In his autobiography, The
Course of my Life (chapters 35 and 36), Rudolf Steiner speaks as follows
concerning the character and records of lectures and addresses printed
originally for private circulation:
“... The contents of this printed matter
were intended as oral communications and not for print. ...
“... They contain nothing that is
not a pure expression of anthroposophical
knowledge in its progressive development and growth ... the
reader may confidently take them as representing what Anthroposophy has
to tell. Therefore it was possible, and moreover without misgivings ... to
depart from the accepted custom of circulating these publications only among
the membership. But it will have to be remembered that faulty passages occur
in the transcripts, which I myself did not revise.
“... It is
only reasonable to expect that anyone professing to pass judgment on the
contents of this privately printed matter will be acquainted with the
premises that were taken for granted when the words were spoken. These
premises include, at the very least, the anthroposophical knowledge of Man
and of the Cosmos in its spiritual essence; also what may be called
‘anthroposophical History,’ told as an outcome of
research into the spiritual world.”
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