The Spiritual Foundation of Morality. Lecture 2 of 3.
Rudolf Steiner, May 29, 1912:
I remarked yesterday
that what we have to say on the subject of anthroposophical moral principles and
impulses will be based upon facts, and for this reason we brought forward a few
facts in which moral impulses are pre-eminently exhibited.
It is, indeed, most
striking and illuminating that in the case of a personality such as Francis of
Assisi mighty moral impulses must have been active in order that he could
perform his deeds. What sort of deeds were they? They were such that what they
reveal is moral in the very highest sense of the word. Francis of Assisi was
surrounded by people afflicted with very serious diseases for which the rest of
the world at that time knew no cure. Moral impulses were so powerful in him that
many lepers through him were given spiritual aid and great comfort. It is true
that many could gain no more — but there were many others who by their faith and
trust attained a stage when the moral impulses and forces which poured forth
from Francis of Assisi had even a healing, health-giving effect.
In order to penetrate
still more deeply into the question whence do moral impulses come, we must
inquire in the case of such an exceptional personality as Francis of Assisi as
to how he could develop them, and what had really happened in his case. We
shall have to look more deeply if we want to understand what was active in the
soul of this outstanding human being.
Let us go back to the
ancient civilization of India. In that civilization there were certain divisions
of the people; they were divided into four castes, the highest of them being the
Brahmins, who cultivated wisdom. The separation of the castes in ancient India
was so strict that, for example, the sacred books might only be read by the
Brahmins and not by members of the other castes. The members of the second
caste, the Warrior caste, were only allowed to hear the teachings contained in
the Vedas or in the epitome of the Vedas — the Vedanta. The Brahmins alone were
allowed to explain any passage from the Vedas or have an opinion as to their
meaning and it was strictly forbidden for all other people to have any opinion
on the treasure of wisdom which was contained in the sacred books. The second
caste consisted of those who had to cultivate the profession of war and the
administration of the country. Then there was a third caste which had to foster
trades, and a fourth, a laboring caste. And last of all, an utterly despised
part of the population, the Pariahs, who were looked down upon so much that a
Brahmin felt he was contaminated if he so much as stepped upon the shadow thrown
by such a one. He even had to perform certain rites of purification if he had
touched the shadow of such an outcast as a Pariah was considered to be. Thus we
see how the whole nation was divided into four recognized castes and one that
was absolutely unrecognized. Though these regulations may now be considered
severe they were most strictly observed in ancient India. Even at the time of
the Graeco-Latin civilization in Europe, no one belonging to the Warrior caste
in India would have ventured to have his own independent opinion about what was
in the sacred books, the Vedas. Now, how could such divisions as these have
arisen among mankind? It is certainly remarkable that we should find these
castes exactly in the most outstanding people of human antiquity and in the very
people who had wandered over to Asia from Atlantis at a comparatively early date
and also precisely those among whom were preserved the greatest wisdom and
treasures of knowledge from the old Atlantean epoch. This seems very remarkable,
and how can we understand it? It almost seems as if it contradicted all the
wisdom and goodness in the order of the universe, in the guidance of the world,
that one caste, one group of people, should be separated off, who alone were to
preserve what was looked upon as the highest possessions and that the others
should be destined from the very beginning, by the mere fact of their birth, to
occupy subordinate positions.
This can only be
understood by an examination into the secrets of existence. Development is only
possible through differentiation, through organization; and if all men had
wished to arrive at the degree of wisdom reached in the Brahmin caste not a
single one would have been able to achieve it. If all human beings do not attain
to the highest wisdom, one may not say that it is a contradiction of the divine
regulation of the world, for this would have no more sense than if someone were
to demand of the infinitely wise and infinitely mighty Deity that He should make
a triangle with four angles. No god could make a triangle other than with three
angles. That which is ordered and determined inwardly in spirit must also be
observed by the divine regulation of the world, and just as the laws concerning
the limits of space are strict — for example, that a triangle can only have three
angles — so also it is a strict law that development must come about through
differentiation, that certain groups of people must be separated in order that a
particular quality of human nature can be developed. To this end the others must
be excluded for a time. This is not only a law for development of mankind, it is
a law for the whole of evolution.
Consider the human form.
You will at once admit that the most valuable parts in the human form are the
bones of the head. But by what means could these particular bones become bones
of the head and envelop the higher organ, the brain? As far as the rudiments are
concerned, each bone that man possesses could become skull bone, but in order
that a few of the bones of the whole skeleton could reach this height of
development and become bones of the forehead or of the back part of the head,
the hip bones or the joints had to stop at a lower stage of development — for
the hip bones or the joints have within them the possibility of becoming skull
bones, just as much as those which actually have done so. It is the same
everywhere throughout the world. Progress is only possible in evolution through
one remaining behind and another pushing forward, even beyond a certain point of
development. In India the Brahmins passed beyond a certain average of
development, but on the other hand the lower castes remained behind it.
When the Atlantean
catastrophe took place, great bodies of people gradually wandered from Atlantis,
that ancient continent which lay where the Atlantic Ocean is today, toward the
East, and peopled the continents now known as Europe, Asia, and Africa. We shall
not at present consider the few who went westward, whose descendants were found
in America by its discoverers. When the Atlantean catastrophe took place, the
body of people which then migrated toward the East did not consist merely of
the four castes which settled down in India and there gradually differentiated
themselves, but there were seven castes, and the four which appeared in India
were the four higher castes. Besides the fifth, which was completely despised
and which in India formed, as it were, an intermediate body of the population,
besides these Pariahs there were other castes which did not accompany them as
far as India, but remained behind in various parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and
especially Africa. Only the more highly developed castes reached India, and
those who remained in Europe had entirely different qualities.
Indeed, one can only
understand what took place later in Europe when one knows that the more advanced
sections of humanity in those days reached Asia, and that in Europe, forming the
main body of the population left behind, were those who furnished the
possibility for very special incarnations. If we wish to understand the special
incarnations of souls in the most ancient European times in the general mass of
the population, we must take into account a remarkable event which took place in
the Atlantean epoch. At a certain stage in Atlantean development great secrets
of existence were betrayed; these were great truths concerning life, which are
of infinitely greater importance than all those to which post-Atlantean
humanity has since attained. It was essential that this knowledge should have
been limited to small circles, but owing to the violation of the Mysteries,
great bodies of the Atlantean population became possessed of occult knowledge
for which they were not yet ripe. In consequence of this, their souls were at
that time driven, as one might say, into a condition which was a moral descent,
so that there remained on the path of goodness and virtue only those who later
went over to Asia.
You must not, however, imagine that the whole population of Europe consisted only of people in whose souls were individuals who through being misled in the Atlantean epoch had suffered a moral downfall. Here and there in this European population were others who during the great emigration to Asia had remained behind to act as leaders. Thus all over Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa there were people who simply belonged to castes or races providing the requisite conditions for misguided souls to live in their bodies and there were also other better and more highly developed souls who remained behind to guide those who did not go on to Asia.
The best places for
these souls who had to assume the leadership at that time — in the age in which
the Indian and Persian civilizations developed — were the more northerly parts
of Europe, the regions where the oldest Mysteries of Europe have flourished. Now
they had a kind of protective arrangement as regards what had previously taken
place in old Atlantis. In Atlantis temptation came to the souls described
through wisdom, Mysteries, and occult truths being given them for which they were
not ready. Therefore in the European Mysteries the treasures of wisdom had to be
guarded and protected all the more. For this reason the true leaders in Europe
in post-Atlantean times withdrew themselves entirely, and they preserved what
they had received as a strict secret.
We may say that in
Europe also there were persons who might be compared with the Brahmins of Asia,
but these European Brahmins were not outwardly known as such by anyone. In the
strictest sense of the word they kept the sacred secrets absolutely secluded in
the Mysteries, that there might be no repetition of what had once taken place in
the Atlantean epoch among the souls whom they were now leading onwards. Only
through wisdom being protected and most carefully guarded did it come about that
these souls were able to uplift themselves; for differentiation does not take
place in such a way that a certain portion of humanity is destined from the
beginning to take a lower rank than another, but that which is made lower at a
certain time is to develop higher again at another period. But the conditions
must be formed for this end to be attainable. Hence it came about that in Europe
there were souls who had fallen into temptation and had become immoral, but they
were now guided according to wisdom which proceeded from deeply hidden
sources.
Now, the other castes
who had gone to India had also left members behind in Europe. The members of the
second Indian caste — the Warrior caste — were those who then chiefly attained
to power in Europe. Where the wise teachers — that is, those who corresponded to
the Indian Brahmins — entirely withdrew, and gave their counsels from hidden
sanctuaries, the Warriors came out among the people, in order to improve and
uplift them according to the counsels of those ancient European priests. It was
this second caste that wielded the greatest power in Europe in primeval times,
but in their way of life they were guided by the wise teachers who remained
hidden. Thus it came about that the leading personalities in Europe were those
who shone by virtue of the qualities of which we spoke yesterday — valor and
bravery. Whereas in India wisdom was held in the highest esteem and the
Brahmins were revered because they explained the sacred writing, in Europe
bravery and valor were the most valued, and the people only knew of the divine
Mysteries through those who were filled with valor and bravery. The
civilization of Europe continued under these influences for thousands of years,
and gradually souls were improved and uplifted. In Europe, where souls existed
who were the successors of the people who had undergone temptation, no real
appreciation of the caste system of India could develop. The souls were mingled
and interwoven. A division, a differentiation into castes such as existed in
India did not arise. The division was rather between those who guided in an
upper class, who acted as leaders in various directions, and the class that was
led. The latter consisted principally of souls who had to struggle upward.
When we look for the
souls which gradually struggled upward out of this lower class, and which from
being tempted developed higher, we find them chiefly in a part of the European
population of which modern history tells but little. Century after century this
people developed in order to rise to a higher stage, to recover again, as it
were, from the heavy setback the souls had received in the Atlantean epoch. In
Asia there was a continuation in the progress of civilization; in Europe, on the
other hand, there was a change from the former moral collapse into a gradual
moral improvement.
The people in Europe
remained in this condition for a long time, and improvement only came about
through the existence of a strong impulse in these souls to imitate that which
they saw before them. Those who lived and worked among the people as the braver
among them were looked up to as ideals and patterns, as leaders or chiefs; they
were those who were called Fürsten (princes) and were imitated by the people at
large. Thus the morality of the whole of Europe was raised through those souls
mingling as leaders among the people.
Thereby something else
became necessary in European development. If we wish to understand this, we must
distinguish between the development of a single soul and that of a whole race.
The two must not be confused. A human soul can develop in such a way that in one
incarnation it embodies itself in a particular race. If in this race it gains
certain qualities, it may re-embody itself in a later incarnation in an entirely
different one; so that we may find incarnated in Europe at the present day souls
which in a previous incarnation were embodied in India, Japan, or China. The
souls do not by any means remain in the same race, for soul development is quite
different from race development, which goes its peaceful way forward.
In ancient times souls
who were unable to go over into the Asiatic races were transposed into European
ones, and were obliged to incarnate again and again in them. But as they became
better and better, this led to their gradually passing on into the higher races;
and souls which were previously embodied in quite subordinate races developed to
a higher stage, and were able later to reincarnate in the bodily successors of
the leading population of Europe. These bodily successors of the leading
population multiplied, and as these souls increased in number in this direction,
they became more numerous than they originally were. After having progressed and
improved, they incarnated in the leading population of Europe, and the
development then took place in such a way that, on the whole, as a physical
race, the bodily forms in which the most ancient European population had
originally incarnated died out; the souls forsook the bodies which were formed
in a certain way, and which then died out. The offspring of the lower races
decreased in number while the higher increased, until gradually the lowest
classes of the European population completely died out. This is a definite
process, which we must grasp. The souls develop further, the bodies die out. For
this reason we must be careful to distinguish between soul development and race
development. The souls reappear in the bodies belonging to higher races; the
lower race bodies die out. A process such as this does not take place without
effect. When over large areas something disappears, as it were, it does not
disappear into nothing, but it dissolves and then exists in a different form.
When in ancient times the worst part of the population of which I have just now
spoken died out, the whole region became gradually inhabited by demons,
representing the products of dissolution, the products of the putrefaction of
that which had died out.
Thus the whole of Europe
and Asia Minor were filled with the spiritualized products of putrefaction from
the worst part of the population which had died out. These demons of
putrefaction endured for a long time, and later they acted upon mankind. It came
about that these demons of putrefaction which were incorporated in the spiritual
atmosphere, as it were, gained influence upon human beings and affected them in
such a way that their feelings were permeated by them. The effect may be seen
from the following example: —When at a later date, at the time of the Migration
of the Peoples, great bodies of people came over from Asia to Europe, among
them came Attila with his hordes. His invasion was the cause of great terror to
many of those who lived in Europe, and through this state of terror people laid
themselves open to the demoniacal influences still persisting. Gradually through
these demoniacal beings there developed — as a consequence of the terror
produced by the hordes coming over from Asia — that which appeared as leprosy,
the epidemic disease of the Middle Ages. This disease was nothing else than the
consequence of the state of terror and fear experienced by the people at that
time. But the terror and fear could only lead to this result in the souls which
had been exposed to the demoniacal forces of former times.
I have now described to
you why it was possible for people to be laid hold of by a disease — which was
later practically exterminated in Europe — and why it was so widespread at the
time we mentioned in our last lecture. In Europe the peoples which had to die
out because they had not developed upwards became extinct, but the after-effect
was seen in the form of diseases which attacked mankind. The disease we have
mentioned, leprosy, is thus seen to be the result of spiritual and psychic
causes.
This whole condition was
now to be counteracted. Further development could only come about if that which
has just been described was entirely removed from Europe. An example of how it
was taken away was described in the last lecture, where we showed that while, on
the one hand, the after-effects of what was unmoral existed as demons of
disease, on the other hand, strong moral impulses appeared, as in Francis of
Assisi. Through his possession of strong moral impulses he gathered others
around him who acted also in the same way as he, although in a lesser degree.
Really there were very many who at that time worked as he did, but this activity
did not last very long.
Now how had such a
soul-power come into Francis of Assisi? As we are not gathered together to study
external science but to understand human morality from its spiritual and occult
foundations, we must examine a few occult or spiritual truths. Let us inquire:
Whence really came such a soul as that of Francis of Assisi? We can only
understand such a soul as this if we investigate it a little, if we take the
trouble to find what was hidden in its depths.
I must remind you that
the old division into castes in India really received its first blow, its first
shock, through Buddhism, for among many other things which Buddhism introduced
into Asiatic life was the idea that it did not recognize the division into
castes as something justifiable; that as far as it was possible in Asia it
recognized the power of each human being to attain to the highest possible to
man. We know too that this was only possible through the pre-eminently great and
mighty individuality of Buddha. We also know that Buddha became a Buddha in the
incarnation of which we are usually told, and that in the earlier part of his
life he was a Bodhisattva, which represents the stage next below Buddhahood.
Through the fact that this son of King Suddodana, in the twenty-ninth year of
his life, experienced and felt deeply in himself the great truth of life and
sorrow, he had attained the greatness to announce in Asia the teaching known as
Buddhism.
Connected with this
development of the Bodhisattva up to Buddha, there was something else of which
we must not lose sight, namely, the fact that the individuality which had passed
through many incarnations as a Bodhisattva and then risen to the rank of Buddha,
when it became Buddha had to dwell for the last time in a physical body on
Earth. Thus he who is raised from Bodhisattva to Buddha enters into an
incarnation which for him is the last. From this time onwards, such an
individuality only works down from spiritual heights; he still works, but only
spiritually. Thus we now have the fact that the individuality of Buddha has only
worked down from spiritual heights since the fifth century before Christ.
But Buddhism continued.
It was able to influence in a certain way not only Asiatic life, but the
spiritual life of the whole of the then known world. You know how Buddhism
spread in Asia. You know how great is the number of its followers there. But in
a more hidden and veiled form it also spread into the mental life of Europe; and
we have particularly to point out that the portion of the great teaching of
Buddha relating to the equality of man was especially acceptable to the
population of Europe, because this population was not arranged on the plan of
caste divisions but rather upon the idea of the equality of all human beings.
On the shores of the Black Sea there existed an occult school which lasted far
into the Christian era. This school was guided by certain human beings who set
themselves as their highest ideal that part of the teaching of Buddha which we
have just described, and through their having taken into themselves the
Christian impulse along with it, were able in the early centuries of
Christianity to throw new light upon what Buddha had given to humanity. If I
were to describe to you this occult school on the Black Seas as the occultist or
spiritual investigator sees it — and you will understand me best if I do this —
I must do it in the following manner:
People who, to begin
with, had external teachers in the physical world came together there. They were
instructed in the doctrines and principles which had proceeded from Buddhism,
but these were permeated by the impulses which came into the world through
Christianity. Then, after the pupils had been sufficiently prepared, they were
brought to where the deeper forces lying within them, the deeper forces of
wisdom, could be brought forth, so that they were led to clairvoyant vision of
the spiritual world and were able to see into the spiritual worlds. The first
thing attained by the pupils of this occult school was, for example, the
recognition of those who no longer descended to the physical plane. But this
they could only do after they had been accustomed to it by the teachers
incarnated in the physical body. In this way they came to know Buddha. Thus,
these occult pupils learned to know Buddha face to face, if one may so speak of
his spiritual being. In this way he continued to work spiritually in the occult
pupils, and thus his power worked down to the physical plane, although he himself
no longer descended to physical embodiment in the physical world.
Now, the pupils in this
occult school were grouped according to their maturity into two unequal
divisions, and only the more advanced were chosen for the smaller division. Most
of these pupils were able to become so clairvoyant that they came in touch with
a being who strove with all his might to bring his impulses through to the
physical world, and although he himself did not descend into this world they
learned all the secrets of Buddha and all that he wished to have accomplished.
Most of these pupils remained as such, clairvoyants, but there were some who, in
addition to the qualities of knowledge and of psychic clairvoyance, had
developed the spiritual element to a remarkable degree, which cannot be
separated from a certain humility, a certain highly evolved capacity for
devotion. These, then, attained to where they could receive the Christ impulse
in an advanced degree precisely in this occult school. They could also become
clairvoyant in such a way that they became the specially chosen followers of
Saint Paul and received the Christ impulse directly in life.
Thus from this school
proceeded two groups, as it were: one group which possessed the impulse to carry
the teaching of Buddha everywhere, although his name was not mentioned in
connection with it, and a second group which, in addition, received the
Christ impulse. Now, the difference between these two kinds did not appear very
strongly in that particular incarnation, it only appeared in the next. The
pupils who had not received the Christ impulse but who had only gained the
Buddha impulse, became the teachers of the equality and brotherhood of man; on
the other hand the pupils who had also received the Christ impulse, in the next
incarnation were such that this Christ impulse worked up further so that not
only could they teach (and they did not consider this their chief task) but they
worked more especially through their moral power.
One such pupil of the
occult school on the Black Sea was born in his next incarnation as Francis of
Assisi. No wonder, then, that in him there was the wisdom which he had received,
the knowledge of the brotherhood of mankind, of the equality of all men, of the
necessity to love all men equally — no wonder that this teaching pulsated through
his soul, and also that his soul was permeated and strengthened by the
Christ impulse.
Now, how did this
Christ impulse work further in his next incarnation? It acted in such a way
that when in his next incarnation Francis of Assisi was transposed into a
community in which the old demons of diseases were especially active — this
Christ-impulse approached the evil substance of the disease-demons through him,
and absorbed it into itself, thus removing it from mankind. Before this,
however, the Christ impulse incorporated itself in this substance in such a way
that it first became visible to Francis of Assisi in the vision in which he saw
the palace when he was called upon to take upon himself the burden of poverty.
The Christ impulse had here revived in him and streamed forth from him, and laid
hold of these disease-demons. His moral forces thereby became so strong that
they could take away the harmful spiritual substances which had produced the
disease. It was through this alone that the power was produced to bring to a
higher development what I have described to you as the after-effect of the old
Atlantean element, to purify Europe from these substances and sweep them away
from the Earth.
Consider the life of
Francis of Assisi; notice what a remarkable course it took. He was born in the
year 1182. We know that the first years of the life of a human being are devoted
principally to the development of the physical body. In the physical body is
developed chiefly that which comes to light through external heredity. Hence
there appeared in him first of all that which originated through external
heredity from the European population. These qualities gradually came out, as
his etheric body developed from the seventh to the fourteenth year, like any
other human being. In this etheric body appeared primarily that quality which as
the Christ impulse had worked directly in him in the mysteries on the Black Sea.
From his fourteenth year, at the dawn of his astral life, the Christ power became
particularly active within him, in such a way that there entered into his astral
body that which had been in connection with the atmosphere of the Earth since
the Mystery of Golgotha. For Francis of Assisi was a personality who was
permeated by the external power of Christ, owing to his having sought for the
Christ power, in his previous incarnation, in that particular place of
initiation where it was to be found.
Thus we see how
differentiations act in humanity, for differentiation must come about. For that
which by earlier events has been thrust down to a lower condition is raised up
once more through special events in the course of human development. On another
occasion a particularly important uplifting took place in the evolution of
humanity, one which exoterically will always be incomprehensible; for this
reason people have really ceased to reflect upon, it, but esoterically it can be
fully explained. There were some who had developed very quickly from the strata
of the Western population, who had gradually wrestled their way up from the
lowest rungs of the ladder, but who had not risen very high in intellectual
development, but had remained comparatively humble and simple men, chosen ones
as it were, who could only be uplifted at a certain time by a mighty impulse
which reflected itself in them; these were those who are described as the twelve
Apostles of Jesus. They were the cast-off extract of the lower castes which did
not reach India. From them had to be taken the substance for the disciples of
Christ Jesus.*
[We are not
here referring to previous or succeeding incarnations of the individualities of
the Apostles, but solely to the physical ancestry of the bodies in which the
personalities of the Apostles were incarnated. The succession of incarnations
and the physical line of heredity must always be distinguished.]
Thus we have discovered
the source of the moral power in that chosen personality, Francis of Assisi. Do
not say that taking ordinary human rules into consideration it would be
too much to expect a person to realize the ideals manifested in Francis of
Assisi. Certainly what I have said was not with the intention of recommending
anyone to become a Francis of Assisi. One only wished to point out by means of a
striking example how moral power enters man, whence it can spring and how it
must be understood as something quite special, something that was originally
present in man. But from the whole spirit of what I have said up to now you may
gather one thing with regard to other forces in human evolution, namely, that
humanity has first gone through a descent and has now undertaken an ascent
again.
If we go back in human
evolution we pass through the post-Atlantean epoch to the Atlantean catastrophe,
then into the Atlantean epoch, and then further back to the Lemurian epoch. When
we then arrive at the starting point of earthly humanity we come to a time when
man, not only as regards his spiritual qualities, was much closer to the Deity,
when he first developed not only out of the spiritual life, but also out of
morality. So that at the beginning of earthly evolution we do not find
unmorality but morality. Morality is a divine gift which was given to man in the
beginning; it was part of the original content in human nature, just as
spiritual power was in human nature before man's deepest descent. Fundamentally,
a great part of what is unmoral came into humanity in the manner we have
described, namely, by the betrayal of the higher Mysteries in the ancient
Atlantean epoch.
Thus morality is
something about which we cannot say that it has only developed gradually in
humanity: it is something which lies at the bottom of the human soul, something
which has only been submerged by the later civilizations. When we look at the
matter in the right light we cannot even say that unmorality came into the world
through folly; it came into the world through the secrets of wisdom being
disclosed to persons who were not sufficiently mature to receive them. It was
through this that people were tempted; they succumbed, and then degenerated.
Therefore in order that they might rise it was above all necessary that
something should occur which would sweep away from the human soul all that is
contrary to moral impulses. Let us put this in a somewhat different form.
Let us suppose we have
before us a criminal, a man whom we call especially unmoral: on no account must
we think that this unmoral man is devoid of moral impulses. They are in him and
we shall find them if we delve down to the bottom of his soul. There is no human
soul — with the exception of black magicians, with whom we are not now concerned
— in which there is not the foundation of what is morally good. If a person is
wicked it is because that which has originated in the course of time as
spiritual error overlies moral goodness. Human nature is not bad; originally it
was really good. The concrete observation of human nature shows us that in its
deepest being it is good, and that it was through spiritual errors that man
deviated from the moral path. Therefore moral errors must in course of time once
more be made good in man. Not only must the mistakes be made good but their
results as well, for where evil has such mighty after-effects that demons of
disease have been produced, super-moral forces such as were in Francis of Assisi
must be also active.
The foundation for the
improvement of a human being always consists in taking away his spiritual error.
And what is necessary to this end? Gather together what I have told you into a
fundamental feeling; let the facts speak to you, let them speak to your feelings
and perceptions, and try to gather them together into one fundamental feeling,
and then you will say: What is the attitude which a man needs to hold regarding
his fellow man? It is that he needs the belief in the original goodness of
humanity as a whole, and of each single human being in particular. That is the
first thing we must say if we wish to speak at all in words concerning morality:
that something immeasurably good lies at the bottom of human nature. That is
what Francis of Assisi realized; and when he was approached by some of those
stricken with the horrible disease we have described, as a good Christian of
that day he said somewhat as follows: “A disease such as this is in a certain
way the consequence of sin; but as sin is in the first instance spiritual error
and disease the result, it must therefore be removed by a mighty opposing power.”
Hence Francis of Assisi saw by the sinner how, in a certain way, the punishment
of sin manifests itself externally; but he also saw the good in human nature, he
saw what lies at the bottom of each human being as divine spiritual forces. That
which distinguished Francis of Assisi most was his sublime faith in the goodness
lying in each human being, even in one who was being punished.
This made it possible
for the contrary power to appear in his soul, and this is the power of love
which gives and helps morally, and indeed even heals. And no one, if he really
develops the belief in the original goodness of human nature into an active
impulse, can arrive at anything else than to love human nature as such.
It is primarily these
two fundamental impulses which are able to found a truly moral life. First, the
belief in the divine at the bottom of every human soul, and secondly, the
boundless love of man which springs from this belief. For it was only this
measureless love which could bring Francis of Assisi to the sick, the crippled,
and those stricken with leprosy. A third thing which may be added, and is
necessarily built upon these two foundations, is that a person who has a firm
belief in the goodness of the human soul, and who loves human nature, cannot do
otherwise than admit that what we see proceeding from the cooperation of the
originally good foundation of the human soul with practical love, justifies a
perspective for the future which may be expressed in the fact that every single
soul, even though it may have descended far from the height of spiritual life,
can be led back again to this spiritual life. This third impulse implies the
hope for each human soul that it can find the way back again to the
Divine-Spiritual.
We may say that Francis
of Assisi heard these three things expressed very very often; they were
continually in his mind during his initiation in the Mysteries of Colchis, on
the Black Sea. And we may also say that in the life he had to lead as Francis
of Assisi he preached very little about faith or love, but was himself their
embodiment. Faith did not work, hope did not work; one must indeed have them,
but only love is effective. It stands in the center, and it is that which, in
that single incarnation of Francis of Assisi, really carried the actual
development of humanity forward in the moral sense toward the divine.
How did this love —
which we know was the result of his initiation in the Colchis Mysteries —
develop in St. Francis? We have seen that in him appeared the knightly virtues
of the ancient European spirit. He was a valiant boy. Valor, bravery, was
transformed in his individuality, which was permeated by the Christ impulse,
into active practical love. We see the old valor, the old bravery, resurrected
once more in the love manifested in Francis of Assisi. The ancient valor
transposed into the spiritual, bravery transposed into the spiritual, is
love.
It is interesting to see
how very much of what has just been said corresponds also to the external
historical course of human evolution. Let us go back a few centuries into the
pre-Christian era. Among the people who have given the principal name to the
fourth post-Atlantean age, the Greeks, we find the philosopher Plato. Among
other things, Plato wrote about morals, about the virtues of man. By the way in
which he wrote, we can recognize that he was reticent concerning the highest
things, the actual secrets, but what he felt able to say he put into the mouth
of Socrates. Now, in a period of European culture in which the Christ impulse
had not yet worked, Plato described the highest virtues he recognized, namely,
the virtues which the Greeks looked upon as those which a moral man ought to
have above all things. He described first of all three virtues, and a fourth
with which we shall later become acquainted. The first was “Wisdom.” Wisdom, as
such, Plato looked upon as virtue. This is justified, for in the most varied
directions we have found that wisdom lies at the foundation of moral life. In
India the wisdom of the Brahmins lay at the foundation of human life. In Europe
this was indeed withdrawn into the background, but it existed in the Norse
Mysteries, where the European Brahmins had to make good again that which had been
spoiled through the betrayal in the old Atlantean epoch. Wisdom stands behind
all morality, as we shall see in our next lecture. Plato also described, in the
manner corresponding to the Mysteries, as the second virtue: “Valor” — that
which we meet with in the population of Europe. As the third virtue he described
Temperance or “Moderation” — that is, the opposite of the passionate cultivation
of the lower human impulses. These are the three chief Platonic virtues: Wisdom,
Valor or Bravery, and Moderation or Temperance, the curbing of the sensual
impulses active in man. Finally, the harmonious balancing of these three virtues
Plato describes as a fourth virtue, which he calls “Justice.”
Here is described, by
one of the most eminent European minds of pre-Christian times, what were looked
upon at that time as the most important qualities in human nature. Valor,
bravery, is in the European population permeated by the Christ impulse and by
what we call “ I ” or the ego. Bravery, which in Plato appears as virtue, is
here spiritualized and thereby becomes love. The most important thing is that
we should see how moral impulses come into the human race, how that which
formerly existed in the form we have described becomes something entirely
different. Now, without disparagement to Christian morality we cannot describe as
the only virtues wisdom, temperance, valor, and justice, for we might receive
the reply: “If you had all these and yet you had not love you would never enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Let us bear in mind the
time when, as we have seen, there was poured out into humanity an impulse, a
current, of such a nature that wisdom and bravery were spiritualized and
reappeared as love. But we shall go still further into the question as to how
wisdom, moderation or temperance, and justice have been developed, and thereby
will appear what is the particular moral mission of the Anthroposophical
Movement in the present day.
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