ELEVENTH LECTURE
6th July, 1924
We
will now go on to consider the children of whom we had not time to
speak yesterday.
There
was a little girl of ten years old, who was suffering from loss of
memory. She is only in the Second Class at school (where the children
would be mostly about seven years old.) She has adenoids. The symptom
is connected with an excess of etheric powers of growth in the region
of the bladder, which condition is then reflected in the head. Thus
we have here a case where the physical origin of the trouble is
immediately patent. The girl is ten years old — that is to say,
she is at the age when, as I have repeatedly pointed out, it is
particularly important that the teacher shall have made the right
relationship with the child.
The
child herself has of course, so to speak, slept through the
antecedent facts and processes that have led up to the present
moment. The inflamed condition that shows itself in the neighbourhood
of the bladder and has its reflection in the upper part of the
organism is clear evidence of the fact that the ether body is not
properly at home in the organism — the reason being that its
co-operation with the astral body is not able to come about as it
should. You must never lose sight of the fact that where a process of
this kind occurs, which finds expression in the soul organism, then
its source and origin has to be sought in the subtler, finer
organisation of the body; for the coarser, cruder organisation cannot
put us on the right track in our search. An irregularity in the
higher organisation of man is, naturally, more easily noticed than in
the lower organisation. In this child, owing to a defective astral
body, the ether body does not function properly, with the result that
what the child receives by way of impressions fails to penetrate into
the organisation. What we have to do, therefore, if we are to help
such a child, is to strengthen as much as ever possible the
impressions we intend her to receive; in all our work with her, we
must see to it that strong impressions are brought to bear on
the child.
For
consider how it is with memory. Memory is dependent on a right and
proper organic relation between physical body and ether body; astral
body and I have no part in the retention of impressions in memory. As
you know very well, dreams make their appearance only when astral
body and ego have begun to enter into the physical and ether body,
not before. As far as astral body and ego are concerned, everything
is forgotten between the times of falling asleep and awakening. The
impressions are left lying in the part of the human being that
remains in bed. But when, as in the child we are considering, this
part is not properly organised, then what is left there of the
impression of the day does not succeed in embodying itself into it.
Our first task will be therefore to induce strong impressions, in
order to bring it about that the higher organisation — I and
astral body — shall be roused to an energetic activity within
the lower organisation — ether body and physical body.
I
do not know whether the experiment has yet been made of testing the
little girl's memory for simple folk-melodies? (Frl. Dr. K.: “She
finds that easier.”) So the capacity for receiving impressions
of this nature is, you see, present. Starting from it, we should now
try to work on further. We should, for example, take with the child
little poems where a refrain is repeated — say, after every
three lines. She will in this way receive a powerful impression of
rhythm; and then later on, the moment will come when we can approach
her with impressions that are without rhythm. Do not imagine that any
substantial success can be looked for under three or four years —
that is, not before puberty. Working on these lines, we must first
reach the point where rhythmical impressions are able to act upon the
child, and then go on to non rhythmical impressions. In this way we
shall be able to achieve something in the educational sense. The
therapy we have already indicated; the girl should have compresses
with Berberis vulgaris 10 per cent, and Curative Eurythmy: L —
M:S — U.
Note
that an inner perception underlies the giving of these particular
sounds in Curative Eurythmy. The formative, moulding influence will
enter right into the mobile astral body. Then the M, as I have told
you, is the sound that places the whole organism into the
out-breathing, and so the astral organisation will there meet the
etheric. With S, the aim is to bring the astral body into powerful
and living activity — but it must be an activity that is
restrained, held in check; and for this purpose the U is added. These
are the measures that suggested themselves when we had the child
immediately before us; here we are simply recalling them. Compresses
of Berberis vulgaris are prescribed because the causes of
inflammation require to be neutralised, and can be by this means.
And
then we had a sixteen-year-old boy, a kleptomaniac of the very same
type as the little fellow who was brought before you a few days ago,
and in whom you could see a perfect example of kleptomania. Your boy
at Lauenstein will have to be treated on exactly the same lines. You
will need however to watch whether the impressions you bring to him
link up with this or that. The results of our work with kleptomaniacs
can differ quite considerably according to the education the children
have already received.
(See .)
And
now we must go on to speak of the child who is so restless and
fidgety. A sleepy, backward little boy, who has not learned to speak
and is behind-hand with all the education he should have received in
the first epoch of life. You can see at once what is lacking; the
child has entirely failed to get hold of the principle of imitation,
he has never attempted to imitate. This means, in other words,
that his I and astral body are incapable of bringing his organs into
movement. He is a most lovable little fellow, but it is
extraordinarily difficult for him to overcome the longing that he has
in his physical body for rest and quiet. The first thing to be done
is to give him Tone Eurythmy. That will be the way to help him on.
(You will understand, I can do no more here than indicate the ideal.)
If the boy does Tone Eurythmy properly, it can come about that he is
so stirred and stimulated in his astral body that the rhythm begins
to take hold also of the ether body.
Another
thing you must do is to let him repeat after you rhythmical
sentences, so that he plunges, as it were, right into sound as
such. Take, for instance, the line: “Und es woget und woget und
brauset und zischt.” [From
Schiller's Der Taucher.] You must go through the
sentence with the child rather slowly (you will discover for
yourselves what is just the right pace), first forwards and then
backwards. (For this particular case, I purposely say “woget”
instead of “siedet”, since we are here using the line
with a therapeutical end in view.) Go on doing this again and again,
forwards and backwards. Wherever possible, the same method should
also be followed with a sequence of vowels. In this way we can awaken
the child, inwardly. Surprise, amazement, begin to rise up in him, as
we get him to intone A (ah), then E (eh), I (ee); and then backwards,
I, E, A; then again, A, E, I, and so on. The child gradually wakes
up, and, despite all difficulties, the principle of imitation will
begin at last to work. It will be necessary to take the child by
himself, and to see to it that imitation has its place in everything
you do with him; always stop after a few moments and get him to
intone after you.
And
then, in addition, some therapeutical treatment will be needed; and
here you will have to ensure that two opposite influences work
together. First, you must provide a dispersing influence that works
centrifugally and drives the substantiality of the organism to the
circumference. Hypophysis always works in this way. For the child we
are considering, hypophysis must not however be used just in the way
we use it for rickety children in whom we definitely want to induce
dispersal. Here we have to call into action at the same time the
opposite principle that works centripetally. You will accordingly
need to find something which will have, while working together with
hypophysis, the tendency to build up the human organism out of
substance. Both Carbo Vegetabilis and Carbo Animalis are able to do
this. You could therefore use Carbo Animalis, alternating it with the
hypophysis. The Carbo Animalis will supply the form principle,
and then in the hypophysis cerebri you will have the organising
principle that tends to encourage organic growth.
One
of the most important things to bear in mind, when you are starting a
Home for Curative Education, is the necessity for constant
observation. Each single person who is helping in the work must
observe everything he or she takes in hand to do with the children.
And it should really be so that we accompany — and in that way
strengthen — all that we do with a certain inner trust and
confidence.
In
the case of this child, our worst trouble will be, not with the boy
himself — you will soon be able to notice progress in him —
but with the parents. The mother is firmly convinced it is for us to
do wonders with him, and that quickly. I have heard that she even
wants to come with the child. (One of the teachers interposed: “She
is only bringing him to us.”) That is better, it is a relief to
hear that you will not have the mother there with you. But with a
child of this kind, it will, in any case, be imperative to hold your
own — even with a certain obstinacy — in face of the
demands and expectations of the parents. These demands are perfectly
understandable, but sometimes terribly foolish and unwise. The
parents of such a child do not, and cannot, know what is right and
necessary for him.
Now
it will be very good if you can bring such a child even physically
also into the alternating conditions that can be induced by means
of the A E I, I E A, etc. I will tell you an excellent way of doing
this. First, put the child into a bath of moderately warm water, and
then, comparatively quickly, give him instead a douche, also of a
moderate temperature. You will by this means call to life that which
needs to be roused to life and activity. As a matter of fact,
wherever an abnormality expresses itself in laziness and inertia,
this measure cannot fail to have good effect, so long as we are
careful not to overdo it. Do not be anxious if, immediately after a
bath treatment of this kind has been begun, the children get rather
excited. That will pass. You will see, a reaction will come, and a
more balanced condition gradually establish itself.
And
now we must pass on to another boy who sees everything in colours. He
is the boy, you remember, who never has any money! I can see him
there before me as I speak. The fundamental fact about this child is
that he is incapable of making the right approach to the external
world; he remains rooted in himself. In order to render this
phenomenon intelligible, I shall have to explain it for you in
plastic terms. The boy cannot make his way out into the external
world; consequently his I organisation is perpetually pushing at
his astral body from within. This gives rise to an inner clumsiness —
better expressed, an inner slovenliness. But along with this, in
connection with the continual pressure on the astral body, there
develops also a delicate sensitiveness; so that the boy has really
something gentle and noble about him. And that goes together with the
seeing in colour. He sees colours because he is able to be awake in
his astral body.
Now,
we cannot begin to do anything in the way of education for this boy
until we have a clear perception of a state of affairs that is
developing in him all the time in increasing measure — namely,
a certain dim hankering after ideals, but at the same time a
starting-back, a flinching from the world as from something he cannot
get on with. The boy can be taught entirely on the lines of Waldorf
School education, but everything will depend in his case on how you
yourself feel and behave towards him; you must preserve all the time
a natural trust and confidence in him. There is really hardly
anything more than this to be said.
Take
for example, writing. The boy writes something like this, does he
not? Now it will be for you to set to work and take the utmost care
and pains that he shall gradually change his handwriting and develop
it into a finely formed script. And you will find that while he is
doing this, there will be clear signs also of a transformation taking
place in his whole inner constitution. When he shows a tendency to
boast and talk big, then you must at once, on the basis of the trust
he has learned to place in you, contrive some means to make his
boasting ridiculous.
(See .)
I
was speaking to you yesterday about the albinos, and I came to
the point where I said we need to find the cosmic impulse that can
have influence in such cases. Let us now first ask our expert on
cosmic constellations whether she has noticed anything special in
these or other horoscopes that albinos have in common. (To Dr.
Vreede) Did you notice that among the outer planets, Uranus and
Neptune were particularly prominent? (Dr. Vreede replied: “Yes,
there are many such aspects. Apart from that, I should not have
anything special to say about them.”) I address my question
purposely to you, because you are frequently engaged in the
contemplation of horoscopes and have probably often had such things
in your mind. Up to now, I have from you only these two that we are
considering. We are here treading new ground, and it will be best if
we go forward entirely in the spirit of discovery. A great many
factors in the case might well claim consideration, but I would like
us to give our attention for the moment to the following.
Consider
the human being. We divide him into certain members. In accordance
with that memberment which arranges the whole nature and being of man
rather from the etheric principle, we divide him, as you know, into
physical body, etheric body, sentient body, which last we then bring
into relation with sentient soul; after that we have intellectual or
mind soul (which the Greeks call soul of force or power), and
consciousness or spiritual soul. And then we come to spirit-self,
life-spirit and spirit-man. And all these several members reveal
themselves to us as forming together a single, relatively independent
whole; taken all together, they compose man. But now, the way in
which the members are put together to compose man, differs in each
single human being. One person will have a little more power and
strength in his ether body, and correspondingly less in his physical
body; another a little more power in the consciousness soul; and so
on. And right in the midst of all these members stands man in
his very own individuality, which individuality goes through repeated
earth lives and has the task of bringing under control this whole
connection of various members, has the task of uniting them, on the
principle of freedom, under one individual ordering.
And
now let us see how that which comes to man from cosmic realms unites
itself with these several members. The influence of the Sun, which
works strongly on man as a whole, works strongest of all on the
physical body. In connection with the etheric body we find that the
strongest influences come from the Moon; in connection with
the sentient body it is the influences of Mercury that work
with special strength; and in the sentient soul we have the strongest
influences of Venus. The strongest influences of Mars serve
to help the development of the intellectual or mind soul, and of
Jupiter the consciousness or spiritual soul, whilst Saturn
brings its influences to bear especially on the spirit self. And
the members that have not yet developed in man find their support in
Uranus and Neptune — the vagrants, so to speak,
among the planets, who attached themselves at a later time to our
planetary system. In Uranus and Neptune therefore we shall expect to
find planetary influences which, under normal conditions, exert no
very strong influence upon the constellation at birth.
| Spirit-Man | — | Neptune |
| Life-Spirit | — | Uranus |
| Spirit-Self | — | Saturn |
| Spiritual Soul | — | Jupiter |
| Intellectual Soul | — | Mars |
| Sentient Soul | — | Venus |
| Sentient Body | — | Mercury |
| Ether Body | — | Moon |
| Physical Body | — | Sun |
You
know of course, from other anthroposophical lectures how strong is
the influence of the Moon on man, via the ether body. I need not
remind you of how the Moon is connected with the whole principle of
heredity, of how it impresses all manner of forces and powers into
the model of the physical body, which comes from the parents.
Beginning with the earliest embryonic development, this Moon
influence determines the whole direction that development shall take
in the child.
Now
it is possible for a constellation to occur where the impulse from
the Moon is sufficiently strong for the human being descending to
Earth to receive by way of heredity a disposition to be drawn down
into the metabolic organisation. Or again, it can also happen that
the Moon influences are to some extent wrested away, turned aside,
whilst influences that come from quite another quarter and that
refuse to tolerate the Moon influences, namely Uranus and Neptune,
attract what should really be in the sphere of the Moon's influence:
Other constellations are also possible. But in the case of the
children we are considering, the latter is the constellation that we
find; and we have here a clear instance of how by looking at what the
horoscope shows we can see what is really the matter.
Take
first this horoscope (of the elder sister). It will probably
have struck you that you find here in this region, Uranus together
with Venus and Mars. You will not really need to carry your
considerations any further than this triangle. Here then are Mars,
Venus and Uranus. Consider first Mars. For this child, who was born
in 1909, Mars stands in complete opposition to the Moon. Mars, which
has Venus and Uranus in its vicinity, stands — itself —
in strong opposition to the Moon. Here is the Moon and here
is Mars. And Mars pulls along with it Uranus and Venus.
And
now I would ask you to pay careful attention also to the fact that
the Moon is at the same time standing before Libra. This means, the
Moon has comparatively little support from the Zodiac, it wavers and
hesitates, it is even something of a weakling in this hour; and its
influence is still further reduced through the fact that Mars (which
pulls along with it the Luciferic influence) stands in opposition to
it.
Now
let us turn to the horoscope of the young child. Again, here are
Venus and Uranus and Mars near together, the three of them covering
between them no more than this section of the heavens. So you see,
once again these three are found near to each other. In the case of
the elder girl we saw that they were standing in opposition to the
Moon, which was at the time standing in Libra. On this second
horoscope, Mars, Venus and Uranus are in close proximity, exactly as
before; but when we examine more nearly the position of Mars, we find
it is not, as before, in complete opposition to the Moon. It is
however very nearly so. Although the younger child does not come in
for a complete opposition, there is an approximation to opposition.
But
what strikes us as still more remarkable is that when we come to make
our observation of the Moon, we discover she is again in Libra —
while being at the same time, as we have seen, almost in opposition
to Mars, which latter drags Uranus and Venus along with it. We have
therefore again a background of Libra. I am not saying that it must
have been so; we have, you see, no properly authorised records of
the births. On the first horoscope the Moon is in Libra, and here on
the second too. (Dr. Vreede said: “It is curious that in both
there is also the same constellation between Moon and Neptune.”)
That would have to be explained on its own account. Horoscopes
require to be interpreted quite individually. It is not a matter for
surprise that there is this similarity in the two horoscopes,
considering that the girls are sisters. That we find in the elder
child a stronger opposition than in the younger (who has been
influenced by the elder) is also no cause for astonishment. What is
important for us is that we find here a constellation that is
perfectly intelligible, a constellation that, when interpreted, shows
us the following.
Mars,
who is the bearer of iron, makes himself independent of the principle
of propagation — independent, that is, of the Moon. He brings
away from its true mission that which comes to man through the Venus
principle and is connected with love. Mars tears this out of its true
path of action, does not allow it to be in connection with
generation, nor afterwards with growth; with the result that that
which rightly stands in connection with the growth forces and should
live in the lower part of the body, presses up into the head
organisation. Consequently we find that in the growth process that
takes place within the child iron will be lacking, whereas everything
that tends to be in conflict with iron, notably sulphur, will be
present to excess.
We
have therefore here to do with an extraordinarily strong
predestination of the will, and our first concern must be to see that
we treat the nerves-and-senses organisation of these two children
with the utmost care and delicacy. Their nerves-and-senses
organisation is, as a whole, slippery and unstable, unable to endure
strong impressions; and we must be ready at every moment with the
right thing to do, we must sense it in our finger-tips! A fine
feeling and tact is needed in all one's dealings with the
nerves-and-senses organisation of children of this kind; especially
must we avoid straining the eyes in reading and such-like
occupations. Try to impart your teaching without requiring the use of
the eyes at all — I mean, without any reading. On the other
hand, accustom the eyes to colour impressions where the colours shade
off gently into one another. For instance, let the colours of the
rainbow pass over from one into another, slowly, the child following
all the time with her gaze. There you have, you see, measures that
will be quite easy to carry out.
If you are also to treat the children therapeutically, there is just
one thing I must tell you, and that is, that after puberty the
remedies will no longer be very effective. And that can be an
important indication for you, since the one child was born in 1909,
and the other in I921; the effects of treatment can in their case be
thoroughly observed and the difference noted.
What
we want to do for a child of this kind is to introduce powerful
radiations of iron, letting them stream up from the
metabolism-and-limbs organisation. The way to bring this about is to
take pyrites in very fine powder form and lay it on a surface that
transmits iron radiations only very slightly. A glass surface would
fulfil this condition, but naturally you cannot use glass. So you
must try using a clean grease-saturated paper; best of all would be a
very thin parchment-like paper, but it must be really thin so that it
clings to the body. Ordinary paper that is made from linen rags is no
good. You must rub resin or something of that sort over the paper and
sift the pyrites powder finely on to it. By this means you can bring
the iron radiation to enter right into the child. Lay the paper all
along the legs and on the shoulder-blades, and then try the
application of a “drawing” compress — say, of
cochlearia — on the forehead.
If
this treatment be applied to the organism at the time when the change
of teeth is taking place — a time when particularly powerful
streamings and counter-streamings (or radiations) are going on —
much can be done towards overcoming the instability.
Such
is then the result of our investigations so far. The problem must of
course be the subject of further study. Up to now, the world has done
nothing with albinos except expose them for show, getting them to
tell their tale: “I am rather fat, I have white hair, I can see
nothing by day, I can see better at night.” This is the kind of
thing that actually goes on with albinos today, and there is on the
whole very little knowledge about them; for the scientists of our day
do not concern themselves with problems of this nature. But directly
we turn our attention to striking facts such as those I have been
putting before you here we begin to see how strongly the cosmic
influence is working, wherever this complete irregularity is
present in the mutual disposition of the members of the human being.
And
now I should like you to bring forward any questions you are wanting
to ask.
(Question:
“That we find ourselves in the situation of having questions to
ask has come about through Dr. L. approaching Frau Dr. Wegman on
quite other grounds. He was of opinion that the mood of those
attending the lectures was not as it should be.”)
It
is surely quite unnecessary that we should waste time discussing what
is after all a simple matter. Dr. L. came to me and explained that
there was a deep feeling among the Lauenstein members of the
importance of the task they were undertaking; they felt they were
about to embark upon what would prove to be a new mission within the
Anthroposophical Movement, and it would surely be good if the karmic
connections between those who are engaging in the work could be
thoroughly explained and understood. (l. shakes his head.) Well,
anyway, let us concentrate our attention on the main point. What L.
said amounted to this: The Lauenstein members believe that they have
now set out upon a task that is entirely new and of fundamental
importance; to which I replied that in that case what they will need
before all else will be sincerely and faithfully to learn what is
being given in this course. If it should prove that anyone is not
satisfied with what is being given in this course of lectures and
would rather remain in the realm of abstractions, would rather set to
work, for example, to organise a completely new movement, then all I
can say is that such an attitude would be no more than the natural
result of practices that have been followed only too long among our
members. Anyone taking such a path would find himself in danger of
megalomania. Nevertheless, in order that the partly justified
feelings in the background may have ample opportunity to find
expression, I have asked you to put your questions. And so now our
best plan will be to ask and consider together quite practical
questions.
(S. asks, what connection has the Lauenstein Home with the fact that
Trüper [Johannes Trüper,
1855-1921, Founder and for many years Leader of the Youth Sanatorium
in Jena.] was the first to undertake the education of backward
children.)
What
do you mean? That Trüper was the first to concern himself with
these children and do something for them? You are attaching too much
importance to the work of this man. I do not think that the
Educational Homes for backward children which were started in Hanover
— very early, comparatively speaking, and not without
success — can have been influenced by Trüper. In point of
fact, the first step in this direction dates much farther back. But
what has been lacking all along is just the very thing that can
enable one to look right into the whole being of the child. For we
have really no means of discovering the simplest facts without the
help of anthroposophical knowledge. And the converse is no less true,
that the human beings themselves are constantly affording us new and
deeper insight into Anthroposophy.
Consider
how it is, for instance, with regard to Goethe's Theory of
Metamorphosis. In the form it was able to develop under Goethe
himself, who was after all a clever man, it appears to us today, does
it not, as an abstract theory? It abounds in statements and premises,
but has to be content with showing how the leaf lives in the blossom,
how a petal changes into a stamen, etc. — treating, that is, of
no more than an elementary metamorphosis. When it goes on to speak of
animal and man, all that the theory can do is to adduce —
rather shyly — the transformation of the vertebrae into the
bones of the skull. In no realm of nature does it get beyond the
elementary stage. I myself was amazed and perplexed. Did it never
dawn upon Goethe — so I kept asking myself all through the
eighties — that the whole brain is a transformation of one
single ganglion? Spiritually, I could see that it was so; it had
dawned upon him. Then, later on, I made a discovery, which showed
that it was only Goethe's discreet reserve which had restrained him
all the time from giving expression to the truth he clearly
perceived. When I came to Weimar, I found in a little note-book —
which was written all in pencil — this note: The brain is a
transformed main ganglion. It was not until the nineties of last
century that that sentence of Goethe's found its way, through me,
into print. Suddenly it was as though a new author made his
appearance; Goethe became thenceforward the most fruitful of authors.
But
now consider what a long way it is from the Theory of Metamorphosis
as taught by Goethe to the Theory of Metamorphosis as demonstrated in
the one-year-old little child who was lying there before you a few
days ago — normal in other respects, but metamorphosed into a
giant embryo. That was an instance of a metamorphosis of retardation,
where the embryonic condition was retained after birth. And you will
yourselves come to acquire a true insight into this kind of
metamorphosis if you continue to practise again and again the
meditation I gave you yesterday, when I told you: Here is a
circle, here is a point; there the circle is a point,
there the point of a circle, and so
(see Figure 3.).
Over and over again you
must, in meditation, let the circle steal into the point, let the
point expand to the circle. As you do this, you will find that
something reveals itself to you, namely, how the metabolism-and-limbs
organisation comes into being out of the head organisation. Continue
with the meditation until, when you say to yourself: The point is a
point, the circle is a circle, you are sensible of the head; and
when you say to yourself: The point is a circle, the circle is a
point — when, that is, you assert the converse — you
discover that you are gliding right down into the metabolic
system. You will then have before you the developed Theory of
Metamorphosis, and you will see quite clearly that it is only through
this kind of thinking that we can ever hope to attain insight into
the nature of the defects in backward children. And this is what we
have been attempting in these lectures.
Search
for the impulses that are already there in the place where you are
beginning your work; find what impulses are there that can inspire
you with enthusiasm and so make for a continuity. Ask yourselves the
question: What antecedents are there here which we can link onto?
Now,
as you know, a remarkable historical figure is associated with Jena.
Once, long ago, the German Abbot Hildebrand, feeling within him —
exactly as do the youth of today — great gifts and capacities,
moved too, as they also are, by religious and spiritual impulses (but
in his case the spiritual was methodically conceived), went to Rome,
became Pope Gregory VII, and strongly influenced the direction given
from Rome to the course of affairs in European history. We have thus
a powerful Roman impulse, spreading its activity out over Europe,
mediated through an impulse that derives from the order of Cluny and
has been transplanted into the Roman stream. You should study that
passage of history. For the remarkable thing is that in his next life
on Earth this individuality is drawn to Jena and appears there as
Ernst Haeckel. The development is really just the same as happens in
the human being when the disintegrating principle inserts itself,
dovetails itself, in a regular manner into the upbuilding principle.
So you have here in Jena a centre for currents of influence that are
in direct and explicit opposition to the current of Roman activity.
Jena is the meeting place of opposite streams.
Haeckel
made a speech in Jena on his sixtieth birthday. He was speaking on
that occasion at the Phylogenetic Institute. Listening to him, one
could really have the feeling that the old Hildebrand was standing
there before one. The same manner of expression, the very same kind
of delivery — speaking slowly, with a good deal of “padding”,
weighing the words carefully, like someone who has done quite a lot
of speaking and yet never made himself quite master of the art.
Another curious thing could be noticed. Abbot Hildebrand, who had of
course always very much the air of being a strict Pope — he
would stand there before you as the very mouthpiece of the Church —
had, at the same time, this trait in his character: he was fond of
relating stories that made the rest of the company smile — not
overmuch, but with pleasure and enjoyment. And now with Haeckel, it
was really quite delightful to watch how he would sometimes at dinner
between the courses fall into the mood of telling funny anecdotes out
of his own life, and loosening in this way the tongues of the rest of
the company. This sixty-year-old man with his childlike smile would
lead the others on, and by his whole manner and behaviour bring them
right away from the subject in hand. I can still remember how amusing
it was to see Oskar Hertwig sitting there in travail with his speech
that could not be brought to birth, while Haeckel went on and on with
one funny story after another.
You
would, I believe, find yourselves well repaid if, now that I have
laid for you this esoteric foundation, you were to get hold of this
speech that Haeckel made on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. It
is not long, but remarkable for being personal and at the same time
extraordinarily objective. And then compare with it the speech
delivered by Prof. Gärtner, who invariably manifested a
disinclination to see in Haeckel a person of any particular
historical significance. Indeed, he expressly states in his speech
that this time he will leave out of account that Haeckel is the
author of the “History of the Creation” and concentrate
attention on the vast number of microscope slides that Haeckel has
made; for we shall find, he says, that Haeckel has made more slides
than all the rest of us put together — a most remarkable fact;
actually the rest of us have made so few, that taken all together
ours fail to reach the number made by Haeckel alone. A pedant, a
regular pedant, this Gärtner! Really quite absurd! In Haeckel's
speech you have something so alive, so quick with fresh, new life!
Then the scaffold is brought in, and Gärtner comes forward and
performs the execution, while the physiologist (a Catholic clerk in
holy orders!) looks sadly on.
But
what a power Haeckel was amid all that company! What a
rejuvenating influence he had upon them! Even the young students grew
suddenly brilliantly clever, and showed quite remarkable powers of
imagination. Look up the little book where all the songs are recorded
which were sung that day. You will find a most witty account of how
an archaeopteryx sharpened his bill on a church steeple. That book of
songs will enable you to form some picture of the fresh young life
that suddenly blossomed forth in Jena on that day.
(
See .)
This
event too I would commend for your meditation. By entering
meditatively into the event, you will come to have an intimate
experience of the place occupied by Jena in the spiritual evolution
of Europe.
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