In Rudolf Steiner's autobiography (chapters 35 and 36),
he speaks as follows concerning the character of this privately
printed matter:
“The content of this printed matter was
intended as oral communications, not to be printed. ...
“Nothing has ever been said that is not in
utmost degree the purest result of developing Anthroposophy. ...
Whoever reads this privately printed material can take it in the
fullest sense as containing what Anthroposophy has to say. Therefore,
it was possible without hesitation ... to depart from the plan of
circulating this printed matter only among members [of the
Anthroposophical Society]. It will be necessary, however, to put
up with the/act that erroneous matter is included in the lecture
reports that I have not revised.
“The right to a judgment about the content of
such privately printed material can naturally be conceded only to one
who knows what is taken for granted as the prerequisite basis of this
judgment. For most of this printed matter the prerequisite will be at
least the anthroposophical knowledge of the human being and of the
cosmos to the extent that their nature is set forth in Anthroposophy,
and of what exists in the form of ‘anthroposophical history’
in the communications from the world of spirit.”
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