Emerson's Blessed Dream

"I dreamed I floated at will in the great ether, and I saw this world also not far off, but diminished to the size of an apple. Then an angel took it in his hand and brought it to me and said, 'this must thou eat.' And I ate the world."  — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rudolf Steiner:

We read [in Matthew 5:5]: "Blessed are the gentle in spirit, for they will own the Earth." Two forces are active in the world: on the one hand, egotism; and on the other, love and compassion. If love is to be developed, egotism must diminish. Sensual love must be developed to a higher, spiritual love. The third sentence of Mabel Collins' Light on the Path speaks about the same thing that is meant by "gentle in spirit": "Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost the power to wound." One should encounter all people with a loving disposition so that the voice no longer wounds; in this way, we are gentle in the way spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount. Love is the goal of the evolution of the Earth; it will own the Earth.

Source: 1/19/1907. From The Christian Mystery, p. 268