“My ballet is not a ‘mystery,’” said G. “The object I had in view was to produce an interesting and beautiful spectacle. Of course there is a certain meaning hidden beneath the outward form, but I have not pursued the aim of exposing and emphasizing this meaning. An important place in the ballet is occupied by certain dances. I will explain this to you briefly. Imagine that in the study of the movements of the heavenly bodies, let us say the planets of the solar system, a special mechanism is constructed to give a visual representation of the laws of these movements and to remind us of them. In this mechanism each planet, which is represented by a sphere of appropriate size, is placed at a certain distance from a central sphere representing the SUN. The mechanism is set in motion and all the spheres begin to rotate and to move along prescribed paths, reproducing in a visual form the laws which govern the movements of the planets. This mechanism reminds you of all you know about the solar system. There is something like this in the rhythm of certain dances. In the strictly defined movements and combinations of the dancers, certain laws are visually reproduced which arc intelligible to those who know them. Such dances are called ‘sacred dances.’ In the course of my travels in the East I have many times witnessed such dances being performed during sacred services in various ancient temples. Some of these dances are reproduced in The Struggle of the Magicians.’ More-over there are three ideas lying at the basis of “The Struggle of the Magi-cians.’ But if I produce the ballet on the ordinary stage the public will never understand these ideas.” Fragments: One

“Again you speak of something different,”‘ he said. “You speak of errors arising from perceptions but I am not speaking of these. Within the limits of given perceptions man can err more or err less. As I have said before, man’s chief delusion is his conviction that he can do. All people think that they can do, all people want to do, and the first question all people ask is what they are to do. But actually nobody does anything and nobody can do anything. This is the first thing that must be understood. Everything happens. All that befalls a man, all that is done by him, all that comes from him — all this happens. And it happens in exactly the same way as rain falls as a result of a change in the temperature in the higher regions of the atmosphere or the surrounding clouds, as snow melts under the rays of the SUN, as dust rises with the wind. Fragments: One

Somewhere about this time I was very much struck by a talk about the SUN, the planets, and the moon. I do not remember how this talk began. But I remember that G. drew a small diagram and tried to explain what he called the “correlation of forces in different worlds.” This was in connection with the previous talk, that is, in connection with the influences acting on humanity. The idea was roughly this: humanity, or more correctly, organic life on earth, is acted upon simultaneously by influences proceeding from various sources and different worlds: influences from the planets, influences from the moon, influences from the SUN, influences from the stars. All these influences act simultaneously; one influence predominates at one moment and another influence at another moment. And for man there is a certain possibility of making a choice of influences; in other words, of passing from one influence to another. Fragments: One

“But the moon is growing and developing,” said G., “and some time, it will, possibly, attain the same level as the earth. Then, near it, a new moon will appear and the earth will become their SUN. At one time the SUN was like the earth and the earth like the moon. And earlier still the SUN was like the moon.” Fragments: One

“In what relation does the intelligence of the earth stand to the intelligence of the SUN?” I asked. Fragments: One

“The intelligence of the SUN is divine,” said G. “But the earth can become the same; only, of course, it is not guaranteed and the earth may die having attained nothing.” Fragments: One

“The way of the fakir is the way of struggle with the physical body, the way of work on the first room. This is a long, difficult, and uncertain way. The fakir strives to develop physical will, power over the body. This is attained by means of terrible sufferings, by torturing the body. The whole way of the fakir consists of various incredibly difficult physical exercises. The fakir either stands motionless in the same position for hours, days, months, or years; or sits with outstretched arms on a bare stone in SUN, rain, and snow; or tortures himself with fire, puts his legs into an ant-heap, and so on. If he does not fall ill and die before what may be called physical will is developed in him, then he attains the fourth room or the possibility of forming the fourth body. But his other functions-emotional, intellectual, and so forth — remain undeveloped. He has acquired will but he has nothing to which he can apply it, he cannot make use of it for gaining knowledge or for self-perfection. As a rule he is too old to begin new work. Fragments: Two

“What is ‘world’ for all the planets taken together? The SUN, or the sphere of the SUN’s influence, or the solar system, of which the planets form a part. Fragments: Four

“For the SUN, in its turn, ‘world’ is our world of stars, or the Milky Way, an accumulation of a vast number of solar systems. Fragments: Four

“If we take one of the many worlds created in the Absolute, that is, world 3, it will be the world representing the total number of starry worlds similar to our Milky Way. If we take world 6, it will be one of the worlds created within this world, namely the accumulation of stars which we call the Milky Way. World 12 will be one of the SUNs that compose the Milky Way, our SUN. World 24 will be the planetary world, that is to say, all the planets of the solar system. World 48 will be the earth. World 96 will be the moon. If the moon had a satellite it would be world 192, and so on. Fragments: Four

“The chain of worlds, the links of which are the Absolute, all worlds, all SUNs, our SUN, the planets, the earth, and the moon, forms the ‘ray of creation’ in which we find ourselves. The ray of creation is for us the ‘world’ in the widest sense of the term. Of course, the ray of creation does not include the ‘world’ in the full sense of the term, since the Absolute gives birth to a number, perhaps to an infinite number, of different worlds, each of which begins a new and separate ray of creation. Furthermore, each of these worlds contains a number of worlds representing a further breaking up of the ray and again of these worlds we select only one — our Milky Way; the Milky Way consists of a number of SUNs, but of this number we select one SUN which is nearest to us, upon which we immediately depend, and in which we live and move and have our being. Each of the other SUNs means a new breaking up of the ray, but we cannot study these rays in the same way as our ray, that is, the ray in which we are situated. Further, within the solar system the planetary world is nearer to us than the SUN itself, and within the planetary world the nearest of all to us is the earth, the planet on which we live. We have no need to study other planets in the same way as we study the earth, it is sufficient for us to take them all together, that is to say, on a considerably smaller scale than we take the earth. Fragments: Four

“It must be observed that the idea of the ray of creation and its growth from the Absolute contradicts some of the modem views, although not really scientific views. Take, for instance, the stage — SUN, earth, moon. According to the usual understanding the moon is a cold, dead celestial body which was once like the earth, that is to say, it possessed internal heat and at a still earlier period was a molten mass like the SUN. The earth, according to the usual views, was once like the SUN, and is also gradually cooling down and, sooner or later, will become a frozen mass like the moon. It is usually supposed that the SUN is also cooling down and that it will become, in time, similar to the earth and later on, to the moon. Fragments: Five

“According to this idea the moon is still an unborn planet, one that is, so to speak, being born. It is becoming warm gradually and in time (given a favorable development of the ray of creation) it will become like the earth and have a satellite of its own, a new moon. A new link will have been added to the ray of creation. The earth, too, is not getting colder, it is getting warmer, and may in time become like the SUN. We observe such a process for instance in the system of Jupiter, which is a SUN for its satellites. Fragments: Five

“On the earth we are very far removed from the will of the Absolute; we are separated from it by forty-eight orders of mechanical laws. If we could free ourselves from one half of these laws, we should find ourselves subject to only twenty-four orders of laws, that is, to the laws of the planetary world, and then we should be one stage nearer to the Absolute and its will. If we could then free ourselves from one half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the SUN (twelve laws) and con-sequently one stage nearer still to the Absolute. If, again, we could free ourselves from half of these laws, we should be subject to the laws of the starry world and separated by only one stage from the immediate will of the Absolute. Fragments: Five

“In our system the end of the ray of creation, the growing end, so to speak, of the branch, is the moon. The energy for the growth, that is, for the development of the moon and for the formation of new shoots, goes to the moon from the earth, where it is created by the joint action of the SUN, of all the other planets of the solar system, and of the earth itself. This energy is collected and preserved in a huge accumulator situated on the earth’s surface. This accumulator is organic life on earth. Organic life on earth feeds the moon. Everything living on the earth, people, animals, plants, is food for the moon. The moon is a huge living being feeding upon all that lives and grows on the earth. The moon could not exist without organic life on earth, any more than organic life on earth could exist without the moon. Moreover, in relation to organic life the moon is a huge electromagnet. If the action of the electromagnet were suddenly to stop, organic life would crumble to nothing. Fragments: Five

“But the concept ‘materiality’ is as relative as everything else. It we recall how the concept ‘man’ and all that refers to him — good, evil, truth, falsehood, and so on — is divided into different categories (‘man number one,’ ‘man number two,’ and so on, it will be easy for us to understand that the concept ‘world,’ and everything that refers to the world, is also divided into different categories. The ray of creation establishes seven planes in the world, seven worlds one within another. Everything that refers to the world is also divided into seven categories, one category within another. The materiality of the Absolute is a materiality of an order different from that of ‘all worlds.’ The materiality of ‘all worlds’ is of an order different from the materiality of ‘all SUNs.’ The materiality of ‘all SUNs’ is of an order different from the materiality of our SUN. The materiality of our SUN is of an order different from the materiality of ‘all planets.’ The materiality of ‘all planets’ is of an order different from the materiality of the earth, and the materiality of the earth is of an order different from the materiality of the moon. This idea is at first difficult to grasp. People are accustomed to think that matter is everywhere the same. The whole of physics, of astrophysics, of chemistry, such methods as spectroanalysis, and so on, are based upon this assumption. And it is true that matter is the same, but materiality is different. And different degrees of materiality depend directly upon the qualities and properties of the energy manifested at a given point. Fragments: Five

“The seven worlds of the ray of creation represent seven orders of materiality. The materiality of the moon is different from the materiality of the earth; the materiality of the earth is different from the materiality of the planetary world; the materiality of the planetary world is different from the materiality of the SUN, and so on. Fragments: Five

“All the matter of the world that surrounds us, the food that we eat, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, the stones that our houses are built of, our own bodies — everything is permeated by all the matters that exist in the universe. There is no need to study or investigate the SUN in order to discover the matter of the solar world: this matter exists in ourselves and is the result of the division of our atoms. In the same way we have in us the matter of all other worlds. Man is, in the full sense of the term, a ‘miniature universe’; in him are all the matters of which the universe consists; the same forces, the same laws that govern the life of the universe, operate in him; therefore in studying man we can study the whole world, just as in studying the world we can study man. Fragments: Five

“If a man has the third body” (he placed the third body on the diagram parallel to the SUN), “it is composed of material of the SUN and it can exist after the death of the ‘astral’ body. Fragments: Five

“In the big cosmic octave, which reaches us in the form of the ray of creation, we can see the first complete example of the law of octaves. The ray of creation begins with the Absolute. The Absolute is the All. The All, possessing full unity, full will, and full consciousness, creates worlds within itself, in this way beginning the descending world octave. The Absolute is the do of this octave. The worlds which the Absolute creates in itself are si. The ‘interval’ between do and si in this case is filled by the will of the Absolute. The process of creation is developed further by the force of the original impulse and an ‘additional shock.’ Si passes into la which for us is our star world, the Milky Way. La passes into sol — our SUN, the solar system. Sol passes into fa — the planetary world. And here between the planetary world as a whole and our earth occurs an ‘interval.’ This means that the planetary radiations carrying various influences to the earth are not able to reach it, or, to speak more correctly, they are not received, the earth reflects them. In order to fill the ‘interval’ at this point of the ray of creation a special apparatus is created for receiving and transmitting the influences coming from the planets. This apparatus is organic life on earth. Organic life transmits to the earth all the influences intended for it and makes possible the further development and growth of the earth, mi of the cosmic octave, and then of the moon or re, after which follows another do — Nothing. Between All and Nothing passes the ray of creation. Fragments: Seven

“If we begin with vibrations of world 48, we can say that one note of the vibrations in this world contains an octave or seven notes of the vibrations of the planetary world. Each note of the vibrations of the planetary world contains seven notes of the vibrations of the world of the SUN. Each vibration of the world of the SUN will contain seven notes of the vibrations of the starry world and so on. Fragments: Seven

“The Absolute or All (world 1) will be do; all worlds (world 3) — si; all SUNs (world 6) — la; our SUN (world 12) — sol; all planets (world 24) — fa; the earth (world 48) — mi; the moon (world 96) — re. The ray of creation begins with the Absolute. The Absolute is All. It is — do. Fragments: Seven

“Organic life is the organ of perception of the earth and it is at the same time an organ of radiation. With the help of organic life each portion of the earth’s surface occupying a given area sends every moment certain kinds of rays in the direction of the SUN, the planets, and the moon. In connection with this the SUN needs one kind of radiations, the planets another kind, and the moon another. Everything that happens on earth creates radiations of this kind. And many things often happen just because certain kinds of radiation are required from a certain place on the earth’s surface.” Fragments: Seven

At the same time he constantly emphasized the fact that no matter what took place in the thin film of organic life it always served the interests of the earth, the SUN, the planets, and the moon; nothing unnecessary and nothing independent could happen in it because it was created for a definite purpose and was merely subordinate. Fragments: Seven

And once dwelling on this theme he gave us a diagram of the structure of the octave in which one of the links was “organic life on earth.” “This additional or lateral octave in the ray of creation begins in the SUN,” he said. “The SUN, sol of the cosmic octave, begins at a certain moment to sound as do, sol do. Fragments: Seven

We at once felt that there was a great deal of meaning in this lateral octave. First of all it showed that organic life, represented in the diagram by three notes, had two higher notes, one on the level of the planets and one on the level of the SUN, and that it began in the SUN. This last was the most important point because once more, as with many other things in G.’s system, it contradicted the usual modern idea of life having originated so to speak from below. In his explanations life came from above. Fragments: Seven

“The action of the Absolute upon the world, or upon the worlds created by it or within it, continues. The action of each of these worlds upon subsequent worlds continues in exactly the same way. ‘All SUNs’ of the Milky Way influence our SUN. The SUN influences the planets. ‘All planets’ influence our earth and the earth influences the moon. These influences are transmitted by means of radiations passing through starry and interplanetary space. Fragments: Nine

“In order to study these radiations let us take the ‘ray of creation’ in an abridged form: Absolute-SUN-earth-moon, or in other words let us imagine the ‘ray of creation’ in the form of three octaves of radiations: the first octave between the Absolute and the SUN, the second octave between the SUN and the earth, and the third octave between the earth and the moon; and let us examine the passage of radiations between these four fundamental points of the universe. Fragments: Nine

“The radiations reach the SUN. Two notes are included in the SUN itself, do, an ‘interval,’ and si, then follow la, sol, fa — radiations going towards the earth. Fragments: Nine

“It must be observed that, although there are six ‘intervals’ in these three octaves, only three of them actually require to be supplemented from outside. The first ‘interval’ between do and si is filled by the will of the Absolute. The second ‘interval’ do-si is filled by the influence of the SUN’s mass upon radiations passing through it. And the third ‘interval’ do-si is filled by the action of the earth’s mass upon radiations passing through it. Only the ‘intervals’ between fa and mi have to be filled by ‘additional shocks.’ These ‘additional shocks’ can come either from other octaves which pass across the given point or from parallel octaves which start from higher points. We know nothing about the nature of the ‘shock’ between mi-fa in the first octaoctave Absolute-Sun. But the ‘shock’ in the octave Sun-Earth is organic life on earth, that is, the three notes la, sol, fa of the octave which starts in the SUN. The nature of the ‘shock’ between mi and fa in the octave Earth-Moon is unknown to us. Fragments: Nine

“In order to understand the analogy between man, the human organism, and the universe, let us take the world as we did before in the form of three octaves from the Absolute to the SUN, from the SUN to the earth, and from the earth to the moon. Each of these three octaves lacks a semitone between fa and mi and in each octave the place of this missing semitone is taken by a certain kind of ‘shock’ which is created artificially at the given point. If we now begin to look for an analogy between the three-story factory and the three octaves of the universe, we ought to realize that the three ‘additional shocks’ in the three octaves of the universe correspond to the three kinds of food entering the human organism. The ‘shock’ in the lower octave corresponds to physical food; this ‘shock’ is do 768 of the cosmic three-story factory. The ‘shock’ in the middle octave corresponds to air. It is do 192 of the cosmic factory. The ‘shock’ in the upper octave corresponds to impressions; it is do 48 of the cosmic factory. In the inner work of this cosmic three-story factory all three kinds of food undergo the same transformation as in the human factory, on the same plan and in accordance with the same laws. A further study of the analogy between man and the universe is possible only after an exact study of the human machine and after the respective ‘places’ of each of the ‘hydrogens’ in our organism has been established exactly. This means that to proceed with any further study we must find the exact purpose of each ‘hydrogen,’ that is to say, each ‘hydrogen’ must be defined chemically, psychologically, physiologically, and anatomically, in other words, its functions, its place in the human organism, and, if possible, the peculiar sensations connected with it must be defined. Fragments: Nine

“Seven cosmoses, taken together in their relation to one another, alone represent a complete picture of the universe. The idea of two analogous cosmoses, accidentally preserved from a great and complete teaching, is so incomplete that it can give no idea whatever of the analogy between man and the world. “The teaching on cosmoses examines seven cosmoses: “The first cosmos is the Protocosmos — the first cosmos. “The second cosmos is the Ayocosmos, the holy cosmos, or the Megalocosmos, the ‘great cosmos.’ “The third cosmos is the Macrocosmos — the ‘large cosmos.’ “The fourth cosmos is the Deuterocosmos — the ‘second cosmos.’ “The fifth cosmos is the Mesocosmos — the ‘middle cosmos.’ “The sixth cosmos is the Tritocosmos — the ‘third cosmos.’ “The seventh cosmos is the Microcosmos — the ‘small cosmos.’ “The Protocosmos is the Absolute in the ray of creation, or world 1. The Ayocosmos is world 3 (‘all worlds’ in the ray of creation). The Macro-cosmos is our starry world or the Milky Way (world 6 in the ray of creation). The Deuterocosmos is the SUN, the solar system (world 12). The Mesocosmos is ‘all planets’ (world 24), or the earth as the representative of the planetary world. The Tritocosmos is man. The Microcosmos is the ‘atom.’ Fragments: Ten

“The relation of one cosmos to another is different from the relation of one world to another in the astronomical ray of creation. In the ray of creation worlds are taken in the actual relation in which they exist in the universe for us, from our point of view: the moon, the earth, the planets, the SUN, the Milky Way, and so on. Therefore the quantitative interrelation of the worlds one to another in the ray of creation is not permanent. In one case or on one level it is greater, for instance, the relation of ‘all SUNs’ to our SUN; in another case, on another level, it is less, for instance, the relation of the earth to the moon. But the interrelation of the cosmoses is permanent and always the same. That is to say, one cosmos is related to another as zero to infinity. This means that the relation of the Microcosmos to the Tritocosmos is the same as that of zero to infinity; the relation of the Tritocosmos to the Mesocosmos is that of zero to infinity; the relation of the Mesocosmos to the Deuterocosmos is that of zero to infinity; and so on. Fragments: Ten

“All that you have said,” I said, “refers without doubt to the problems of dimensions. But before I pass to them, I should like to elucidate one point, which is not quite clear to me. It is what you said about the Microcosmos. We are accustomed to connect the idea of the Microcosmos with man. This means that man represents a world in himself. A world analogous to the large world, the Macrocosmos. But you give man the name of Tritocosmos, that is, the third cosmos. Why third? The first is Protocosmos; the second, the SUN or Deuterocosmos. Why is man the third cosmos?” Fragments: Ten

“If we adopt this point of view, we shall have to admit that the relation of one cosmos to another is the relation of two bodies of different dimensions. If one cosmos is three-dimensional then the next cosmos, that is, the one above it, must be four-dimensional, the next — five-dimensional, and so on. If we take the ‘atom’ or ‘microbe,’ as you say, that is, the Microcosmos as a point, then relative to this point man will be a line, that is, a figure of one dimension. The next cosmos, the earth, will be a plane relative to man, that is, it will have two dimensions, as is actually the case for direct perception. The SUN, the solar system, will be three-dimensional for the earth. The starry world will be four-dimensional for the SUN. ‘All worlds’ are five-dimensional, and the Absolute or Protocosmos is six-dimensional. Fragments: Ten

“Therefore parallel with this, all the possibilities of the Mesocosmos are realized in the Ayocosmos and all the possibilities of the Deuterocosmos, or the SUN, are realized in the Protocosmos or the Absolute. Fragments: Ten

“The possibilities of the earth are actualized in the Ayocosmos; this means that in the Ayocosmos the earth is a six-dimensional body. And actually we can to a certain extent see in what way the form of the earth must change. In the Deuterocosmos, that is, in relation to the SUN, the earth is no longer a point (taking a point as a scale reduction of a three-dimensional body), but a line which we trace as the path of the earth around the SUN. If we take the SUN in the Macrocosmos, that is, if we visualize the line of the SUN’s motion, then the line of the motion of the earth will become a spiral encircling the line of the SUN’s motion. If we conceive a lateral motion of this spiral, then this motion will construct a figure which we cannot imagine because we do not know the nature of its motion, but which, nevertheless, will be the six-dimensional figure of the earth, which the earth itself can see as a three-dimensional figure. It is necessary to establish and to understand this because otherwise the idea of the three-dimensionality of the cosmoses will become linked with our idea of three-dimensional bodies. The three-dimensionality even of one and the same body can be different. Fragments: Ten

“If we want to represent graphically the interrelation of the cosmoses,” I said, “we must take the Microcosmos, that is, man, as a point, that is to say, we must take him on a very small scale and, as it were, at a very great distance from ourselves. Then his life in the Tritocosmos, that is, among other people and in the midst of nature, will be the line which he traces on the surface of the earthly globe in moving from place to place. In the Mesocosmos, that is, taken in connection with the twenty-four hours’ motion of the earth around its axis, this line will become a plane, whereas taken in relation to the SUN, that is, taking into consideration the motion of the earth around the SUN, it will become a threedimensional body, or, in other words, it will be something really existing, something realized. But as the fundamental point, that is, the man or the Microcosmos, was also a three-dimensional body, we have consequently two three-dimensionalities. Fragments: Ten

“In this case all the possibilities of man are actualized in the SUN. This corresponds to what has been said before, namely, that man number seven becomes immortal within the limits of the solar system. Fragments: Ten

“Beyond the SUN, that is, beyond the solar system, he has not and cannot have any existence, or in other words, from the point of view of the next cosmos he does not exist at all. A man does not exist at all in the Macrocosmos. The Macrocosmos is the cosmos in which the possibilities of the Tritocosmos are realized and man can exist in the Macrocosmos only as an atom of the Tritocosmos. The possibilities of the earth are actualized in the Megalocosmos and the possibilities of the SUN are actualized in the Protocosmos. Fragments: Ten

“If the Microcosmos, or man, is a three-dimensional body, then the Tritocosmos — organic life on earth — is a four-dimensional body. The earth has five dimensions and the SUN — six. Fragments: Ten

“The usual scientific view takes man as a three-dimensional body; it takes organic life on earth as a whole, more as a phenomenon than a three-dimensional body; it takes the earth as a three-dimensional body; the SUN as a three-dimensional body; the solar system as a three-dimensional body; and the Milky Way as a three-dimensional body. Fragments: Ten

“Neither can the earth be regarded as a three-dimensional body. It would be three-dimensional if it were stationary. Its motion around its axis makes man a five-dimensional being, whereas its motion around the SUN makes the earth itself four-dimensional. The earth is not a sphere but a spiral encircling the SUN, and the SUN is not a sphere but a kind of spindle inside this spiral. The spiral and the spindle, taken together, must have a lateral motion in the next cosmos, but what results from this motion we cannot know, for we know neither the nature nor the direction of the motion. Fragments: Ten

I began to draw the diagram on the board. It was the diagram of radiations in three octaves: Absolute-SUN-earth-moon. We were already accustomed to this terminology and to G.’s form of exposition. But I did not know at all what I would say beyond what they knew already. Fragments: Thirteen

that is, in one case x between mi and fa, and in the other between sol and la, where it is not necessary. “The apparent placing of the interval in its wrong place itself shows to those who are able to read the symbol what kind of ‘shock’ is required for the passage of si to do. “In order to understand this, it is essential to recollect what was said about the role of ‘shocks’ in the processes proceeding in man and in the universe. “When we examined the application of the law of octaves to the cosmos then the step ‘SUN-earth’ was represented in this way: “In relation to the three octaves of radiation it was pointed out that the passage of do to si, the filling of the interval, takes place within the organism of the SUN. It was pointed out in the cosmic octave in relation to the ‘interval’ do-si that this passage is accomplished by the will of the Absolute. The passage fa-mi in the cosmic octave is accomplished mechanically with the help of a special machine which makes it possible for fa, which enters it, to acquire by a series of inner processes the characteristics of sol standing above it, without changing its note, that is, to accumulate, as it were, the inner energy for passing independently into the next note, into mi. Fragments: Fourteen

“Of course there are very many people who consider that the life of humanity is not proceeding in the way in which according to their views it ought to go. And they invent various theories which in their opinion ought to change the whole life of humanity. One invents one theory. Another immediately invents a contradictory theory. And both expect everyone to believe them. And many people indeed do believe either one or the other. Life naturally takes its own course but people do not stop believing in their own or other people’s theories and they believe that it is possible to do something. All these theories are certainly quite fantastic, chiefly because they do not take into account the most important thing, namely, the subordinate part which humanity and organic life play in the world process. Intellectual theories put man in the center of everything; everything exists for him, the SUN, the stars, the moon, the earth. They even forget man’s relative size, his nothingness, his transient existence, and other tilings. They assert that a man if he wishes is able to change his whole life, that is, to organize his life on rational principles. And all the time new theories appear evoking in their turn opposing theories; and all these theories and the struggle between them undoubtedly constitute one of the forces which keep humanity in the state in which it is at present. Besides, all these theories for general welfare and general equality are not only unrealizable, but they would be fatal if they were realized. Everything in nature has its aim and its purpose, both the inequality of man and his suffering. To destroy inequality would mean destroying the possibility of evolution. To destroy suffering would mean, first, destroying a whole series of perceptions for which man exists, and second, the destruction of the ‘shock,’ that is to say, the force which alone can change the situation. And thus it is with all intellectual theories. Fragments: Fifteen