Steiner
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Several passages in his books would seem to indicate
Barfield's partial acceptance of the distinctly 19th century idea of a
"national consciousness," a dinctinctive mind-set shared by a particular
people or state, the product, for him, of the evolution
of consciousness.
In "Of the Consciousness Soul," he speaks
of "this orchestral development of human consciousness [which] was as [Steiner]
depicted it, the rationale of that manifold division of humanity into races
and nations, which has brought about all that we read of as history" (RCA
87). In "Of the Intellectual Soul," he acknowledges that "we may, I think,
conceive, in general, of the sunny Mediterranean lands south of the Alps
as the home of a Sentient Soul development, while the continent north of
the Alps and West of Russia is peculiarly the vehicle of the Intellectual
Soul. The British Isles develop the consciousness soul in the age of
the Consciousness Soul" (RCA
131). And in Unancestral Voice, we are asked to consider how "Russians,
if their novels and some travelers are to be believed, are almost always
ready to discuss first things with one another. They wear their Weltanschauungs
on their sleeves, so to speak. The English for the most part only do that
when they are young" (UV 74).
See in particular "Of the Intellectual Soul"
(RCA 126-143) and "Of the Consciousness Soul" (RCA 84-103). |
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