blood, we know that he is one among many. Yet the
one has no meaning without the many who live around him. Slender indeed are
the roots that bind man to physical existence, without the others around him.
If we try either through
sculpture, painting, or drama � indeed, through any art � to portray a human
being, we endeavour to create a figure that is sufficient and complete in
itself � one that contains a whole world, just as man contains the whole
universe within himself in his etheric body. For he draws together the etheric
forces from the whole universe to mould his etheric body within earthly
existence.
An intense feeling for
beauty � as it was then conceived � existed in earlier ages. Nothing of the
same kind is present in modern civilization; Man cannot be truly man if he has
no sense of beauty. It is so, indeed, for to possess a sense of beauty is to
acknowledge the reality of the etheric body. To have no sense of beauty is to
disregard, to disown, the etheric body.
Modern man is unconscious of
this. When the Greek approached his temple, or beheld within the temple the
statue of the god, he was conscious of an inner, glowing warmth, of a kind of
inner sunlight. It was as though forces streamed into his being and into his
different organs. Gazing at the statue of the god, his whole heart cried out:
�Never do I feel the peripheral structure of my hands and fingers so vividly
as when this statue stands there before me! Never have I such an inner sense
of the arch of my brow as in the temple!� Inwardly warmed and irradiated �
god-inspired � thus did the Greek feel in the presence of beauty. And this was
nothing else but an experience in the etheric body.
In the presence of ugliness
the Greek's feeling was quite different from that of modern man. The latter at
most expresses his very abstract feelings in regard to ugliness by his
features-he makes a grimace! Ugliness cast a chill through the whole body of
the Greek, affecting even the very pores of his skin. In ancient times men
were vividly aware of the reality of the etheric body, and in the course of
evolution a part of human nature has, indeed, been lost. All these things of
which I have been speaking � and which were actual experiences in earlier
times � remain unconscious in man today, for with his rationalistic intellect
and love of abstraction he tends to view everything from the head � the organ
belonging to these qualities.
Enthusiasm for truth and
truthfulness can kindle in man � in the unconscious depths of his soul at any
rate � a feeling for pre-earthly existence. An epoch of civilization in which
this feeling is absent can possess no real sense of truth and truthfulness.
But when this sense is highly developed, it binds man strongly to the
pre-earthly past, and his more immediate experience of the earthly present
must cause a certain sadness to arise within him. It is a sadness that can
only find consolation if the sense of beauty is awakened in the soul. Beauty
gives us joy once more, even in the presence of a sadness that must always
accompany great enthusiasm for truth. In a delicate, subtle way this
enthusiasm tells us: Truth, alas, is only really present in pre-earthly
existence. Here in this earthly world we have but her echo. Having left the
pre-earthly life, we no longer stand within the essential substance of truth.
Only enthusiasm for truth can help us to maintain intact our relationship with
pre-earthly existence.
A genuine feeling for beauty
forges a link that binds us here, in earthly life itself, once again with
pre-earthly existence. We ought never to undervalue the significance of beauty
in education and in outer culture. A civilization that is filled with ugly
machines, with chimneys and smoke, and dispenses with beauty, is a world that
makes no effort to forge a link between man and pre-earthly existence; indeed,
it tears him asunder. Not by way of analogy, but in very truth we may say: A
purely industrial city is a fitting abode for the demonic beings who would
like to make man forget his pre-earthly existence in the realm of spirit.
Yet delight in beauty must
be paid for at the cost of realizing that the beautiful, in its essence, is
not rooted in earthly reality. The more perfectly we represent the human form,
say, in sculpture or painting, the more must we admit that this does not
correspond to an outer reality in earthly existence. It is but a consolation
afforded by beautiful semblance, and hence lasts only until the moment we pass
through the gate of death.
The world of spirit in which
we live during our pre-earthly existence is always present. We have but to
stretch out our arms, as it were, to this pre-earthly world of spirit.
Although it is always there, a link can only be forged in the depths of
unconscious life when man glows with enthusiasm for truth and truthfulness.
And when his heart thrills with love for the beautiful, this too forms a bond
with pre-earthly existence.
If man is to be true in a
higher, this means spiritual, sense, he must not forget that he has lived in
the spirit in pre-earthly existence. To glow in response to beauty means that
in his soul man must create in a picture, at least, a new link with
pre-earthly spirituality.
How can man develop an
actual power that will lead him directly into the world he left because he has
descended to the earth from pre-earthly existence? The answer is, when he is
filled with Goodness � the goodness that flows to other men and is not
confined to self-interest, conscious only of what is living within his own
being. Such goodness can lead the soul into the qualities, nature and
experiences of others. It embraces innumerable forces of soul; and these
forces are of such a nature that they actually instill into the human being
elements with which he was wholly permeated only in pre-earthly existence.
Through his sense of Beauty he links himself, by means of a picture, to the
spirit he has left because of his descent to earthly existence. If he is truly
good, he links this earthly life itself to pre-earthly existence. A good man
is one who can carry his own soul over into the soul of another. Upon this all
true morality depends, and without morality no true social order among earthly
humanity can be maintained.
When this true morality
develops into momentous impulses of will which then pass to reality in moral
acts, it begins to be a quickening, all-pervading impulse in the soul,
inasmuch as a man can then be moved to real sympathy at the sight of care on
the face of another � his own astral body feels pain at the sight of suffering
in others. For just as the sense of Truth manifests in man's right relation to
the physical body; just as a warm enthusiasm for Beauty expresses itself in
the etheric body � so does Goodness live in the astral body. And the astral
body cannot be healthy, or maintain its true position in the world, if man is
not able to pour through it the forces proceeding from Goodness.
Truth, then, is related to
the physical body, Beauty to the etheric body, Goodness to the astral body.
Here we have the concrete reality of the three abstractions of Truth, Beauty,
and Goodness. In short, we can relate to the actual being of man all that is
expressed instinctively in these three ideals.
These ideals show us how far
man is able to fulfill his whole human nature, when, to begin with, as he
lives in his physical body, he is filled with a real sense of truth instead of
conventional opinions. Again, full �humanity� is only afforded a worthy
existence when a man can quicken his etheric body into life through his
feeling for beauty. Indeed, he who is incapable of being moved at the sight of
beauty to somewhat the same degree as the Greek, does not possess a true sense
of beauty. One can merely gaze at beauty or one can experience it. Today it is
the case that most people only gaze, and this does not necessarily energize
anything in the etheric body. To gaze at beauty is not to experience it. The
moment we experience beauty, however, the etheric body is quickened.
A person may do good because
of some convention, or because punishment is in store for serious wrongdoing �
or, again, because other people will respect him less if he does wrong. He
can, however, also do good from sheer love of goodness. I spoke of this years
ago in my book, The Philosophy of
Freedom. Such an experience of goodness will always lead to a
recognition of the reality of the astral body. Indeed, only this recognition
will teach man anything about the essence of goodness. There can only be
abstract knowledge of and inconsequent chatter about goodness, if loving
enthusiasm for goodness in its essence does not lead to actual experience of
the astral body.
Now to realize the good is
not, as in the experience of beauty, merely to create a link with pre-earthly
existence that ceases when man passes through the gate of death. To experience
goodness is, indeed, to unite oneself with that [spiritual] world which, as I
said, is ever present. We have but to stretch out towards it. Yet man is
separated from this world in material existence. Experience of goodness is a
link leading directly to the world he enters after death.
Forces that endure beyond
the gate of death are present in men's actions here on earth, if he lives a
life of goodness. The sense of truth is a heritage from pre-earthly existence.
The sense of beauty will create an image, at least, of pre-earthly connection
with spirit. And the impulse exists within us not to cut ourselves off from
spirit, but rather to maintain the bond intact by the goodness we develop as
inner strength.
To be true is to be rightly
united with our spiritual past. To sense beauty means that in the physical
world we do not disown our connection with spirit. To be good is to build a
living seed for a spiritual world in the future.
Past, present, future �
these three concepts, as they play their part in human life, assume
far-reaching significance when we understand the concrete reality of the other
three concepts � Truth, Beauty, Goodness.
The man who is untruthful
denies his spiritual past; the liar severs the threads between himself and his
spiritual past. He who disregards beauty is building himself an abode on earth
where the sun of spirit never shines, where he wanders in spiritless shadow.
The man who belies the good renounces his spiritual future; and yet he would
like this future to be bestowed on him, perhaps by means of some outer remedy.
It was, indeed, out of a
profound instinct that Truth, Beauty and Goodness were held to be the greatest
ideals of human striving. Yet they have faded away into shadowy words, and it
is only our present age that can bestow concrete reality upon them.
Steiner
divided history into epochs and called our present epoch that of the
Consciousness Soul.
Thanks to James Stewart at the Rudolf Steiner Archive, where many more lectures and books by Rudolf Steiner may be found.
