Copyright by W. J.

Stein, 144 Harborough Road,

London, S.W.16. All Rights Reserved.

The Editor and Publisher has to announce that in the

event of his being prevented by force majeure from continuing
to produce The Present Age, he could not be responsible for
delivering the Journal or for returning subscriptions.
DANIEL NICOL DUNLOP. D.B.E.
 The Present Age
A monthly Journal edited and published by
Walter Johannes Stein

144 Harborough Road. London. S.W.16.

Printed by the Farningham Press, South Darenth, Kent,
and Edited and Published by
WALTER ]OHANNES STEIN, at 144 Harborough Road,
London, S.W.16. Telephone: Streatham 4230
 Contents.
PAGE
AN ApPRECIATION OF MR. D. N. DUNLOP
Late Chairman, International Executive Council
of the World Power Conference- W. J. Stein 5

THE PRESENT AGE

Editorial Article 17

SYSTEMA TIC ZOOLOGY FROM A NEW VIEWPOINT

(An introduction for a later article) 25

RECENT RESEARCH ON SIGHT

A Special Correspondent - 28

THE HISTORY OF THE ROSE - 30

THE ROSE GARDENER Flora Annie Steel 33

MALARIA
A Report of the work done at the Clinical
Therapeutical Institute, Arlesheim, Switzer-
land Dr. Rudolf Hauschka 34

FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF BAD GASTEIN

Jules Sauerwein 43
(Translated from the French by Eleanor Elsner)

EARLIEST CHILDHOOD AND ITS MEMORIES

Caroline van Heydebrand, Ph.D. 47

WORLD ECONOMIC RE-ORGANISATION H. E. Caustin 51

(" World Survey" Editorial Office)

SEISMOGRAPHICAL RECORDS AND THEIR MEANING

By the Editor 55
 The Present Age
A MONTHLY JOURNAL EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY
W ALTER JOHANNES STEIN

VOL. 1. DECEMBER, 1935. No. 1.

An appreciation of D. 'N. Dunlop

W ALTER J OHANNES STEIN

THE origin of this journal was Mr. D. N. Dunlop's idea,

and the title "The Present Age" was his choice. He wanted
me to create this journal and he hoped to write the intro-
ductory article. The day before his last illness started, he
intended to meet me and a friend of mine, in order to make
the preliminary arrangements, but he did not come at the
time he arranged, and when I went to see why he did not
come I found him already ill. The last thoughts which he
communicated to me before he passed away on Ascension
Day, 1935, were dedicated to this journal, and it became an
absolute duty for me to overcome every difficulty in creating
it. So this will explain why we start this journal by bringing
him into remembrance.
Daniel Nicol Dunlop was born in the Christmas season,
on the 28th December, 1868, in Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire.
His father was an architect and a Quaker, and in this con-
nection he did some work in religious education. Mr.
Dunlop's mother died when she was twenty-six, and the
little boy was only five. The mother was born in Arran.
Mr. Dunlop told me that his only memory of her was a little
cave on the beach that was shown to him where he was told
that his mother had often sat deep in thought, looking at the
waves. He often came to sit in this cave and gaze on the
sea and think about his mother whom he so much missed.
The great mother Nature, with the blue mantle in the day
time. and the starry mantle in the night, was ever with him.
6 THE PRESENT AGE
Onc day his father told him that he should read the Bible,
beginning with the creation of the world, and finishing up
with the Apocalypse, chapter by chapter, day by day. He said
that he did not want to do it, but after he had done it he
enjoyed it. "And I am doing it still," he said. He read as
much as five chapters daily. When he was nine years old,
he had twelve boy friends who used to come from consider-
able distances to see him on Sundays. Then, standing up on
a rock, he would read to them a chapter of the Bible, and
explain it to them. He said to me, in referring to it: "I have
no idea what I told them, but on looking back I know that I
grew enthusiastic and then my voice took on the tones of
song." He told me all these details and many others in the
Summer School at Westonbirt, Monday, 27th August, 1934,
when I asked him to tell me the story of his life.
He said: "It is not that I have forgotten now what I
said in my preaching, but immediately after I had given this
oration, I was so excited that I could not remember what I
had said. I remember that I had great difficulty in explaining
to these other children the beginning of St. John's Gospel,
because I had to explain to them how the Word could become
F1esh, and so I remember that I said, • Christ cannot be com-
pared with other human beings, because we cannot say of any
others that they are the crystallised Word. So Christ must
have been different from all others in this direction.' "
Mr. Dunlop's father was an architect working on the
mainland. and so the little boy lived with his mother's father
at Aran. He had to do all the housework for the grandfather.
He used to fish. and cook what he caught, and he learnt to
make and mend the nets. He and the grandfather were the
only human beings in the neighbourhood, so the life was very
lonely, and it was mostly on Sundays that he saw other child-
ren. One day when he was about ten or eleven years old. it
was raining and very stormy and his clothes were very wet.
and as evening drew on the storm increased. He and his
grandfather were in the little house with no other human
being at hand. As he lay in his little bed a great feeling of
eeriness crept over him, so he asked his grandfather to allow
him to come into his bed. There, in the arms of his grand-
father he fell asleep. But that night the old man died, and
when the boy awakened he found himself lying in a pool of
blood. He was shocked but not frightened. He stood up
and stirred the fire, dried his wet clothes in front of it and
sat on a little bench in the window looking out to sea. He
had fried a herring and began to eat it, and after this little
meal he began to think.
THE PRESENT AGE 7
He said to me: "I was fully conscious that my grand-
father was dead and that I was alone. but I had no feeling of
hurry. So I started thinking and my thoughts turned to
dreams. and from dreams to visions. I could see myself
riding upon a camel and others joined us. and I saw my
grandfather. but with another face. on horseback. He was
wearing rich white clothes."
I asked Mr. Dunlop if he were clothed like an Arabian
and he said "No. much richer. maybe Egypt." Then
pictures came and changed like a kaleidoscope. He told me
one more. He saw himself as a young officer looking up to
a much older and very fine looking man. riding beside him
through the desert. Then he saw himself as a Grecian youth.
leaning against a pillar in white garments and with a golden
girdle. He was watching a procession which entered the
temple. It was one of the Secret Groves. dedicated to the
Cult of the Orphic Mysteries and he felt great sorrow be-
cause the woman whom he loved was being taken away
from him for initiation in the temple. He felt completely
desolate.
He said to me: "I did not then know about Reincarna-
tion. I just had the experience of my previous lives. but I
had no theory about such things. Later. when I was
eighteen years old, I met in Ireland my beloved friend.
George Russell, and he was the first human being to whom I
could speak about such things. In this way through him I
became conscious of Reincarnation."
George Russell was known as a poet and philosophical
writer, under the pseudonym of "A.E." I was deeply imp-
ressed when I read that shortly after the passing away of
Mr. Dunlop, his friend followed him. The 'Times of the
18th July. 1935, gave an appreciation of George Russell.
Let us return to the little boy sitting by the window and
gazing out to sea. After he had finished his dreaming he
went away from the house to the other end of the island,
where there was a shop and a post-office. He asked the shop-
keeper to send a message to his father on the mainland to'tell
him of his grandfather's death. At first the man would not
believe him but as he insisted he consented to send the mes-
sage. The father came and they buried the old man.
Mr. Dunlop told me: " There was no minister, there
were no mourners. no undertakers. no public, only my father.
myself and our little horse which drew the carriage. We did
it all by ourselves."
He was about seventeen when he went to the mainland
and his father found for him a post in an office in which he
8 THE PRESENT AGE
worked for very little money. One day an agent from a
publishing company appeared, and had an advertisement with
him of a .. History of the World" appearing in instalments.
Each instalment cost half-a-crown.
Mr. Dunlop said: .. Can you imagine what I felt by
hearing the words ' History of the W orId: How wonderful
it must be to know all about the history of the whole world.
I felt very deeply that I had to have it. But I had no money.
so I told the agent that I was very, very sorry that I could not
buy it, but the agent said 'Here you have a little cash, take
it. You can pay it back later:" So he did. And each
fortnight he took the necessary two-and-sixpence from the
cash box, replacing it by an LO.D. until he was owing his
employer ten shillings. Then seeing no way of repaying the
debt, he informed his employer what he had done. But his
employer would not excuse such a thing and so he lost his job
and his father refused absolutely to give him the money. Now
the boy was on the street without money and a debt of ten
shillings. His father never wanted to see him again, so
he went down to the harbour and as a ship was in port and
loading its cargo he was allowed to stitch up the sacks of
merchandise and earned thirty shillings. In the meanwhile
he heard that his father had changed his mind and had paid
the ten shillings for" The History of the World." So he
paid the ten shillings to his father. His father would not
believe that he had earned this money in an honest way, but
after a long talk and when he made the whole story clear
to him he believed his son and agreed to him having the
whole "History of the World." The next day the boy
returned to the harbour and earned a pound and decided
to go out into the world to seek his fortune. He put
fourteen advertisements in newspapers and got fourteen
answers offering fourteen positions. He prayed to God for
guidance and decided to go and see all the people who had
answered him. He went according to the alphabetical
order of their names. Coming to " H " he found his position,
but he left it after a few days and went to a Frenchman
whose name was Fontaine. There he had to start work
at 6 o'clock in the morning. He earned twelve shillings a
week and had to pay three for his room. He found a room
in a very poor house in East Glasgow, but it was clean and
cheap, both essentials. In reality this room belonged to the
seafaring son of the woman who had let it to him, and from
time to time the son returned and he had to share the room
with him. He told me. " I had two candles which I watched
very carefully and by their light I read my books. I never
THE PRESENT AGE 9
could buy a book dearer than twopence, or occasionally
threepence." So after a time he had a library of one, two
and threepenny books and the" History of the W orId." The
house was not very comfortable and at the week-end every-
body was drunk. But Mr. 'Fontaine was pleased with his
work and alter a f.ew weeks gave him three pounds a week.
This was as far as Mr. Dunlop got with his story. We
had to break off the conversation and I was only able to ask
him a few other things at intervals. And so the rest of this
story will be very incomplete. But it may be that this
journal will come into the hands of friends of Mr. Dunlop
who know more and are able to complete my information,
and I should be very grateful for more knowledge.
I will now mention some details which he gave me. In
speaking about A.E., George Russell, his Irish friend, he said:
.. We created together a magazine, • The Irish Theo-
sophist,' and we printed it and even learned to do the
illustrations. We had in our bedrooms the printing press,
and by taking up coloured work we greatly increased our
sales. A.E. had never written a poem before, but for this
journal he made his first attempt.
Mr. Dunlop joined the Greek Church as a member about
the year 1920. He wished-in this connection-to travel in
Russia, and he really started, but unforeseen circumitances
intervened and he got no further than Norway. He had
already been in contact with the Theosophical Movement.
For two years he was the private secretary of Catherine
Tingley in California, and he met W. Q. Judge. He arranged
a number of summer schools for the Theosophical Society
and started at Hale (Cheshire) a Blavatsky Institute which
was visited by Mrs. Besant. He told me some details of his
time in America. After difficulties in his position in Point
Loma, he was very poor and was without occupation. He
was already married and had two children. His wife was
Eleanor Ossory Fitzpatrick. He told me that one Christmas
day he had no money at all, no money for presents to the
childrn, who were then six and eight years old. The third
was not yet born. He was specially grieved because on
Christmas eve he had not even a meal for them. But just an
hour before they should have sat down to their evening meal
a str~nger appeared, having with him a great Christmas
hamper. Everything was there, gifts for the children, the
usual turkey, fruit, bread and wine. He said, .. It must be a
mistake. We have no friends and nobody knows us." But
the man who brought it said, "No. You are Daniel Nicol
Dunlop. And this is your Christmas hamper." Mr. Dunlop
10 THE PRESENT AGE
said. telling me this; " It always gave me courage. even many
years later. when I thought of this event."
He also told me about Mr. Thomas Lake Harris. whom
he met first in Ireland. He said: " Harris once met Laurence
Oliphant in Piccadilly. Harris touched him on the shoulder
and said' I want to change your life. Try to become the
correspondent of The Times in Paris. Go to Paris. but one
day a stone will be thrown through your window. Under-
stand this as the sign that you must go immediately to
California.' All this happened. Oliphant found an excellent
successor for his work for The Times and left Paris." All
this Mr. Dunlop told me himself. Mr. Lake Harris was the
head of a Spiritual Community. the Brotherhood of a New
Life. In connection with this community there was a
vegetarian restaurant in Dublin. where a special non-alcoholic
wine was sold. Mr. Dunlop and his wife ran this restaurant
for six months. but it came to an end when the cook had to
leave. In this way Mr. Dunlop had a connection with
Harris. After his return from America he had in his
possession all the books by Harris. but up to that time he
had not read them.
He felt that he should write to Madame Blavatsky. and
he told her that he was in possession of all Harris's unpublished
manuscripts. but had not started to read them. H. P.
Blavatsky answered that he should send all these books back
without reading them and after an important decision tn
which he had to choose between Harris and Blavatsky he
decided in a way which was illustrated in a vision. Mr.
Dunlop told the content of this vision to me. but I found a
description of it written down by George Russell. his friend.
under the title. "The Secret of Power .. in the journal .. The
Path" which appeared as a publication of the Blavatsky
Institute in Hale. Cheshire. and was edited by Dunlop and
La:zenby. Mr. Dunlop told me that this vision appeared not
only to him but also to his friend. George Russell. who was
present in the same house in the moment of the vision.
A.E. (George Russell) writes in Volume I of "The Path."·
February, 1911 ;--
.. My friend was strangely disturbed. not only were his
material affairs unsettled. but he was also passing through
a crisis in his spiritual life. Two paths were open before him.
On one side lay the dazzling mystery of passion; on the other
, the small old path' held out its secret and spiritual allure-
ments. I had hoped that he would choose the latter. and as
I was keenly interested in his decision. I invested the struggle
going on in his mind with something of universal significance.
THE PRESENT AGE 11
seeing in it a symbol of the strife between' light and darkness
which are the world's eternal ways.' He came in late one
evening. I saw at once by the dim light that there was some-
thing strange in his manner. I spoke to him in enquiry; he
answered me in a harsh dry voice, quite foreign to his usual
manner: 'Oh, I am not going to trouble myself any more.
I will let things take their course.' This seemed the one idea
in his mind, the one thing he understood clearly was, that
things were to take their own course; he failed to grasp the
significance of any other idea or its relative importance. He
answered: 'Aye, indeed,' with every appearance of interest
and eagerness to some trivial remark about the weather, and
was quite unconcerned about another and most important
matter which should have interested him deeply. I soon saw
what had happened; his mind, in which forces so evenly
balanced had fought so strenuously, had become utterly
wearied out and could work no longer. A flash of old intuition
illuminated at last-it was not wise to strive with such
bitterness over life-therefore he said to me in memory of
this institution, 'I am going to let things take their course.'
A larger tribunal would decide. He had appealed unto Caesar.
I sent him up to his room and tried to quiet his fever by
magnetisation with some success. He fell asleep and as I was
rather weary myself I retired soon after.
" This was the vision of the night. It was surely in the
room. I was lying on my bed and yet space opened on everY
side with pale, clear light. A slight wavering figure caught
my eye, a figure that swayed to and fro; I was struck with
its utter feebleness, yet I understood it was its own will or
some quality of its nature which determined that palpitating
movement towards the poles between which it swung.
What were they? I became silent as night and thought no
more. Two figures awful in their power opposed each other;
the frail being wavering between them could, by putting out
its arms, have touched them both. I alone wavered, for they
were silent, resolute and knit in the conflict of will; they
stirred not a hand nor a foot; there was only a still quivering
now and then as of intense effort, but they made no other
movement. Their heads were bent forward slightly, their
arms folded, their bodies straight, rigid and inclined slightly
backwards from each other like two spokes of a gigantic
wheel. What were they, these figures? I knew not and
yet gazing upon them, thought which took no words to clothe
itself mutely read their meaning. Here were the culminations
of the human, towering images of the good and evil men may
aspire to. I looked at the face of the evil adept. His bright
12 THE PRESENT AGE
red-brown eyes burned with a strange radiance of power;
I felt an answering emotion of pride. of personal intoxication.
of physic richness rise up within me gazing upon him. His
face was archetypal: the abstract passion which eluded me
in the features of many people. I knew was here declared,
exultant, defiant, giantesque; it seemed to leap like fire. to
be free. In this face I was close to the legendary past, to
the hopeless worlds where men were martyred by stony
Kings. where prayer was hopeless. where pity was none. r
traced a resemblance to many of the great destroyers in
history whose features have been preserved. Napoleon,
Rameses, and a hundred others. named and nameless. the
long line of those who were crowned and sceptred in cruelty.
His strength was in human weakness. I saw this, for space
and the hearts of men were bare before me. Out of space
there flowed to him a stream. half invisible. of red; it nour-
ished that rich radiant energy of passion. It flowed from
men as they walked and brooded in loneliness, or as they
tossed in sleep. I withdrew my gaze from this face which
awoke in me a lurid sense of accompaniment. and turned
it on the other .
.. An aura. pale soft blue was around this figure through
which gleamed an underlight as of universal gold. The
vision was already dim and departing. but I caught a glimpse
of a face god-like in its calm, terrible in the beauty of a life
we know only in dreams, with strength which is the end of
the hero's toil. which belongs to the many times martyred
soul; yet not far away nor in the past was its power. it was
the might of life which lives externally. I understood how
easy it would have been for this one to have ended the
conflict, to have gained a material victory by its power, but
this would not have touched on or furthered its spiritual
ends. Only its real being had force to attract that real
being, which was shrouded in the wavering figure . . . .
This figure, wa\'ering between the, two moved forward and
touched with its hand the SO;} of Light. All at once the
scene and actors vanished, and the eye that saw them was
closed. I was alone with darkness and a hurricane of
thoughts. . .. For the rest the vision of that night was
prophetic and the feet of my friend are now set on that way
which was the innermost impulse of his sou!."
This is the story as given by George Russell. Mr. Dunlop
described this vision to me and even many years afterwards,
speaking about it, I could see how intensely alive both these
figures had been. He described two beings. the red one in
red clothing and red light: and the blue one in blue clothes
THE PRESENT AGE 13
and blue light, both very beautiful and impressive, and the
voice sounded and asked him to choose between them, and
he said, .. I decided for the blue, and it was a great decision,
as I felt. The red disappeared at first, and only afterwards
the blue, and then an old wise man appeared and began to
teach me."
In 1896 Mr. Dunlop joined the American Westinghouse
Electrical Company. In 1899 he was appointed assistant
manager of the European publicity department of the West-
inghouse Company, and moved to London. When I asked
him how he first came in contact with electricity, he answered .
.. I had to write articles. I remember I had to write sixteen
articles about the different uses of electricity for The W orId
Exhibition in Paris. One was on the use of electricity in
agriculture." These articles were well received and trans-
lated into French, thus bringing him into contact with the
Westinghouse Electrical Company. I asked him whether he
had ever had anything to do with electricity before. He said
" No. Only with mechanical engines like bicycles and
agricultural machines." So it is interesting that he came into
contact with this branch of human activity by writing about
it. In 1902 he became manager of the W estinghouse
Company. In 1911 he resigned from the British Westinghouse
Company and became the first organising secretary of the
British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association
(B.E.A.M.A.). In 1917 he became Director and held this
position up to his death. He was active in founding the
Electrical Research Association and the Electrical Develop-
ment Association. Recently he was elected Chairman of the
Electrical Fair Trading Council.
Mr. Dunlop wrote several books about Theosophical
problems, and published a journal .. The Path." His writings
showed that he was an experienced organiser who knew that
organisation was based on spiritual impulses.
Very interesting was his description to me of his meeting
with Rudolf Steiner. Before he personally met Rudolf Steiner
he had seen him at one of the Theosophical Societies Conven-
tion Meetings about the year 1906. Rudolf Steiner's
personality immediately made a great impression upon him.
but as his books and lectures were not to be had in England
then, it was some time before Mr. Dunlop recognised in Rudolf
Steiner the teacher for whom he had been looking. Partly
because of this he from then on held back from the Theosophi-
cal Society, thereby incurring the disapproval of both Annie
Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. The opportunity for direct
contact with Rudol£ Steiner came some time later.
14 THE PRESENT AGE
He was introduced to Dr. Steiner by a Dutch trader in
wood. Mr. J. van Leer. This gentlemen had himself a great
capacity for organisation. He lived in Vienna where I
personally knew him and died recently while travelling in
Russia. He had a charming personality, able to stand with
his two feet on the earth, but at the same time greatly
enthusiastic for idealistic and spiritual matters. Mr. Dunlop
could only speak English and Dr. Steiner did not speak this
language, so Mr. van Leer was the interpreter. He tried to
explain in a long talk who Mr. Dunlop was. But it seems
that Rudolf Steiner had already made up his mind about his
vis-a-vis.
He took his hand under the table and pressed it very
warmly. Immediately Mr. Dunlop knew he had at last found
the Knower. the Initiate, the great teacher he had sought for,
and in that moment began a friendship which, as Rudolf Steiner
himself mentioned later. was a reunion between friends who
had known each other probably in many previous lives.
He felt that in Rudolf Steiner's presence the soul could
breathe freely, could ascend on wings and could have its feet
planted on free and independent ground for action. With
every meeting with this great man, Mr. Dunlop felt that his
first impression was strengthened and deepened.
On the 19th November, 1922, Mr. Dunlop asked Rudolf
Steiner to take the life presidentship of the Anthroposophical
Society in Great Britain, of which Mr. Dunlopwas the
Chairman. I have been told that Dr. Steiner answered: "As
you are the Chairman, I consent to be the President."
When I asked Mr. Dunlop why he never gave lectures or
wrote any more books, he told me : "In my Theosophical
period I gave lectures and wrote books, but since I became a
pupil of Rudol£ Steiner, I felt very deeply and clearly that I
had not to speak and not to write, but to give the proper
people the right opportunity to write and to speak. And so
I restricted my work to such things as organising summer
schools, producing magazines and speaking as the chairman
after someone else has given his knowledge, emphasising what
was important and if necessary balancing the general outlook."
I think that such answer shows the complete lack of
conceit in this great man. He had the greatest veneration
for Rudol£ Steiner, and tried to live entirely in accord with
his philosophy.
For this reason he wished me to show the universality
of Rudolf Steiner's World conception in this journaL
In 1924 Mr. Dunlop founded the World Power Confer-
ence. In reality he wanted to found a World Economic
THE PRESENT AGE 15
Conference. In this connection he said to me: "I could see
clearly that it was impossible to bring together politicians,
and as all the important economic decisions are in the hands
of politicians, it was hopeless to found an international
economic body as a first step. But it was possible to bring
together human heings in the field of technical questions, and
so I started there. But I always had in mind the idea of
enlarging this body of engineers to a body of experts of all
branches of industry and agriculture. I wanted not only to
include the producers and distributors but also the consumers
and consider their point of view.
I asked him; "Do you think that the W orId Power
Conference will agree to such an extension of its objects? "
He said ; .. I hope so because even in the first publication
issued by the World Power Conference it is indicated." And
he took in his hand the membership list and opened the first
page and showed me the paragraphs under the heading
.. Objects" of the World Power Conference and_ I read;-
" The collectiqn of data, the preparation of Inventories
of the World's Resources, and the exchange of industrial and
scientific information through appointed representatives in
the various countries."
He said; "These words were printed in our first
publication and in the beginning of 1935 I saw that the time
had arr!yed to take the first step, so I published " World
Survey.
Then he took a copy of "W orId Survey," opened the
title page and again his fingers rested on the words ;--
.. Published under the auspices of the World Power Confer-
ence for the exchange of economic and technical information
and the Provision of a World Economic Service and Inter-
national Power and Fuel Bibliography."
" You see," he said, "that it is not the Journal of the
World Power Conference. It is an independent enterprise,
but under the auspices of the World Power Conference, and
time will decide if what is intended there will continue under
those auspices."
The first W orId Power Conference was opened in the
Conference Halls of the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley,
on 3rd June, 1924, by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. The
second was held in Berlin under the patronage of Reichsprasi-
dent van Hindenburg on 15th July, 1930. Nearly four
thousand members attended the Conference. There were
five sectional meetings, in Bale in 1925, in London in 1928, in
Barcelona in 1929, in Tokio 1929, in Scandinavia 1933, and a
Chemical Engineering Congress will be held in London in
16 THE PRESENT AGE
1936. All this shows that Mr. Dunlop was the founder of a
large international organisation. He was the first human
being who proposed after the war to include Germany again
in an international body. I asked him about this point and
for his reason.
He said: .. If you think along the line of facts, you will
find that no international conference on technical subjects
would be complete without Germany. So it was just the
feeling for reality and the sense of justice which demanded it."
Mr. Dunlop's daily life was dedicated to the two organisa-
tions, The British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers'
Association (B.E.A.M.A.) and the W orId Power Conference.
But the evenings he used mostly for arranging meetings,
lectures, conferences on cultural or philosophical subjects.
Then he would take the chair and certainly no better
chairman could be imagined, because his great love
encouraged the speakers and his corrections never gave
offence, but rather increased this courage by opening up
new avenues of thought. Then in his concluding remarks
his voice took on again the tones of song and his eternal
being, linked up as much with the stars as with the earth,
seemed to be present.
He had the greatest reverence for human freedom and
working under him in his office, working out his economic
ideas with him as my immediate superior, I could observe his
method. The ideas would originate with him, but he would
give them freely to his helpers to be worked out along their
own lines. Then he wanted them written down, but he
would not read what was written. He would give it to
others to read and watched their reactions to it, asking them
questions. Finally he would call together, maybe for lunch,
people whose views he valued, and wanted to have a living
discussion about the matter in question. When I asked him
about this method he answered:
.. If you want to organise, you have to learn how to use
other people's brains. You must learn to think with their
thoughts, receiving at last the full truth arrived at as the
balanced result of all possible points of view. Wisdom
always arrives at the end. But the right beginning is the
desire to help in a certain direction."
THE PRESENT AGE 17

The Present Age

WALTER ]OHANNES STEIN, PHD. (VIENNA)

THE rest of this century will be significant not only with

regard to the East and the West and their inter-relations,
but with regard to changes in the earth's surface. Everything
is moving at present. Great movements are found not only
in the Earth-man's concepts are changing correspondingly.
Even the continents, which in previous centuries showed such
stability, have not remained fixed in modem times. We have
to understand that they are moving, one in relation to another,
and that means much more than just an enlargement of our
ideas on modem science. It has given us a different feeling
in our relation to the earth. For this reason the present age
of mankind is confronted with the task of finding stability
within the innermost being of man himself. In the middle of
the nineteenth century the world appeared as a well-ordered
mechanism. At the turn of the century the idea of the
mechanism was replaced by that of evolution. Engineering
improved, but it was never possible to find the real place of
the human being in the scheme of evolution. Neither natural
science nor social organisation could secure the right position
for the human being. Only during a very short time could
man appear to be a higher animal. The theory was tenable
for a short time, but in practice it was not possible to live as
in a society of higher animals. It was possible to create a
psychology denying the reality of the soul, and only recognis-
ing soul power as organic functions; but it appears that it is
not possible to live indefinitely in a social organisation where
machinery, rationalisation and mechanisation have pushed
aside the human beings through creating unemployment.
The application of power in modem industry has changed
everything connected with the human being, because the
power-driven machine does not only reduce human labour,
but has replaced it by non-human powers.
Fred Henderson, in his valuable book on "The Economic
Consequences of Power Production," has pointed this out.
But it is nothing else than the final consequences in practical
life of the theories of the nineteenth century. The human
being has been systematically excluded through these theories.
18 THE PRESENT AGE
At first we were asked to believe that the world around us in
all its beauty did not contain any blue or red or yellow colour
or any other quality transmitted to us through the senses_
We were required to believe that in the real world there
were only vibrations and all that entered into the mind
through the senses was purely subjective. This mistake
started with John Locke who discriminated without any real
reason between primary and secondary sense qualities, and
modern world conception, sustained by physicists, physiolo-
gists and psychologists has completed the mistaken line of
thought. The aim of this conception was to exclude sub-
jectivity, but in doing this valuable work, the human subject
was excluded too. The human being is not subjective but
objective. The last step in this evolution is the exclusion of
the human being from the economic process and it is,
impossible to create a return for him by considering only the
field of economics. Only if we reconsider all the Sciences
and their universal unity in a world conception, can the
economic questions of today be answered. This process
means the greatest revolution that has ever happened in
mankind. The human being is fighting for his existence in
every field of scientific thought and practice, and the
problem of the relation between East and West hangs on the
solution of this riddle. From this point of view it is of the
utmost importance to show that the most recent research in
all the different sciences is reconsidering this way of thinking
and is searching, sometimes unconsciously, for a new world
conception which grants the human being his proper place.
Just to show the mistake and the correction, may I quote my
doctorial dissertation in the University of Vienna, in which I
could show the mistake of the Helmholtz-Theory of the
complementary colours. He thinks that the creation of
green by looking upon red is a process which follows that
of seeing red. But in reality both processes are simul-
taneous and it is easy to prove by experiments that
the perception of colour is created through the inter-
penetration of the external (red) and the complementary
(green) colour in the eyes. This proves that the human
subject is anchored in the difference (which can be measured)
of qualitative forces, in this case the colour. It is not the
colour that is subjective; but the subject lives between the
perception and the creation of the colour as in a difference
of forces which can be measured. The same can be proved
for all the senses and the consequences of such a conception
are that it is possible to understand the interplay of sub-
jectivity and objectivity. It may seem widely divorced from
THE PRESENT AGE 19
practice to think about such internal processes of the human
organism, but in reality this kind of thinking is our education
for the solution of the economic problems. To link up the
human being in the right way with the economic process
means, necessarily, the creation of organisations dealing with
this refitting of the human beings back into the economic
process. These institutions must not be economic ones, they
must be educational, because the human being has to be
educated for his new work. It is the same kind of thought.
to consider that mechanical vibrations are the only reality
in nature and that our senses transmit us only subjective
impressions, as to think in the ~conomic field that it is a
private affair, something subjective, to be unemployed.
Unemploymer-t in reality is created as the result of two forces
One, according to the modern trend of evolution eliminates
the human being and the other, being educational, should refit
the human being to enter the economic world. As the eyes
have the creative power to answer every possible impression
of colour with its own complementary colour, so an universal
education makes the human being able to battle for his
existence against the excluding forces.
The remaining seven decades of this century will de-
mand of us much greater versality than before. What man-
kind has created as machines and organisations and trade
connections, has become a different thing from what it was
fifty years ago, because all our creations have attained to a
life of their own and we have not only to deal with non-
human powers in industry, but even with the trends of
evolution which were never intended in the schemes thought
out by human beings. The primitive culture had to deal
with nature; the modern culture, created by ruling over
nature, has to deal with a second nature, entirely different
from the first nature. We study the life of this being for
example, in the trade cycles. But we have not yet learnt to
rule this being as we have the first. The first nature could
be ruled by engineering and organisation. The second asks
for more than mere intelligence; it asks for the creation of
a world conception and a social organisation in which every-
thing is there simply for the benefit of the human being.
Steps taken in this direction are very few, and this can be
illustrated by a review of the complete field of world statis-
tics. We shall find for most commodities, statistics of
production and consumption, and maybe of stocks, but it will
be very, very difficult, almost impossible, to find out how
many human beings are engaged in a certain industry. We
know, for example, that about sixty per cent of mankind is
20 THE PRESENT AGE
employed in agricultural work, but we do not know the
details. But this is really what we need to know, because it
is not enough to limit production for the stabilisation of
prices, since all this is secondary. The fundamental require-
ment is to lead a certain number of human beings out from
one field of work into another, and to arrange for the
supplementing of their education so that this change can be
carried through. But we shall find in studying the available
statistics that practically nothing is done in this sphere.
Take, for instance, the International Labour Review, published
by the International Labour Office in Geneva, and we shall
see how little is done in that direction. Why? Because all
our education in all the sciences in the last century was
arranged in such a way as to awake our interest for objective
facts, commodities and substances, but never for the human
being, and if we do not realise this and embrace the opposite
point of view, the people of the East will revolt against this
Western world conception. Really they are waiting for us
to change. They have a far greater feeling for the import-
ance of human-kind than we can imagine, but not for the
single human being. For example, on account of the family
system, Japan does not feel the unemployment problem in
anything like the degree in which it is felt in the West. The
single human being can claim his maintenance from the
family. This system has no meaning for the West because
we have to solve the unemployment problem at another stage
of evolution. We have to solve it as individuals, and that
means that our interest in the human being must be so strong
that we can find out what a single human being is able to
do, and create institutions which give scope for man to use
all his faculties. But even in this field, mechanisation has
wronged humanity by introducing mechanical tests in the
place of loving understanding and individual education.
This journal, for that reason, desiring to give a full view
of the present age, has to find space for articles on education,
economics and all the different sciences and has to deal with
all possible specialisation known in our present day, without
losing the universal point of view.
If we study the structure of the cosmos, we find that we
have to use many sciences to get a complete picture. The
application of optical instruments and mechanical calculations
will show us the stage of the cosmic evolution at present and
how it contains past and future within itself. The spiral
nebulae and other forms indicate the different stages of
cosmic evolution. But on looking down to the earth, we
have to use other sciences to complete the picture. Geology
THE PRESENT AGE 21
will tell us the story of our planet and how plant and animal
life arose in the course of time. Mineralogy will tell us about
the great secret of the formative forces, which penetrate the
earth's surface and create the astonishing forms of the crystals.
It is important to have specialised knowledge of all the sciences
but far more important is it to have a comprehensive view
embracing all the knowledge that they can give us.
Many of our most careful and conscientious workers will
say that it is too early for such a synthesis of ideas. They
will say: .. Let us get as far as we conscientiously can and
not be impatient. It may take centuries to approach the
possibility of an universal knowledge." We can agree with
such ideas in so far as they indicate a deep sense of
responsibility. They would be true if the real universal
knowledge could be found in the sum total of all known.
But this is not in line with nature, because nature started from
the universal idea and specialised it. Let us demonstrate
it by an example. Botany describes many forms of plant
life. It is possible to arrange all these forms in a series
beginning with the simplest unicellar form and finishing
up with the most complicated, which has perfectly balanced
orientation the root, vegetative organs, (stems and leaves)
and the blossom. There are different schemes for describing
systematic botany. For example, Linnaeus was most success-
ful for the determination of unknown plants, because he
counted all the different parts of the blossom and made a
tabulated scheme of what he found. But such a system does
not apply to the lower plants such as seaweeds, ferns, etc.,
because they have not reached the stage of producing flowers.
Recent research has created a system better adapted to
describe the true path of evolution, and this system approaches
nearer to the architypal, universal conception of nature itself.
From time to time in this journal we shall point out in single
articles dealing with Botany, this true natural system. It may
appear that in the present stage of knowledge there are
still gaps to be filled in, but the fundamental intention will
be to show the evolution of the plant kingdom and to
demonstrate its geographical distribution in the different
geological epochs. Let us presume so far as to anticipate
the result for the purpose of giving an example of how the
universal idea can appear. We can see that the plant with
flowers and vegetative organs represents a high stage of
evolution and we have to understand that the primitive
unicellular organisms are the first attempts of the plant
kingdom to appear. They are built up by the same formative
forces as the plant root. In higher stages the leaf evolves
22 THE PRESENT AGE
(as in the ferns) and higher still the blossom appears. So
we see the plant kingdom becoming manifest through the ages,
first as the root nature, then as the stem and leaf, and
finally as the flower. So the whole plant kingdom can now
be thought of as an ideal plant, growing to full development
through the ages. Goethe had this archetype in mind when he
wrote about the Urpflanze. Research had not progressed far
enough in his time to prove his theories, but it has now
done so. We should imagine this architypal plant as a system
of forces. It remains in the nature of forces, but produces
different manifestations in the different great geological
epochs of evolution, and the present lower phylla are left
overs from those older times. For instance, the unicellular
plants together with the Algae, Fungi and Lichens appeared
first and were manifestations of the root forces. Later the
Mosses, Ferns, Equisetums, Conifers and allied species
brought into manifestation the stem and leaf forces, while
the higher orders of flowering plants bring the blossom ever
more and more into the open. Even if some details in this
system should need correction later through further research,
it would not change the fundamental idea which is comprehen-
sible in the present age. But let us go one step further. It
is not possible to point out the whole idea for the animal
kingdom in this introductory article, but it will appear in
this journal in due course. If we anticipate it we find that
in the animal kingdom three sets of forces are at work: three
functional systems creating the animal. The first finds its
expression in the nervous substances and their structure.
We find that the nerves and senses system creates perception,
sensibility and consciousness corresponding to processes of
,destruction in the organic substance. For example, in the
eye, no perception is possible without partial destruction of
the substance of the retina and only because life is recreated
through the activity of the blood, repetition of perception,
that is repetition of destruction is possible. The forces
which create this system are analagous to the forces which
create the root of the plant. It is true that it is a far cry to
link up in this way phenomena in the two kingdoms, but the
proof is found in our scientific knowledge. We are only
able here to illustrate it by an example. Consider the sense
of balance, in the animal or in the human being. The sense
organ of balance is the inner ear and the plant has a similar
organ in the root. Tiny grains of starch in the plant root
arrange themselves symmetrically with regard to the forces of
gravity, and any tilting from the perpendicular will cause a
derangement in the position of these grains and this is
THE PRESENT AGE 23
answered by a corresponding curvature in the growth of the
plant. This is only one example, but if we consider all the
similar counterparts we should see that the plant has its head
in the root, because the nervous system is concentrated in
the head. The second great system in the animal kingdom
is the rhythmical system which is expressed in breathing and
pulsation. But there are other rhythms belonging to this
system as, for instance. the rhythm controlled by the spleen.
This organ regulates the rhythm of nourishment because our
absorption of nourishment is irregular, but the pulsation of
the blood in which the nourishment is absorbed is regular.
To adapt this irregularity to the regularity, an organ is
necessary. It is the spleen, which emits small particles into
the substance of the blood. different in quantity according to
the regularity or otherwise of the absorption of nourishment.
This process and many others, too numerous to mention here,
create the rhythmical systems of the animals and of man.
The analogous organs in the plant are the leaves and the
stems with the rhythmical circulation of the sap, and the plant
breathing. But the process of breathing in the plant king-
dom, chemically, is partly the inversion of the breathing of
man who inhales oxygen and exhales carbon-di-oxide. This is
not very surprising because the plant is really the inversion of
the human being as we shall see very soon. The third great
system within the animal system, is the metabolic system. In
the plant the function of this system is dedicated to the blos-
som. The metabolic system is the instrument of creation and
recreation. The single being uses a part of this creative power
for its own and a part for the generation of similar beings.
The plant has concentrated these generative powers in the blos-
soms. Let us describe in a single picture what we find. In the
animal kingdom. we have two forces as polarities. The creative
power is centred in the metabolic system, the destructive
forces in the nervous system. Between these two poles of
destruction and creation works the rhythmic system, balancing
the other two. inhaling life (oxygen,) exhaling death (carbon-
di-oxide.) and circulating in the two streams of red and blue
blood. A similar but opposite appearance is found in the
plant kingdom. Functionally the human being contains within
himself an inverted plant, having the roots above and the
flower below. The roots are in the senses. the leaves in the
lungs and the blossom in the metabolic system. The higher
animals stand in an intermediate position with regard to
this inversion. Their orientation in space is horizontal and
this means that they are in an intermediate stage between
the opposing orientations of the plant and of man.
24 THE PRESENT AGE
If we can grasp this concept, we can see that behind the
plant, animal and human kingdoms the same forces are at
work; the same archetype is there. It expresses itself in the
most perfect way in the human being: but this does not mean
that it has exhausted all its possibilities of manifestation.
We know this archetype already as a threefold unit. The
religious idea of the Trinity, of the God as Creator and
Destroyer, balanced in eternal quiet, appears in the kingdoms
of nature in graduated steps of evolution. We can follow
the planet as bearer of this evolution. Not only geology,
zoology and palreobotany tell us about this evolution, but
even astronomy, too. We see the movements of the axis of
the earth indicated in the orientation of each plant, animal
and human being. The human being appears to us as the
terrestrial picture of the heavenly archetype in its trinity.
We see this trinity expressing itself in material form in the
evolution of the planet, in the form of life in the plant king-
dom, just touching the possibility of sensibility, and in the
expression of a full inner life of soul in the animal kingdom.
One great universal world conception appears. Its
servants are all the sciences. Its content is religion, but
speaking in the expressions of modern science, and its im-
pulses are social. Because of our knowledge of the great
secret of diversity in unity, we must find the right way to
create what only man can create, the social organism.
Economy, politics and the cultural life will appear as the
threefold organisation and unity, foreseen by Divine powers
but left for man to bring into manifestation from his own
sense of responsibility.
THE PRESENT AGE 25

Systematic Zoology from a New Viewpoint

WALTER JOHANNES STEIN, PH.D. (VIENNA)
(An introduction for a later Article)

MOST people think that single animals are interesting;

for example. dogs for their cleverness, or ants for their social
organisation. Especially when the animals approach a certain
similarity to the human being do they begin to be interesting.
The ants are interesting because they live in well-organised
colonies of about one hundred thousand beings. The bees
have in their hives about fifteen thousand, the wasps about
four thousand, the hornets about two hundred, and bumble
bees from thirty to a hundred. In all these colonies the
division of labour is carried out to a high degree of proficiency.
For example, there are, as it were, casts for different kinds of
work. The ants steal pupae from other colonies. and bring
them up to work for them as slaves. But their life in the
colony is as free as that of their lords. The different colonies
go to war and one may completely wipe out another. For
this purpose, some of the ants are differentiated as soldiers.
The causes of the war are differences about the frontiers
between the ant heaps. Very often they come to agreements
about the common household. Even sport is known to the
ants, in wrestling and mock fights. Others are guardians of
the door, and they have specially large heads; still others
sacrifice themselves through eating so much honey that they
nearly burst. They are stock pots for the rest, and give up
the food when it is wanted. They cultivate food like human
beings: they prepare special beds where they grow fungi, and
they do it so cleverly that the fungus on which they feed is
not found free in nature, but is a product of their activity.
They manure and weed their beds and use their own fluid
excrements for this purpose. It is all so highly specialised
that the queen ant will take a small piece of the fungus, hold
it so as to catch the excrement, and then replace it in the
cultivation bed from which it was taken. She does this once
or twice an hour. The young worker ants, which are females,
do the same thing, but only by dropping the excrements.
They have domestic animals, plant-lice, which they milk.
26 THE PRESENT AGE
They go from oni! louse to another, sucking out their golden
fluid, not for themselves but in order to distribute it later.
The ants as a natural order are much sub-divided, and these
many and varied activities are not found all in one nest, but
the different types of differentiation are found in the different
sub-divisions of the order. For example, the cultivating ants
all belong to the Attini, and this activity is not found anywhere
else. This picture of the ideal nest never exists in nature,
because all the activities are never collected together in one
nest.
If we want to compare the animal with the human being
we should not do so for a single animal, nor even for a single
family as the ants, nor even a whole sub-division of the whole
animal kingdom. If we compare the brain of an ant with the
brain of a human being and wonder how this tiny structure
could be cleverer than the human brain in working out the
social organisation, we are mistaken. The brain of each
single ant can only be compared with a part of the human
brain, and all the brains in one colony form a unit comparable
with the human brain. In just the same way the bees create
togther in their hive the temperature of the human blood,
but no bee has a body temperature the same as that of human
blood. But together they form a unit comparable with the
human blood. The division into queen, workers and drones
in the bees can be compared with the albumen cells (queen)
the blood cells (workers) and the nerve cells (drones). The
queen develops from the egg in sixteen days. The worker
takes a little longer to attain maturity, and it is interesting that
nature will work longer in producing the worker than the
queen. The development of the drone takes twenty-four days.
The rhythm of the development of the worker corresponds to
the time in which the sun revolves upon its own axis. So the
worker bee is the full expression of the cosmic rhythm. The
queen attains her full maturity in less than the complete cycle
and remains nearer to the larval stage, thus becoming special-
ised for the generative process. The remaining sun forces,
not used in her own development, work on in her generative
powers. In the same way, in the human body, those tissues
which are rich in albumen have the quickest rate of multipli-
cation, growth, death and regeneration. The drones overstep
the rhythm of the sun and take to themselves too many earth
forces and through this they are able to fertilise the queen.
They exhaust their life forces very quickly because they are
created without fertilisation by the other sex, through
parthenogenesis. No female can be created by this process,
only the male sex in bees. The nerve cells may be compared
THE PRESENT AGE 27
with the drones because they both show a deterioration of the
tissues and a diminution of the life forces. The blood cells
create in the human body the hexagonal bone cells in the same
way as the workers create the hexagonal cells of the comb.
In the embryonic evolution of the human being the order of
development is that at first the cells containing the plastic
creative powers, then the blood cells and finally the nerve
cells are created. The connection between the bees and the
human body is indicated in the fact that rickety children can
be cured with honey if they get it in the very early stages of
their life.
Rudolf Steiner, in lectures in 1923, evolved this idea of
comparison and it is most important to understand that
animals and animal groups may be compared with cells and
organs in the human body and only the animal kingdom as a
whole can be compared with the human being. From this point
of view, systematic zoology can take on a new significance.
I have much pleasure in announcing that in the next
number of THE PRESENT AGE my friend, Dr. Eugen Kolisko,
is contributing a remarkable article on this subject. I have
tried to explain in this introductory article that in comparing
the animal and human kingdoms, not the single animal, but
the group must be visualised as a reality. In order for my
readers to appreciate Dr. Kolisko's most vivid description of
the various groups of animals, they must keep this idea very
clearly in their mind.
28 THE PRESENT AGE

Recent Research on Sight

A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

THE eagle, the vulture and the buzzard perceive thE"

movements of the objects of their prey from astonishingly
great heights and distances; distances quite beyortd the scope
of the human eye. They see the movement and not the
animal itself. Should the latter stop suddenly (freeze) the
bird of prey cannot see it. This suggests that the eye of the
bird is specially attuned to perceiving movements. This.
proves that the eyes of the birds of prey is a differently con-
structed eye from that found in other animals or in the
human being. They have as a protrusion, an immensely
enlarged blind spot. Dr. E. Menner of Halle gave some in
formation about this at the Zoological Congress held in
Stuttgart, in July, 1935. He had found that in a camera, if
the plate was replaced by an opaque piece of glass and a
small disc placed in such a way that the imagt> of flying
swallows was obscured by it, he was able to see a secondary
image of the moving birds on other parts of the glass.
The perception of movement happens in such a way that
the picture of the moving object appears on the edge of the
field of vision and moves right off it. With an enlarged
blind spot, the disappearance can be centripetal as well as
centrifugal. The image disappears into the blind spot and
reappears on the other side of it. So that an object moving
along the diameter of the field of vision of a bird of prey will
have four points of perception, one on the periphery, one on
the side of the blind spot, one on the other side where it
emerges, and a fourth at the periphery again. In the eyes of
these birds the blind spot protrudes so far into the cavity of
the eye that it throws a number of shadows on to the retina.
This causes the retina to be surrounded by a shadow rather
like a much serrated wheel. It gives a great multiplication of
the points of perception and they are integrated like the tiny
pictures of a moving film. This discovery is most important,
not only because it explains the high degree of accuracy in
the sight of these birds, but even allows of some addition to
the knowledge of the human faculty of sight and proves that
we have, besides the static perception, a second mechanism
for moving objects.
THE PRESENT AGE 29

It now becomes clear why the perception of colour is

most intense in the centre of the field of vision and fades out.
the nearer the object moves to the periphery. The faculty
of sight is concentrated in the centre of the field of vision and
becomes more and more hazy the nearer the object moves to
the edge. This might be thought to be a defect, but now the
reason for it appears. The more the faculty of seeing the
obiect recedes, the clearer is the perception of its movement.
and similarly where the sphere of the perception of the senses
ends, in the field of uncertainty, a new perception for
dynamics appear. The eye is our teacher, even for the whole
of human psychology. We are concentrated to perceive the
physical world with our senses and our consciousness, but
some parts of our inner life are like the blind spot to the
faculty of vision. This is not a defect, but opens up a new
kind of perception for that world of forces which always
works behind the world of actualities appearing to the senses.
For this reason, it may be true that the eagle flying up to
heaven opens our mind to the WorId of the Logos.
30 THE PRESENT AGE

The History of the Rose

THE rose, as we have it blooming in our gardens today,
is a creation of the human being. There is a great difference
between it and its wild ancestors. It is symbolical of the
whole of humanity in so far as it appears in the two typical
and different forms of the oriental and accidental roses. The
accidental roses, R. centifolia and the Rose of Damascus had
their origin in the Orient, too. They were first cultivated,
together with the musk rose, for the purpose of extracting
atter of roses. Another type of the accidental rose is the
yellow garden rose, R. hemispheric a or R. sulphurica. The
oriental rose is the tea rose, R. odorato or R. tea. It is
yellow with a tinge of green. In 1809 it was brought from
China to England. Previous to this the Bengal rose had been
brought over in 1789. It is dark red and both came originally
from China. The accidental Damascene rose came to
England from the Mediterranean, brought by Linacre in 1524.
M. le Comte de Brie took the same one to France in 1270, on
his return from a crusade in Syria. The Empress Josephine
of France, had at Malmaison a great collection of roses from
all over Europe. It was most important for the cultivation
of R. Damascena and Centifolia. Many different varieties
of these two roses were produced there and the moss rose was
produced from R. centifolia. The Rose of Provence was
imported from Syria in the time of the Crusades by Tibor,
Count of Champagne. From this rose many different
varieties were produced at Malmaison. The Empress
J osephine found consolation for her great sorrows in this
collection of roses, where she had so many kinds. Long after
her separation from Napoleon, she returned, in 1814, the year
of her death, to her rose garden. In the same year Alexander I
of Russia went to Malmaison to offer her the support of the
Allies. The Empress received him in her salon, in which
Bonpland her gardener had placed the first roses of the year.
Alexander realised that his offer had come too late; both
were deeply moved, and Josephine, after a few words, took
one of the roses out of its vase and gave it to Alexander.
Afterwards it became known as Souvenir de Malmaison.
Media in Persia seems to have been the first home of the
rose, which fact is indicated by both plant geography and
THE PRESENT AGE 31
philology. In no other literature is there such a deep feeling
for the rose as in the Persian, and we may suppose that this
love of the rose is a product of the Zarathustrian culture ;
that culture which was so deeply dedicated to plants, minerals
and every detail of the whole life of the earth.
The different names of the rose come from the same
root of the old lndo-Germanic language and this root is vrdh.
or growing. It means the process of life as such. The word
Rosa in Latin comes from this root as do the Greek Rhodon,
the Arabian Vard. the Armenian Varda. the Chaldean Verad.
the Persian and Turkish Gul. which are all names for the
rose and show us that it is the symbol for the development
of the human soul.
The apple is closely allied to the rose; both belonging
to the natural order Rosacere. The Babylonians had on
their magisterial staves a carving of either an apple or a rose.
and we may understand that the word for the apple in the
Latin language. malum means evil. In the same way the
rose stands for the good. The rose has always been used
for the symbol of the higher selfless egohood. in contra-
distinction to the apple as it appears in the story of the
Garden of Eden. Anyone can draw from the apple an
illustration of a great truth. If the fruit is cut in a trans-
verse section and a thin slice then removed and held up to
the light. the different tissues in the fruit make a picture of
the flower of the rose. which is very nearly the same as that
of the apple. Here in nature is a picture of the good and
beautiful being enclosed and hidden in the bad and harmful.
An old legend tells us that J oseph of Arimathrea collected
the blood of the Saviour in the Holy Cup, but a few drops
fell on the ground and a red rose grew out of each drop.
This indicates that the rose is the symbol of the pure and
selfless blood in which the passions have been overcome.
Just as iron is found in the blood, so too do the red petals of
the rose contain iron. Thus it combines the purity of the
plant with the strength of the iron. It has been used since
ancient times as a remedy. If yarrow and red roses are
steeped in boiling water and applied as compresses over the
liver. the sulphur of the yarrow, and the iron of the roses
together with the fragrance of the roses, heal melancholia.
So we can see that the rose can bring happiness and healing,
not only by its beautiful appearance, but also by its substance.
For this reason it has been used in many forms in the different
ages. It is eaten as crystallised rose petals. Rose water, rose
sugar and attar of roses were all much used in olden time.
The Princess Nurmahal greatly loved Prince Djihanguye. and
32 THE PRESENT AGE

after she was married to him she filled the channels of her
garden with rose water. Walking there one day she noticed
the foam floating on the water. She took some in her hand
and was fascinated by the lovely perfume. This was the
discovery of the rose oil or attar of roses in Persia. It
happened accidentally, but the oil soon became used for
commerce.
It is not easy for us to imagine the appreciation felt for
the rose in ancient times. It was recognised that in the rose
the three organs of root, stem and flower were differentiated
in the most beautifully balanced way. This is not the case in
the lily. Here the forces that build up the flower penetrate
the bulb and the differentiation into root, stem and leaves,
and flower is not complete. For this reason, Theognis wrote
the proverb, well known in ancient times, "Never will a rose
grow from an onion." The lily is the symbol of the Annun-
ciation, indicating that the Spirit, symbolised in the fragrance
of the flower is descending to the inmost recesses of the bulb
in the earth. The opposite is found in the rose. It is the
symbol of the complete separation of the spirit from the body,
and announced the death of the Saviour. The rose was
dedicated to Venus and Aphrodite, not so much because of
their beauty but for quite another reason. Venus stands for
the alchemical transubstantiation; the separation and the
reunion of spiritual and terrestrial forces. We read in the
writings of Valentine of Andreae, in " The Chemical Wedding
of Christian Rosenkreutz " that the brother of the Rosy Cross
had to stand in front of the naked Venus without the presence
of Eros. This means that he has to approach the secret of
creation and death, the penetration of the material by spirit
and the release of the spirit from the material quite selflessly.
The symbol of this power of the self, used in an unselfish way,
is the rose. This quality of the rose is mentioned by the
Prophet Hosea and he indicates that it will be realised as an
epoch of human evolution in which selflessnes will rule the
world just as in the same way selfishness once ruled. He
indicates that before this can be fulfilled a storm will shake
the earth, a storm which has grown up from the seed of the
wind. Count de St. Germain quoted this idea because he
thought that the French Revolution was this storm, which
should separate the three forces of liberty, equality and
fraternity. As in the rose, root, stem and flower are separated
from each other and produce a harmonious whole. so the
French Revolution had to act as the rose of mankind, giving
the right scope to each of its three ideals, for they are con-
tradictorv in the same sphere (e.g .. freedom and equality). He
THE PRESENT AGE
knew that after the French Revolution, the time of the Rose.
as prophesied by Hosea must come. We live in this time.
Every smallest event around us shows it. It was possible in
earlier times for a country to be selfish; but in our time the
inter-relationship is so important that all countries are deeply
linked up, and one cannot be happy without the happiness of
all the others. For this reason modern economic Life grows
towards fraternity, modern international State relations must
grow towards equality, while in the sphere of beliefs and man's
conception of the world, we feel very strongly that freedom
must prevail. But the rose, in all its meaning is mainly a
human product, and the age of the rose cannot grow without
all human beings throughout humanity assuming a share of
the responsibility.
If we see the world sub rosa we see the world divided
into East and West. We see the evolution beginning in the
East and wandering to the West. We see the great gift of
the West in the creation of a wide-spread individualisation.
But all this manifold differentiation and individualisation
reminds us that we must recognise their unique source and
harmony. This is the history of the rose and at the same time
the history of mankind.

The Rose Gardener

(From the Persian)
(AN old gardener was overheard to sing the original
words on which the English verses are founded. as he went
round the rose garden in Teheran. gently shaking the leaves
off in order to collect them for the distilling of .. Atta
of Roses.")
WORDS BY FLORA ANNIE STEEL.'
The Rose-root takes Earth's kisses for its meat
The Rose leaf draws its blush from the Sun's heat
The Rose scent wakes-who knows from what thing sweet
Who knows
The secret of the perfume of the Rose?
Dig, Gardener! deep; till
The Earth-lips cling tight.
Prune, Gardener! keep those blushes to the light
Then, Gardener, sleep! he brings the scent by night
Who knows
The secret of the perfume of the Rose ?
"By kind permission of Mrs. J. E. Webster, from her mother. Mrs.
Plora Annie Steel's work" Indian Scene," published by Edward Arnold
and Co., Maddox Street, London, W.).
34 THE' PRESEN72 A.GE

A Report of the' Work' done at the. Clinical Therapeutical

Institute; . Arlesheim; Switzerland
OR, RUDOLF HAUSCHKA

MALARIA is an illness which is most illuminating on

account of the periodicitY' and regularity with which it takes,
its course, illustrating and unveiling the secret of the inner
meaning of. illness in generaL. Illnesses are not accidental.
evils against which we have to battle, something without alL
reason and. purely negative; but they-care great educators of
the human being, and it is most important to recognise them
as one means-of the inner education of humanity. It would
not be possible to unveil this ;inner meaning of illness without
enlarging our research in the direction of an increase of
knowledge' about the evolution of humanity up to its present
stage. If we would not refer to the great laws of this
e¥olution.all we could do would be to describe the illnesses
themselves and how theY' could be treated with a greater or
lesser degree of success.. For this reason one may be justified
in speaking about illness, bearing in mind a.true picture of
the evolutiol'l of the human being and of the world. Illnesses
must be fitted into it as phenomena which play a justified
part in the education of humanity because they correct
certain weaknesses in the individual. The idea that illness
is only caused, for example, by noxious parasites, toxins or
other outside influences and-that the aim of a cure is simply
to remove the disturbing elements makes the problem too
easy, and leads away from' the recognition of the real
intentions of the illness. It is certainly true that health has
to be given back to the individual and we must spare no
effort to do so. But because the body is penetrated by the
forces of soul and spirit we have to consider that sometimes
their evolution, in taking its right course, causes illnesses to
arise in the body. For this reason; the cure of the body,
which must indeed be accomplished, has to be done in such
a way that strengthening for the soul and spirit is given in
the means of healing.
It is not easy to discriminate between soul and spirit but
they are differentiated in just the same way as the body
THE PRESENT AGE 35
because they participate in the differentiation of the body.
Our consciousness is not only based physically on our senses
and, nervous system, but it is based on all organic functions.
Processes belonging to the sphere of soul and spirit are based
on physiological phenomena and it is necessary to know this
inter-relationship in all its complexity. The ingenious
beginning to this additional chapter of knowledge is given by
Doctor Rudolf Steiner through his Anthroposophical insight
into the human being.* From this great conception of .the
world and from knowledge of the human being containing the
clear pictures of the interplay of spiritual powers. soul
powers and forces of the body, it is possible to speak,about
illnesses as educators, and to do it in such a way that it does
not remain a general vague idea, but each illness can be
described in full detail. Every process of illness in the body
works back, even when not fully realised, to the conscious-
ness, the mood and the character.
The illness of malaria penetrates deeply by its nature the
full human organism of body, soul and spirit. As it starts to
do its work in the human blood, it is necessary to know in all
details how the processes of soul and spirit find their basis in
the blood. A man recognises himself as an ego, as something
cut off from his surroundings, through the difference in
temperature between him and his surroundings. For this
reason we can say that because the red blood is the bearer of
this warmth, it is the instrument of self-consciousness or
egohood. The red blood corpuscles contain iron and are the
centres which must be there in order that the egohood may
become crystallised in such a way that it can work in the
physical body. Considering the blood is the bearer of iron,
warmth" and all the other constituents which go to make it
up,.it ,can be recognised as the medium in which our con-
sciousness is anchored.
Malaria, therefore, shows a vigorous attack against the
instrument of self-consciousness, against our egohood. The
parasite which finds its life milieu in the processes of this
illness in the blood, disrupts the instruments of self-conscious-
ness, the red blood corpuscles. From the point of view of
its physical phenomena, malaria is a disruption of the red
blood corpuscles, brought on by the parasite, but from the
point of view of a world conception considering soul and
spirit, it must be recognised as the most complicated arrange-
ment for the purpose of lowering the self-consciousness. In
the course of the illness a high degree of anremia, as is well
·Fundamentals of Therapy. By Dr. Rudolf Stein er and Dr.
Ita Wegman. Anthroposophical Publishing Co., London. 1925.
36 THE PRESENT AGE
known, is accompanied by great distress on account of a
blank condition of soul in which all activity is extinguished.
The illness educates the human soul in keeping hold of itself
even in facing vacuity and emptiness within itself, and so a
certain surplus of egohood, based entirely on the physical
instrument, the red blood corpuscles, is taken away and
turned, by the education of the illness, into the inner power
of self-control. In this way the faculty of selfhood is raised
from the physical to the psychic. From this point of view
the illness appears as a very costly education of the human
egohood, paid for entirely by the body. No wonder the
processes of the illness as such affect sympathetically an the
processes of life and all organic functions. How could it be
otherwise if such a battle is waged in the human blood?
It is well known that there are two factors in the
appearance of this illness, the entrance of the parasite and
the condition of the blood which makes it .. fruitful soiL"
But what makes the soil fruitful? The condition of the
blood which shows an all too strong self-consciousness; and
it is necessary for it to be educated in the diminution of this.
The parasite, as an external agent, wears down the blood
which is, even in its chemical and physical constitution the
most individual part of the human being. The human being~
suffering from time to time from the illness of malaria, loses
the physical basis of self-consciousness and this hypertrophied
self-consciousness is weakened in running out into emptiness
in all directions. That such an illness occurs epidemically is<
a manifestation of the fact that many human souls need such
a correction. The condition of the egohood leads them
unconsciously to the proper surroundings where the correction
can be found. It may appear astonishing that the condition
of the innermost self of the human being should be the
magnet working unconsciously, but with purpose, to attract.
the necessary outer conditions, but this is explained if we
understand how the process works. For example, someone
who has gained knowledge of engineering will, by the nature
of the case, have machinery in his surroundings. And so"
always, external destiny is caused by the nature of our inner
being. Therefore, the oriental population says that it is
Karma (destiny) to contract such an illness. It would be Cl:
mistake for such a great truth as the idea of the education of
humanity to be the cause of the wrong idea that no effort
should be made to heal such an illness. But the method of
healing should take into account the educational intention of
the illness. Such a way of healing, growing out from the
Western civilisation and science, approaches through its
THE PRESENT AGE 37
foundations in spiritual knowledge, the Eastern world
conception, which sees Karma (destiny) working in such an
illness. A method of healing which embraces both ideas, the
Eastern idea that illness is an educator and the Western idea
that we have to overcome the illness, shall be shown
here.
Since 1880 it has been known that malaria goes parallel
in all its phases with the life phases of the parasite. The
latter enters the human blood through the bite of a certain
mosquito belonging to the species Anopheles. The life-cycle
of the transferred parasite goes on in such a way that the
tiny protoplasmic bodies enter into the red corpuscles and
grow there with various velocities, according to the species.
They destroy the hremogoblin and create from it hremozoin,
a brownish black pigment which they deposit within them-
selves. After a certain time they enter upon the spore stage
each parasite forming itself into many members; these dis-
rupt the red blood corpuscles and swarm free in the blood.
Then they are able to penetrate into other red blood
corpuscles where the same cycle is repeated. It is possible
for them to continue for many years with this asexual re-
production. Besides this, a sexual life-cycle takes its course
in the mosquito. It means that the copulation in the sex
process takes place only in the mosquito. So there is this
.double cycle of reproduction, partly having place in the
insect and partly in the human being. It is well known that
according to the time which the parasite takes to complete
his cycle, fevers with different periods can be found. For
example, the tertian ague, caused by Plasmodium vivax,
which evolves in 48 hours creates fever every third day.
The quaternary fever is more rare and is caused by the
parasite Plasmodium malarire. This has a cycle of 72 hours.
which means that there is an attack every fourth day. It
is possible that two different infections may produce two
separate life-cycles in the same patient and in this way a
.different rhythm of the fever is found. The parasite of the
worst forms of malaria tropica has a cycle of 48 hours, but,
according to Italian researchers, two subsidiary types of
fever are mentioned as having a quotidian cycle. The
Malaria tropic a is unlimited in its forms, and accompanied
with aggravated symptons and irregularities of the ague.
In fact the fever may be continuous.
Three processes run concurrently in the disease, and
their interplay should be fully understood. The first is the
life cycle of the parasite, the second is the symptomatic con-
c:lition of the patient in the case of a classical attack of
38 THE PRESENT AGE
malaria. and the third is the cycle of physological conditions.
It is known to modern medicine that it is not the presence
of the parasite in the blood which causes the fever. because
the parasite is present in the blood even in the interim.
The fever is the reaction to the disruption of the red blood
corpuscles and the swarming out of the spores. which acts
as a sudden poisoning of the blood; and it indicates that the
meaning of the fever is the attempt of the ego to keep a grip
of its field of action which the illness tries to take away.
Even before the attack. while the parasite is still growing.
tiredness and lassitude and a feeling of sleepiness. such as are
known before sea-sickness. and pain in the head and limbs.
are all harbingers of the coming illness. and show that the
process in progress must be thought of as a battle of the
awakened self-consciousness for its perpetuation. Stretch-
ing and yawning before the attack are signs of the departing
consciousnes. In the normal case. the consciousness would
slip away in sleep. but in the case of the illness the inner be-
ing is expelled from its organic basis. and makes an amazing
effort, thrust by thrust. to retain itself. It begins with a
feeling of chill and then proceeds to a real rigor for about
two hours. but in this stage there is really no cold. but a
fever going up to 104° to 1060 F.
To enter more deeply into the understanding of ,this
illness. we should not only consider the temperature of the
human blood. but also a second entity. We know already
that all warmth in the human body gives the physical
instrument for the human egohood. but we are not only
spiritual beings. concentrated in our ego, but at the same time
we possess our soul forces. which radiate out over the whole
sphere of the soul life. The physical basis of this second
radiating process in the human body is the light. Warmth
is the physical expression of the spirit in the human body. and
light of the soul. If we enter a room which is bright and full
of light we feel an important increase of consciousness through
the awakening power of the light. But if we enter a room
which is pitch dark and perfectly black. we feel that our soul
forces llre diminished. This illustrates for our feeling and
understanding. the connection of light with the forces of the
soul., If we turn now to the illness and apply this idea to it.
we will gain some understanding of the function of the black
pigment. the hcemozoin which fills the transparent disc of
the red corpuscles with darkness and pushes out the soul
forces to such a degree that the post mortem examination of
the body shows us that all the organs are penetrated by this
black pigment. This penetration of the body with darkness.
'THE PRESENf[' AGE
parallel with ,the e~pu1sion of the soul forces, is not only
common to malaria, but even to other illnesses like the
suprarenal disease. When the shivering begins, the process
of the penetration of the body by this dark· power reaches
its culmination. In convulsive attempts spirit and soul try to
win back in the physical body the soil taken away from them,
that which was the basis of consciousness and self-conscious-
ness. Again we must point out that this does not only belong
to malaria, but even to other diseases of which an ague is
characteristic, such as sepsis or pneumonia. The fever
remains then from two to five hours at its highest stage, and
this is the phase in which the patient battles with all his forces
.at first in his whole organism and then in each separate organ,
not to lose activity and wakefulness. All the vital forces are
mobilised, the organism tries to excrete the parasite before it
,enters a new red blood corpuscle, hitherto free from it. The
-spleen and the marrow of the bones absorb the parasite and
imprisons them in the plasmodium. (The enlarged white
blood corpuscle which has absorbed the spores of the parasite
in order to be able to destroy them.) The spleen swells
because it acts like a sponge, cleaning the blackboard of the
blood on which the Spirit is accustomed to write. It is the
guardian of the threshold and swells in the attempt to absorb
into itself all that from which it seeks to protect the blood.
The task is too great because the parasite is let loose in the
whole body. This indicates that the hiding place of the
parasite of those types of malaria whirh only give a positive
blood test during the ague, is the spleen.
With the sweating stage, all the other symptons. such as
sickness and headache disappear and after about twelve
hours the attack is ovexcome. The patient is weak and
debilitated but relatively well.
Then there is the interval which may last from one to
. three days and then the attack is repeated if the case has not
been treated. There are a few cases in which the illness is
healed without outside help, but mostly the,consequences are
a chronic form of malaria, causing anaemia and a swollen and
yellowish-grey colour in the face, general :apathy, and the
appearance of under-nourishment. _
Here we must survey again the whole field in order to
link together the therapy and the illness, and to show the
reason for the former. The normal composition of the red
blood is destroyed by force. A rapid diminution in the num-
bers of the red blood corpuscles follows as a consequence;
the pigment penetrates all the organs, which means that the
spirit loses for the self-mns.ciousness and lor the souUor the
40 THE PRESENT AGE
conscIousness, their physiological bases. All the rest is
secondary.
The specific remedy for malaria has been nearly exclu-
sively quinine. It destroys the parasite, even if used in a
weak solution, and it has been shown that it works strongly
against the free swarming of the spores. From this the con-
clusion is drawn that it must be given in sufficient quantity
and over a long period of time to he certain of healing. But
there are many contra-indications which limit its use, as, for
instance, a number of illnesses of the heart. lungs and
stomach. Involuntary poisoning through over doses of
quinine are known as black water fever. The name is due to
the appearing of blood in the urine. Then it is well known
that quinine induces labour pains in pregnancy, and for this
reason all such cases call for a different remedy.
Quinine is an alkaloid (discovered in the bark of
Cinchona in 1820). A decoction of this bark has a tonic
and stimulating effect. In the case of malaria. the pure
alkaloid salts are used, which in large doses kill the parasite,
but their accompanying effects are extremely unpleasant.
Quinine first of all stimulates the forces of life, but then it
paralyses them and weakens all the nervous functions. This
indicates that we have to think in a new way about the illness
and through that to find new remedies which may be used
besides quinine. It is possible to deal with intruders like
these parasites without trying to kill them. but rather by
bringing substances into the body which will help the inner life
processes in such a way that the integrity of the blood is
protected from within. Then the parasites are killed too,
not directly. but by rendering their soil unfruitful. Only in
so far as they survive this process we have to work against
their activities. We have seen that warmth and light are the
forces in the blood which give the basis for spirit and soul
and for this reason two remedies must be given. They have
already shown in many, many cases of malaria a great power
to heal The use of these two substances could only be
indicated by a knowledge created by such research about the
human being as we have already described.
The one remedy is Copper sulphate. in a homceopathic
solution. the other is a preparation of Eucalyptus globulus.
Contemplating the appearance of this illness, we will see
that it is necessary to work against the destruction of the
blood, against the destruction of the albuminous compounds
which are a living unit in the human being. Our healing
substances must have forces which work synthetically in the
ocganism and at the same time lead the life process in such
THE PRESENT AGE 41
a direction that the poison can be excreted. We need
something to clean the body and stimulate the inner creation
of light to defeat the invading darkness. AIl this may be
found in these two substances. The sphere of potentised
copper is the region in which blood and lymph are created.
Both belong to the innermost part of the metabolic system.
especially the sulphuric element gives the remedy the power
of synthesis. Sulphur plays an important part in albumen. as
a mediator. It enables the four substances in the albumen.
hydrogen. oxygen. carbon and nitrogen to react through the
presence of its own forces of warmth. The sulphur also has
the centrifugal forces which we need in the remedy. To
comprehend all these forces as a picture. indicating the
peripheric tendency of this substance. we must remember
that sulphur can be found in volcanic regions. exhuded from
the earth and it appears in its finest form as flowers of
sulphur. This name is given with great wisdom because the
flower is that part of the plant which shows phenomena of
radiation. So the adaptation of the name .. flower" to a
mineral is an excellent choice. Sulphur also contains forces
of warmth and light. and combined with copper. it unfolds
its radiating and expelling powers just in that part of the body
where the seat of the illness is found. namely in the innermost
part of the metabolic system; in the blood. So the sulphur.
by its nature is able to transform into a beneficial process
that which, by means of the parasite is an undesirable one for
the physical body.
Eucalyptus on the other hand is well-known as a popular
remedy in those parts of the earth where fever is prevalant.
It receives notice here and there in medicine, but not in any
degree comparable with its value. Eucalyptus is used as an
internal and external remedy for all sorts of phlegmatic
troubles in the the air passages. This can be easily under-
stood from the special nature of the Eucalyptus tree. It
grows so quickly that the swamps dry up through having
their water absorbed by this tree. For this reason it is used
for reclaiming swampy areas. Its extraordinary vitality
produces the oil which permeates all parts of the tree with
its strong aroma. It stands in the poisonous atmosphere of
the swamps and cleans. so to speak, the air. Eucalyptus
does just the same in the human body as the tree does in
nature. It acts as an astringe on the mucous membrane.
so clearing the air passages. In earlier times the drinking of
swamp water and the breathing of the air of the swamp was
thought to be the cause of the fever. This idea created the
name mal area. This" bad area" is cleansed and made
 42 THE PRESENT AGE
healthy by the Eucalyptus tree, in nature. Eucalyptus oil is
one of the few etheric oils, which do not irritate the
kidneys. * This oil is prepared, in the form of injections and
used subcutaneously and acts (as has been proved in many
cases), by lowering the fever, bringing down the swelling in
the spleen and liver and causing the plasmods to disappear.
Recently preparations have been produced containing both
remedies in one injection, thus facilitating their use. Ex-
perience of these remedies creates the justified conviction
that this kind of therapy, in suitable cases, can be of great
. service.
In concluding it should be mentioned that no criticism
should be made of a malaria patient regarding their strong
egohood. We can leave them to deal with their own inner
problems. But in order to help we must point out that the
forces of the soul and spirit are dissolubly linked with certain
psychological processes and spiritual facts. Without such
knowledge the right point of view could not be reached.
Thus this article does not intend to pronounce the final word
regarding the treatment of malaria, but seeks to indicate a
point of view combining the healing of the physical body and
the .consideration of spiritual forces.
·Schulz, "Deutsche Arzneipflanzen," Leipzig, 1921.
... THE PRESENT AGE

From the Mountains of Bad Gastein

JULES SAUERWEIN
(Translated from the French by Eleanor Elsner)

EVEN the most simple observations such as one can make-

at a health resort like Bad Gastein provide a source of vast:
instruction for any thinking or reflecting person. If one
looks at the lists of tourists and residents in that spa one
finds that by the month of August already 7,000 visitors had
arrived, and if that average continues there will pass through
the hotels and pensions from 15,000 to 20,000 persons during
the season. Prices are dear. In former days Bad Gastein
was one of the most expensive places in Europe. Even today'
the least one can expect to pay-taking into account baths.
treatment, etc., (only increaseq by 40s. a day) would be about
£1 4s. Od. a day. Visitors coming from countries beyond
Central Europe are in the minority. Most come from
Austria or from the neighbouring countries. In the other-
health resorts, which are naturally less expensive, the influx
is just as great this year. Surely this is a phenomena which
should make us think. The regions of Central Europe-as
we are constantly told-are all the time on the verge of
great catastrophies. From the financial point of view most
of them are ruled by special laws. To transfer one's affairs-
from one state to another, one has to submit to very
complicated rules and regulations. For the inhabitants of
certain countries to journey to a foreign land is extremely'
difficult, and the money they are allowed to take with them
is a mockery.
From the economic point of view the situation is just as·
abnormal. Commerce is reduced to its most simple equation,
and every nation uses all its powers to organise an autocracy-
-forcing it by its protective laws to produce all the objects,
originally brought from foreign countries. Lastly it must be
admitted that from the political point of view the weight' of
cruel uncertainty hangs particularly over this Centre of
Europe. In spite of appearances, Austria is still divided in
rival parties which have been maintained by the tragic events
of the last years. Therefore we. find ourselves in a region
where there does not seem any reason to expect improvement~
44 THE PRESENT AGE
It is not only: the numbers of individuals who frequent the
spas and health resorts which prove the facts to us, it is
also the case that the numbers of motor-cars has greatly
increased, a fact which is considered in all countries as a
sign of prosperity. When I expressed astonishment at the
satisfactory aspect of a resort where Germans of the Reich
are not permitted to enter without paying a fine of 1,000 M.
on their passports, I was usually told that those people who
were there had economised the whole year-had even
deprived themselves of necessities-in order to be able to
afford that holiday, to take that cure.
This is possible, but not probable. It is likely that had
this been the case, the majority would have taken less
expensive holidays, or even have remained simply in the
suburbs of the towns in which they worked. No, the truth
is that in Central Europe, in spite of the profound troubles
in all the countries there situated, there is an unquestionable
amelioration.
I wish to guard myself against constructing a theory on
what may be merely passing events, but it must be under-
stood that social and national organisms, like the human body
itself, manage to adapt themselves to situations entirely
against nature; or perhaps, that Nature herself finds remedies
just where Statesmen find themselves entirely impotent.
In the Spiritual WorId there is. just as in the W orId of
Economics, a sort of elasticity which defies all kinds of
calculations. and which permits even to the community a
resistence to the repeated violations of all the principles of
hygiene. You create agriculture in a land which was made
for Industry. You create Industries in an agricultural
country, which ought normally to be taking from its neigh-
bours the products that it needs. And between the countries
separated by such artificial barriers, you stop the circulation
of money!
In spite of this, in spite of the accumulation of all these
stupidities, these lands, which should never have been
separated, remodel an existence and revive the appearance
of a relative healthiness.
In the Spiritual W orId it is even more astonishing. You
take away bit by bit all the individual liberty, which human-
ity declares it cannot do without. You forbid the expression
of opinions and sentiments, either verbally or in writing, and
in spite of the revolts and the jars of a humapity thus crushed,
the soul finds itself almost as satisfied in seeking a form of
happiness in lower activities.
Thus, whilst in the economic order a fragmentary and
THE PRESENT AGE 45
disordered life transforms itself into an existence which is at
least possible, on the other side, in the spiritual order, the
individual forces lose themselves, by an inverse process, into
a sort of collectiveness almost resembling that of a primitive
tribe. And yet the spirit does not disappear. It centres and
encloses itself in an inner life, and perhaps prepares for its
return by a sort of incubation in the atmosphere- unexpected
and precious, of a forcing house. To my mind, even if this
economic and spiritual life, smothered by mistakes, presents
an almost normal appearance, one must not trust to it: it:is
impossible that in time the results of this compression will
not be dangerous explosions.
The human being, individual or collective, certainly needs
discipline, just as the child cannot develop himself if his
instincts are not guided: but discipline is perhaps nothing but
the means, and not the goal.
If we carry ourselves back sixteen years we see when
and how and under what influences the germs of this
unbalanced condition were sown. President WiIson, in
whom the highest inspirations filtered through a strict and
doctrinal mentality, had certainly the idea that humanity had
need of liberation. In expressing his principles of nationality,
he insisted that that which depended on spirit should be set
free from politics.
Thus he created nations with minorities, but when he
found himself face to face with his work he was bound to
take into account that wholesale, integral liberation was
impossible, and that minorities (smaller, it is true, than ever
before, but important all the same) should continue to be
under the domination of majorities, armed with political
powers. He had the impression that his work was imperfect
and that the spiritual activities. such as Religion, Art and
Culture in general were but little more liberated in the New
Europe than in the Old. He died having lost hope. Had he
lived longer he would have seen that the exasperation of
National Sentiments (in the moment that they were not
transformed into true spirituality) created in certain nations
a complete confusion between political powers residing in
force, and patriotism-which should be nothing but an
attachment to the spiritual treasures of the race. But
President Wilson saw equally the other aspect of the problem,
that upon which economic life depends. He understood that
the principles of Nationality, even where imperfectly
realised, gave rise to the creation of artificial unions and
arbitrary Autocracies; a sure source of future conflict.
He traced in those great lines of economic work. The
46 THE PRESENT AGE
League of Nations. something which was to reunite in the
most logical and far reaching system all those elements which
the sentiments of ,Nationality had dispersed. Unfortunately
that part of his wrn;k has failed. If only the 'League of
Nations had been able: to settle those political conflicts of
even limited importance! But she has never managed to
solve a single economic problem. ,
The Conferences which have succeeded one another--
and particularly the last .lamentable fiasco of the Conference
inLondon two years ago-:-have had the lugubrious appearance
of a complete and final renouncement of all economic wisdom.
Thus the first principh~ of Wilson led to national fanaticism.
while the second could not control economic egotism. These
evils are so profound that it would be imprudent and puerile
to attach too much importance to what seems to be a revival
of prosperity. It is necessary that the smaller nations of Cen-
tral Europe arrive at other conceptions if they wish to exist
without"the danger of the great nations taking away their
:independence.
In writing these things Ldo not at all think that a simple
changing of the form-such as a restoration-can bring the
.slightest relief.
It lies between the States who should create and develop
more normal relations. and more sane exchanges-the
presence of a dynasty will bring neither remedy Qor relief..
It is for this reason that of all the negotiations now going
on the most important are those which aim at establishing a
Danubian State.
Unfortunately, the project, as at present put forward. is
insufficient, because it is purely negative. It is a question of
.non-aggression, of non-blending. of non-intervention; but it
is not with negations, but with affirmations that. one con-
:structS- an edifice.
THE PRESENT AGE 47

Earliest Childhood and its Memories

DR. CAROLINE VON HEYDEBRAND

WALTER DE LA MARE in his very 'remarkable book on

Ghildren and on childhood "Early one Morning," mentions
the amusing contemplations of Robert Southey about a Swiss
saint, St. Nicholas de Hue. This saint claims to remember
his own birth and to have known his mother as soon as he was
born. He never forgot the way he was taken to be christened,
nor the faces of the persons who were present at the ceremony.
But he was an extraordinary child (though he neither danced,
sang nor preached before he was born, as some other saints
are said to have done) for he had revelations in that state
". . . . and saw the Light of Heaven before he saw the
Light of Day . . . ."
.. Southey," said Waiter de la Mare, .. chaffs the saints,"
and he goes on ...... Nevertheless, if we consider the
question without prejudice. what would be odd. if it were not
universal, is not that St; Nicholas should have remembered
his own (birth) but that we should have forgotten ours."
And, indeed, it is a strange fact that in the evolution
of man's consciousness, not only can we not go back in
memory to our birth, but we cannot even remember the first
years of our life. Some people there are certainly who can
remember events of the second year of their life, and more
rarely still, some who can remember right back to the first
year. Tolstoi tells us how, being wrapped up in his swaddling
clothes, he felt utterly unhappy. He did not, he says,feel
angry with the grown-ups, but his loud and bitter wailing
protested against a fate that deprived him of a freedom which
would have hurt no one. But he, the infant, was too powerless
to win that freedom. This struggling impressed itself very
deeply into the mind of that extraordinary child.
Generally, remembrances go back to the third year of a
child's life, and they may then even have a certain continuity.
But why is this so ? Why do we not remember our birth and
the very first years of our life? This lack of memory makes
it difficult to understand the child's development. We can-
not know the state of our own minds in our first years through
our own experience, and as a grown-up we cannot creep into
an infant's mind. We look at a baby from outside, and this
48 THE PRESENT AGE
outer side nides its inner being from our eyes. Only intuition,
as a state of higher knowledge, could enable us to penetrate
thoroughly a child's inner evolution. Rudolf Steiner, in his
books, has pointed out the way to that higher knowledge,
and he has given the most precise descriptions of the gradual
unfolding of growing man.
The child, first of all, is not a small grown-up, either in
body or mind. Nothing on the whole earth is more wonderful
than a new-born child-if one looks at it without prejudice
and with a loving soul. A mood of solemn earnestness seems
to pervade the baby's crib. The small head is perfect in its
roundness; the little face appears elderly, not only because it
is wrinkled and yellow, but because of its quiet, serious look
which seems to radiate out of the deep well of the past. The
little feet have not yet found the earth. Every moment of
its life is invigorated with the powerful tension of moulding
forces, for the small child is not only growing, it is being
formed and shaped.
One cannot really speak of the moment of birth, for birth
is a process which lasts all the child's life, it is, so to say, an
.. incarnating process," and it lays claim on the first two
decades. Only then is man really born to the earth.
It is important to take into consideration the building
forces that are working in the child's bodily growth. They
are full of the power of wisdom and beauty. We are only
too accustomed to the processes of a child's evolution. But
it is, nevertheless, the greatest mystery. Beautiful is the
shape of the different bones, and we must acknowledge that
nature is an artist to produce them. One does not really
grasp the full activity of the building forces by merely looking
at the bones; it is when one tries oneself to model them in
clay that one begins to learn the creative activity working in
the child! And this appreciation will not be confined to the
brain and eye, but will be extended to the fingers by one's
owncreative imaginative powers. All these processes are full
of an utterly mysterious wisdom, a powerful wisdom which
we cannot wholly understand in spite of all our research into
anatomy and physiology. Our knowledge, our abstract think-
ing life cannot reach to the depths of this creative wisdom,
yet all those who nurse or educate a child are working either
in harmony or in disharmony with these building forces; they
are either friends or enemies of this plastic work of nature.
Not only what those around the child are doing, but also what
they are thinking, feeling and willing, imprints itself into the
child's inner organs, their structure and the tissues of which
they are composed. A mother's melancholic temperament,
THE PRESENT AGE 49
her sorrowful and depressed thoughts; a father's choleric
outburst. his rude words, his noisy behaviour influence the
child's breathing, its blood-circulation, and through this its
whole metabolic system. A predisposition to certain illnesses
in later life is interwoven into the child's organism. Perhaps
in no part of a child's life is the influence of a grown-up,
whether carried out consciously or unconsciously, so intense
and so far-reaching as in the first three years. Once this is
realised, one cannot but feel the greatest responsibility. One
knows that a baby needs good wholesome food, pure air. and
bright, clean surroundings. but in reality a child is needing
much more from its guardian; loving cheerfulness. true
religious feeling and deep moral impulses; these cause the
inner organs to form themselves in the right way, endowing
them with healthy tendencies. To a very wide extent
parents, nurses and educators are giving the child a disposition
for a strong healthy and happy life. or they are giving it the
reverse. We are truly" fate" for the children entrusted to
us. Only a thorough insight into a child's real needs can
help us to fulfil our task.
When these vital building up processes have come to a
certain conclusion, the bones begin to harden and the first
teeth are modelled. then only the first conscious movements
are possible, for consciousness always arises at the expense
of vitality. Pain and death are always the promoters of our
conscious being. And so we find that memory is only able to
unfold when the vigorous growing forces in the human body
are weakened to a certain extent. Only when the flowing
forces of life are partially dammed, can a clear crystal pool be
formed. which will act as a mirror reflecting our sense per-
ceptions and inner soul life. This reflection is memory. It
is not strange, therefore, that going back to our first memories
we find that very often they arise out of painful and distress-
ing events. They may, however, arise out of great joy, which
acts in a similar way to pain. It is a striking, a pathetic fact
even, that so very often man's conscious life begins with woe
and affliction. Some few examples. written down by children
of about eight years old, may illustrate this truth.
FIRST MEMORIES
" The first event happened when I was about two years
old. My elder sister carried me and let me fall. I broke the
bone of my nose and up to this day it remains broken."
.. When I was half dreaming, I took a walk with my
mother. A dog came in my way; it barked and I was terri-
fied. Only then did I know where I was and realise that I
was on the earth."
50 THE PRESENT AGE
"I don't know how old I was, but it was a beautiful
afternoon. Trees had been brought in out of the wood;
they were lying in our courtyard, partly already sawed and
partly not. A saw was standing near them under a shed.
My little sister and I wanted to saw small logs. On this
occasion I, of course, sawed away the upper part of my
sister's finger; she screamed aloud and I was dreadfully
frightened. "
.. I can still well remember how I stood on the highest
step on the top of the hill. Our old goat came along, head
bent, and butted me from behind. I tumbled right down
the steps and arrived at the bottom howling and crying.
Then I went to tell my mother what had happened. From
this time onward I always ran away when I saw our old goat."
.. When I was very little, my mother put me, one Sunday
morning, into a white dress and sent me into the lane. Not
far from our house there was a hole filled with rain water.
I went and put myself in the hole. The water came up to
my neck and I felt very happy there. Covered with dirt I
came home. I got a sound thrashing-no small affair either-
and then I had to put on a fresh dress."
.. Once when I was sitting in a small tub having a bath,
when my mother squeezed drops of water out of a sponge, I
tried hard to catch them but I could not. Once I wanted
to fetch the sun from the sky because I thought he would
hurt himself striking the earth beyond the horizon."
.. My first memory is that I was running about in our
courtyard chasing young geese."
(A very unusual recollection of a renaissance artist.
From the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini 1500-1571) .
.. When I was about five years old I was with my father
in a small vaulted room of our house where the washing had
been done. A nice fire of oak embers burned on the grate.
My father was playing his violin and I was singing in front of
the fire, for it was extremely cold. By chance he saw, right
in the fiercest glow of the fire, a small animal like a lizard,
amusing itself in the bright flames. Immediately my father
perceived what it was, he called my sister and me and show-
ing us the animal he gave me a sound box on the ear. I
began to cry violently. He tried to quieten me in the kindest
way, saying: • Dear son, I did not strike you because you
were naughty, but so that you might always remember the
lizard you saw in the fire, for it is a salamander and such a
one, so far as I know, has never been seen before.' He then
kissed me and gave me some pennies." (A salamander is
an elemental being able to live in the midst of fire.)
THE PRESENT AGE 51

World Economic Re-Organisation

By H E. CAUSTIN
.. World Survey" Editorial Office

IT was at one time believed that economic depression

must always affect the highly industrialised countries more
severely than the less specialised primary producers. Whilst
the weakening of confidence in the future profitableness of
business, the apathy of the entrepreneurs or the disturbance
of the smooth working of the banking system could each up-
set the whole of the delicate inter-relations of the industrial
countries, the agricultural community, it was argued, could
always turn from the production of one crop to another, and
by producing the commodities it most required, could main-
tain the established standard of living, and await the revival
in demand which would follow on recovery in the industrial
countries. The degree of isolation which existed proved in
fact to be a protection in times of crisis, which in some
measure off-set the disadvantages which flowed from it in
times of prosperity. The simpler structure of the primary
producing countries was less liable to derangement, was more
easily adjusted, and the producer, having direct control over
his output, and over the kind of commodities he produced,
was able to change these according to the needs not only of
the market, but also of his family and himself.
The present depression and world economic crisis com-
menced in a manner very similar to that of preceding crises
and in its further developments has shown itself to be little
different from them. save in range and intensity, atrributes
which are due as much to its origins as to the changed world in
which it has occurred. But whilst it has proceeded" norm-
ally" it has offered convincing proof that no longer can any
country hope for complete immunity. and that the stage of
economic development is no index of the degree of severity
with which a coutry will be afflicted. The greater facilities
for transport and communication which exist today are the
obvious explanation of this closer inter-connection- but
these are little more than the mechanism by which a change
of considerable economic importance has been effected.
S2 THE PRESENT AGE
Countries have ceased to be relatively self-contained units
and are now bound to each other in a way which can be
changed only at the expense of large-scale modifications in
the structure of the economy. This has today become as
true of the agricultural as of the industrial country. The
extent to which subsistence farming has been replaced by the
capitilist organisation of agriculture for the production of a
saleable surplus is a measure of the degree to which the
agricultural communities today are brought within the range
of a world economy.
Evidence of this in plenty has been made available during
the recent years-which have shown conclusively that
although agricultural communities may avoid the distress
endured by urban communities as a consequence of economic
depression, they are no longer in any sense immune from the
effects of depression. Agriculture and the production of raw
materials is now as specialised and as closely integrated a
function as is the manufacture of industrial capital goods, and
an economic disturbance which affects the industrial countries
has immediate repercussions on the primary producers. Just
as within the industrial country, capital goods and consump-
tion goods industries must work in balance if prosperity is to
be maintained, so in the world economy it is no longer possible
for one section to prosper whilst another languishes.
It remains to some extent true that the agricultural
community, in that it is more self-contained can achieve a
greater measure of self-sufficiency, is often able to meet the
bulk of its food-stuffs requirements, and to this extent is
able to isolate itself from world economic movements. But
any brief consideration of the events of the past few years
will show how far this independence has now to be qualified,
and the sacrifice which may be necessary if a determination
to pursue autarchic policies is maintained. Agriculture is
far more specialised today than such a view would suggest;
the local market for produce has so far receded before the
world market that adaptation becomes too costly for the
farmer, whose only defence against impoverishment appears
to be larger and more intensive production. And with falling
raw material and food-stuffs prices, not only is the individual
producer's position threatened, but the whole economy be-
comes involved. An unfavourable trade balance is worsened
and the suspension of debt services, which must lead to a
cessation of capital imports, is often only a preliminary to
intense currency difficulties, foreign trade regulation and
the hampering of exports on which the country's well-being
depends. The raw material producing debtor nations have
THE PRESENT AGE 53
in fact had to suffer more prolonged and serious difficulties
than the industrial countries. Their situation today indicates
that the adaptation of their internal economic structure has
made them as dependent upon the maintenance of a world
economic order as the industrialised exporting countries.
No longer can the agricultural countries avoid the effects of
world economic tendencies.
Equally significant is the fact that they are of necessity
less well equipped to defend themselves against these trends.
The organisation of production. and the restriction of output
is far harder to obtain. and monopoly powers exist in but few
cases. Prices are less easily influenced and the accumulation
of commodity stocks may be a dangerous undertaking beyond
the financial strength of the producers. Against the primary
producers are ranged the cartels. combines and trusts of
industrial producers with almost absolute powers over prices.
markets and output. and the widening of price differentials
shows how weak the position of the agriculturist is in a
period of depression.
Economic recovery is as urgent a problem to the food-
stuffs and raw material producer as it is to the industrial
producer. and for both the preliminary stage must be fuller
co-operation and a readiness to take advantage of specialisa-
tion. The economic depression has caused each country to
attempt to sever the links which connected it with the world
economy. and the area of effective specialisation and col-
laboration has progressively narrowed. The consequences
of this for the major industrial nations are well-known and
their policies are slowly being directed towards the ameliora-
tion of the situation. It is not. however, so clearly recognised
that the primary producers are in their way, quite as much
specialised and as dependent on world markets as the industrial
countries and that economic revivalis as urgent a need for them.
The reconstruction of the world economy is essential for
us all. for to utilise the knowledge. resources and equipment
of the world today requires a wider unit of organisation than
the single community, and in so far as these factors of pro-
duction are already specialised. their adaptation to local needs
is a definite wastage of our wealth. An immediate but only
temporary advantage is probably to be secured by the refusal
to participate in the world economic order. but ultimately not
only the autarchic nation but the world too is the poorer for
the lack of co-operation. Specialisation as it was practised
in the nineteenth century may not be the appropriate method
for the twentieth. and the simplicity of modern machine pro-
duction may necessitate a revolution in the localisation of
54 THE PRESENT AGE
industries. This does not, however, mean that specialisation
is no longer valuable or that world economic co-operation
cannot assist us to achieve a higher standard of material
welfare and cultural activity. On the contrary it would
appear that a fuller measure of economic co-operation is an
indispensable preliminary for the attainment of these ends
through the reorganisation of a world economic order.
TH1:- PRESENT AGE 55

Seismographical Records and their Meaning.

By THE EDITOR

AT the Selfridge Store in London. Oxford Street. there

is a Seismograph which is well-known to our London Readers.
Messrs. Selfridge. whom we approached recently. have very
kindly agreed to furnish us with a service of photographs of
records of earthquakes of special interest as they occur. We
shall publish these with suitable comments for the information
of our readers.
We wish to express our grateful appreciation of this
kindness.
The study of earthquakes is assuming a greater import-
ance than ever before. because it opens up knowledge, not
only with regard to conditions on the earth's surface. such as
the dangers and distress of such happenings to the population.
but it also opens up for us, the possibility of much more
knowledge about the deeper strata of the earth and the
composition of the whole of the inside of our planet.
Our knowledge of the inside of the earth. obtained by
the process of mining and boring, does not reach much deeper
than fifteen miles. So it is very gratifying to know that there
is a new means of obtaining information about greater depths.
Recent research on the phenomena of earthquakes has proved
that the waves preceding or accompanying an earthquake do
not take a continuous course through the whole of the earth
but are broken in various spheres. And it has been possible
to measure these discontinuities and so we know that the
inside of the earth has several clearly distinguishable strata.
Research on the substantial composition of the innermost
parts of the earth shows that the conditions which obtain
there are quite different from anything known on the surface.
They could only be described by scientists in contradictory
terms, for example. as a gas which acts like a solid body with
the density of steel. and so on. So we have to consider this
world, not in comparison with the world which we know on the
surface, but by the records of such instruments as the seis-
mograph and calculations about the discontinuities of the
transmission of the waves.
The earth's crust contains mainly the substances which
we know and which circulate as chemicals in their own sphere.
 V\
0-.
LOCATJO~OE_.-EARIJ:IQUAKES
~TE~D SINCE JUNE 1932 BY THE SEISMOG.P.t\PH AT ~S
~.", "" ·-()'t;f,r;;f€] ~\ .. ,.. I-V--( ('~

i ~y~~~\/O @~ !
,; "V,,~,_~, ~~'t J,\ .. I
h .• _ . !I. ~..,~

~T'- ,~- .~ • ~Oo~.. \, /)t~-~

) go"
i') -~ . ~.. • . . " •• •• •"•.•
~---,{ <T~";t \4' ,'-:'
( "~.- • .,. ,. . ('t::,
e...... -..I1;i ~
Il_':"~
' (}(T.-~~··it~.· , , - , , " , , . - , ~ \,q- " .,.. ·-<»-b- .... ::j
I /.r<J\ ~., . , .. ". ....... r1 ... ,. ....
I'
I (.
' •• " ".'" " " .
'I • • ). \ v ........ tx1
• L~;. ' • "y c.J •.• l.--J"""" "tI
i -i ),- ~r ~
\L - J ~
, ----- -----::-- ~
- - - - - . ve~ LARGE TflfMORS R£GlSTVUD. • SMAl..L TREMORS iUSLST£D£D ""-l
• LARGE tR.£.MOR.S ~tSTEA.ED • VfA:1 SMALL ~12.S RfGlSTCr:l£O. _~

A subSeQ!:lorl e~Ulice at:. !he same place IS shown ~ Cl rirg round ij¥t spat:. ~
arldfurther earl:hquakes by spokEs on !:he Nt9- - . c;)

t"l
THE PRESENT AGE 57
or in the sphere of life (Biosphere). There are some interest-
ing records in the latest available literature which indicate
that the earth's crust has its own movements. in addition to
the movements of the body of the whole earth. It is clear
that if this is so. this fact is of the greatest importance with
regard to the distribution of animal and plant life in the
different geological epochs.
We show our readers a map indicating the location of
the earthquakes occurring since June. 1932. up to the end
of 1934. and recorded by the Selfridge Seismograph. This
map shows that certain parts of the earth are more subject
to earthquakes than others. But since this map only
covers a period of two years. we should mention. in order
to complete the picture. that there are important fields of
earthquake shocks in addition to those shown here. So we
must add the whole of the western region of South America.
and a certain line passing through Africa. The line starts
near Madagascar. roughly at the mouth of the Zambesi river.
and passes north through the great rift valleys. which can be
seen clearly by the presence of the Great Lakes. towards
Abyssinia. and north to Jerusalem. as seen in the map repro-
duced here by kind permission of the Bibliographisches
Institut. Leipzig.
If we complete the picture in this way. we find that the
distribution of earthquakes follows the mountain chains which
cover the earth in two great circles. girdling the earth. the
one at right angles to the other.
The system of mountains which we find in the earth
shows an equatorial and meridional belt. The equatorial belt
consists of the Atlas Mountains. Pyrenees. Alps. Carpathian
Mountains. Balkan Mountains. Crimea. Caucasus. the moun-
tains of Asia Minor and Armenia. the Iran Plateau. Hindu
Kush. Pamir. Tien Shan Mountains. Kuen Lun. Karakoram.
Himalayas. the Plateau of Tibet. the chain of mountains in
western further India. Malakka. and the Austronesian Sea. etc.
The meridional belt consists of the mountains which rise
right round the Pacific from Tierra del Fuego through the
whole western side of South America. over the Antilles.
along the whole western part of North America over the
Aleutian Islands. Kamchatka. Kurile Islands. Sakhalin. Japan,
Liukiu Islands. Formosa. Phillipines. and the Sunda Sea.
Perhaps the continuation is to be found east of Australia via
New Zealand and the Antarctic. back to Tierra del Fuego.
These two mountain belts cross each other in the Sunda
and Carribean seas. Just as in a single case the line of the
shock follows mostly the line of the mountains or runs at right
 DISTRIBUTION OF EARTHQUAKES. ~

~
tll
;.:;
"
~ L.ARCr TREMORS
~
"-3
~d§[; SMALL HlEMOR5
~
Reproduced Horn Meyer'a Klcin •• Lexikon, Vol. I, p. 606, g, Aut!aa •. by kind permi.sion of the Biblio'r..phi~chn InatituI, Leipzig.
~
THE PRESENT AGE 59
angles to it, if it is a tectonic earthquake, so the distribution
of the great earthquakes all over the earth shows two
rectangular belts of activity, mainly following the above-
mentioned great chains of mountains.
We show our readers a photograph of the seismograph
at Messrs. Selfridge's on page 61. The essential part of the
instrument is a horizontal pendulum. The seismograph is so set
that the period of vibration of the pendulum is 12 seconds.
Measurements made on August 18, 1932, showed that a tilt
of one second (one three-thousand-six-hundredth of a degree)
gives a displacement on the recording needle of 5mm. So a
total swing of one inch on the record means that the top of
Selfridge's Observation Tower, 126 feet above the street
level, has been displaced by about 18 thousandths of an inch
with reference to the part at street leveL
The Illustration on page 62 shows a graph traced out by
the oscillations of the instrument. This was traced by the
earthquake which shook all India on January 15, 1934. It
was a huge earthquake, having its epicentre in the Himalayas
in Nepal. The earthquake was felt in Bombay and in
Ceylon. The number of killed and injured was very great.
The Primary wave was at 8.54 a.m., and the Secondary wave
at 9.3 a.m.; the primary is very small and the secondary is a
large one. The distance calculated from these results was
4,470 miles.
During the latter part of the recording of this seismo-
graph a 16mm. cinematograph film was taken. This is
probably the first film showing a seismograph actually
recording a huge and disastrous earthquake. The Selfridge
seismograph began to record on May 25, 1932.
In 1935 there were many severe earthquakes, the chief
being in Crete in February, Formosa in April. in the Iranian
province of Mazanderan in April. in Be1uchistan (especially
Quetta) in May, in Kars in Turkey in May, in Japan in July.
in New Guinea in September and on the south Russian-
Afghan border in October.
Less severe earthquakes occurred in northwest Switzer-
land in January, in South Africa in the district of Germinston
in February, a rather severe one in southern Thibet in
January, in Rhineland in January, in Angora, Smyrna, the
Dardanelles and Thrace in January, and in the Azores in Apri1.
Further shocks were reported from Quetta in June and
one in south Germany at the end of June.
In January it was reported that the volcanoes Krakatoa
and Merapi were again in eruption and at the beginning of
July there was a big eruption of Vesuvius. In July there was
60 THE PRESENT AGE
another earth-tremor in Quetta and likewise in July a further
and severe earthquake in Formosa. At the end of July there
was a powerful eruption of Stromboli.
Most of these earthquakes are caused by lines of cleavage
between the different levels of the big continental masses
and the floor of the ocean. These lines of dislocation were
created chiefly during the Tertiary epoch. Japan for instance,
has some 1,600 earthquakes a year and is the most earthquake-
ridden country in the world.
These earthquakes show that the forces which formed the
mountains in the Tertiary epoch have not yet come to rest
but are still at work forming the surface of the planet. Those
forces which caused the catastrophe of Atlantis (as related in
legends) are working still and a new Atlantis seems to be
rising again. We may suppose that the smaller earthquakes
such as those at Lisbon, Rhineland, etc., are caused by the
dislocations created by the larger earthquakes. The waves
of these bigger ones radiate through the interior of the earth
and in their wanderings cause dislocations in the weaker spots.
The eastern frontier of Asia has always been the part of
the earth most disturbed by earthquakes. The difference
there between the heights of the mountains and the depths
of the ocean, reaches 15,000 metres (49,375 feet). The shelf
around Formosa falls away to a depth of 8,000 metres
(26,333 feet). The difference in level between the great
land masses and the floor of the ocean is still fluctuating and
has not yet reached a state of equilibrium. Volcanoes are
formed in these lines of fracture. Asia is rising and the floor
of the Pacific is sinking, and the line where they meet is
wandering slowly to the East. In this way loops of islands
are created in eastern Asia, loops of tension in which there
is great volcanic activity. This belt of volcanic activity has
wandered since Tertiary times, when it was in China and
Manchuria further to the east, to Japan, the Liou Kiou
islands, the Philippines, etc. It is no wonder that the Japanese
try to get solid eart.h under their feet on the continent.
Every three to five years Japan has a big catastrophe, and
the capital has suffered partial or complete destruction by
earthquakes forty-four times.
THE PRESENT AGE 61

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62 THE PRESENT AGE

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 THE PRESENT AGE

Translated Works by Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D.

THE STORY OF MY LIFE.
Dr. Steiner shows that .. Anthroposophy is the philosophy
of the Spirit, which he developed from his life-
experience. . .. He raised it is claimed, human under-
standing up to the spirit, permeated this understanding,
and united it with the spiritual being of the Cosmos."
- The Birmingham Post.
Demy 8vo., 340 pp. Five Shillings Net.

GOETHE'S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD .

.. The thoughts expressed in this book are intended to set
forth the fundamental principles which I have observed
in Goethe's conception of the world. In the course of
many years I have studied again and again what is
presented by this world-conception. It especially fascin-
ated me to contemplate the revelations which Nature had
made, in regard to her laws and her being, to Goethe's
delicate organs of sense and of spirit. I learnt to under-
stand why it was that Goethe treasured these revelations
so highly that he sometimes accounted them of more
value than his poetic genius."
- F ram the Foreword.
Crown 8vo., 193 pp. Five Shillings Net.

MYSTICISM AND MODERN THOUGHT .

.. I hope to have shown in this book that a faithful
adherent of the scientific conception of the world, is not
debarred from seeking those paths to the soul, along which
mysticism, rightly understood, leads. I even go further
and say: A full understandin~ of the faCts of Nature
can only be attained by one who knows the spirit in the
sense of true mysticism. But true mysticism must not
be confused with the psuedo-mysticism of ill-ordered
minds. In my . Philosophy of Spiritual Activity' I have
shown to what extent mysticism can err."
-From the Preface.
Crown 8vo., 214 pp. Five Shillings Net.

Anthroposophical Publishing Company,

Publishers and Booksellers,
35 PARK ROAD, LONDON, N.W.1.
11 THE PRESENT AGE

THE ARLESHEIM CLINICAL AND

THERAPEUTICAL INSTITUTE,
nirectress: DR. IT A WEGJJAN.

THE ARLSEHEIM CLINICAL AND THERAPEU-

TICAL INSTITUTE originated from the idea that the
medical science of the present day could be enriched through
Anthroposophy.
In addition to the old and recognised remedies, certain
new and specific ones, which have been brought to light
by anthroposophical research and have been tested in
clinical practice, are employed al~o.
TREAnIEl'\T OF PATI El'\TS is further carried on by means of :
REST., LIGHT-, Al'\D SC:-i-CCRES, for which ample opportunities arc
afforded by a large, shady garden with tcrr~lces and yerandahs.
HYDRO· Al'\D ELECTRO·THERAPECTICS, for \\hich there are
special arrangements on the premises.
PSYCHo·THERAPEUTICS (in a rational form and ('xtent), .\\EDICAL
EURYTH.'IY, cLlrati,-c singing, modelling and painting.
DIET. This is carefully sckctcd from foods gn)\n1 specially for the
purpose.
The Clinic takes patients suffering from:
.\lETABOLIC DISORDERS, such as Diahetes, GOllt, Rheumatism,
Corpulence.
AFFECTIONS Of' THE BLOOD A:-iD CIRCCLATl()X, such as :-\mcmia,
Chlorosis, Heart Complaints.
FC:'\CTIOl'\AL r\ERVOUS DISORDERS, such as :\eurasthenia, Hystc"
ria, nen-ous disorders of the Heart, Stomach and Intestines.
CHRO:'\IC GLAl\DULAH AFFECTlO:\S.
DISTCRBA~CES OF THF I:,\TERNAL SECRETlO:\S.
CAI\CER, in the first stages, or after operation.
ARTERIO,SCLEROSIS.
W o.VJE:-I' S DISEASES.
EXHAUSTIO!'l A:\D BREAKDOWl'\, Convalescent cases.
Terms: Room with BoarLi, according to situation, 10, 12, up to
16 francs a day.
Postal Address; Arlesheim Clinic, Baselland, (Swit7.eriand).
Telegrams: Clinic·Arlesheim.
Telephone: 62022 Bale.
A CURATIVE CHILDREN'S HO\lE is run in connection with the Clinic.
Nlongoloid children and those suffering from difficulties in speech
are treated.
London Office of the Arlesheil11 Clinical and Therapeutic I nstitllte :
10 Kent Terrace, Park Road, :--1.\\'.1.
Telephone: Paddill&tol1 3S75.
 THE PRESENT AGE 111

The Clinical and Therapeutical Institute,

10 KENT TERRACE. N.W.1
In connection with
The Clinical and Therapeutical Institute
in Arlesheim, Switzerland,
which is under the direction of DR. IT A WEGMAN.

Medical treatments on Anthroposophical1ines are given

at the above address.
Massage, Baths, Curative Eurythmy and the Klaelin
Blood Test for the early diagnosis of Cancer, can also be
taken here.
Please address any enquiries to ;----
THE SECRETARY,
10 Kent Terrace,
Regents Park, N.W.I.

The British Weleda Company Limited,

21 BLOOMSBURY SQUARE. W.C.l.

THEfactured
preparations supplied by this Company are manu-
by processes founded upon a rational therapy.
Such a therapy follows Nature in considering the processes
and steps by which a substance is received into a definite
part of the human organism, with a definite effect. These
processes can be reproduced in the rhythm of successive
homc£opathic dilutions, modified according to certain
scientific principles. Remedies are prepared in this way for
most human disorders, of which the following is a selection ;~
Malaria, Dysentery, Enteric; Sclerosis, Rheumatism. Gout;
Influenza. Whooping Cough, Tuberculosis; An<emia.
Malnutrition. Rickets; Migraine, Constipation and others.

A list of some of these remedies, giving indications. dosage.

etc., is available free of charge to physicians upon application.
Telephone: MUSEUM 9348.
IV THE PRESENT AGE

SANATORIUM BURGHALDE,
U nterlengenhardt,
Near Liebenzell, Schwarzwald,
(Black Forest), Germany,

Under the Medical Supervision of DI~, EUGEN KOLIS!(O,

Telephone: BAD LIEBE~ZELL 253,
Telegram8: BCR(iHALDE BAD LIEBE.\IZELL,

BURGHALDE is situated in the beautiful hill country

of the Blac1, FOI'est, and ~ufficiently secluded to be
quiet and peaceful. It is within easy distance of BAD
LIEBENZELL, so that Patients can avail themseh'es of its
healing waters if necessary.
Ever): kind of treatment is available in the house.
PENslm:. Single room, with 01' without balcony.
R. Marks 8.50--14. Childl'en from R.M.4 upwards.
Two patients in one I'oom from 7.50 R.:\;l.
Cheaper accommodation can be had in the Village, and
patients can take their meals in the house. R.M.S.SO-7.
Special terms fOl' long periods.
Medical tt'eatment is included in these tel'ms, only the
original consultation, and special laboratol'Y work and
medicaments are charged for as extras.
Baths R.M. 1.

How to reach BURGHALDE .'

By AEROPLA:'oIE, via Stuttgal·t.
By MOTOR CAR. Stuttgal't -\\'eil del' Stadt-Bad Lieben-
zellUntedengenhanlt 32 miles.
HAIL\\,AY, \\'e suggest Hook of Holland-Cologne-Frank,
furt-l\:al-Isl'uhe--PfOl'zhei III Liebenzell-- Burghalde.
Liebenzell is situated on the line from Pforzl1eim to Zurich.
 THE PRESENT AGE v

THE HOMES FOR LITTLE BOYS,

FARNINGHAM AND SWANLEY, KENT.
Founded 1864.
Palmlls: THEIR .\IAJESTIES THE IOr-iG A:\D QUEEK.
Prc,'iidCllt: H.R.H. THE DUI{E OF YOI{]{, KG., KT.
T"ellsllrer: COLOSEL A. E. ;\IARSHA:\I, ,\LC., T.D.
Chairl11all: DAVID H. L':\DSAY, ESQ.
Sccrctary,SlIpcrilltc1/(iellt: JOH;\i ARTHUR RELL.

The Homes for Little Boys, Farningham and Swanley,

maintain nearly 500 Homeless Boys, most of them fatherless,
many of them motherless as well.

They enter The Homes as little boys, some of them tiny

toddlers, just able to walk. They leave the Homes as young
men. competent to earn their own living.

~o fnendless boy leaves Farningham until he has served

a complete apprenticeship in the trade of his choice, and has
had a situation found for him.

For over 70 years old friends of the Homes have

generously made possible this noble work, which costs over
£25.000 a year. But during recent years death has removed
so many old friends, that the Homes are crippled by a debt
of £22.000, and unless substantial help is soon received, the
Committee will be compelled to close some of the houses and
send many of the boys away.

Any gift, large or small, would be most gratefully

received and should be addressed to :

THE SECRETARY,
HOMES FOR LITTLE BOYS,
SOUTH DARENTH,
NR. DARTFORD, KENT.

Cheques or postal orders (crossed) should please be

made payable to .. The Homes for Little Boys."
VI THE PRESENT AGE

The New School

98 Leigham Court Road,
Streatham Hill, London, S. W.16.

Founded on the principles

of Rudolf Steiner, in 1925

THE SCHOOL is co-educational, and gI\'eS an all-

found education fol' children from the seventh year
to public examination age. There are two sepal'ate
Nursery Classes with their own gardens fOI' child-
ren from the fourth year.

The CUI'riculum of the School is based 011 the

unden;tanding of the nature of the child at each
yea I' of his life. By satisfying the needs of the
child at each age, teaching can become a means of
giving not merely knowledge, but also health and
life power to the childt-en.

For Prospectus:
Apply to the SECRETARY:
98 Leigham Court Road, Streatham Hill, London. S.W.16.
Telephone: STREATHAM 4584.
 THE PRESENT AGE IX

THE TYPE STEPHENSON,BLAKE

& CO., LIMITED,
used in the
production of from their letter foundry
this cl ournal at Sheffield. All printing
is VERONA
office equipment may be
and is one of
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THE HOUSE OF 33 Aldersgate Street, E.c.

TI-lE COVER R. T. Ti\NNER & CO.,

. LIMITED,
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a Pastel Blue who have large supplies
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FROM STOCK OF 27 Upper Thames Street, E.C.

 THE PRESENT AGE

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 THE PRESEN1' AGE
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