- - -
[a] Zwickau is the next larger town to the west of Ernstthal,
about 17 km (10 miles) away. Lichtenstein is a small town
about half way between the two. (Do not confuse this with
Liechtenstein.)
IV. My Time at the Seminary and as a Teacher
No plant draws what is to be contained in its cells and in its
fruits from itself, but rather from the soil it sprang from and
from the atmosphere it breaths. A human being is also a plant in
this respect. Though not being physically attached to one spot,
we are nevertheless mentally and spiritually rooted, deeply
rooted, very deeply, more deeply than many a giant tree in the the
Californian soil. Therefore, nobody can be held fully responsible
for whatever he does while he is still in the process of
development. To hold him fully accountable for all of his
mistakes, would be just as wrong as pretending that he had
obtained all of his good qualities entirely on his own. Only he
who precisely knows and correctly assesses the native soil and the
adolescent atmosphere of a "developed" one, is capable to prove
with some amount of certainty, which parts of his lot in life are
the product of the given circumstances and which of the purely
individual intentions of the person concerned.
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