The long light

The splendor falls on castle walls
            And snowy summits old in story ;
        The long light shakes across the lakes,
            And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
    Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
    Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying,
              dying.

        O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
            And thinner, clearer, farther going!
        O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
            The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
    Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying,
    Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying,
              dying.

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from “The Princess”

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From the Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner

Autobiography
Chapters in the Course of My Life, 1861–1907 (CW 28)

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Friedrich Eckstein believed that one who is “initiated” into ancient knowledge should invest what is said publicly with the power gained from such “initiation.” Esoteric knowledge itself, however, should be kept strictly apart from exoteric knowledge—that is, esoteric knowledge should be reserved for a limited circle of people who are able to fully understand its value.
In order to become active publicly on behalf of spiritual knowledge, I had to make the decision to break with this tradition. I was faced with the conditions of modern spiritual life. In light of these, there was no longer any possibility of keeping matters secret as they had been as a matter of course in ancient times. The age we live in demands that what is known be made available publicly. The view that such matters must be kept secret is anach- ronistic. The way for today is to introduce a person to spiritual knowledge in stages, admitting no one to a stage where higher knowledge is imparted before the lower stages are understood. This, in fact, corresponds to the arrangement of higher and lower schools.

Furthermore, I was not under any obligation to preserve any secrets. I had taken nothing from the ancient wisdom; my knowledge of the spirit is entirely the result of my own research. But when I have gained some item of knowledge, I relate it to what is already known publicly about ancient knowledge, from one source or another, in order to show that they agree, and to show the progress that is possible for investigation today.

Thus, after a certain moment, it was absolutely clear to me that it was right for me to present spiritual knowledge publicly.

—Rudolf Steiner, Autobiography (CW 28), pp 200-201

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