Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/412/en

Just as the human being carries within himself — transformed to a higher level — the mineral and plant kingdoms in his bodily constitution, so too is he related, in his third member of the being, the soul or astral body, to the soul-nature spread out in the animal kingdom (Figure 6). The animal organisation is completed with the animal soul, which permeates the physical and life bodies. This soul-member has passed over into the animal body in form and function. In this way each animal species is articulated, morphologically and physiologically, into a highly differentiated inside and outside, and possesses an equally species-specific limb system through which the animal can move freely in those elements that have predominantly brought about its formation. Above all, however, the animal soul expresses itself in the "how and what" of the activities that the animal carries out, bound to its body, within its living space — so the worm in the earth, the fish in the water, the bird in the air, the insect in warmth. It was on account of this soul-nature of the animal, bound into its organ activity, that Goethe could say: "The animal is instructed by its organs. The human being instructs his and masters them." The soul or astral body is the source of consciousness; its physical foundation is the nervous and sense organisation.