Antroposophia theomagica, das ist, eine Rede von der Natur des Menschen

...skull original: "Schedel"; completing the thought from the previous page has been so hardened through use that all the arrows shot at him have bounced back. Thus, this Aristotle has grown great through quarrelsome disputes over words, which the world cries out for again and again, even when Truth wishes him dead.

The Peripatetics followers of Aristotle, named for his habit of walking while teaching view God as a mere craftsman who builds with wood and stone without infusing them with life. Yet the world, as God’s own building, is full of a moving, living spirit. This spirit causes all the birth and multiplication of minerals original: "Ertze"; literally "ores", plants, and those animals generated from decay original: "Faͤulung"; a reference to the then-common belief in spontaneous generation, where life was thought to arise from rotting matter. All of these are manifest and infallible proofs of life. Beyond this, the entire structure of the universe clearly reveals its own animation original: "Beseelung"; the state of possessing a soul.

The soil, which is the visible natural foundation of the world, represents its coarse, fleshy parts. The element of water relates to the blood, for within it beats the pulse of the great world—which most people call the ebb and flow the tides, though they do not understand its true cause. The air is the external, refreshing spirit through which this great creature breathes; and although this spirit is invisible, it is not entirely without feeling.