We must not forget that man is a collection of countless millions of
atoms; the collected consciousness of mankind can know just as much
of what each atom knows, as a whole people can understand of Greek
or Sanscrit because one or other of its members can read those
languages. Only through intercommunication can the knowledge of the
few become the knowledge of the many. The development of the living
being I regard in this way, that the atoms at first only hang
loosely, gradually becoming more closely knit together, until they
make a substantial organism. The single atoms in the course of this
process of development step over the boundary toward consciousness.
At first it is a trembling, insecure foreboding, like the sensation
of light to one nearly blind, then the outlines of truth become
clearer, and all at once grow sharp and clearly defined. The
different attempts at explanation of the secrets of the world are
the expression of these forebodings of truth. So every one of the
religious and philosophical systems is to my mind a grain of the
truth, and the whole of it will be found in the great unity which we
shall reach in a higher development."
"As charming as a pretty story," said Schrotter, "but--it is only a
story after all.
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