“Once again let us take the idea man. In the language of which I speak, instead of the word ‘man,’ seven words are used, namely: man number one, man number two, MAN NUMBER THREE, man number four, man number five, man number six, and man number seven. With these seven ideas people are already able to understand one another when speaking of man. Fragments: Four
“Man number three means man on the same level of development but man in whom the center of gravity of his psychic life lies in the intellectual center, that is, man with whom the thinking functions gain the upper hand over the moving, instinctive, and emotional functions; the man of reason, who goes into everything from theories, from mental considerations. Fragments: Four
“The knowledge of MAN NUMBER THREE is knowledge based upon subjectively logical thinking, upon words, upon literal understanding. It is the knowledge of bookworms, of scholastics. Men number three, for example, have counted how many times each letter of the Arabic alphabet is repeated in the Koran of Mohammed, and upon this have based a whole system of interpretation of the. Koran. Fragments: Four
“The knowledge of man number four is a very different kind of knowledge. It is knowledge which comes from man number five, who in turn receives it from man number six, who has received it from man number seven. But, of course, man number four assimilates of this knowledge only what is possible according to his powers. But, in comparison with man number one, man number two, and MAN NUMBER THREE, man number four has begun to get free from the subjective elements in his knowledge and to move along the path towards objective knowledge. Fragments: Four
“The knowledge of man number seven is his own knowledge, which cannot be taken away from him; it is the objective and completely practiced knowledge of All. “It is exactly the same with being. There is the being of man number one, that is, the being of a man living by his instincts and his sensations; the being of man number two, that is to say, the being of the sentimental, the emotional man; the being of MAN NUMBER THREE, that is, the being of the rational, the theoretical man, and so on. It is quite clear why knowledge cannot be far away from being. Man number one, two, or three cannot, by reason of his being, possess the knowledge of man number four, man number five, and higher. Whatever you may give him, he may interpret it in his own way, he will reduce every idea to the level on which he is himself. Fragments: Four
“In exactly the same way there exists the religion of man number one, that is to say, a religion consisting of rites, of external forms, of sacrifices and ceremonies of imposing splendor and brilliance, or, on the contrary, of a gloomy, cruel, and savage character, and so on. There is the religion of man number two; the religion of faith, love, adoration, impulse, enthusiasm, which soon becomes transformed into the religion of persecution, oppression, and extermination of ‘heretics’ and ‘heathens.’ There is the religion of MAN NUMBER THREE; the intellectual, theoretical religion of proofs and arguments, based upon logical deductions, considerations, and interpretations. Religions number one, number two, and number three are really the only ones we know; all known and existing religions and denominations in the world belong to one of these three categories. What the religion of man number four or the religion of man number five and so on is, we do not know, and we cannot know so long as we remain what we are. Fragments: Four
“It must be understood that the religion of man number one is of one kind; the religion of man number two is of another kind; and the religion of MAN NUMBER THREE is of a third kind. The religion of man number four, number five, and further is something of a kind totally different from the religion of man number one, number two, and number three. Fragments: Fifteen
“The application of the ‘table of hydrogens’ for the determination of the different properties of things and of living creatures which consist of many ‘hydrogens’ is based on the principle that in each living creature and in each thing there is one definite ‘hydrogen’ which is the center of gravity; it is, so to speak, the ‘average hydrogen’ of all the ‘hydrogens’ constituting the given creature or thing. To find this ‘average hydrogen’ we will, to begin with, speak about living creatures. First of all it is necessary to know the level of being of the creature in question. The level of being is primarily determined by the number of stories in the given machine. So far we have spoken only about man. And we have taken man as a three-story structure. We cannot speak about animals and man at one and the same time because animals differ in a radical way from man. The highest animals we know consist of two stories and the lowest of only one story.” “A man consists of three stories. “A sheep consists of two stories. “A worm consists of only one story. “At the same time the lower and middle stories of a man are, so to speak, equivalent to the sheep, and the lower story — to the worm. So that it can be said that a man consists of a man, a sheep, and a worm, and that a sheep consists of a sheep and a worm. Man is a complex creature; the level of his being is determined by the level of being of the creatures of which he is composed. The sheep and the worm may play a bigger or a smaller part in man. Thus the worm plays the chief part in man number one; in man number two — the sheep; and in MAN NUMBER THREE — man. But these definitions are important only in individual cases. In a general sense ‘man’ is determined by the center of gravity of the middle story. Fragments: Sixteen