,

then the scaffolds drop

,

The Props assist the House
Until the House is built
And then the Props withdraw
And adequate, erect,
The House support itself
And cease to recollect
The Augur and the Carpenter –
Just such a retrospect
Hath the perfected Life –
A Past of Plank and Nail
And slowness – then the scaffolds drop
Affirming it a Soul –

—Emily Dickinson, " The Props assist the House"

New in the Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner

Many things will change when a true conception of Christ comes into the world. All those who say or write things of which they have no knowledge, will come to realize that they are thereby desecrating the Christ in the human soul. This will also mean an end of the excuse, “I thought it was so; I said it in good faith.” Christ wants more than “good faith”; he wants to lead human beings to the truth. He even said, “The truth will make you free!” (John 8:32). But where did Christ ever say that it is possible for people to think as he would have them think, and yet at the same time to write or proclaim things to the world of which they know nothing?

Much indeed will be changed! A great deal of modern writing could not exist any longer if people proceeded from the principle of proving themselves worthy of the saying: “Not I, but the Christ in me.” The canker of our decadent civilization will be rooted out when those voices are silenced which, without real conviction, shout out things into the world, or spoil paper with printers’ ink, without having satisfied themselves first that they are speaking the truth.

In this connection we have had to experience many things in the theosophical movement. How readily were things excused with: “Yes, but the person who made the statement was at that moment convinced of its truth.” What does a “conviction” of this type amount to? Nothing but the greatest irresponsibility
. . .

—Rudolf Steiner, from the lecture of July 15, 1914,
in Christ and the Human Soul (CW 155)

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