LECTURE SEVEN
THE HIGHER MEMBERS OF MAN'S CONSTITUTION:
THEIR RELATION TO THE PHYSICAL BODY AND TO THE OUTER WORLD
If, as I have have
proposed, we are to continue our study of certain matters
relating to St. Mark's Gospel, we shall have to give a
very wide interpretation to this aim; and it may be only
after a considerable time that we shall see where a
particular line of study belongs. To-day we shall speak of
matters which, although they may seem to be remote from the
main theme, will be of great help later on.
In the first place I
want to emphasise that those who are not actually Members of
our Movement, as long as they have not to some extent
familiarised themselves with the real trend of
spiritual-scientific thought, will always fail to understand
what meaning and value any investigation based upon
clairvoyance can have for people who as yet have no such
faculties. It may well be asked: How can any belief in or
conviction of spiritual truths come to those who cannot see
into the spiritual worlds? Here we must keep on repeating
that although it is not possible to see into the spiritual
worlds as long as the eyes of clairvoyance are unopened,
nevertheless the effects and manifestations of what is within
those worlds are continually in evidence. For instance, when
it is stated on the basis of clairvoyant investigation that
man consists of four members — physical body, etheric body,
astral body and Ego — someone to whom clairvoyant
investigation means nothing, might say: I see only the
physical body; how can I convince myself that what is said
about the etheric and astral bodies is true before my karmas
makes it possible for me actually to see them? Now it is easy
enough, if you so wish, to deny the existence of the astral
body and etheric body; but the consequences of processes
taking place in those bodies cannot be argued away because
they are quite apparent in life. And in order that you may
gradually come to understand that the structure of
man's being and constitution is taken for granted in
many expressions used in the Gospels, I want to-day to show
you how the consequences of processes in the etheric or the
astral body, for example, are clearly evident in everyday
life on the physical plane.
Let us first of all
consider the difference between a man who is full of
idealism, who sets himself high ideals, and one who,
generally speaking, lacks any such inclination, who acts only
in response to external stimuli, eating when he is hungry,
sleeping when he is drowsy and allowing instinct or desire or
passion to drive him to whatever action he may take.
Naturally there are any number of intermediate stages between
the two types of men — those of the kind last described and
those others whose purposes, thoughts and ideals infinitely
transcend anything they are able to achieve in everyday life.
Idealists such as this are in a peculiar position. They have
to learn and to accept as a fact that in life on the physical
plane our actions can never wholly conform with our highest
ideals. An idealist always has to accept the fact that
actions must inevitably fall short of his ideals. Strictly
speaking, then, it must be admitted that in ideals there is
always something loftier than actual deeds. From the
standpoint of Spiritual Science the mark of the idealist is
that his thoughts are loftier than his deeds.
Of the other type of
individual the opposite can be said, namely, that his
thoughts are of less account than his actions. A man who acts
only out of instincts, passions, desires or similar urges,
lacks the quality of thought that would be capable of
comprehending the results of his deed at any particular
moment; happenings to which he gives no thought at all ensue
from what he does on the physical plane. His purposes and
thoughts are narrower in scope and more restricted than his
actions, his deeds, on the physical plane.
The clairvoyant has
something to tell us about these two types of men. When we
perform a deed in life that is of greater importance than our
thoughts, this deed always casts a reflected image, a
mirror-picture, into our astral body: indeed after every
single deed we perform an image, a picture, is left in the
astral body. This image subsequently imprints itself on the
etheric body and in that form remains perceptible in the
Akasha Chronicle, so that a clairvoyant is able to see the
reflected pictures of what a man has done during the course
of his life. Similarly, when actions fall short of the
fulfilment of the ideals, reflected pictures are left in the
astral body and again impressed upon the etheric body. But
there is one great difference between the reflected pictures
of actions springing from instincts, desires and passions,
and the reflected pictures of actions which are the outcome
of idealism. The first contain something which endures as a
destructive element in a man's whole life; they are
images held in the astral body which react upon the whole
human constitution and gradually undermine it; they are
closely connected with the way in which a man in his life on
the physical plane slowly undermines his forces until he
dies. On the other hand, reflected pictures or images
springing from thoughts that are loftier than our actions
have life-giving properties. They are particularly
stimulating for the etheric body and continually bring new
life-giving forces into our whole constitution.
Thus according to the
findings of clairvoyance we have within our constitution on
the physical plane forces which destroy and also forces which
continually impart new life. As a rule the effect of these
forces in our lives can be easily observed. We meet human
beings who are surly, hypochondriacal, morose in temperament,
unable to come to terms with their own soul-life which in
turn reacts upon their physical organism. They become
apprehensive and uneasy, and anxiety, if it is persistent,
manifestly undermines their physical health. In short, there
are individuals who in their later years become melancholic,
sullen, unable to adjust themselves inwardly and are in many
respects unbalanced. If we were to look for the cause of
bearing and conduct of this kind we should find that such
individuals had little opportunity in earlier life to
experience how idealistic thought can be loftier than
action.
In everyday life
these things are often unnoticed, although the effects cannot
be denied. Many individuals feel the effects very strongly as
the prevailing mood of their whole life of soul; they may
even feel them in their bodily constitution. The existence of
the astral body may be denied but not its consequences, for
they are matters of actual experience. And when things of
this kind can be observed in ordinary life, people ought to
realise that it is not, after all, so very foolish to assert
that although supersensible happenings and facts can be
observed only by a clairvoyant, anyone can perceive their
manifestations in actual life.
On the other hand,
actions which inevitably fall short of their corresponding
thoughts leave impressions which manifest themselves in later
life as courage, confidence, balance. These qualities work
right into the physical organism; but the connections will be
perceived only if life is observed not in short sections but
over a lengthy period. The error of many scientific
observations is that conclusions about some effects are drawn
on the basis of what happens in the course, say, of the next
five years, whereas in many cases the effects show themselves
only after decades.
But as well as
individuals who are idealists, whose thoughts are loftier
than a particular experience there are others whose thoughts
always fail to keep pace with their experiences. There are
very many experiences which can be grasped in thought only
with the greatest difficulty. We eat and drink every day by
instinct or as the result of desire: but it takes a very long
time, even for one who is undergoing spiritual development,
to relate these things too to the spiritual life. In point of
fact, everyday things are more difficult than any others to
bring into relation with the spiritual life. In the case of
eating and drinking we shall have achieved this only when we
have discovered why, in order to serve the course of the
world's evolution, we have to take physical substances
into ourselves in a rhythmic process, and what connection
these physical substances have with spiritual life. We then
find that metabolism is not a physical process only, but by
virtue of its rhythm also has in it something essentially
spiritual.
Now there is a way in
which things not merely demanded by external necessity can be
gradually spiritualised. When we are eating fruit, let us
say, such spiritual knowledge as we possess enables us to
form an idea of how the fruit — an apple, for instance — is
related to the universe as a whole. Admittedly, however, this
takes a long time. We can also train ourselves to regard
eating as being something more than a merely physical
activity and to remember how the spirit participates by way
of the sun's rays in the ripening of the fruit. We can
thus spiritualise the most material, everyday processes and
learn to penetrate them with our thoughts. I can do no more
than indicate here how thoughts and ideas can penetrate into
processes of this kind. It is a long business and in our time
very few people indeed can develop adequate thoughts about
eating.
We shall therefore
admit that there are individuals who act purely on the basis
of instinct and others who act on the basis of ideals. The
life of every human being divides itself in such a way that
in some cases the thoughts cannot keep abreast of the actions
and in others the range of the thoughts and ideals is greater
than that of the actions. We have within us, on the one hand,
forces which lead our life into decline and work in such a
way that our physical organism matures through inner causes
towards death. And we have within us other forces which bring
life to our astral and etheric bodies and shine out within
them like a new light. It is these latter forces which remain
in our etheric body as life-giving forces. When at death the
spiritual part of our being abandons its physical sheath, the
etheric body is still around us during the first few days,
making it possible for us to have the backward survey over
our whole life of which I have often spoken.
The most valuable
thing remaining to us as an inwardly formative, upbuilding
power are these life-giving forces, originating from the fact
that our ideas have transcended the bounds of our actions.
These forces continue to work in us after death and actually
provide further life-giving forces for the following
incarnation.
Life-giving forces,
then, implanted by ourselves, remain in the etheric body as
an element that is always young. And although we cannot
thereby prolong our life, we can enable the freshness of
youth to remain for a longer period by ensuring that our
thoughts transcend the range of many of our actions.
If we ask what is the
best way of acquiring ideals which transcend our actions we
shall find it possible if we devote ourselves to Spiritual
Science. When, for instance, we learn from Spiritual Science
of the evolution of man, forces are set astir in the higher
members of our being and this gives rise to idealism in the
most concrete, most balanced form. One of the achievements of
Spiritual Science is to pour fresh, youthful, fertile forces
into our astral and etheric bodies.
The very different
attitudes to Spiritual Science adopted by individuals in this
modern age are due not to the fact that these individuals
have no clairvoyant faculties but that in everyday life their
observation is not sufficiently exact. Otherwise they would
see in what different ways the human soul and spirit manifest
themselves in the physical organism. People who thoroughly
disbelieve in Spiritual Science may hear that the physical
body of man is somehow permeated by certain higher members.
Let us take them together and simply call them the
soul-and-spirit. But present-day materialists will not
believe in the existence of this man of soul-and-spirit: they
believe only in physical man and are in this respect
particularly materialists. By ‘materialists’
people often mean simply the theoretical materialists, who
believe only in matter. But as I have said again and again,
these theoretical materialists are by no means the worst. A
materialist may use his intellect just to create concepts;
they will in any case be very limited in scope and this form
of materialism is not so very harmful. But when materialism
is reinforced by other factors it can be very detrimental to
the man's life as a whole — especially if the inmost,
spiritual core of his being becomes dependent upon his
material constitution. And nowadays, especially, how
dependent men are upon matter! Theoretical materialism leads
thoughts astray and is fatal to the ties that link souls
together. But external life too is greatly influenced by the
fact that so many people put materialism into actual
practice. I mean by that, individuals who are so dependent
upon their physical constitution that they can spend only a
few winter months in their offices and in summer find it
necessary to go off to the Riviera. The fact is they are so
utterly dependent upon what is material that the soul has to
subject itself to the needs which life dictates to it. That
again is a different kind of materialist from a man who is
materialistic only in his thoughts and ideas. Theoretical
idealism may lead to the conviction that theoretical
materialism is all wrong. But to cure practical materialists,
to cure complete dependence upon the substances of the
physical body, is possible only through genuine absorption in
Spiritual Science.
If people could bring
themselves to think — that is if their thoughts came not
just from their intellect but were connected with reality —
they would recognise from perfectly ordinary, everyday facts
that there is a great difference between the various parts of
man's being, for example between the hands and other
parts of the body — the shoulders, let us say. A purely
external investigation of man's physical body reveals
differences in the action of the nerves. But it must be
remembered that we can exercise a certain influence here. If
the behaviour of the nerves were decisive for the soul we
should be dependent upon material effects, for the action of
the nerves is a material effect. But we are certainly not
dependent in this respect, for influences of every kind can
be brought to bear on the action of the nerves. The reason,
quite simply, is that the etheric and astral bodies — the
soul-and-spirit part of man — work in such very different
ways. It is not enough to say that the physical body is
filled with the etheric and astral bodies, for there is a
difference that varies with the part of the body under
consideration. We can easily convince ourselves that
spiritual influences acting upon different parts of the body
produce different effects. But we must be quite clear that
what happens in life is under the sway of necessity. When
there is something unusual about the direction taken by a
current of air the physicist can apply his laws to discover
the reason. But why is it that people do not reflect about
the significance of the fact that they wash their hands far
more often than any other part of the body? You will think it
strange to introduce such matters; but it is these everyday
phenomena that confirm the communications of a clairvoyant.
It is also a fact that there are individuals who enjoy
washing their hands as often as possible, and others who do
not. Understanding of such an apparently trivial fact
actually demands very advanced knowledge. To a clairvoyant
the hands of a man are remarkably different in a particular
respect from all his other bodily members. Luminous
projections of the etheric body stream out from the fingers,
sometimes glimmering faintly, sometimes flashing far into the
surrounding space. The radiations from the fingers vary
according to whether the man is happy or troubled and there
is also a difference between the back of the hands and the
palm. For anyone able to observe clairvoyantly, a hand, with
its etheric and astral parts, is a most wonderful structure.
But everything in our environment, material though it be, is
a revelation, a manifestation, of the spirit. You should
think of matter as being related to spirit as ice is to
water; matter is formed out of spirit — call it
‘condensed spirit’ if you like. Contact with any
material substance means contact with the spirit in that
substance. All our contact with anything of a material nature
is in fact — to the extent that it is purely material —
maya. In reality it is spirit with which we come
into contact.
If we observe life
with sensitivity, we shall realise that washing the hands —
especially if it is done frequently — brings a man into
contact with the spirit in the water and has a considerable
effect upon his whole disposition. Some individuals have a
great fondness for washing their hands; directly the least
speck of dirt gets on their hands they must be washed! Such
characters either have, or will develop, a very definite
relation to their surroundings, a relation not entirely the
outcome of material influences. It is as if delicate forces
in matter were working upon such individuals when there is
this relationship between their hands and the element of
water. Even in everyday life you will find that these people
have an entirely healthy kind of sensitivity and more
delicate powers of observation than others. They are at once
aware, for instance, whether someone standing near them has a
brutal or a kindly disposition. On the other hand,
individuals who do not mind their hands being dirty are
actually of a coarser disposition and erect a sort of barrier
between themselves and their environment. This is a fact and
can actually be observed as being characteristic of certain
groups. Travel through certain countries and observe their
inhabitants. In regions where people tend to wash the hands
more frequently, you will find that relations between friend
and friend are very different from what they are in regions
where people wash their hands less often and erect a sort of
barrier between one another.
These things have the
validity of natural law, though the details may be affected
by various circumstances. If we throw a stone into the air
the line of projection is a parabola; but if the stone is
caught by a gust of wind there will no longer be a pure
parabola. This shows that all the relevant facts must be
known if certain relationships are to be accurately observed.
As to the hands, clairvoyant consciousness reveals that they
are permeated by soul and spirit — to such an extent,
indeed, that a definite relationship of the hands to the
water is established. This holds good less in the case of the
human face and less still in the case of the other parts of
the body. This must not, however, be interpreted as an
objection to washing or bathing but rather that we must keep
our attention fixed on the relevant circumstances.
The point here is to
show how very differently the soul and spirit are related to
and express themselves in the various parts of the body. You
are not likely to find that anyone does harm to his astral
body by washing his hands too often, but the point must be
considered in its widest range. The relationship between
hands and water may exercise a healthy influence on the
relation between man and his surroundings, that is to say,
between his astral body and his environment; and for this
reason things will not readily be carried to extremes. But
those who think materialistically and allow their thoughts to
be attached solely to matter will say that what is good for
the hands must be good for the rest of the body. This would
show that differences depending on delicate perceptions
entirely escape notice; the consequence  -- and it
is abundantly in evidence — is that for certain purposes the
same treatment is applied to the whole of the body. For
instance, frequent cold baths and constant cold water
frictions are recommended as a particularly effective
treatment, even for children. Fortunately, because of obvious
effects on the nervous system, doctors have already begun to
realise that these treatments have been carried to absurd
extremes. What is right for the hands because of their
particular relation to the astral body can become an
injurious experiment when applied to parts of the body having
a different relation to the astral body. Washing the hands
may bring about a healthy sensitivity to the environment; but
an excessive use of cold baths and the like may cause an
unhealthy hypersensitivity which, especially if such
treatment is applied in childhood, lasts for the whole of
life.
It is therefore
all-important to know the limits within which methods may be
beneficially applied; and this will be possible only if there
is willingness to acknowledge that higher members of
man's being are incorporated in his physical body. It
will then be recognised that some of the inner organs used by
the physical body as instruments are very differently related
to the being of soul-and-spirit. It will be found, for
instance, that the glandular system is preeminently the
instrument of the etheric body, whereas everything associated
with the nerves, for instance the brain, is intimately
related to the astral body.
If these things are
not kept in mind certain phenomena will always remain
unintelligible. Materialists make the fundamental mistake of
confining their observations to what in every case is only
the instrument. For everything we experience is experienced
in the realm of the soul; and our consciousness of these
experiences is due to the fact that we have in the physical
body an instrument which reflects them. Our physical body is
only an instrument for reflecting what is going on in the
life of soul. Anyone versed in Spiritual Science is clear
about this. But the physical body can serve as an instrument
in different ways. I need only point to one thing: the unique
significance of the thyroid gland. As you know, the thyroid
gland used to be considered a useless organ and in certain
illnesses was often totally removed. In such cases the
patients became imbeciles. The danger is substantially
reduced if even a small part of the gland is left. This is
evidence that the thyroid secretions are necessary for the
development of certain aspects of the life of the soul. The
strange thing is this: that if a secretion of a sheep's
thyroid gland is administered to patients who have lost the
gland, their condition is improved; if, later on, this
treatment is discontinued, they lapse again into
imbecility.
Materialists might
find considerable support for their views in this fact. But
the spiritual scientist knows how to judge it correctly. We
are concerned here with an organ, the product of which can be
introduced directly into our organism and be effective. But
this can apply only to organs such as the thyroid gland,
which are definitely related to the etheric body. Such an
effect is not possible if the organ is related to the astral
body. I have known poorly gifted individuals who have eaten
plenty of sheep's brains but have not thereby become
intelligent! This again shows that there is a great
difference between the several organs, the magnitude of the
difference being due to the fact that one group of organs has
an inner connection with the etheric body and another with
the astral body.
This reveals another
important fact to spiritual observation. It seems very
strange that a man may become feebleminded if his thyroid
gland is removed altogether but recovers his wits if he is
given an extract of the gland. It is particularly strange
because there is no evidence that his brain has been
detrimentally affected. Here is another case where ordinary
observation should be led on to spiritual-scientific
observation. Spiritual Science shows that a man does not
become an imbecile because his thyroid gland is removed.
‘But’, you will say, ‘facts show that he
does!’ In reality, however, men do not become imbeciles
because they cannot think, but because they are deprived of
the possibility of using an instrument through which they
become attentive to their environment. They are not imbeciles
because they lack reasoning power but because they have no
contact with their environment, and this insensibility is not
the same as loss of reason. It does not necessarily follow
that a man has lost his reason if he fails to exercise it
because of lack of attentiveness to the environment. If you
do not think about a thing you cannot express yourself about
it; if you want to establish relationship with anything you
must think about it. When the thyroid gland is removed a
man's living interest in things is undermined — to
such an extent indeed that he ceases to use his reasoning
power.
Here you can see the
subtle difference between using parts of the brain which are
an instrument for the reasoning mind and using an instrument
such as the thyroid gland. Light can thus be thrown on the
ways in which the physical body is an instrument; and if we
observe attentively we shall also be able to differentiate
accurately between the several parts of man's
constitution.
The ‘I’
is related to the surrounding world in the most varied ways.
We shall be concerned here with certain facts which I have
described elsewhere, showing that a man may endeavour to
penetrate with his ‘I’ into his inner self,
seeking to become aware of his own essential being; or he may
turn to the external world, seeking to establish a connection
with that world. We become conscious of the ‘I’
in a certain sense when we turn our attention inwards, when
we reflect upon what life gives us or has in store for us. We
can also become aware of the ‘I’ when, for
example, we are brought into contact with the world outside
by knocking against a stone, or perhaps when we cannot settle
an account! We then become aware that our ‘I’ is
unable to master the circumstances of external life. In
short, we can become aware of our ‘I’ both in our
inner life and when we are confronting circumstances of the
external world. And we become aware of our ‘I’ in
a very special way when the magical relationship we call
sympathy or compassion is established with human beings or
certain circumstances in our environment. There is clear
evidence here of a magical process operating from soul to
soul, from spirit to spirit. For we actually feel within
ourselves something that is going on in the world outside, is
being thought and felt there: we are experiencing in
ourselves something that is of the nature of soul-and-spirit
in the external world. We pass into the inner realm of our
being in actual fact, for sympathy or compassion is an
intimate experience in the life of soul. If our
‘I’ is not really equal to these experiences and
needs to be inwardly strengthened, this comes to expression
in the life of soul as sorrow, and physically as tears.
Sorrow is an experience of the soul which gives the
‘I’ in the face of some external circumstance a
feeling of greater strength than if it had remained
indifferent. Sorrow always denotes an inner enhancement of
the activity of the ‘I’. Sorrow enhances the
content, the intensity, of the ‘I’ and tears are
an expression of the fact that the ‘I’ is at a
particular moment striving to experience more than would have
been possible had it remained indifferent.
We cannot but wonder
at the poetic imagination that was already apparent in the
young Goethe and was deeply connected with cosmic mysteries.
I am referring here to the passage where Faust's
weakness leads him to the point where he desires the physical
extinction of his ‘I’, and he feels driven to
suicide. Then the Easter bells ring out and at the sound of
them the ‘I’ gathers strength; tears — the sign
of sorrow in Faust's soul — burst forth and he cries:
‘Tears start; earth holds me once more!’ This
indicates that what belongs to the earth has been
strengthened; tears well up into the eyes, giving expression
to the increased intensity of the ‘I’.
Mirth and laughter
too are connected with the strength or weakness of the
‘I’ in its relationship to the world outside.
Mirth or laughter indicates that our ‘I’ feels
more confident of its understanding and grasp of things and
events. In laughter, our ‘I’ gathers such
intensity that it pours itself out over the environment. This
outpouring comes to expression in mirth, in the way we show
amusement. Connected with this is the fact that — for the
healthy-minded at all events — the cause of genuine sorrow
must be a reality. Any reality in the external world which
makes us feel as we participate in it that the inner activity
of our ‘I’ must be enhanced, may induce a mood of
sorrow. But if sorrow is associated with something unreal,
for example, with some artificial representation given merely
for the sake of arousing sadness, a man whose thinking is
sound will require something more. He feels that what moves
him to sorrow should arouse in him the surmise that what has
caused the sorrow can be overcome. — I am merely hinting at
this today and will deal with it more fully on another
occasion. — A healthy soul feels the urge to rise to a
higher level, to conduct itself worthily in the face of
misery. Only a rather unhealthy soul will be satisfied with a
mere representation of misery — unless in the representation
there is implicit some prospect of victory. Thus we demand
that in a drama there should be a prospect of victory for the
victim of misery. No aesthetic can arbitrarily decree that
only the trivial things in life shall be represented. But it
will become evident that a man who follows his own healthy
nature will not find that the demands of his ‘I’
are satisfied by an imitation of misery. The whole weight of
reality is needed before the ‘I’ is roused to
compassion.
And now think of
this. — Is it not exactly the opposite as regards the comic?
To laugh at real folly is in a certain respect inhuman. We
cannot laugh at folly when it confronts us as reality. On the
other hand it is thoroughly healthy to laugh at the
representation of folly; and it was a very sound
‘folk-therapy’ to present to the people in comedy
and burlesque how the folly of human action leads of itself
to absurdity. When our ‘I’ is able in mirth or
laughter to rise above what is recognised as folly in a given
situation, it is strengthened by the spectacle of an artistic
representation of folly, and there is no healthier laughter
than this. On the other hand it is inhuman to laugh at a
predicament in which a fellow human being finds himself, or
at a real simpleton. Therefore different laws hold good if
representation of these things is to have its proper
effect.
If our
‘I’ is to be strengthened in an act of
compassion, what moves us must confront us as reality. On the
other hand, as healthy-minded men we demand, when misery is
portrayed before us, that we should be able to feel the
possibility of victory over it. In the dying hero of a
tragedy, where death is enacted before our eyes, we feel that
the victory of the spirit over the body is symbolised in this
death. The very opposite is the case when the ‘I’
is brought into relation with the outside world. We feel then
that we cannot fitly be moved to mirth or laughter when faced
with reality, but rather that laughter is proper in cases
that are removed from reality. We can certainly laugh when a
man meets with a misfortune which does him no particular harm
and is not closely related to life. But the more closely our
experiences are related to reality, the less we laugh if we
truly understand them.
From this it is clear
that our ‘I’ is related to reality in different
ways but the very variety of the facts testifies to the
existence of a relationship even with what is most sublime.
You have heard in many lectures that in ancient Initiation
there were two paths leading into the spiritual world: the
one path was a descent into the inmost being of man, into the
Microcosm; the other path led out into the Macrocosm. Now
everything that comes to expression in great things is
revealed also in the smallest. In ordinary life a man's
descent into his inner being finds expression in sorrow,
whereas the manner of his life in the external world shows
itself in his ability to grasp the connection between
processes that are apparently unconnected. Herein the
supremacy of the ‘I’ is made manifest. And you
have heard that if the ‘I’ is not to lose itself,
it must be guided by an Initiation leading into the outer
world; otherwise it will lose its bearings and may be led
into what can only seem to be a void.
The smallest is
connected with the greatest. Hence in Spiritual Science,
where our thoughts are so often lifted to the highest
spheres, we also concern ourselves with the most everyday
matters. In the next lecture we shall turn once more to the
consideration of higher things, making use of what we have
been considering to-day.
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