Rudolf Steiners' vast body of literary work includes not a small number of lectures and compilations of lectures such as this one. Primarily concerning itself with the evolution of mankind (and with the pre-modern theories of Blavatskys' time) it claims a sort of stage-by-stage descent away from the cosmic but towards an improved mankind increasingly able to reason and potentially grasp true spiritual principles. That is, that archaic man had direct help in the post-Atlantis period (as he deems it) from higher beings.It speaks in some degree of Galileo, Bruno, and Kepler, among other various figures.