LECTURE FOUR:
The Evolution of
Races and Civilization.
[ Study Guide: Souls of the Nations — Fourth Lecture ]
If we wish to
understand the relationship of the races of mankind to one another
and the origins of the individual folk communities, we must realize
that man as we know him today is a highly complex being and that his
present form and inner being could only have arisen through the
cooperation of countless numbers of cosmic Beings. From the study of
the ‘Akashic Record’ and other observations on the
evolution of man we know that in prehistoric times our Earth, before
reaching its present condition, had to pass through three conditions,
in the course of which the three so-called members or vehicles of
man, the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body were
prefigured, gradually realized and developed until they reached their
present state. It is only during his present Earth incarnation that
man has been able to develop a fourth member, an ego. These four
members testify to the activity of the spiritual Beings during the
three or four incarnations of our Earth — Old Saturn, Old Sun,
Old Moon and the Earth period itself up to the present moment. If you
will call to mind all the Beings who worked together during those
incarnations, the Spirits of Will or Thrones, the Spirits of Wisdom,
of Movement, of Form, of Personality, the Archangels down to the
Angels — and above the Thrones, the Cherubim and Seraphim —
it is clear that man's present organization could only have
been created through a complex interplay of spiritual forces. We have
seen that not only was the cooperation of many Beings and
nature-forces in the Cosmos a necessity, but that for the creation of
man it was also necessary that at certain epochs, certain Beings
should renounce the normal course of their evolution and remain
behind in order to be able to participate in the organization of man
in a way that would have been impossible in the normal course of
their evolution.
And
so when we seek to understand man as he is today, we find a richly
varied and much patterned fabric. Only when we examine this fabric
closely and watch the activity of the several Beings do we begin to
understand how man first came into existence through the cooperation
of these Beings. The chief Being who is of importance for
contemporary man is the one who has gradually made ego-consciousness
possible. The opportunity to develop ego-consciousness was first
provided by the Spirits of Form, the Beings whom we call Powers or
Exusiai. If we follow the activity of these Beings alone and ask
ourselves how man would fare if the normal Spirits alone were
predominantly active in him, we shall find that they are the donors
of the ego-organization. And this implies that their chief interest
is to further man's ego-development, which can only be realized
in the man of today at a certain age.
If
you recall the teachings of Spiritual Science on the subject of the
education of the child you will know that in the first seven-year
period of life, between birth and the change of teeth, man develops
principally the physical body. The Spirits of Form have no particular
interest in the development of the physical body since this is really
a recapitulation of what man underwent on Old Saturn (which has often
been repeated) and which from the last physical birth up to the age
of seven has for the time being been recapitulated in a particular
way for the last time. The second seven-years period of life from the
ages of seven to fourteen, the age of puberty) is also a period which
holds little interest for the Spirits of Form since it is a
recapitulation of what man underwent on Old Sun. In reality the
Spirits of Form only wished to embark on their chief activity, the
bestowal of an ego, during man's life on Earth. The third
seven-year period covers the years between fifteen and twenty-one.
During this period man recapitulates the development of the astral
body that normally belongs to the Old Moon epoch. And again the
normal Spirits of Form show no interest. The three life-periods,
then, that precede the actual birth of the ego at the age of twenty
approximately, have no immediate appeal. The Spirits of Form only
intervene on their own initiative at the age of twenty approximately.
On reflection, therefore, you will not be surprised to learn that the
Spirits of Form intended, in fact, that man should incarnate only at
the normal developmental stage of twenty or thereabouts.
In
the eyes of these Spirits of Form all that has been developed in man
hitherto is, in reality, a kind of embryonic state, a sort of
germinal condition. And if I may speak somewhat figuratively I might
say that the Spirits of Form who have developed normally would far
prefer it if things proceeded with almost clock-work regularity, if
hitherto no-one encroached upon their province. If these Spirits of
Form had free rein until man's twentieth year, then in the
first seven years of his life man would have the consciousness
pertaining to the physical body, namely, the very dim consciousness
of the mineral kingdom. In the second seven years, between the ages
of seven and fourteen, he would have a sleep-consciousness. From the
fourteenth to the twentieth year he would be very active inwardly,
but would live in a kind of dreamlike consciousness of the Old Moon
evolution. Not until the age of twenty-one approximately would he
awaken to ego-consciousness. If he followed the normal course of
development therefore he would only awaken to ego-consciousness at
that age and perceive the external world in the form that is familiar
to us today.
If
we only take into account the activity of the Spirits of Form it is
clear that man attains his present-day consciousness much too early.
Now in modern man this consciousness, as you know, awakens to some
extent soon after birth. He would not develop a clear and distinct
perception of the external world if other Spirits, in reality Spirits
of Movement, had not remained behind and renounced the development of
certain capacities which they could otherwise have acquired up to the
time of the Earth-evolution, so that they could intervene in man's
development in a particular way during this present Earth-evolution.
Because their evolution followed a different path they are in a
position to bestow upon man prematurely that which he ought to
acquire only in his twentieth year approximately. These are spiritual
Beings who renounced the possibility of continuing their evolution
normally up to the stage of their Earth-evolution Beings who might
have been Spirits of Movement during the Earth-evolution, but who
remained at the stage of the Spirits of Form and are now active in
the Earth-evolution as Spirits of Form. Thus they are able, during
the Earth-evolution, to bestow upon man, who is by no means mature
enough to receive it and has much to redeem from an earlier epoch,
the ego-consciousness that would normally be his only around the age
of twenty. Hence the abnormal Spirits of Form endow man with
capacities which otherwise he would have received about his twentieth
year only.
The
consequences are highly significant. Let us assume for a moment that
evolution had followed its normal course. If these abnormal Spirits
had not intervened, man would have incarnated on the physical plane
in the condition which is natural to him at the age of twenty
approximately and would have to go through a totally different
embryonic development. Indeed through these abnormal Spirits of Form,
man's development from birth to the age of twenty, that is, for
about the first third of his life, is subject to the forces of the
external world. The first third of our Earth-life therefore is not
controlled by spiritual Beings who determine Earth conditions, but by
other abnormal spiritual Beings. And because these abnormal Beings
participate in evolution, we do not possess therefore the form that
we should have if we had incarnated in the condition natural to us at
the age of twenty. To compensate for this man must spend the first
third of his life (up to the age of twenty) under the powerful
influence of these abnormal Beings. In the course of his whole
development man is subject to the influence of these abnormal Beings.
And the penalty he has to pay for this is that after the middle third
of life which is under the influence of normal Spirits of Form only,
a progressive decline sets in and the etheric and astral
organizations begin to disintegrate. Life therefore is divided into
three periods or thirds — an ascending third, a middle third
and a descending third. It is only in the middle third that man is a
fully integrated person in his Earth-life. In the last third of his
life man has to give back what he received during the first, the
ascending third; he must repay the debt in kind.
If
man had been wholly subject to the influence of the normal Spirits of
Form all that he experiences today up to the twentieth year would
take on a different complexion, a totally different form. The
situation would have been totally different, so that everything
associated with the development of man during the first of his three
life-periods is fundamentally an anticipation of much that belongs to
the later epochs. In consequence, up to the second life-period man
has become a more material being than he would otherwise have been.
He would have experienced up to this time purely spiritual conditions
and would have incarnated on Earth only at that period of his
development which he undergoes in his twentieth or twenty-first year
when he would find himself Earth-bound. We learn from Spiritual
Science that if his development had proceeded in this way man would
have incarnated only in the condition which he now attains in his
twentieth or twenty-first year. He would not have been able to go
through the preceding conditions on Earth; he would have been obliged
to go through them in the spiritual spheres surrounding the Earth.
| Diagram 2 Click image for large view | |
The
whole course of human development through childhood and adolescence
should now be clear to you. If the line BC represents life on Earth
between twenty and forty, it would have been the intention of the
Spirits of Form that man should incarnate only at B (the age of
twenty to twenty-one). Having come down to Earth at this age he would
have left it again after his fortieth year (at C) and have spent the
last third of his life in a spiritualized state. Through the abnormal
Beings man was forced to descend upon the Earth at A and begin his
life cycle. That is the secret of our existence. Thus it is only in
the middle third of life that we are wholly under the influence of
these Beings who actually control us; the periods of our maturity and
decline are subject to entirely different Beings who in one way or
another have renounced their normal development.
If
man had lived through the first and last thirds of his life in the
spiritual sphere surrounding the Earth and had incarnated only during
the second third, thereby becoming a totally different being, he
would not have become Earth-bound to the extent that he is today. If
man's development had followed this course, then all those
incarnating on Earth would be alike in (physical) form and inner
being, they would be standardized. Only a single, uniform humanity
would exist. That which determines the racial types with their
specific characteristics is unrelated to the middle third of life.
Through the circumstances of the earlier years, through the
influences of the first third of life, we, with all our forces, are
more Earth-bound than the normal Spirits of Form had intended. In
consequence man has become more dependent upon the Earth than he
would otherwise have been; he has become dependent on the locality
where he lives. Because of his premature incarnation — in
opposition to the intentions of the Spirits of Form, so to speak —
he becomes dependent upon the locality of his birth, he unites with
his physical environment in a condition which is not designed for
him. It would have been of no consequence whether he had incarnated
in the middle third of his life or whether he had been born in the
north, south, east or west. But because he has become dependent on
his environment, because his youth is lived in the way I have
described, he becomes Earth-bound, he becomes closely associated
with, and an integral part of the geographical area where he was
born. He cannot escape the environmental conditions of that locality
— the incidence of the sun's rays, the proximity of the
region to the Equator or to a more temperate zone, whether he is born
in the lowlands or on a high plateau. The rate of respiration in the
plains is different from that in the mountains. Man therefore becomes
wholly dependent upon the environmental conditions of his birthplace.
He becomes wholly identified with his native soil through his close
association with the locality of his birth. He is moulded by those
attributes which he thus receives because these etheric formative
forces of the Earth associated with the particular locality where he
is born are active in him. All these factors determine his racial
character, and the abnormal Spirits of Form, those Spirits or Powers
who are responsible for our present consciousness — not between
the ages of twenty-one and twenty-three but at some other time —
are indirectly the source of the racial differences in mankind
everywhere, for these differences depend upon the particular locality
where a man is born.
During
the first third of life when, in effect, he is under the dominion of
the abnormal Spirits of Form, man reaches sexual maturity and
develops his capacity for reproduction. His reproductive capacity is
acquired during the period when he is not wholly under the direction
of the normal Spirits of Form. It is possible therefore that a man is
not only dependent on the locality of his birth, but that the
characteristics thus acquired may also be inherited by his
descendants. Thus racial homogeneity is reflected not only in the
influence of the habitat, but also in the racial inheritance. This
explains why racial characteristics can be inherited and why, as we
shall learn from Spiritual Science, it was only in the past that
racial characteristics were determined by the locality where man was
born. In the latter part of the Lemurian epoch and in the early
Atlantean epoch, for example, man was directly dependent upon his
physical environment. In later times race was no longer associated
with locality, but was bound up with heredity. In race therefore we
see something that was originally associated with a particular
geographical region, was later passed on via inheritance, but became
increasingly independent of a particular locality.
The
period of evolution when one can justifiably speak of the idea of
race will be clear to you from what I have just said. One cannot
speak of race in the true sense of the term before the Lemurian
epoch, for only then did man incarnate on Earth. Before that time he
lived in the spiritual environment of the Earth. He then incarnated
and racial characteristics were hereditary from the beginning of the
Atlantean epoch up to our post-Atlantean epoch. We shall learn later
how, in our own time, the national characteristics prepare in their
turn the break-down of the racial characteristics and begin to
eradicate them.
We
must carefully avoid seeing evolution in the form of a perpetually
revolving wheel, for this idea which is widely canvassed in many a
mystical world-view serves only to confuse the true picture of
evolution. If one pictures evolution as a wheel, revolving round a
fixed centre and divided into so many races, then we fail to grasp
that everything is in a state of evolution and that the races are
evolving too. Races are born and will at some future time cease to
exist. They do not repeat themselves in the same way as Sinnett
mistakenly claims in his
Esoteric Buddhism.
We must look for
the origin of racial characteristics in the old Lemurian epoch; we
must follow their propagation down to our own day; at the same time
we must realize that when our fifth post-Atlantean epoch is
superseded by the sixth and seventh, race as such will have ceased to
exist. But if we picture evolution as the mechanical, steady,
continuous revolution of a wheel, then we carry the picture of a mill
wheel in our mind and have not the slightest understanding of
evolutionary processes.
The
evolution of races begins therefore only in the Lemurian epoch
through the activity of the abnormal Spirits of Form, who permit the
etheric forces from the soil to intervene at the locality where man
has to spend the first years of his life. And this influence is
carried over to some extent into his later life because man is
endowed with a memory, through which he still remembers even in his
later life, the time spent under the influence of the abnormal
Spirits before his twenty-first year on Earth. Man would be a totally
different being if he were subject only to the influence of the
normal Spirits of Form. Through the influence of the abnormal Spirits
of Form he is dependent upon the particular locality in which he
lives. I have already described how man departed from the laws of the
normal Spirits of Form, with the result that the locality of his
birth during a particular incarnation was of importance to him.
These
relationships will become
clearer to us if we take into account the following factor. To a
certain extent the etheric forces emanating from the soil permeate
the human organism so that man becomes dependent upon the soil of a
particular geographical area. In this connection I should like to
refer to certain regions of the Earth that are connected with the
historical development of the human being. We shall discuss these
relationships in more detail later on. I now propose to describe them
in general.
| Diagram 3 Click image for large view | |
Here
is for example a point or a centre of cosmic influence situated in
the interior of Africa. At this centre are active all those
terrestrial forces emanating from the soil which can influence man
especially during his early childhood. Later on their influence
diminishes; man is less subject to these forces. Nevertheless their
formative influences make a powerful impression upon him. The
locality where a man lives exercises its most potent influence in
early childhood and thereby determines for their whole life those who
are completely dependent on these forces’ so that the
particular locality impresses the characteristics of their early
childhood permanently upon them. This is more or less typical of all
those who, in respect of their racial character, are determined by
the etheric formative forces of the Earth in the neighbourhood of
that particular locality. The black or Negro race is substantially
determined by these childhood characteristics.
If
we now cross over to Asia, we find a point or centre where the
formative forces of the Earth impress permanently on man the
particular characteristics of later youth or adolescence and
determine his racial character. Such races are the yellow and brown
races of our time.
If
we continue northward and then turn in a westerly direction towards
Europe, a third point or centre is reached which permanently
impresses upon man the characteristics of his adult life. In this way
man is determined by the etheric forces emanating from the Earth.
When we look more closely into these separate points or centres we
find that they follow a line which takes an unusual direction. These
centres still exist today. The centre in Africa corresponds to those
terrestrial forces which imprint on man the characteristics of early
childhood; the centre in Asia corresponds to those which give man the
characteristics of youth, and the corresponding centre in Europe
imprints upon man the characteristics of maturity. This is simply a
universal law. Since all men in their different incarnations pass
through the various races the claim that the European is superior to
the black and yellow races has no real validity. In such cases the
truth is sometimes veiled, but you see that with the help of
Spiritual Science we do after all light upon remarkable truths.
If
we continue this line (see diagram) still further westward we come to
America, where the forces of old age, of the final third of life, are
active. These forces — I beg you not to misunderstand what I am
about to say, it only refers to man in so far as he is dependent upon
the forces which determine his physical organism, the terrestrial
forces of his environment, forces unrelated to his fundamental being
— these forces are associated with the decline of man. This
line which in reality describes a curve obeys a cosmic law and does
in fact exist; it is a reality and expresses the law according to
which our Earth acts upon man. The forces, which determine man's
racial character, follow this cosmic pattern. The American Indians
died out, not because of European persecutions, but because they were
destined to succumb to those forces which hastened their extinction.
[This last sentence causes a lot of controversy
and needs explaining: the translator did not give an accurate
translation. The original German text is, “Nicht etwa
deshalb, weil es den Europäern gefallen hat, ist die
indianische Bevölkerung ausgestorben, sondern weil die
indianische Bevölkerung die Kräfte erwerben mußte,
die sie zum aussterben führten.” A more accurate
transalation is, “The
Native American population did not die out because this pleased the
Europeans, but because the Native American population had to acquire
such forces as lead to their dying out.”
A computer translation, using Google Translate, is,
“It was not for the sake of the Europeans that the Indian
population died out, but because the Indians had to acquire the
forces that led them to extinction.”
Use the Compare feature to see for yourself:
https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Lectures/GA121/Compare/index.php
– e.Ed]
The destiny of the races and the changes wrought by the forces which
are not under the influence of the normal Spirits of Form are
determined by the peculiar characteristics of these different centres
of cosmic influence. When determining racial characteristics these
Spirits work in this way; but in our age the racial character is
gradually being overcome. The first steps in this direction were
undertaken for the most part in the earliest period of the Earth's
history. If we were to go back to the old Lemurian epoch we would
find that the very first indications of racial development could be
traced back to the regions of present-day Africa and Asia. Later, a
migration westward sets in and as we follow westward the forces which
determine race we note their decline amongst the American Indians.
The death of races begins with their westward migration. In order to
seek the rejuvenating forces, races migrate eastward, from Atlantis
across Europe to Asia. Then the westward migration is repeated, but
on this occasion we witness, not the movement of races but, as it
were, a higher stage of racial development of civilizations. Thus in
a certain way we see that the evolution of civilizations is
characterized by a continuation of the racial development on a higher
plane. For instance, the old Indian civilization, the first
post-Atlantean civilization, to which we have already given due
recognition in this lecture, corresponds to early childhood, the
period when man's response to physical nature is still dormant,
when he is receptive to the manifestations of a spiritual world.
The
first Indian civilization is in fact a revelation from spiritual
worlds and could only manifest in man because he came under the
influence of the terrestrial forces of India to which he had already
been subject from earliest times. In the primeval past men owed their
racial characteristics to the etheric formative forces of the soil;
now, they owed that disposition of soul peculiar to the ancient
Indians to their continuous presence in the same geographical region.
Through the migration from West to East they received those fresh,
youthful forces which made possible the emergence of that peculiar
spiritual configuration so typical of the original Indian
civilization. Thus a very ancient Indian civilization which has not
yet been studied and of which the Indian civilization now known to
science is only an offshoot, can be explained by the fact that the
Atlantean civilization is repeated to a certain extent in the
primeval Indian civilization.
When
we consider the successive civilizations of the post-Atlantean epoch,
we can see that they represent successive recapitulations of
conditions experienced earlier in the physical body, but which have
been transformed through the forces of rejuvenation. Thus the Persian
civilization shows a conflict between the virile forces of early
manhood, when man is still subject to the influences of the abnormal
Spirits of Form, and the forces which stem from the normal Spirits of
Form. In the Persian civilization this dualism is reflected in the
polarity of light and darkness, of Ormuzd and Ahriman.
The
farther we move westward the more we see that the civilization bears
the impress of the characteristics of a more mature age. We must
admit that up to the present time the creations of man are still
dependent to a large extent upon the abnormal forces and Beings of
the universe. Nevertheless we can now understand that racial
characteristics are no longer decisive factors as man moves westward
and also that, to a certain extent, the tendency of civilization is
such that its youthful vigour, its creative potentialities, decline
more and more the further it moves towards the West.
To
the unprejudiced observer a variety of factors serves to show that
our contemporary civilization is also determined in this way in
accordance with a fixed law. But people are not disposed to be
objective. If you bear in mind that, in reality, all civilization is
in a state of flux, you will then realize that the further we move
westward, the less productive civilization becomes. As civilization
it is already moribund. The further West one goes, the more
civilization becomes externalized; it is no longer vitalized by the
forces of youth, but is given over to the hardening forces of old
age. Western man will still be able to benefit mankind by making
valuable and important contributions in physics, chemistry and
astronomy and in all fields which are independent of the rejuvenating
forces of youth. But that which calls for creative energy requires a
different configuration of those forces which work upon man.
Let
us take the example of a man growing up from childhood to the stage
when his spiritual life matures. He first develops physically. The
forces concentrated within the youthful organism must be allowed to
expand physically. Later, when growth is completed, these physical
forces are turned inwards. Mankind in general undergoes a similar
process. The curve of development which we have already described
reveals a remarkable law which applies even to the continents. First
of all we observe the first signs of man's development in
Africa; then his native territory expands far afield. Characteristic
of this expansion is the wide-open spaces of Asia where man inhabits
vast tracts of country.
Let
us now glance at the repetition of race development in the
post-Atlantean civilizations. Just as in his youth man looks out with
curiosity upon his environment, so does the man of the old Indian
civilization look out into the world. This is associated with the
fresh, youthful forces which help man to grow until he reaches his
full stature when the spiritual life must begin to unfold and the
physical must be compressed. As civilization advances westward into
Europe it is remarkable that the geographical area which mankind
inhabits is narrowed down to smaller and smaller lands. We observe
that Europe is the smallest continent, and the further civilization
moves westward the more it tends towards delimitation, and finally in
its westward course is confined to peninsulas and islands.
All
this is connected with the spiritual course of evolution. Here we
have a unique insight into the mysteries of spiritual evolution. But
with this narrowing of the geographical area a critical situation
arises; on account of this crisis a more unproductive element begins
to operate. Creative activity dies out to some extent in the
peninsulas the further westward one goes. This creative
impoverishment is illustrated in what I have already described,
namely that civilization itself, the further it moves westward,
becomes progressively more rigid and senile, and slowly declines.
This was always known in the Mystery Schools. You will now understand
why I said that what I had to communicate might be somewhat dangerous
because people might take offence. By no means everything can be
revealed that would enable man to command the higher members of his
being so that he may perceive the terrestrial forces that determine
the race, forces that later on determine the character of the
civilization and which in a still later epoch will have lost their
significance when man rediscovers his spiritual vision. Thus you will
understand that the whole process of the evolution of mankind is
connected with the spiritual evolution which has always been known to
those who were initiated into the deeper secrets of existence. The
truth of what I have just said does not depend upon whether one
approves or disapproves; it depends upon evolutionary necessity. To
deny this necessity is pointless; it serves only to put obstacles in
the way of understanding. Therefore it is only natural that those w
ho migrate to areas lying more to the West must seek rejuvenating
power, spiritual substance, from the East; but Central Europe must
call to mind its own creative activity as it existed before the
formation of peninsulas and islands. That is why precisely in Europe
— in the region embracing our two countries, Scandinavia and
Germany — man has to draw upon the resources of his own
soul-life and why, on the other hand, we must look especially in the
West for that part of humanity which is to receive spiritual
nourishment from the East. This urge is deeply rooted in the nature
of all mankind. You see this repeated in the development of Spiritual
Science. We witness it again in the fourth post-Atlantean
civilization, amongst the Greeks and Romans. The Romans, it is true,
are in certain respects more advanced than the Greeks, but they took
their spiritual life from the people they conquered, who lived more
towards the East.
The
further countries lie to the West the more is the law thus revealed
to us confirmed. Now these important truths can only be indicated;
they reveal what accords with the inner nature of the future mission
of mankind in every corner of the globe. We must understand therefore
the task that lies before us if we wish to raise ourselves to the
level of the all-human. Here lies the great responsibility which we
take upon ourselves if we wish to participate in the spiritual
evolution of mankind. In this realm neither personal sympathy nor
personal enthusiasm may play a part. They are of no consequence; only
what is determined by the great laws of humanity is decisive. The
great laws themselves must apprise us of this; we must not allow
ourselves to be prejudiced in favour of any particular law.
That
is the fundamental characteristic of Rosicrucianism. Rosicrucianism
implies acting in accordance with the evolution of all mankind. If we
are aware of the configuration of the landscape we inhabit, including
islands and peninsulas, then we shall realize what sentiments must
fill our hearts if we seek to work for the benefit of the evolution
of humanity.
In
the remote past man descended to Earth under the guidance of the
abnormal Spirits of Form and was associated with his particular
geographical region. Thus the foundations were laid for the
development of the races. Then a progressive intermingling of the
races takes place. The evolution of races is interrupted to make way
for the evolution of nations; i.e. nations develop out of races. And
the development of nations enters even into the evolution of the
individual human being. Behind the question, who was Plato, what was
his origin and ancestry, a great mystery is concealed. He was an
individual who grew up in the lineage of Solon, was a member of the
Ionian tribe, the Greek nation and the whole Caucasian race. The
realization that Plato was a descendant of Solon, an Ionian, a Greek,
a Caucasian, expresses a profound mystery if we understand the law
behind it. It shows us how the normal and abnormal Spirits of Form
whose major concern is to prepare man's incarnation on Earth
work in concert over the whole Earth, how, by this cooperative
activity, the human race is subdivided and how then those other
Beings intervene of whom we have already spoken when describing the
characteristics of the several peoples. Each individual is intimately
associated with these processes by means of which all these higher
Beings, these higher Spirits, determine the evolution of the world by
their cooperative activity.
We
cannot understand the individual if we do not see how he owes his
whole development to the cooperation of these Beings. Because a
Caucasian race was once created on Earth through the mysterious
interplay of the normal and abnormal Spirits of Form the stage was
set for the incarnation of a Plato. And because we are aware of the
intervention of the normal and abnormal Archangels down to the
Angels, we realize the steps which were necessary to bring forth a
Plato whom we could recognize as a human being endowed with the
specific human attributes of thinking, feeling and willing. The
nation occupies an intermediate position between the race and the
individual.
It
was first necessary therefore to outline the conditions fundamental
to the evolution of race. Tomorrow we shall discuss the emergence of
nations out of races, the intervention of other Spirits of the
Hierarchies and especially their intervention in the activity of the
Spirits of Form.
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