NEUOFFENBARUNGThe crust of the Earth (26 January 1847)
1. After we have gone through the Middle Earth, we go, as already mentioned, to the outer earth – which in a way constitutes the skin or the bark of the earth.
2. This outer part of the earth has in itself the least mechanically artistic construction; but what it lacks in this area, is replaced by countless other formations – and in it, there is a certain kind of mixed abundance of everything in such a way that it would not be possible for any human mind to grasp and understand how and what all is happening on in this earth's crust.
3. In the former two earths, we found everything more simple, just as the effect together with the activity preceding it is in a certain way very simple. One could compare the inner activity and the inner working to a very simple driving wheel, in which one sees nothing else than that it turns diligently and powerfully around it's axis; But if one then goes into the chamber where a very complicated mechanism is set in motion by the simple action of the first driving wheel, and where the rarest effects are produced by this many wheels and spindles, one is astonished when one thinks back that all this is accomplished by the simple driving wheel outside.
4. In the same way, the simple activity in the innermost part of the earth can be regarded as a simple driving wheel, by which, however, on our third or outermost earth, innumerable most manifold effects are produced. Now you do not have to imagine the outer earth as separated by an empty air space or by an intermediate existence of a subterranean sea; but these two earths are as intimately and firmly connected with each other as the bark with the wood of a tree.
5. Directly on the solid earth, rests a still several miles thick perceptible skin of the earth, above which skin then follows the epidermis (upper skin) or the actual impalpable skin of the earth, in which the effects of the inner organic life of the earth only so rightly multiply; There everything is formed in itself as well as outside of itself, i.e. the seed, as it is constituted as seed in itself, is either freshly formed, as well as represented in itself in such a way, what once it's germinated outer form shall be; or for the seed, the power is prepared here, and separated according to it's kind, as it is suitable for the revival of the already existing seed both for plants and animals – from which it is absorbed little by little by the plant kingdom, as by the water and by countless small animals, and then used quite intelligently.
6. To such preparation belongs certainly also an infinite compexity first of all of the mechanical-organic construction of this part of the earth; but with that, very little would still be accomplished, because all such mechanics would achieve very little or nothing at all, but the equipment of this part of the earth must have – in addition to the most wonderfully complicated mechanical equipment for the separation and distribution of the juices and forces rising from the innermost part of the earth – a second piece of equipment, infinitely more complicated, for the purpose of absorbing the very subtle influences from the outer infinite space of the world and bringing them to their right destination.
7. That this purpose would not be served by a simple device, you can easily imagine, if you only look at a single plant very carefully, what manifold parts it has, and what a multitude of each part must be present on a plant, such as spines, hairs, thorns, angles, fibers, threads, liquids, fats, and the like even more, and all this connected by an elaborate mechanism just to represent this single plant; but if already one plant requires so much, how much of such all-man-diverse equipment will have to be present in this third part of the earth, where it is about the formation for the first of the manifold and rich external minerals, then about the whole plant world, and finally about the countless manifold animal world.
8. A grain of sand, as surely the simplest mineral, is so artisticly put together that you would be turned around completely with amazement, if you could see it, how it is most artisticly put together in itself. There you would discover a quantity of the most different crystals, which are joined together in such a regulated way that the most skillful mathematician could never calculate them so exactly; but that is only the least. If you would then examine these individual crystals more exactly, you would find that they are nothing but complexions of all animal carcasses, and that is of a kind of infusoria, which are however much smaller than that already far more advanced kind, which appears in the fermenting water drop; And if you would then examine these infusorial cadavers more closely, you would discover in each such cadaver, an innumerable number of atomistic little animals, which, during the lifetime of these infusoria, now glued together in crystalline forms, served as food and nourishment for these very infusoria; And if it would be possible for you to look at such an atomistic creature more with spiritual eyes than with the sharpest armed natural eyes, then you would discover in every such atomistic creature a Mignon-shell-globe, in which the whole universe appears on the smallest scale as illustrated. If you put millions together in such a small crystal, which is made of a 1000 infusoria, and the sand grain of a hundred such crystals, you will at least get a small idea of the highly artistic representation of this very simple mineral piece, or better: you will be able to show it.
9. What does it take, therefore, to bring about such a very simple little piece of mineral? How artistic must the mechanism be in the workshop in which only grains of sand are manufactured, since in such a grain of sand must already be preceded by two animal generations, where each little animal possesses such an artistic organism that you yourselves could never have any idea of it's extreme artistry; for such a little animal has eyes, ears, other organs of sensation, and in addition has completely free movement; listen! to represent this, already goes far beyond all human concepts. Even more puzzling is the image of the universe in an atomic egg-shaped spherical animal; in order to create a grain of sand out of all that, certainly requires a most artistic reproduction mechanism in our outer earth. But how much does it take to form other minerals, to give them the certain property and form, and what does it take to form the many most different plants, and what does it take to form the countless many animal species, for which the number: one million is too small!
10. From this only very superficial description of the matter, you will easily understand that here a property description of this most complicated organism of formation is almost purely impossible; and if we really wanted to describe the matter propertyally, then a thousand writers would need a trillion years netto. And who would have to inform himself about such a work, would have to live a thousand billion years, in order to read such a work at least once in such a long life; in short, the ridiculousness of such an undertaking must be clear already at the first sight. Therefore, in the consideration of this outer piece of the earth, we will emphasize only very superficially and in general, that which can be explained more closely by some external phenomena; Everything else, as already mentioned, will be easy to understand in the spiritual part, and one minute will be more fruitful than a full million of earthly years. Thus following, just something about the special arrangement of this outer earth.