their truth by their fruitfulness; and little by little, this truth is
found to be powerfully effective. Such processes have a salutary effect on
body, soul, and spirit,--nay, they help life forward in every way. Man
becomes aware that in this manner he takes the right position with regard
to life's continuity; whereas, by taking into consideration only the one
life between birth and death, he is the victim of a delusion.

Such an entirely inner proof of spiritual causation can of course be
acquired only by each one for himself, in his own inner life. But it is in
every one's power to have it. Those who have not acquired it certainly
cannot judge of its convincing force; but those who have acquired it can
scarcely entertain any further doubt in the matter. And there is no reason
for surprise that this should be so. It is only natural that what is so
wholly bound up with the constitution of man's inmost being and
personality can be adequately proven only by inner experience. On the
other hand, it cannot be alleged that because such a matter corresponds to
inner experience it must therefore be settled by every one for himself,
and that it is no subject for occult science. It is certain that every one
must undergo the experience for himself, just as each must see for himself
the proof of a mathematical problem. But the path by which such an
experience may be gained is open to all, just as the method of proving a
mathematical problem is available to every one.

It ought not to be denied--apart from clairvoyant observation of
course--that by means of the force producing power of the corresponding
thoughts, the just cited proof is the only one which stands firm before
all unprejudiced logic. All other considerations are no doubt very
important, but in all of them there will be something on which an opponent
might seize as a point of attack. Surely one who has acquired a fairly
impartial way of looking at things will find something in the possibility
and actual fact of man's education, which has the power of logical proof
that a spiritual being is struggling for existence within the sheath of
the body. He will compare animals with man and say to himself that at the
birth of the former there appears certain definite qualities and
capacities as something, decisive in itself, which plainly shows how it
has been designed by heredity and how it will unfold itself in the outer
world. We see how a young chicken carries out life's fun