Man or Matter | Page 2

The functional concept of matter. The complete order of polarities - cold-warm, dry-moist - in the doctrine of the four elements. The position of sulphur and phosphorus in this respect. Vulcanism and snow-formation as manifestations of functional sulphur and phosphorus respectively. The process of crystallization. Carbon as a mediator between sulphur and phosphorus. The alchemical triad.
XII. SPACE AND COUNTER-SPACE
Geometrical considerations required by the recognition of levity. The value in this respect of projective geometrical thinking. Geometrical polarities of the first and second order.
XIII. 'RADIANT MATTER'
Electricity and magnetism as manifestations of interacting levity and gravity. Electricity - a product of disintegrating matter. Modern physics, no longer a 'natural' science. Eddington's question,' Manufacture or Discovery?' Man's enhanced responsibility in the age of physical science.
XIV. COLOURS AS 'DEEDS AND SUFFERINGS OF LIGHT'
Goethe's Farbenlehre - the foundation of an optical science based on the colour-seeing faculty of the eye. The modern physicist's view of the Newtonian interpretation of the spectrum. A short history of Goethe's search for a satisfactory conception of Light and Colour. His discovery of Newton's cardinal error. First results of his own studies. The 'negative' spectrum.
XV. SEEING AS 'DEED' - I
Goethe's way of studying the totality of the act of seeing. The 'inner light'.
XVI. SEEING AS 'DEED' - II
Extension of Goethe's inquiry to a pursuit of the act of seeing beyond the boundaries of the body.
XVII. OPTICS OF THE DOER
Purging optics from its onlooker-concepts. The role of foregone conclusions in the physical conception of light. The true aspect of the so-called velocity of light.
XVIII. THE SPECTRUM AS A SCRIPT OF THE SPIRIT
Evaluation of the foregoing studies for a new understanding of the prismatic phenomenon. The secret of the rainbow. Intimation of new possibilities of experimental research guided by the new conception of the spectrum.

Part III TOWARDS A NEW COSMOLOGY
XIX. THE COUNTRY IN WHICH MAN IS NOT A STRANGER
(a) INTRODUCTORY NOTE
From Goethe's seeing with the eye-of-the-spirit to Spiritual Imagination. Levity (Ether) as revealed to Spiritual Imagination.
(b) - (e) WARMTH LIGHT SOUND LIFE
The four modifications of ether. Their relation to the four elements.
XX. PRO ANIMA
(a) THE WELL-SPRINGS OF NATURE'S DEEDS AND SUFFERINGS
The sentient (astral) forces of the cosmos as governors of the various interactions between levity and gravity. The astral aspect of the planetary system. Its reflexion in earthly substances. Beginnings of an astral conception of the human organism in modern physiology.
(b) HEARING AS DEED
A Goetheanistic study of acoustic phenomena and of the sense of hearing. From hearing with the ear-of-the-spirit to Spiritual Inspiration.
(c) KEPLER AND THE 'MUSIC OF THE SPHERES'
Goethe's view of Kepler. Kepler's third law - a revelation of the musical order of the universe.
XXI. KNOW THYSELF
INDEX
Illustrations
IN COLOUR
A The relation of the electrical polarity to Levity and Gravity
B The Spectrum phenomenon as conceived by Goethe
C Light under the action of a transverse field-gradient
MONOCHROME
I. Robert Hooke's 'proof' of the non-reality of human concepts
II. Leaf-metamorphosis
III. Leaf-metamorphosis
IV. Goethe's sketch of a cloud-formation
V. A Snow-Crystal
VI. A cluster of Calcite crystals
VII. Various species of bacteria
VIII. Various species of fresh-water algae
Author's Note
The author makes grateful acknowledgment of the help he has gained from other works in the wide field opened up by Rudolf Steiner, and of his debt to the friends who in various ways assisted him in preparing his manuscript.
Quotations have been made from the following books by kind permission of their respective publishers:
The Life of Sir William Crookes by E. E. Fournier d'Albe (Messrs. Ernest Benn Ltd.); Man the Unknown by A. Carrel (Messrs. Hamish Hamilton Ltd.); The Philosophy of Physical Science and The Nature of The Physical Worldly A.. Eddington (University Press, Cambridge); Science and the Human Temperament by E. Schr??dinger (Messrs. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.); Centuries of Meditations and Poetical Works by Th. Traherne (Messrs. P. J. and A. E. Dobell).
Preface
In this book the reader will find expounded a method of investigating nature by means of which scientific understanding can be carried across the boundaries of the physical-material to the supersensible sources of all natural events, and thereby into the realm where is rooted the true being of man.
The beginnings of this method were worked out by Goethe more than 150 years ago. The nineteenth century, however, failed to provide any fertile ground for the development of the seeds thus sown. It was left to Rudolf Steiner, shortly before the end of the century, to recognize the significance of 'Goetheanism' for the future development not only of science but of human culture in general. It is to him, also, that we owe the possibility of carrying on Goethe's efforts in the way required by the needs of our own time.
The following pages contain results of the author's work along the path thus opened up by Goethe and Rudolf Steiner - a work begun twenty-seven years ago, soon after he had made the acquaintance of Rudolf Steiner. With the publication of these results