The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophical Morality II

[ 1 ] I noted yesterday that what is to be said here about theosophical moral principles and impulses must be based on facts, and that is why we have attempted to present some facts that can demonstrate moral impulses in the truest sense.

[ 2 ] It was surely most striking, most evident, that in a personality such as Francis of Assisi, powerful, mighty moral impulses must have been at work in order for this personality to have been able to carry out his deeds. For what kind of deeds are these, my dear Theosophical friends? In the case of Francis of Assisi, these are deeds that demonstrate morality in the very highest sense of the word. Francis of Assisi was initially surrounded by people suffering from very serious illnesses, for which the rest of the world at that time had no remedy. His moral impulses worked in such a way that many of these seriously ill people found moral support and great comfort in their souls. That alone was certainly achievable for many. But for some, it was also possible that the moral impulses, the moral forces radiating from Francis of Assisi, even had a healing, health-restoring effect, provided the faith and trust of the sick were sufficiently strong.

[ 3 ] Now, in order to delve even deeper into the question: Where do moral impulses come from?—especially in the case of such an exceptional figure as Francis of Assisi—we must ask ourselves: How was he able to develop such moral strength? What actually happened to him? We will have to look a little further afield if we want to understand what actually worked within the soul of this extraordinary man. Recall that ancient Indian culture was associated with a certain division of people, a division into four castes, and that the highest caste among the Indians was that of the Brahmins, the guardians of wisdom. The separation of the castes in ancient India was so strict that, for example, the sacred books were permitted to be read only by the Brahmins and not by members of the other castes. The second caste, the warriors, were allowed only to hear the teachings contained in the Vedas or in the excerpt from the Vedas, the Vedanta. Only the Brahmins were permitted to interpret any passage from the Vedas—that is, to form an opinion about the meaning of the Vedas. It was strictly forbidden for other people to have an opinion about what was contained in the sacred books as a treasure of wisdom.

[ 4 ] The second caste consisted of those who were responsible for warfare and the administration of the country. Then there was a third caste, which was responsible for trade and commerce, and a fourth, the actual working caste; finally, however, there was a completely despised class of people, the Pariahs, who were held in such low esteem that, for example, a Brahmin felt defiled merely by stepping on the shadow cast by a Pariah. He even had to undergo certain purification rites if he had stepped on the shadow of such a defiled person—which is what the Pariahs were considered to be. Thus we see how strangely people here are divided into four, so to speak, recognized castes and into a caste that is not recognized at all. If we now ask ourselves: Were such strict rules also observed in ancient India? — we must answer: They were observed with the utmost strictness. And certainly, at a time when Greco-Roman culture already reigned in Europe, no member of the warrior caste in India would have dared to hold a personal opinion regarding what was written in the sacred books, the Vedas.

[ 5 ] How, then, did such a division among humanity come about? Why did this division among humanity actually come into being? It is indeed strange that we find this division of humanity precisely among the most outstanding people of prehistoric times, among that people who had migrated from ancient Atlantis to Asia at a relatively early stage, and who had preserved the greatest wisdom and treasures of knowledge from the ancient Atlantean era. That seems strange. How can we understand such a thing, how can we grasp it? It almost seems as if it contradicts all the wisdom and goodness of the world order, of the guidance of the world, that a group of people was set apart to preserve the highest recognized good alone, and that the other people were to be destined from the outset, by their birth, to subordinate positions.

[ 6 ] One can only understand this by taking a look into the mysteries of existence, for existence and development are only possible through differentiation and structuring. And if all people had wanted to attain that level of wisdom which had been achieved in the Brahmin caste, then no one would have been able to attain it. For one must not say: It contradicts the divine order of the world, the divine governance of the world, that not all people attain the highest wisdom in the same way, for that would make no more sense than if someone were to demand of the infinitely wise and infinitely powerful deity that it form a triangle with four corners. No deity could make a triangle out of anything other than three corners. That which is ordered and determined inwardly, in the spirit, must also be observed by the divine order of the universe, and just as there is a strict law of development—as there is a law governing spatial boundaries, namely that a triangle can have only three corners—so too must development occur through differentiation, so that certain groups must be separated from humanity in order for a particular aspect of human development to take hold. For a certain time, the other people must be excluded. This is not merely a law governing human development in the broadest sense, but a law of development in general. Consider the human form. You will readily admit that the most excellent, the most precious parts of the human form are the skull bones. But by what means could the skull bones become skull bones and the enclosures of the noble organ of the brain? By nature, every bone that a human possesses could become a skull bone. In order for some bones of the entire skeletal system to reach this level of development—to become the frontal or occipital coverings—the hip bones or joint bones had to remain at a lower stage of development, for every hip bone or joint bone possesses the potential to become a skull bone just as those that have become so. Such is the way of the world: only by one thing remaining behind can another advance and even move beyond a certain point of development; thus, further development becomes possible. So that one may say: The Brahmins have moved beyond a certain middle point of development, whereas the lowest castes have fallen behind it again.

[ 7 ] When the Atlantic catastrophe occurred, people gradually migrated eastward from Atlantis—that ancient continent which once stood where the Atlantic Ocean is today—and populated the lands now known as Europe, Asia, and Africa. We will set aside the fact that some moved westward, whose descendants were later found in America by the discoverers of the New World. When the Atlantic catastrophe struck, it was not merely the four castes that had settled in India who emigrated. It was not only the four castes that gradually differentiated themselves in India that migrated, but there were seven castes that migrated eastward from ancient Atlantis, and the four castes that established themselves in India—these are already the four higher castes. Apart from the fifth caste, which was already completely despised and which in India formed, as it were, an intermediate stratum of the population—that is, apart from these outcasts—there were other castes that simply did not go along to India, but remained behind at various locations in Europe, the Near East, and especially in Africa. The situation was thus such that only the most select castes migrated to India, and those who remained in Europe possessed characteristics entirely different from those of the people who had migrated as far as India.

[ 8 ] Indeed, one can only understand what later transpired in Europe if one realizes that the most exceptional members of humanity at that time had moved on to Asia, leaving behind in Europe a large portion of the population consisting of those individuals who were capable of very special incarnations. If we wish to understand what kind of very special incarnations of souls existed among the vast majority of the population in Europe’s most ancient times, then we must recall a peculiar event from the Atlantean era. At a certain point in the ancient Atlantean development, it had happened that great mysteries of existence, great truths of existence—truths far more significant than any to which the post-Atlantean population has yet risen—were not, as would have been necessary at the time, kept secret within narrow circles or schools, but were revealed to the great masses of the Atlantean population. As a result, these vast masses of the Atlantean population gained knowledge of mysteries and occult truths for which they were not yet ready. Their souls were then driven to a high degree into a state of moral decline, so that only those remained on the path of goodness, on the path of morality, who later migrated to Asia.

[ 9 ] But we must not form a mental image of this as though the entire European population consisted solely of people whose souls contained such individuals who had suffered a moral defeat under the seduction of the Atlantean era; rather, scattered throughout this European population were others who had remained behind during the great migration to Asia but played a guiding, leading role. The situation was thus that, far and wide across Europe, the Near East, and Africa, we have people who simply belonged, so to speak, to such castes or races that allowed seduced souls to live within their bodies. But there were also others who had remained behind, who did not go along to Asia, yet who were able to take on the leadership and who were better, more highly developed souls.

[ 10 ] The best places for these souls, who were to take on leadership roles, were in those ancient times—the era during which Indian and Persian cultures were developing—the more northern regions of Europe, the very regions where Europe’s oldest mysteries were also found. There was now a kind of protective mechanism in place against what had happened earlier in ancient Atlantis. In ancient Atlantis, a temptation had arisen for these particular souls because they had been given wisdom, mysteries, and occult truths for which they were not yet ready. Therefore, the treasure of wisdom had to be all the more protected and guarded within the European mysteries. Those who were therefore the true guides of wisdom in Europe during the post-Atlantean era kept a very low profile, guarding what they had received as a strict secret. So that one can say: There were also such people within Europe who can be compared to the Brahmins of Asia. But these European Brahmins were not outwardly recognized as such by anyone. They kept the sacred secrets locked away within the mysteries in the strictest sense of the word, so that what had already happened once in the Atlantean era to the population among whom these very leaders were scattered could not be repeated. Only because the treasure of wisdom was protected and guarded in the most earnest manner did it come about that souls could, in a certain sense, elevate themselves. For differentiation does not occur in such a way that any part of humanity is predestined from the outset to occupy a lower rank than another; rather, what is lowered at a certain time is meant to develop upward again at another time.

[ 11 ] However, the conditions for this had to be created. This is why there were, in Europe, souls who had lost their moral cohesion, and why a wisdom from deeply hidden sources was at work among them. But the other castes that had migrated to India had also left members behind in Europe. The members of the second Indian caste, the warriors, were the ones who now primarily came to power in Europe. While the sages—that is, those corresponding to the Brahmins in India—kept entirely in the background and offered their counsel from hidden places, the warriors went out among the people to improve them according to the counsel of those ancient European priests. It was those with a warrior’s spirit who went out among the people. This second caste held the greatest power in ancient times in Europe, but they lived in such a way that they received their guidance from the sages who remained hidden. Thus it came to pass that the very leading, most important figures in Europe were those who shone with the qualities discussed yesterday—fortitude and bravery. So while in India wisdom shone most brightly among the Brahmins, through their interpretation of the sacred scriptures, in Europe it was the case that courage and bravery were most highly valued, and people knew only where to draw the divine mysteries from, through which they then had to let courage and bravery flow.

[ 12 ] Thus we see the culture of Europe ebbing away over millennia and millennia, and we see how souls are gradually refined and elevated. However, within Europe—where souls existed who were, in essence, descendants of the population that had undergone the temptation—no true sense of the Indian caste system could develop. The souls became confused. A division, a differentiation into castes, such as existed in India, did not occur. Rather, a division emerged only between those who were leaders—an upper class, a ruling class, which later manifested in various forms as the ruling classes—and those who were led—the led class. The led class consisted mainly of souls who had to strive to rise up.

[ 13 ] If we seek out those souls who have gradually risen from this lowly state, who have evolved from tested souls into higher ones, we find them primarily among that segment of the European population about which history says little today, and of which there is little mention in history books. Over centuries and centuries, this population developed in order to rise to a higher level, to recover, so to speak, from the blow it had suffered in the ancient Atlantean era. Over in Asia, one was dealing with a continuous progression of culture; in Europe, on the other hand, one was dealing more with an improvement, with a reversal of moral defeat into a gradual moral improvement. This remained the case for a long time, and this improvement came about solely because there is an extraordinary instinct for imitation in the human soul, and because those who worked among the people as brave individuals were regarded as ideals and role models, as the first among them, as those whom one calls princes, whom the others then imitated, so that it was precisely through these human souls, who mingled with the people as leaders, that the morality of all of Europe was raised.

[ 14 ] This, however, made something else necessary in European development. If we are to understand this, we must make a clear distinction between racial development and soul development. These two must not be confused with one another. A human soul can develop in such a way that it incarnates within a particular race in one incarnation. If it acquires certain qualities there, it can incarnate again in a completely different race in a later incarnation, so that we can indeed observe that souls are incarnated within the European population today who were incarnated in India, Japan, or China in their previous incarnations. The souls by no means remain confined to the races. Soul development is something entirely different from racial development. Racial development proceeds steadily forward. Now, in the case of ancient European development, the souls were placed in European races because they could not cross over into the Asian races; therefore, the souls in that era were repeatedly compelled to incarnate in European races. But they became better and better, and this then led to the souls gradually passing into higher races, so that souls who had previously incarnated in entirely subordinate races developed to a higher level and were later able to incarnate in the physical descendants of the leading population of Europe. The physical descendants of Europe’s leading population multiplied, becoming more numerous than they originally were, because the souls multiplied in this direction. So, having improved, they incarnated in the leading population of Europe, and the development proceeded in such a way that, as a physical race, the physical form in which the oldest European population had originally incarnated died out; that is, the souls, as it were, left bodies of a specific form, which then died out. That was the reason why there were fewer and fewer descendants in the subordinate races, and more and more in the superior ones. Gradually, the lowest strata of the European population died out completely.

[ 15 ] This is precisely a very specific process that we must understand. Souls continue to evolve, while bodies eventually perish. That is why we must make such a clear distinction between the evolution of souls and the evolution of races. The souls then appear in bodies descended from higher races. Such a process does not occur without consequence. For when something like this happens—when, as it were, something disappears across vast regions—it does not vanish into nothingness, but dissolves and then exists in another form. You will understand what it has become if you consider that, in essence, in primeval times, with the extinction of the inferior members of the population of whom I have spoken here, the entire region gradually filled with demonic beings, who represented the products of dissolution, the products of decay of that which had died out.

[ 16 ] Thus, all of Europe and the Near East were filled with the spiritualized products of decay from the extinct, inferior members of the population. These demons of decay had a long-lasting effect and later influenced people, and so it came to pass that these demons of decay, which were, as it were, contained within the spiritual atmosphere, gained influence over people and caused the feelings and sensations that people later experienced to be permeated by them. This is best illustrated by the fact that when, later on, large masses of people came over from Asia to Europe during the Migration Period—including Attila with his hordes—and struck terror into the hearts of the people in Europe, this terror made people susceptible to coming into contact with what still existed from earlier times as demonic entities. Gradually, as a consequence of the terror caused by the hordes coming over from Asia, these demonic entities gave rise to what appeared as the plague of the Middle Ages, as leprosy. This disease was nothing other than the consequence of the states of terror and fear that people were experiencing at that time. However, these states of terror and fear could only lead to this outcome in souls that were exposed to the demonic forces of the past.

[ 17 ] I have now described to you how people could have been gripped by an addiction that was later largely eradicated from Europe, and why it was so prevalent precisely during the period I mentioned yesterday. Thus, while we see that the social strata in Europe that were destined to die out—because they had not developed upward—have now died out, we still experience the aftereffects in the form of diseases that can afflict people. The disease in question, so-called leprosy, presents itself to us as the result of spiritual and psychological causes.

[ 18 ] This whole situation now needed to be counteracted. It could only continue to develop if what has just been described were, so to speak, completely removed from European development. We described an example of how it was removed yesterday, by showing how, while on the one hand the aftereffects of immorality exist as demons of disease, on the other hand strong moral impulses arise, as in the case of Francis of Assisi. Because he possessed these strong moral impulses, he gathered others around him who, though to a lesser degree, acted in his spirit. In fact, there were quite a few who acted in his spirit at that time. It simply did not last long.

[ 19 ] How, then, did such spiritual power come to dwell within Francis of Assisi? Since we are not gathered here to pursue external science, but rather to understand human morality from its occult foundations, we must engage with certain occult truths and take them into account. We must first ask ourselves: Where did a soul such as that of Francis of Assisi actually come from? We can only understand a soul such as the one we see in Francis of Assisi if we look a little into it, if we concern ourselves with what lay in its hidden depths. Here I must remind you that the ancient caste system of India actually experienced its first shock, its first upheaval, through Buddhism, for among the many things Buddhism brought into the life of Asia, it also brought the recognition that the caste system was not something legitimate, and that, as far as was possible in Asia, it acknowledged every human being’s potential to attain the highest that a human being can achieve. We also know that this was only possible through the exceptionally great and powerful personality of the Buddha, and we also know that the Buddha became a Buddha in that incarnation of which we are usually told, that he was formerly a Bodhisattva, which represents the next-lowest rank below the Buddha. Through what that prince of Sudhodana experienced in the twenty-ninth year of his life—feeling within himself the great truth of life and suffering—he attained the greatness to proclaim throughout the Asian world what we know as Buddhism.

[ 20 ] However, there was something else connected with this ascent of the Bodhisattva to Buddhahood that we must not lose sight of. Namely, the fact that the individuality which had passed through many incarnations as a Bodhisattva and then ascended to Buddhahood now, having become a Buddha, had to dwell on Earth in a physical body for the last time. Thus, the one who is elevated from Bodhisattva to Buddha has thereby entered an incarnation that is the last for him. From that point on, such an individuality works only from the spiritual heights, acting solely in the spiritual realm. Thus we are faced with the fact that, after the fifth century B.C., the individuality of the Buddha worked only from the spiritual heights.

[ 21 ] But Buddhism continues to thrive. Buddhism finds a way to influence, in a certain sense, not only the life of Asia but also the spiritual life of the entire known world at that time. You know how Buddhism spread throughout Asia. You know how great is the number of adherents it has found there. But in a more hidden and veiled form, it is also spreading within European spiritual life; and we must point out above all that that part of the Buddha’s great teaching which concerned the equality of human beings was particularly suited to being received by the European population, precisely because the European population was not organized according to a caste system, but rather on the basis of the indistinction and equality of human beings.

[ 22 ] On the shores of the Black Sea, a kind of secret school was founded in the centuries that extended well into the Christian era. This secret school was led by people who had adopted, as their highest ideal, the aspect of the Buddha’s teachings just described. But in this secret school, they had the opportunity to, as it were, shed new light on what the Buddha had brought to humanity—to illuminate it with a new light in the post-Christian centuries—by simultaneously absorbing the Christian impulse into themselves. If I were to describe to you how the occultist views it—and you will understand me best if I do so—I must describe the secret school on the Black Sea in the following way:

[ 23 ] There, people gathered who initially had teachers on the physical plane. There they were instructed in the teachings and principles that originated in Buddhism, but which were permeated by the impulses that had come into the world through Christianity. Then, when they were properly prepared, they were guided so that the powers lying deeper within them—the deeper powers of wisdom—could be drawn up and brought forth from within them, so that they were led to a clairvoyant perception of the spiritual world, enabling them to look into the spiritual realms. The first thing the students of this secret school attained was that, for example, after the teachers incarnated on the physical plane had accustomed them to it, they could also recognize those who no longer descended to the physical plane. For example, the Buddha. These students of occultism thus truly came to know, if one may call it that, the spiritual aspect of the Buddha face to face. In this way, he continued to work spiritually within students of occultism, and thus he worked through his power down onto the physical plane, since he himself no longer descended to the physical plane for physical incarnation.

[ 24 ] Now those who were in this secret school were divided into two groups, depending on their level of maturity. After all, only those who had undergone a sort of more extensive preparation, a sort of greater maturity, were selected. Consequently, most of these students were able to become truly clairvoyant to the point where they could perceive a being who, with all his powers, strove to bring his impulses down to the physical plane—even though he himself did not descend into the physical world—and thus they were able to come to know the Buddha in all his mysteries and in all that he intended. A certain larger number of these disciples remained such clairvoyants, but others had, in addition to the qualities of cognition and the qualities of psychic clairvoyance, developed the spiritual element that is inseparable from a certain humility and a certain highly developed capacity for devotion. These then attained the ability to receive the Christ impulse to an outstanding degree precisely within this secret school. They were also able to become clairvoyant in such a way that they became the especially chosen successors of Paul and received the Christ impulse directly in their lives. Thus, two groups emerged from this school, so to speak: one group that had the impulse to carry the teachings of the Buddha everywhere, even if they did not mention his name in the process, and a second group that additionally received the Christ impulse.

[ 25 ] The difference between these two groups was not so pronounced in one incarnation, but only became apparent in the next. Those disciples who had not received the Christ impulse but had reached the Buddha impulse became teachers of human equality and brotherhood. Those disciples, however, who had received the Christ impulse were such in their next incarnation that this Christ impulse continued to work within their physical incarnation, so that they were not only able to teach—nor did they regard this as their primary task—but rather they worked specifically through their moral power. One such student of occultism at the aforementioned secret school on the Black Sea was later born in his next incarnation as Francis of Assisi. No wonder, then, that the wisdom he had received—the wisdom of human brotherhood, of the equality of all people, of the necessity to love all people equally—lived within him, that this teaching pulsed through his soul, and that this soul was empowered by the Christ impulse. How did this Christ impulse continue to work in his next incarnation? It continued to work in this next incarnation in such a way that, when Francis of Assisi was placed among a population in which the ancient disease demons we spoke of earlier were particularly active, this Christ impulse reached the disease demons through him and absorbed what was of evil substance in the disease demons, drew it to itself, and removed it from the people. Before he did this, he embodied himself in this substance in such a way that the Christ impulse in Francis of Assisi first became a vision in that vision where the palace appeared to him, and in that vision where he was called upon to take upon himself the burden of poverty. There the Christ impulse had come alive again within him, and it flowed out from him and seized upon these disease demons. As a result, his moral powers became so strong that they were able to remove the harmful spiritual substances that the characteristic disease had entailed. Through this alone was the possibility created to bring what I have described to you as the aftereffect of the ancient Atlantean element to a higher stage of development, to sweep the evil substances from the earth, and to purify the European world of these substances.

[ 26 ] Consider the life of Francis of Assisi: note how unique it is. He was born in 1182. We know that the early years of a person’s life are primarily devoted to the development of the physical body. In the physical body, what manifests through external heredity develops primarily. Therefore, what arises in him stems from the external heredity of the European population. These characteristics gradually emerge as he develops his etheric body from the age of seven to fourteen, just like every human being. From this etheric body, the characteristic that had been directly imparted to him as the Christ impulse in the Mysteries by the Black Sea comes to the fore. When his astral life then came to the fore from the age of fourteen onward, the Christ force came alive within him in particular through the fact that that which had remained connected to the atmosphere of the Earth since the event of the Mystery of Golgotha itself entered into the astral body. For Francis of Assisi was a personality who was also permeated by the outer Christ-force, because in his previous incarnation he had sought the Christ-force where it was to be found: in that special place of initiation.

[ 27 ] Thus we see how differentiation works within humanity. Differentiation must occur. However, that which was pushed down into the depths by earlier events is brought back up again through very special events in the course of human development. In another instance, a very special bringing to the surface has already taken place—a process that will always remain incomprehensible from an exoteric perspective. That is why, in truth, people have actually given up trying to think about it. Esoterically, however, the same phenomenon can certainly be explained. Those who have evolved most rapidly come from those strata of the Western population who have gradually overcome the passage through the lowest strata, but who did not advance very far in intellectual development, remaining instead relatively simple and unassuming people—as it were, the most select among them, who could be lifted up at a certain time only through a powerful impulse reflected within them—these were the ones described to us as the twelve apostles of Jesus. That was the distilled essence of the lower castes who did not come to India. From them the substance for the disciples of Christ Jesus had to be drawn. — This is not to say anything about previous or subsequent incarnations of the apostolic individualities, but merely about the physical ancestry of those bodies in which the apostolic personalities were incarnated. One must always distinguish between the line of incarnation and the line of physical inheritance.

[ 28 ] Thus, we have found, so to speak, the source of moral strength in that exceptional figure, Francis of Assisi. Do not say that it would be unduly lofty, by ordinary human standards, to seek in such a person the ideals that were present in Francis of Assisi. Certainly, this is not said for the reason that anyone should be encouraged to become a Francis of Assisi. That is by no means the intention. The aim was merely to illustrate, at a particularly outstanding point, how moral strength enters into human beings, where it may originate, and how it must be understood as something quite special, originally present within the human being. But from the whole spirit of what I have presented so far, you can glean one thing that we have already emphasized in relation to other forces of human development, namely, that humanity has undergone a descent and has now embarked on an ascent again.

[ 29 ] If we trace human evolution back, we pass through the post-Atlantean era to the Atlantean catastrophe, then enter the Atlantean era, and continue further back to the Lemurian era. When we then reach the starting point of humanity on Earth, we find ourselves not only in an era in which human beings, in terms of their spiritual qualities, were still closer to the Divine—having only just emerged from spiritual life—but also from morality, so that at the beginning of Earth’s development we do not find immorality, but rather morality. Morality is an originally divine gift and is originally inherent in human nature, just as spiritual power was inherent in human nature at all when humanity had not yet descended so far. In essence, a large part of what is immoral entered humanity precisely in the manner described, namely through the betrayal of higher mysteries in the ancient Atlantean era. |

[ 30 ] Thus, morality is not something that can be spoken of as if it had only recently been developed within humanity, but rather something that lies at the very core of the human soul, something that has merely been obscured and suppressed by later culture. If we view the matter in the proper light, we cannot even say that immorality came into the world through stupidity. Rather, it came into the world because people, while they were still immature, were given the secrets of wisdom. It is precisely through this that human beings have been tempted, have succumbed, and have fallen. Therefore, in order to ascend, what is needed above all else—and you can also gather this from today’s presentation—is that which clears away everything that has been placed in the way of the moral impulses in the human soul. Let us put it in a slightly different way.

[ 31 ] Suppose we have a criminal before us, a person whom we would call immoral in the truest sense of the word; we must not, under any circumstances, believe that there are no moral impulses within this immoral person. They are there, and we will find them if we delve into the depths of his soul. There is no human soul—with the exception of black magicians, who are of no concern to us here—in which the foundation of moral goodness is not present. If a person is evil, it is because that which has arisen over time as a spiritual aberration has come to overshadow moral goodness. Human nature itself is not evil. It was originally truly good, and a concrete examination of human nature shows us that it is good in its deepest essence, and that it was the spiritual aberrations that led people astray from the moral path. Therefore, these moral aberrations must be rectified in people over time. The deviations themselves, as well as their effects, must be rectified. But where the aftereffects of moral evil are so strong that demons of disease already exist, supermoral forces must also be at work, such as those of Francis of Assisi.

[ 32 ] But everywhere, the improvement of a person is based on our removing their spiritual aberration. And what is required for this? Now summarize what I have told you into a fundamental sentiment. Let the facts speak for themselves, let your feelings and your sensibilities speak, and try to summarize them into a fundamental sentiment; then you will ask yourself: What does a person need in order to behave toward another person? It is precisely this: that he needs faith in the original goodness of human beings and of every human nature! That is the first thing we must say if we are to speak at all in terms of morality: that there is an immeasurable good present at the very foundation of human nature. That is what Francis of Assisi told himself. And when he then encountered some of those afflicted with the terrible disease described, Francis of Assisi, as a good Christian of his time, said to himself something like the following: Such a disease is, in a certain sense, a consequence of sin; but because sin is spiritual aberration, and because the disease is a consequence of spiritual aberration, it must therefore be overcome and removed by a strong and great opposing force. Thus, Francis of Assisi saw in the sinner how, in a certain sense, the punishment of sin manifests itself outwardly. But he also saw the goodness of human nature; he saw the divine-spiritual powers laid at the foundation of every human nature. This magnificent faith in the goodness of every human nature—even that of the punished human nature—was what distinguished Francis of Assisi in a very special way.

[ 33 ] This made it possible for the opposing force to arise within his soul, and this is the force of love that gives morally, helps morally, and even heals. And no one, if they truly develop their belief in the original goodness of human nature into a full impulse, can come to anything other than loving this human nature as such.

[ 34 ] It is these two fundamental impulses, first and foremost, that can lay the foundation for a truly moral life: first, faith in the divine at the core of every human soul; second, the boundless love for humanity that springs from this faith. For it was only this boundless love that could lead Francis of Assisi to the sick, the infirm, and those afflicted by plague. A third element, which is added to these and necessarily builds upon these two foundations, is that such a person, who possesses the foundations of faith in the goodness of the human soul and love for human nature, cannot help but say to himself: What we see emerging from the interplay of the originally good nature of the human soul and active love justifies a perspective for the future that can be expressed as follows: that every soul, no matter how far it has fallen from the heights of spiritual life, can be found again for this spiritual life. This is the third impulse, this is the hope for every human soul, that it may find its way back to the Divine-Spiritual. These three impulses, we can say, Francis of Assisi heard expressed countless times, that they appeared before his eyes countless times during his initiation into the Colchian Mysteries. But we can also say that in the life he was called to lead as Francis of Assisi, he preached little of faith or love, yet he himself was the embodiment of this faith and this love. In him they were, as it were, made flesh. In him they appeared before the world of that time as a living symbol. At the center of it all, of course, stands that which was effective. It was not faith that was effective, nor was it hope. One must certainly have these, but only love is effective. It stands at the very center; it is that which actually carried the true further development of humanity toward the Divine in the moral sense in the individual incarnation of Francis of Assisi.

[ 35 ] How did we see this love—which we know was the result of his initiation into the Colchian mysteries—come to him, and how did we see it develop? We have seen that the chivalrous “virtues of the old European spirit” came to the fore in him. He was a chivalrous boy. Courage and bravery were transformed in his individuality—which was pulsing with the Christ impulse—into active, working love. Thus we see, as it were, the old bravery and the old courage in love resurrected, just as they appear to us in Francis of Assisi. Spiritualized old bravery transformed into the spiritual, courage transformed into the spiritual—that is love!

[ 36 ] It is interesting to see how closely what has just been said corresponds to the external historical course of human development. Let us go back a few centuries to the pre-Christian era. There, among the people who primarily gave their name to the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—that is, the Greeks—we find the philosopher Plato. Among other things, Plato wrote about morality, about human virtue, and he wrote about virtue in such a way that we can see that while he held back on the highest matters—the actual mysteries—he put what he was permitted to say into the mouth of his Socrates. Plato thus describes, for a period of European development in which the Christ impulse had not yet taken effect, the highest virtues he recognized—the virtues that the Greeks regarded as those a moral person should possess above all else. Plato first describes three virtues in particular. We shall come to know a fourth. Plato describes three virtues. The first is wisdom. Plato regards wisdom as such as a virtue. We have justified it in various ways as the foundation of the moral life. In India, human life was founded on the wisdom of the Brahmins. In Europe, it receded into the background, but it lived on in the Nordic mysteries, where the European Brahmins had to make amends for what had been ruined by that betrayal in the ancient Atlantean era. Wisdom, as we shall see tomorrow, underlies all morality. And in accordance with his mysteries, Plato also describes courage as a virtue—that is, the very quality that confronts us in the European population. As the third of the virtues, he identifies prudence or moderation, that is, the opposite of the passionate indulgence of the lower human instincts. These are Plato’s three principal virtues: wisdom, fortitude or courage, and moderation or prudence—that is, the restraint of the sensual drives at work within the human being. Then Plato describes as the fourth of the virtues the harmonious balance of the three aforementioned virtues, which he calls justice.

[ 37 ] There you have described, in one of the most outstanding European minds of the pre-Christian era, what was regarded at that time as the most important aspect of human nature. Courage and bravery are permeated, for the European people, by the Christ impulse and by what we call our “I.” The fortitude that appears as a virtue in Plato is spiritualized here, and it becomes love. The most important thing is that we see how moral impulses enter the human race, how what was once regarded in the way described today becomes something entirely different. If we do not wish to contradict Christian morality, we must not list the virtues as follows: wisdom, courage, prudence, and justice; for one might reply to us: “If you possessed all these virtues but lacked love, you would never enter the realms of heaven.”

[ 38 ] Let us take note of the time when, as we have seen, such a current, such an impulse, was poured out upon humanity that wisdom and fortitude became spiritual and reappear to us as love. But let us now address the question: How were wisdom, moderation or prudence, and justice formed? Through this, the special moral mission of the Theosophical Movement in the present will become clear to us.