Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34
Russia

Chapter.Page
34.591	All the further events, during this last sojourn of mine on the surface of the planet Earth, connected with the abnormal form of the usual being-existence of those three-brained beings who please you, and, at the same time, many trifling incidents of all kinds which elucidated the characteristic details of their peculiar psyche, began from the following:
34.591	“Once, walking one morning by the said Pyramids, a certain elderly being, a stranger, and in exterior appearance not a native, approached me, and greeting me in the manner customary there, addressed me with the following words:
34.591	“‘Doctor! You will perhaps do me the kindness to allow me to be your companion on your morning walks? I have noticed that you always walk in this neighborhood alone. I am also very fond of walking here of a morning and as I, too, am quite alone here in Egypt, I venture to propose to you that I should accompany you on these walks of yours.’
34.591	“Since the vibrations of his radiations in relation to mine appeared not acutely ‘Otkalooparnian,’ or, as your favorites in such a case would say, ‘since he appeared to be sympathetic,’ and furthermore because I myself had already thought of establishing here also corresponding mutual relations with someone, in order as a rest from active mentation to converse sometimes by following only the course of freely flowing associations, I at once agreed to his proposition and from that day forth began to spend the time of my morning strolls with him.
34.591-2	“During our further acquaintanceship, it transpired that this foreigner was a subject of that large community called ‘Russia,’ and that among his compatriots he was an important power-possessing being.
34.592	“During these walks of ours together it so happened that we began, why I don’t know, to talk chiefly about the weak will of the three-brained beings and about those weaknesses unworthy of them, which they themselves call ‘vices’ and to which they, particularly the contemporary beings, accustom themselves very quickly, and which finally become for them a basis, in the sense of the aim of their existence, as well as in the sense of the quality of their being-manifestations.
34.592	“Once during one of these conversations of ours he, addressing me suddenly, said:
34.592	“‘My dear Doctor! In my native land during recent times the passion for alcohol is strongly developed and widely spread among people of all classes, which passion as you know always, sooner or later, leads in general to those forms of mutual relationship which usually bring about the destruction of the century-old pillars and attainments of Society.
34.592	“‘This is just why several farsighted compatriots of mine, having at last understood all the seriousness of such a situation as had arisen in our country, collected together, in order perhaps to devise conjointly some means or other for the prevention of any catastrophic consequence. For the realization of this task of theirs, they there and then decided to found a society under the name of “The Trusteeship of People’s Temperance,” and they chose me to be the head of this enterprise.
34.592	“‘At the present time, the activities of the “Trusteeship,” as regards the organization of measures for the struggle against the said state evil, are in full swing.
34.592	“‘We have already done much and we have in view to do much more.’
34.593	“Having said this, he became a little thoughtful and continued thus:
34.593	“‘If now, my dear Doctor, you were to ask my personal opinion as to the results expected from this Trusteeship of ours, sincerely speaking, I should, although I am at the head of it, find it very difficult to say anything good about it.
34.593	“‘As regards the general position of affairs of this Trusteeship of ours, I meanwhile personally place my hope only in a “chance.”
34.593	“‘In my opinion, the whole evil consists in this, that this Trusteeship is under the protection of several groups, upon whom any realization of its task just depends, but as these groups each follow their own particular aims and wishes concerning each separate question, then, over the solution of each separate question concerning the basic aim of the Trusteeship, controversy always reigns. And thanks to this, day by day, instead of improving the conditions for a speedy possibility of a realization, indeed, of the aim which has been set as a basis of this very important actualization for my dear Fatherland, there only increases among the separate members of our Trusteeship all kinds of misunderstandings, personal considerations, gossip, intrigue, plots, and so on and so forth.
34.593	“‘As regards myself, personally, I have during recent times so much thought, rethought, and consulted with various people who have more or less “life-experience,” in order to find some way or other out of the situation which has turned out so sorrowfully, that I reached such a state that I nearly fell ill and was compelled by the insistence of those near to me to undertake this journey here to Egypt with the sole object of resting. But alas! Now here in Egypt even, I have met with no success, because always those same black thoughts of mine give me no peace.
34.594	“‘Now, my dear Doctor, that you already know approximately the gist of that affair, which was the cause for my present spiritual unbalance, I will frankly confess to you my inner thoughts and hopes which have arisen in connection with my acquaintanceship with you.
34.594	“‘The point is,’ he continued, ‘that during our frequent and lengthy talks on the subject of the evil vices of people and about the possible measures for getting rid of them, I reached a full conviction of your thorough competency in questions of the subtle understanding of people’s psyche, as well as in the creating of conditions for the struggle against their weaknesses. And that is why I regard you as the only man who might be the source of every kind of initiative for the organization, as well as for the carrying out in life of the activities of the Trusteeship founded there at home for the struggle against alcoholism.
34.594	“‘Yesterday morning an idea came into my head, over which I thought the whole day and evening, and it is about this that I finally decided to ask you.
34.594	“‘Would you consent to go to my country, to Russia, and, after you have seen everything on the spot that is going on there, help us to organize this Trusteeship of ours, in such a way that it may indeed become of that use to my country for which it was founded?’
34.594	“He further added: ‘Your just humaneness gives me courage to address this request to you, as well as the assurance that you will not, of course, refuse to take part in the work of saving perhaps millions of people.’
34.594	“When this sympathetic elderly Russian finished speaking, I, having thought a little, replied that I might very possibly consent to his proposal to go to Russia, since that country might perhaps be very suitable also for my chief aim.
34.594-5	“Further I said to him: ‘At the present time I have but one aim, namely, specifically to clear up for myself all the details of the manifestations of the human psyche of individuals existing separately as well as in groups. Well now, for the elucidation of the state and manifestations of the psyche of large groups, Russia would perhaps be very suitable for me since, as I have understood during our talks, the disease of the “passion for alcohol” is spread there in your country among almost the entire population, thanks to which I shall the more often have the possibility of carrying out my experiments on various types, each separately as well as in a mass.’
34.595	“After this talk with the important Russian being, I soon got ready, and several days after left Egypt together with him. Two weeks later we were already in the chief place of existence of this large community, in the town at that time still called ‘Saint Petersburg.’
34.595	“After we arrived there, my new acquaintance immediately gave himself up to his own affairs which had very greatly accumulated during his long absence.
34.595	“By that time, among other things, there had already been finished there the construction of that large building which was destined by the Trusteeship to this aim of struggling against alcoholism, and my new acquaintance immediately began to apply himself to the organization and preparation of all that was necessary for what they call there the ‘inauguration’ of that building and the starting of the activities connected with it.
34.595	“I began, however, during that time, to go about everywhere as is usual for me, and to frequent the beings of this city, belonging to various what are called there ‘classes,’ in order to become acquainted with the characteristic particularities of their manners and customs.
34.595-6	“Well, it was then that I constated, among other things, that in the presences of the beings belonging to just this contemporary community, their, as it is called, ‘Ego-Individuality’ began during the recent centuries to form itself particularly sharply dual.
34.596	“After I had constated this and began specially to investigate this question there, I finally elucidated that this dual individuality obtained in their common presences, chiefly owing to a noncorrespondence between what is called the ‘tempo-of-the-place-of-their-arising-and-existence’ and the ‘form-of-their-being-mentation.’
34.596	“In my opinion, my boy, you will very well understand this particularly sharp ‘duality-of-the-beings’ of this large community, if I repeat to you word for word the opinion about them of our esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin which he gave me personally.
34.596	“It is necessary for me to tell you that during the second half of this last sojourn of mine among your favorites, I happened more than once to meet that terrestrial uniquely wise Mullah Nassr Eddin and to have personal ‘exchange of opinion’ with him on various, as it is said there, ‘life questions.’
34.596	“This personal meeting of mine with him, in the course of which he, with a wise saying of his, defined the real essence of the beings of that large community there, took place on one of the parts of the surface of your planet called ‘Persia in a locality named ‘Ispahan,’ where I happened to be for my investigations concerning the Most Saintly Activities of Ashiata Shiemash, and also for clearing up on the spot that question I needed of just how there arose for the first time the form of their so-called ‘politeness,’ now everywhere existing there and also maleficent for them.
34.596	“Even before my arrival in Ispahan, I already knew that the esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin had left for the town ‘Talaialtnikoom’ to stay with the stepson of the eldest daughter of his godfather.
34.596-7	“After I had arrived in this latter town, I immediately sought him out and the whole time I was there often visited him and, sitting on the roof, as was the custom in this country, we would chat together about every kind of what are called there ‘subtle-philosophic-questions.’
34.597	“Once, on the second or third day apparently, after my arrival there, on going to him in the morning, my eye was struck by an unusual movement in the streets: everywhere there were being cleaned, swept, and hung out what are called ‘carpets,’ ‘shawls,’ ‘flags,’ and so on.
34.597	“I thought: ‘Evidently one of the two celebrated annual festivals of the beings of this community is beginning.’
34.597	“On ascending to the roof, and having exchanged the usual greetings with our dear, most eminent and wise Mullah Nassr Eddin, I asked, pointing with my hand to what was happening in the street, what it was all about.
34.597	“Over his face spread his customary benevolent and as always enchanting grimace, which nevertheless had a slight shade of contempt, and he intended to say something, but at that moment there resounded in the street below the shouts of the ‘town criers’ and the clattering of many horses.
34.597	“Then our wise Mullah, without uttering a word, got up heavily and having taken me by the sleeve led me to the edge of the roof and then winking cunningly at me with his left eye, he turned my attention to a big ‘cavalcade’ which was rapidly galloping past and which consisted, as I later found out, chiefly of beings who are called ‘cossacks’ belonging to that same large community there, ‘Russia.’
34.597-8	“In the center of this large ‘cavalcade’ there rolled by what is called a ‘Russian phaeton,’ harnessed with four horses driven by an unusually fat and ‘imposing-looking’ coachman. This imposing exterior, also quite Russian in manner, was due to the pads put in corresponding parts under his clothes. In this phaeton sat two beings, one of the type of that country Persia, and the other, a typical what is called ‘Russian general.’
34.598	“When the said cavalcade had moved off a long way, Mullah first of all uttering his favorite saying: ‘So-and-so-and-so-must-be; do-not-do-what-must-not-be,’ and having also uttered his favorite exclamation, somewhat resembling ‘Zrrt!!,’ he returned to his place and suggested to me that I should do the same, then, having arranged the still smoldering charcoal on his ‘Kalyan,’ he sighed deeply and pronounced the following tirade, which, as always, was not immediately understandable.
34.598	“‘Just now, in the company of a large number of “well-bred-turkeys,” a “crow” of this country passed by, who although one of the chiefs and of high rank, was yet nevertheless rumpled and badly molting.
34.598	“‘During recent times, I don’t know why, “high-rank-crows” of this country no longer in general take a single step without these “well-bred-turkeys”; they evidently do this in the hope that maybe, perhaps, the pitiable remains of the feathers would, owing to their being constantly within the powerful radiations of these turkeys, become a little stronger and cease to fall out.’
34.598	“Although I understood positively nothing about what he had just said, yet already well knowing his habit of expressing himself first of all allegorically, I was not at all surprised and did not question him, but patiently awaited his further explanations.
34.598-9	“And indeed, when after he had pronounced the tirade and had thoroughly finished ‘hubble-bubbling’ the water in his ‘Kalyan,’ he—while giving in his subsequent speech with the ‘subtle venom’ which is proper to him, a definition of the whole presence and general essence of the beings of the contemporary community ‘Persia’—explained to me that he compared the beings of this same community ‘Persia’ to the birds, crows, while the beings of the large community ‘Russia’ who formed just that cortege which had galloped along the street, he compared to the birds, turkeys.
34.599	“He developed this thought of his in a long dissertation thus: ‘If we analyze impartially and sum up statistically this understanding and picturing which obtain among people of the contemporary civilization concerning the races which populate Europe, in contradistinction to other continents, and make an analogy between these races and birds, then the people who represent the very “Tzimus” of contemporary European civilization, namely, those who arise and dwell on the continent Europe, must infallibly be called peacocks, that is, the birds who have the most beautiful and most gorgeous exterior, while the people who dwell on other continents must be called crows, that is, the most good-for-nothing and dirty of all birds.
34.599	“‘But for those contemporary people who obtain the basis and the required conditions for their arising on the continent of Europe and who are formed on it, but whose subsequent life, and consequently further “stuffing,” proceeds for some reason or other on other continents, and also for those contemporary people who, on the contrary, appear on “God’s Earth” on any continent and obtain their further “stuffing” under the conditions arising and reigning on the continent Europe, no better “comparison” can be found than the bird turkey.
34.599	“‘This latter bird, more than all other birds, expresses a something which is neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring, but which represents in itself, as is said, “a-half-with-a-quarter-plus-three-quarters.”
34.599	“‘The best representatives of these “turkeys” are the contemporary people of Russia and it was by these turkeys, namely, that one of the chief crows of this country was surrounded who not long ago rapidly passed by us.
34.600	“‘These Russians moreover correspond ideally to this peculiar bird turkey, as the following considerations of mine show:
34.600	“‘Arising and being formed on the continent Asia, but chiefly owing to a clean heredity, organic as well as psychic, forged in the course of many centuries in conditions of existence obtained on the said continent, they become, in all respects, the possessors of the nature of Asiatic people, and consequently they should also at the present time be crows. But in view of the fact that in recent times they have all been striving hard to become Europeans and have with intent been thoroughly stuffing themselves accordingly, they, thereby, little by little, are ceasing to be crows; and as, according to several undoubtedly lawful data, they cannot turn into real peacocks, they, leaving the ‘crows’ behind and not yet reaching to the ‘peacocks,’ are in themselves as I have said, ideally turkeys.
34.600	“‘Although the turkey is a very useful bird for the household, because its meat—if of course the turkey is killed in that special way which people of old nations have there learned thanks to long centuries of practice—is better and more tasty than that of all other birds, yet, in its living state, the turkey is a very strange bird and has a certain very special psyche, to understand which, even though only approximately, is, especially for our people with their half passive minds, quite impossible.
34.600	“‘One of the many specific features of the psyche of this strange bird is that the turkey, why I don’t know, considers it always necessary to swagger, and thus will often for no reason whatever puff himself out.
34.600	“‘Even when nobody is looking at him he swaggers and puffs himself out, though he does so in this case exclusively because of his own imagination and silly dreams.’
34.600-1	“Having said this, Mullah Nassr Eddin got up slowly and heavily, and again pronouncing his favorite saying: ‘So-and-so-this-must-be-it’ but this time with the ending ‘don’t-sit-long-where-you-shouldn’t-sit,’ took me by the arm and together we descended from the roof.
34.601	“Here, my boy, while giving the subtlety of the psychological analysis of our most wise Mullah Nassr Eddin its due, justice demands that it should be said that if these Russians have become such exemplary turkeys, we have, in this case, to blame it only once more on those beings of the community Germany.
34.601	“The beings of Germany were in this case guilty owing to the fact that when they invented their famous aniline dyes, they overlooked one of the specific peculiarities of these dyes.
34.601	“The point is that with the help of these dyes it is possible to dye all natural colors, except one only, namely, genuine natural black, any other color.
34.601	“And it is thanks to this lack of foresight in these German beings that the scandalous misfortune for the poor Russians came about—that is to say, it is owing to the fact that the feathers of the crows are dyed by nature, as it ‘unsuspectingly-and-unexpectedly’ turned out, just a genuine black, which, even with these aniline dyes invented by themselves, cannot possibly be dyed any other color owing to the said vile imperfection of these dyes—that these poor Russian ‘crows’ cannot therefore possibly become peacocks. And what is worst of all, having ceased to be crows and not yet having become peacocks, they willy-nilly turn into the bird turkey, which expresses ideally, as has been formulated by our dear teacher, ‘Half-with-a-quarter-plus-three-quarters.’
34.601-2	“Well, thanks to the wise definition of the esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin which he told me himself, I clearly understood for the first time why all the beings of that large community there, when they reach responsible age become possessors of so sharply dual an individuality.
34.602	“But enough about this. Listen further now to the events in which I happened to take part after my arrival in the chief place of existence of the community Russia, then called Saint Petersburg.
34.602	“As I have already said, while my acquaintance, the said important Russian, settled up his affairs which had become disorganized during his absence, I began to go about everywhere and meet beings there, of different, as is said, ‘class’ and ‘position,’ in order to study the characteristic particularities of their manners and customs, and to make clear for myself the cause of their so-called ‘organic need’ for alcohol, and the manifest consequences also of the result of its effects on their common presences.
34.602	“It is interesting to remark that during these meetings of mine with the various three-brained beings belonging to various ‘castes’ and ‘positions,’ I had already by then constated several times, and it had, after more attentive observation, become quite evident to me, that the majority of them carried in themselves the germ of that ‘particular-functioning-of-their-common-presences’ which had already long before been habitually arising in your favorites owing to a certain combination of two independent causes coming from outside.
34.602	“The first of these causes is a common cosmic law which exists under the name of ‘Solioonensius,’ and the second is a sharp deterioration of the conditions of the usual being-existence of the beings on some part or other of the surface of this planet of yours.
34.602-3	“I speak about that germ of the ‘particular-functioning-of-their-common-presences,’ which after several of their years became molded in the presences of all beings of this community in such a usual form as had already during certain definite periods become in general inherent in them, and as had become what is called a ‘stimulating factor’ for their specific manifestations, which also became proper only to three-brained beings of the planet Earth; and the totality of these manifestations among the beings of the large community was this time called there ‘Bolshevism.’
34.603	“I will explain to you later about this same ‘particular-functioning-of-their-common-presences.’
34.603	“I touched upon this question in this place only to give you a representation of the already particularly abnormal conditions of being-existence among which my activities among the beings of this large community flowed at this period during this sojourn of mine in their chief place of existence, St. Petersburg.
34.603	“Even before my arrival in this city, I had had in view to actualize one of my intentions, for the fulfillment of which everything that was necessary had been already prepared by me. “The point is that already long before this I had intended to set up in one or other of their great inhabited spots a ‘something,’ of the kind of what they call there a ‘chemical laboratory,’ in which I intended, by means decided on beforehand to proceed with special experiments on several deeply concealed aspects of their ever the same strange psyche.
34.603	“And so, my boy, when I had stayed in this city and when I discovered that almost half my time there might be free, I decided to make use of the chance of being temporarily ‘half-occupied,’ and set about the actualization of this intention of mine.
34.603	“From the information I obtained, I learned that in order to set up such a laboratory there, it was obligatorily required first of all to have a permit from the local power-possessing beings, and that is why I quickly began to take steps to get this permit.
34.604	“The first steps I took showed me that on account of the laws which had been so long before fixed in the process of existence of this community, a permit to have the right to have one’s own chemical laboratory had to be issued there by a certain what is called ‘department’ of one of their what are called ‘ministries.’
34.604	“That is why I betook myself to that same department; but it turned out that although the staff of this department acknowledged that it was their obligation to issue that kind of permit, yet they themselves did not know how it had to be done.
34.604	“And they did not know this, as I later understood, simply because no one had ever applied to them for this permit, and on this account these unfortunate beings had not acquired the customary for them what is called ‘automatic-habit’ for the manifestation of such a ‘being-duty’ as theirs of this kind.
34.604	“Here it must in general be noticed that there during the last centuries almost every ‘being-manifestation’ for the fulfillment of their being-duty in the presences of those beings who become power-possessing is already actualized, thanks exclusively only to the functioning of the data which are formed in them from manifold automatic repetitions of the same thing.
34.604-5	“As regards the power-possessing beings of this community, the crystallization of these peculiar automatic ‘being-data’ at this period of the flow of time, proceeded in them much more intensely than anywhere else, and was expressed so sharply that sometimes it even seemed as if there were completely absent in them in general all data whatsoever for the immediate bringing forth of being-impulses proper in general to beings. “This crystallization proceeded in them, as I later elucidated, in consequence of the action of the cosmic law Solioonensius, which cosmic law I some time ago mentioned to you.
34.605	“But as to what I said, namely, that nobody applied for a permit to the staff of the mentioned department, this by no means happened because none of the inhabitants of this chief place of existence needed a chemical laboratory; no, on the contrary, never had there been in that town so many similar chemical laboratories as at this very period of the flow of time, and doubtless all the owners of the necessary permits had procured them from somewhere or other in some or other way.
34.605	“They could not help having them. It was just for this that there existed in this chief place of their existence, as in general there exists in all large and small communities in times of peace, a particular as they say ‘administrative body,’ which comprises the ‘basic-hope-of-a-complete-bliss-for-power-possessors,’ which they themselves call the ‘gendarmerie’ and ‘police,’ one of the chief obligations of the representatives of which is to see that everyone, for every kind of enterprise there, should have a corresponding permit, and indeed, it must not be supposed that the what are called ‘lynx-eyed’ beings, representatives of the said ‘basic-hope-of-a-complete-bliss-for-power-possessors,’ would ‘let anything slip by’ and allow anywhere any laboratory whatever without the corresponding permit from the power-possessors.
34.605	“A basic reason for this seeming contradiction was something quite different.
34.605-6	“It is necessary to tell you that there already in this community the attitude towards the laws and regulations fixed in the past by the beings for ‘normal’—according to their understanding—mutual relationship and in general for ordinary existence, began to become such that only those of the ordinary beings could obtain and profit by everything to which they had objective right who knew how to act to the contrary, i.e., against laws and regulations existing there.
34.606	“Of these private laboratories, such as I wished to set up, not one but thousands could there be had; it was merely necessary to know first of all what abnormal ‘goings’ and ‘comings’ were the practice for procuring the permits for these laboratories, and then to act in accordance with these abnormalities.
34.606	“I, however, on account of the short time I had stayed there, had not yet had time to make clear for myself all the subtleties of the ordinary being-existence which had begun in this community, as I said, to become particularly abnormal.
34.606	“That is why, when I set out to take steps to get the permit I required, there began for me those endless vexations, or, as they themselves say in such cases, the ‘idiotic dilly-dallyings’ which were also fixed not long before in the process of their being-existence, and in addition all this turned out in the end to be quite without result and unnecessary.
34.606	“It began with this: when I had reached the aforesaid department and addressed myself to the staff there, they all began to eye each other perplexedly and to whisper together, and several of them rummaged through fat tomes in the hope obviously of finding some written rule about the issuing of these permits. Finally the oldest of them came toward me and importantly required from me that I should first of all bring him from a certain other department certain information concerning my personal, as they express it, ‘loyalty.’
34.606	“It was from just this that my further endless perambulations began, from one department to another, from, as they say, one administration to another, from one official specialist to another… and so on without end.
34.606-7	“Thus the business continued until from the so-called ‘district-officer’ I had to go to the so-called ‘parish priest’ and so on, all but to the official city midwife.
34.607	“Besides this, one of these departments, why I don’t know, required that a certificate issued by another department should be stamped by a third.
34.607	“In one department I had to sign a certain paper; in another to answer questions having nothing to do with chemistry; while in a third it was explained to me and I was advised how I must manage with the equipment of the laboratory so as not to be poisoned, and so on and so forth.
34.607	“It turned out as I later elucidated, that I had been, without at all suspecting it at the time, with an official among whose obligations was that of dissuading from this ‘abominable’ intention those who wished to set up chemical laboratories.
34.607	“But the most amusing of all was that, for obtaining this permit it was necessary in turn to apply to those official servants who had not even the remotest notion of what in general a laboratory was.
34.607	“I do not know how all this would have finished, if, having wasted almost two months, I had not myself in the end thrown up all these foolish hustlings around.
34.607	“I threw them all up for a reason which was not without its humor.
34.607	“According to the rules of all these senseless dilly-dallyings, I had to get among others a ‘paper’ from a doctor, official also, certifying that no danger would menace my personal health from my occupation in this laboratory.
34.607-8	“I went to this official doctor; but when he first of all desired to sound me thoroughly and for this requested me to undress entirely so that he might tap me all over with his little hammer, I could not of course in any way consent. And I could not consent to this, because, if I had bared myself, I should inevitably have betrayed my tail which there on your planet I skillfully hid under the folds of my dress.
34.608	“And you of course well understand that if any one of them were to have seen it, then everyone would very soon have known that I was not a being of their planet, after which it would have become already entirely impossible to remain among them and to continue the experiments interesting to me for the elucidation of the strangeness of their psyche.
34.608	“That is why I went from this doctor without the ‘paper’ necessary for me, and from that time I threw up everything and no longer tried to obtain a permit to set up my own laboratory.
34.608	“In spite of the fact that I went about there everywhere pursuing my special aim, hustling at the same time for the said permit, I nevertheless often met that important Russian, my first acquaintance, who, although he was, as I said, very busy with his own affairs, nevertheless found time to visit me or to receive me at his house.
34.608	“At these meetings we almost always talked only about the alcoholism in his fatherland, and about the measures for struggling with this evil.
34.608	“From such an exchange of opinion, there each time accumulated in me more and more material, as my impartial observations and studies of all the aspects of the psyche of the local beings were crystallizing in me always newer and newer data concerning them.
34.608	“This important Russian laid very great weight on my considerations and remarks on what had already been done by the Trusteeship of People’s Temperance and also concerning the projects of future undertakings, and was always sincerely delighted by the justice of my observations.
34.609	“And in the beginning, all my suggestions which he reported at the general meetings of the Trusteeship were always accepted for actualization.
34.609	“But when several participants of this Trusteeship accidentally learned that the initiative for many useful measures had issued from me—some foreign doctor or other, not even a European—then every kind of habitual, as it is called ‘intrigue’ and ‘protest’ arose against the proposals coming from me, and also against the head of the Trusteeship himself.
34.609	“Those guilty of all the misunderstandings which led up to this sorrowful end to such an important institution as the Trusteeship, created for the welfare of all the three-brained beings of this many-millioned community, were always and in everything the learned beings of ‘new format.’
34.609	“The point is that, owing to the insistence of certain hereditary power-possessing beings, there were among the number of the permanent chief participants of this new institution several what are called ‘learned physicians.’
34.609	“They happened to be among the leaders of this Trusteeship, in consequence of the fact that in the presences of the hereditary power-possessing beings of that period there had again already become finally fixed and had become the inviolable part of their essence always the same ‘inner overlord’ of theirs, maleficent for the terrestrial three-brained beings, named by them ‘self-calming,’ which by itself became for those unfortunates the sense and aim of their existence. And therefore in order not to make any being-effort at all, they insisted that these learned physicians should also unfailingly take part in this important institution of great social significance.
34.609-10	“In recent times there, why I don’t know, the beings there of this profession most often became learned beings of ‘new format.’
34.610	“It is further also necessary to tell you here that when from among these learned beings of ‘new format’ some become power-possessing and happen to take up important responsible posts in the process of ordinary existence, they then often serve much more as the sources of every kind of subsequent misunderstanding than the hereditary power-possessing beings.
34.610	“And they serve as these sources of misunderstandings obviously in consequence of this, that in the common presences of these beings there are acquired and in a particular way are interwoven the characteristic inherencies which had already become proper to your favorites of three quite different contemporary types, namely, power-possessing beings, learned beings of ‘new format,’ and the contemporary ‘professional physicians.’
34.610	“And so, my boy, on the initiative and insistence of several hereditary power-possessing beings of that community, especially on that of those who, although they outwardly still continue to be power-possessing yet in inner significance are only as they are called ‘emptied sand boxes’ (deflated gasbags), there were called to power for the business of actualizing such a serious task as the ‘relative saving’ of many millions of beings similar to themselves, those genuine ‘stuffed turkeys,’ or, as they would be called there, ‘upstarts.’
34.610-1	“While at first these same upstarts who had by chance received power carried on among themselves alone every kind of petty ‘intrigue’ proper to them, it was still for the general undertaking there only ‘half-a-calamity,’ but when, thanks to every kind of what is called ‘subterfuge’ also proceeding from them, there also began these intrigues between all the participants of this Trusteeship, and they all split up into different notorious ‘parties,’ which pernicious custom there for a successful actualization of every promising beginning is very widely spread, then also such a good beginning as this Trusteeship for the general welfare of contemporary three-brained beings began, as they say, to ‘crack at the seams.’
34.611	“Those petty ‘intrigues’ of theirs proceeded in full between the separate parties as well as between the separate members of that absolutely indispensable state organization, just at the time I arrived with my first Russian acquaintance in the chief place of existence of the said community.
34.611	“When those ‘upstarts’ who had accidentally received power learned that many of the ‘counsels’ and ‘indications’ on the business of improving the organization proceeded from me, that is, just from a professional like themselves, but who was not included in their so-called corporation, well, just then, understanding well that none of their intrigues and subterfuges could have any significance at all for me, they directed them against the head of the Trusteeship chosen by themselves.
34.611	“It is, apropos, very interesting lightly to remark here that, although every kind of data for bringing forth various being-impulses which they should have are in general feebly crystallized in the presence of these contemporary professionals there, then the data which brings forth the impulse called ‘corporate feeling’ for some reason or other is crystallized and functions in them very strongly.
34.611-2	“And so, my boy, as long as I did not yet know that to be occupied with ‘intrigues’ and dodges, or, as sometimes they themselves still express it, ‘mutually-to-get-rid-of-each-other,’ is already unavoidably inherent in power-possessing beings of this community, I still hoped for and patiently awaited that time when eventually the corresponding conditions would give me the possibility of actualizing my fundamental aim, namely, the possibility of proceeding with the ‘elucidatory experiments’ on the psyche of the terrestrial beings en masse. But when it became definitely clear to me that here in this community under the existing conditions of reciprocal relationships it would be impossible for me to succeed in this, and I also became convinced that it was impossible to get one’s own chemical laboratory there honestly, i.e., strictly according to the laws fixed in this community, I decided to remain there no longer, but to depart, in order to seek suitable conditions for my said aim, to some other European community.
34.612	“When my first acquaintance, the important Russian, learned about this decision of mine, he was greatly grieved; greatly grieved also were yet several other Russian beings who indeed wished more or less good for their fatherland, and who, during this period, had had time to become clearly convinced that my knowledge and my experience might be very useful for their fundamental aim.
34.612	“On the day of my suggested departure, this Trusteeship was preparing to open the big building which, as I have already told you, was just designed for the aim of the struggle against alcoholism and which the beings there on the day of its opening called by the name of their czar, ‘The People’s Building of the Emperor Nicholas II.’
34.612	“On the eve of my departure my first acquaintance, the important Russian, came to me unexpectedly and, having sincerely expressed his regret at my departure, begged me very earnestly to postpone it for several days so that after the consecration and opening of the said building he might travel with me and incidentally rest a little from the recent bustle, intrigues, and subterfuges.
34.612	“As I had no special reason to hurry, I agreed and postponed my departure for an indefinite time.
34.613	“Two days later the opening of this building took place and, having the previous evening received what is called ‘an official invitation,’ I betook myself to that ceremony.
34.613	“Well, at this general state solemnity of the contemporary many-millioned community, to which came even he himself, as they call him, ‘His Majesty the Emperor,’ there began there, in respect of my person, what is called ‘Ooretstaknilkaroolni,’ which generally speaking always flows from the totality of the surrounding abnormalities and, being formed automatically in the psyche of every one of the three-brained beings of this ill-starred planet, holds them so to say in an ‘exitless magic circle.’
34.613	“And the further events proceeded in the following order:
34.613	“On the day of the said state solemnity while the ceremony was still proceeding, my first acquaintance the Russian suddenly ran towards me shoving his way through the beings who appeared there in all the blaze of various what are called ‘orders’ and ‘regimentals,’ and in a joyous voice told me that I was to have the ‘happiness’ of being presented to His Majesty the Czar; having said this and speaking rapidly, he hurried away.
34.613	“It turned out that at this solemnity there he had had some conversation with the Emperor about me, as a result of which it had been decided that I should be presented to him.
34.613	“Such a presentation to the Emperor, Czar, or King is considered there as a very very great piece of luck, and that is why my acquaintance having received such a permission rejoiced beyond words on my behalf.
34.613	“Evidently he wished by this presentation to give me great ‘pleasure’ and by this to calm his own conscience, as he considered himself to blame for my unsuccessful stay in this capital.
34.613	“After this event, two days passed.
34.613-4	“On the third morning, looking by chance out of the window of my lodging into the street I saw there quite an unusual commotion; everyone was cleaning, everywhere there was sweeping, many of what are called the ‘gendarmerie’ and ‘police’ were walking up and down.
34.614	“To my question as to what caused all this, our Ahoon explained to me that on that day, in our street, the arrival of a very important general of that community was expected.
34.614	“On this same day, in the afternoon, while I was sitting at home and talking with one of my new acquaintances, the concierge of the house came running in to me, agitated and bewildered, and stammering exclaimed: ‘Hi… s, his… Ex… Exce… ce… ce… lency!’ But he did not have time to finish before His Excellency himself entered. As soon as the unfortunate concierge saw him appear, he appeared as if struck dumb by lightning, and then, having pulled himself together, he hurriedly, as it is said there, ‘backed’ out of the room.
34.614	“But His Noble Excellency himself, with a very friendly smile, although with a shade of what is called ‘hauteur’ characteristic of all the power-possessing beings of that community at that time, came towards me, at the same time examining with great curiosity the ‘antiques’ which were in my room, and, shaking me in a special way by the wrist, sat down in my favorite armchair.
34.614	“Afterward, continuing to examine the antiques, he said:
34.614	“‘You will in a day or two be presented to our “Great Autocrat,” and since it is I who attend to these affairs I have come to you just to explain to you how and what you must do on such a great and important occasion of your life.’
34.614-5	“Having said this, he suddenly stood up and approaching what is called a china figure of old Chinese workmanship which stood in a corner of my room, he exclaimed with impulsive rapture which thrilled his whole presence: ‘How charming!… Where did you get this marvel of ancient wisdom…?’
34.615	“And not ceasing to look at the said figure and giving himself up to the feeling of his rapture, or, more strictly speaking, with all his feelings coursing together through him, he further continued:
34.615	“‘I myself am very much interested in all ancient art, but chiefly in Chinese, and that is why, of the five rooms given up to my collection, three are filled with productions of ancient Chinese work alone.’
34.615	“Continuing to speak in this strain about his adoration for the production of ancient Chinese masters, he without ceremony again sat down in my armchair and began to enlarge upon antiques in general, their value and where they are to be found.
34.615	“During this conversation he suddenly and hastily took his watch from his pocket, automatically looked at it, stood up quickly and, once on his feet, said:
34.615	“‘How vexing! I am obliged to interrupt our chat, interesting to the highest degree, as I must hurry home where doubtless the great friend of my youth and his charming wife are already waiting for me.
34.615	“‘He is here for a short while, passing through on his way abroad from the provinces, and I have not seen him since we served in the same regiment and received different appointments, I to the Court, and he to a civil post.’
34.615	“He afterward further added: ‘And as regards the instructions I am required to give you, about which I had come to you, I will send my adjutant this very day, and he will explain everything to you, and no worse than I perhaps would.’
34.615	“After this, with fussy self-importance, he left me.
34.615-6	“And indeed, on the evening of the very same day, as His Noble Excellency had promised me, one of his adjutants came to my house who was still, as is said there, a ‘young man,’ that is a being who had only quite recently attained to responsible age. This adjutant of his who came had the very marked specific type of a terrestrial three-brained being whom in recent times among your favorites one has often come across, and who is very well defined by the words mama’s and papa’s darling.
34.616	“This former mama’s darling, when he arrived and began to speak to me, manifested himself at first towards me quite automatically according to the data fixed in his common presence by the rules enforcedly inculcated into him of what are called bon ton; and when a little later it became clear to his being-rumination that I belonged neither to his own caste nor to a higher one, but appeared to be one of those beings who according to the abnormal understanding of the beings of that community are considered little higher than what are called ‘savages,’ he immediately changed his tone and again quite automatically began to manifest himself towards me according to the data for ‘commanding’ and ‘ordering about,’ data also already fixed in the common presences of the beings of that community of that period who belonged to that caste, and he began to point out how I must ‘enter,’ ‘leave,’ and ‘move,’ and when and what words must be spoken.
34.616	“Besides the fact that in the course of two hours he had shown me by his own example how, namely, one had to manifest, he declared to me that he would return on the morrow and he ordered me to practice, so that, as he expressed himself, no misunderstanding at all might arise which might lead to where even ‘Makar did not drive his goats.’
34.616-7	“When on the day of my, as they call it, ‘supreme presentation’ I arrived there where the chief of this large community had the place of his residence, I was met at the railway station itself by ‘His High Excellency’ in person, who had arrived there accompanied by five or six of his adjutants, and from that moment he himself began—of course quite without the participation of, as it is called, his ‘personal-subjective-initiative,’ but guided only by automatic habit acquired by him, thanks to the doing of always one and the same thing—to subjugate all my separate spiritualized parts and all the self-manifestations of my common presence, taking it as it were under the directive of his own ‘I.’
34.617	“From this moment, I had, in the sense of my ‘outer manifestations,’ as our esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin would say, to ‘dance in everything to his tune.’
34.617	“As soon as we had left the station and were seated in the carriage, he immediately began to show me and to prompt me as to what and how I had to act and speak and what I had not to do or say.
34.617	“And when later, in that hall where the celebrated presentation took place, he further showed and directed my presence… about this we can neither speak now in the language of a Scheherazade, nor describe it with the pen of a Mr. Canineson.
34.617	“In the hall every movement, every step I made, even to the blinking of my eyelids, were seen in advance, and prompted to me by this important general.
34.617	“However, in spite of all the absurdity of this procedure, if one takes into account that the perfection of a being depends on the quality and quantity of his inner experiencings, then objective justice demands that due must be given for this to your favorites, that on that day they compelled me, of course, unconsciously, to undergo and to feel perhaps more than I had undergone and felt during all the centuries of my personal sojourn there among them.
34.617-8	“However that may be, I must yet say that having agreed to this ‘famous presentation’ for the purpose of observation and investigation of the peculiar and such a ‘contorted’ psyche of your favorites, and after all the ‘great agitation’ which I had lived through on that day, I finally breathed freely only in the carriage of the train after my tormentors, particularly that important general, had left me alone by myself. “In the course of the whole of that day, I was so occupied with the fulfillment of all the innumerable foolish manipulations required from me and which fatigued me in view of my declining years, that I did not even notice what the unfortunate Emperor there looked like or how he manifested himself in this comedy.
34.618	“Now, my boy, if you will strive to assimilate well the information about the subsequent events which happened to me and which were the results of this famous presentation of mine to His Majesty the Emperor, then you will probably acquire the possibility of clearly picturing to yourself and well understand how, there among your favorites, particularly in this large community Russia at that period, their what is called ‘individual significance,’ particularly in recent centuries, began to be appraised and be built up for the majority of these unfortunates always exclusively on the basis of the outer ephemeral as they are called ‘Vietro-yretznel,’ as, in the given case, it similarly took place in relation to me.
34.618	“This gradual acquiring of the habit of judging the merits of beings according to the outer ephemeral appearance in all other beings, developed and continued to develop their imagination, which became strengthened about this, that just in this consists the acquisition of ‘being-individuality,’ and all began subjectively to strive only for this.
34.618-9	“That is why at the present time, all of them from the very beginning of their arising gradually lose from their common presences even the ‘taste’ and ‘desire’ for what is called ‘objective-being-Being.’
34.619	“The manifestations of the mentioned ‘Vietro-yretznel’ personally in relation to my person began to have their action already from the very morning of the following day, in this sense that every data for ‘being-notion’ about my personality which had been before this already soundly fixed in the presences of all the beings there who knew me suddenly sharply changed, thanks only to this ‘objectively maleficent’ official presentation of me to their highest power-possessing beings.
34.619	“My personal significance and their notions about all my qualities and merits also changed for their individuality; I suddenly became for all ‘important’ and ‘wise,’ ‘extraordinary’ and ‘interesting,’ and so on and so forth; that is, the possessor of all kinds of abnormal being-qualities thought out by themselves.
34.619	“As a very characteristic example which will well make clear to you what I have just said, the following illustration may serve:
34.619	“The proprietor of that shop where, before going to my business, I bought the provisions for my kitchen, wished on the first morning after this, as is sometimes said there, ‘royal audience’ of mine, to bring, happen what may, my purchases home to me himself. All the police standing at the street corners in that district in which I temporarily dwelt, and who already knew me well as a newcomer physician, began at the sight of me, while still standing some way off, to salute just as they saluted that important general of theirs.
34.619-20	“The same evening the chief of that department to which I had first of all applied, himself personally brought me to my house that unfortunate permit, giving me the right to have my own laboratory, and to receive which I had languished for three months waiting on the doorsteps of every kind of ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ establishment. And on the second day I received yet four other permits for this from various departments of other ministries into whose province it did not at all enter to issue such permits, but to whom on account of this same dilly-dallying of theirs I had had to apply during my senseless bustlings.
34.620	“The owners of the houses, shopkeepers, children, and in general all who dwelt in the same street as I did, became as amiable with me as if I intended to leave each of them a large ‘American legacy,’ and so on and so forth.
34.620	“After this ‘Emptykralnian’ happening to me, I, by the way, further learned that this unfortunate czar of theirs also always prepares himself for such official meetings with beings strange to him.
34.620	“Of these official meetings like this he has very many, almost every day and even several times a day: here, a parade of the troops; there, an ‘audience’ with the ambassador of some other emperor; in the morning, a ‘delegation’; at noon, a ‘presentation’ such as mine; later a ‘reception’ of different what are called ‘representatives-of-the-people’; and with each of these it is necessary for him to talk, or even to make them an entire speech.
34.620	“As each word of every such terrestrial ‘czar’ can have and often does have serious consequences not only for the beings of that community of whom he is czar, but also for the beings of other communities, therefore each word must be thought out from every side.
34.620-1	“Well, for this, around these emperors or czars who become such by hereditary rights or by election, there are many specialists from among the ordinary three-brained beings there, in order that they may prompt them as to what they must do and say in every circumstance; and these promptings and directions must be carried out in such a way that the strangers may not notice that their emperor or czar manifests not from his own but from others’ initiative.
34.621	“And in order to remember all this, these czars must of course also practice.
34.621	“And what it means to practice, you can probably already picture to yourself after what I have just told you. I understood this with all my Being, when I prepared myself for my illustrious presentation.
34.621	“During my existence on that planet, such a preparation by the way was necessary for me personally only once. Were such preparations necessary every day and for every separate occasion, then may one be spared from experiencing such a merciless fate.
34.621	“I personally at least would not under any conditions be in the skin of such a terrestrial emperor or czar, and would neither wish it for my very worst enemy nor for the enemy of my nearest.
34.621	“After this unforgettable ‘supreme presentation’ of mine, I very soon left St. Petersburg for other parts of the continent of Europe and began to have as the chief places of my existence various cities of the countries which were situated both on that same continent Europe as well as on other continents. I was again later, many times, but for other affairs, in the same community Russia, where during that period of the flow of time their great process there of reciprocal-destruction took place and the destruction of everything already attained by them, which this time, as I have already told you, was called by them ‘Bolshevism.’
34.621	“You remember I promised to relate to you about the fundamental real causes of this archphenomenal process.
34.621-2	“Well, it is necessary to tell you that this grievous phenomenon arises there thanks to two independent factors, the first of which is the cosmic law Solioonensius, and the second is always the same abnormal conditions of ordinary being-existence established by them themselves.
34.622	“In order that you should the better understand about both these factors, I will explain to you about each of them separately, and will begin by the cosmic law Solioonensius.
34.622	“First of all you must be told that all the three-brained beings, on whatever planet they may arise, and whatever exterior coating they may receive, always await the manifestations of the action of this law with impatience and with joy, somewhat how your favorites await what are called their feasts of ‘Easter,’ ‘Bairam,’ ‘Zadik,’ ‘Ramadan,’ ‘Kailana,’ and so on.
34.622	“The only difference is in this, that your favorites await these feasts of theirs with impatience because on these ‘holydays’ it has become customary among them to allow themselves to be more ‘jolly’ and to ‘booze’ freely; while the beings of the other planets await the action of Solioonensius with impatience because, thanks to it, the need for evolving, in the sense of the acquiring of Objective-Reason by them, increases in them by itself.
34.622	“As regards the causes which bring forth this same action of this cosmic law, they are for each planet different and always flow from and depend upon what is called the ‘common cosmic Harmonious-Movement’; moreover, frequently for your planet Earth, what is called the ‘center-of-gravity-of-causes’ is the ‘periodic tension’ of the sun of its system, which tension proceeds in its turn thanks to the influence upon this sun of a neighboring solar system, which exists under the name of ‘Baleaooto.’
34.622-3	“In this latter system however, such a center-of-gravity-of-causes arises because among the number of its ‘concentrations’ there is a great comet Solni, which, according to certain known combinations of the common-cosmic Harmonious-Movement at times approaches on its falling very near to its sun Baleaooto, which is forced by this to make a ‘strong tension’ in order to maintain the path of its own falling. This tension provokes the tension of the suns of the neighboring systems, among the number of which is the system Ors; and when the sun Ors strains itself not to change its path of falling inherent to it, this sun Ors in its turn provokes the same tension in all the concentrations of its own system, among which is also the planet Earth.
34.623	“The tension in all the planets acts also on the common presences of all beings arising and breeding on them, always engendering in the beings, besides desires and intentions of which they are not aware, the feeling called ‘sacred Iabolioonosar,’ or as your favorites would say, the feeling of religiousness, namely, that ‘being-feeling’ which at times appears in the desire and striving for, as I have already said, speedier self-perfecting in the sense of Objective-Reason.
34.623	“It is interesting that when this sacred feeling, or another similar to it, which was also engendered by a certain common cosmic actualization, proceeds in the common presences of your favorites, then they accept it as a symptom of certain of their numerous diseases, and in the given case, for example, they call this feeling ‘nerves.’
34.623	“It is necessary to remark that such an impulse inherent in the presence of all three-brained beings of our Great Universe formerly arose and became actualized almost normally in the majority of terrestrial beings of that time, namely, from the time of the removal of the organ Kundabuffer from the common presences of the three-brained beings of the planet Earth right up to the second Transapalnian-perturbation.
34.623-4	“But later, among the number of chief evils which flow from the conditions of ordinary being-existence established by them themselves, specially when in the presences of every terrestrial three-brained being, there began to become predominant the ‘evil-inner-God’ of theirs I mentioned, named there self-calming, then it occurred that in them under the influence of the action of Solioonensius, instead of the desire and striving for a speedier self-perfection a something began to arise such as they themselves characterize by the words ‘need of freedom,’ which chiefly serves the cause of the arising there of these same grievous processes of theirs similar to this last ‘Bolshevism.’
34.624	“I will explain to you somewhat later how they represent to themselves this famous freedom of theirs, and now I will only tell you that that feeling which arises from the action of Solioonensius strengthens in them the need for some or other general change in the conditions of their ordinary external being-existence which until then were more or less stable.
34.624	“After the second Transapalnian perturbation to this ill-starred planet of yours, that is, ‘after-the-loss-of-Atlantis,’ the action of the cosmic law Solioonensius in the general presences of these favorites of yours was actualized at least forty times and almost from the very beginning, each time, thanks already to this strange ‘need of freedom’ which has since been fixed in the majority of them, almost the same proceeded as in recent years still proceeds on that part of the surface of your planet on which the totality of the existing groups is called ‘Russia.’
34.624	“Here it is extremely important also to notice that the existence itself of these terrifying processes could not in any way take place there among the three-brained beings of the planet Earth if those data which had remained intact in their subconsciousness for the engendering of the being-impulse conscience, to which data the Most Saintly Ashiata Shiemash was the first to turn his attention and upon which he relied for the fulfillment of his mission, had taken part in the functioning of that consciousness of theirs which has become habitual for them during their waking state.
34.625	“Only in consequence of the fact that the data for the sacred impulse of being-conscience do not take part in the function of this consciousness of theirs, the actions of the law Solioonensius, just as well as of other inevitable cosmic laws, are molded into such abnormal and for themselves pitiable forms.
34.625	“Although the whole totality of causes serves as the sources for the arising of the second factor, yet in my opinion the basic cause also in the given case is nevertheless this fact, that their famous ‘subdivision-into-castes’ becomes established among them regarding their mutual relationship among themselves, which subdivision has constantly existed there with the exception only of that period when there was definitely rooted among them the results of the Most Saintly Labors of Ashiata Shiemash.
34.625	“The difference is only in this, that in former centuries the division into different castes proceeded from the consciousness and intention of several separate individuals there, while now this proceeds quite automatically without the participation of anyone’s will or anyone’s consciousness.
34.625	“Now, my boy, I find it opportune to explain to you a little about this, namely, in what way and in what gradations these favorites of yours became automatically sorted out from their different celebrated castes, and how they later already began to subdivide themselves into these castes.
34.625-6	“When, according to various chance circumstances, and wherever significant groups of them became concentrated and they exist together, then several of them—in whom firstly for some reason or other the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer had been previously well crystallized, the totality of which crystallizations in general gives to their common presences the impulses for what is called ‘cunning,’ and secondly, in whose hands at the given time there appear for some reason or other many different, what are called ‘terrifying means,’ or what they themselves call ‘weapons’—quickly set themselves apart from other beings and putting themselves at their head, constitute the beginnings of what are called the ‘ruling class.’
34.626	“And further, since in all the three-brained beings of the planet Earth, and particularly of recent periods, the sacred being-impulse called conscience does not take part in the functioning of their general consciousness, in consequence of which in them there is absent even the very need for making any conscious being-effort at all—then they, that is, the beings who had set themselves apart and who had assigned themselves to the ruling class, profiting by the said terrifying means, compel other beings of the given groupings to produce for them even those efforts which every being should inevitably actualize in ordinary being-existence.
34.626	“And other beings of these groupings, also not wishing for the same reasons personally to produce these ‘being-efforts,’ no, not even for others, and at the same time being afraid of the mentioned terrifying means of the beings of the ruling class, begin to have recourse to all kinds of cunning in order, as is said there, to ‘load-on-one-another’s-backs’ such being-efforts as are inevitably required for the beings of the ruling class.
34.626	“And as a result the beings of every such grouping usually sort themselves out gradually and fall into diverse categories according to the degree of skill of their artfulness. And so from the division of the beings into categories of this kind, there just begins in the following generations a subdivision and an assigning of each other into these famous castes of theirs.
34.626-7	“From this assigning of each other into castes of diverse kinds, there is already by itself infallibly crystallized in the common presence of each of them in relation to the beings who belong to all other castes that being-data which is called ‘hate,’ just that data which was never in any other beings in the whole of our Great Universe, and which in its turn engenders in the common presence of everyone those impulses ‘shameful’ for the three-brained beings, which they themselves call ‘envy,’ ‘jealousy,’ ‘adultery,’ and many other similar impulses.
34.627	“And so, my boy, these terrifying processes of reciprocal-destruction and of the destruction of everything already attained by them there, proceed partly from this, that in those periods when in their common presences the action of the cosmic law Solioonensius becomes evident, besides the already mentioned need for freedom, in them, on the one hand, the intensity of the action of the data for engendering constantly the impulse of ‘timidity’ before power-possessors automatically diminishes, which data has already become inherent in their common presences, and on the other hand the intensity of the action of that said strange being-data increases, which data provokes ‘hate’ in the given case in relation to the beings who belong to other castes.
34.627	“That is why I said that this subdivision of theirs into castes which bring about the totality of the results of these ‘unique-strange-being-data’ which always increase in their functionings and which flow, as you may have already, from all that I have told you, doubtless been convinced, also from the conditions of their abnormal ordinary being-existence, just serves chiefly as the second factor for the arising of these terrifying processes.
34.627	“These terrible processes usually arise and flow in the following sequence:
34.627-8	“It always begins with this, that several beings from one or another grouping, namely, those in whom for some reason or other there were previously crystallized data stronger than in other beings—which data engender the mentioned strange impulses in relation to the beings who belong to other castes, particularly to the beings who belong to the caste of the ‘ruling-class’—seeing and feeling reality more than others under the influence of the action of Solioonensius they begin as is said there to ‘clamor,’ and these ‘clamoring orators’ become in relation to those around them such as are at the present time there usually called ‘leaders.’
34.628	“And further, thanks on the one hand to this clamor and, on the other hand, thanks to the action of always the same cosmic law Solioonensius, which action is always combined abnormally in the presences of all of them, others also begin to clamor. When these ‘clamorers’ among the ordinary beings begin already, excessively cacophonically, to act upon what are called ‘the-effeminate-nerves-of-the-left-half’ of several of the power-possessing beings of the given community, and these latter order those whose job it is to grease with what is called ‘Scottish cream’ the navels of several particularly loud-voiced clamorers, then there begin these excesses of theirs which, progressively increasing, reach their zenith, yet to their misfortune ultimately always lead to nothing.
34.628	“These processes of theirs, if they had even but a little improved the existence of beings of subsequent generations, then perhaps, from the point of view of a strictly impartial observer, they might even not have appeared to be so terrifying, yet to the misfortune of all three-brained beings of our Great Universe, the calamity is just in this that as soon as the ‘blissful action’ of this cosmic lawful manifestation ceases, and these terrifying processes come to an end, then there again begins the old story and their ordinary being-existence becomes ‘more bitter’ than before, and, parallel with this, there also deteriorates what is called their ‘sane-awareness-of-the-sense-and-aim-of-their-existence.’
34.629	“This latter deteriorates in my opinion chiefly because, after these processes, the leading beings of the former ruling class are usually replaced by beings who proceed from other different castes, and who before this last process did not have in the persons of their representatives, either of the present or past generations, anything in common either consciously or unconsciously with that being-manifestation in which is included the ability to lead the outer and now and then even the inner process of the being-existence of surrounding beings, who although ‘similar to them,’ yet in the sense of Reason had not yet attained to their degree.
34.629	“Justice demands it to be admitted that although in the common presences of the three-brained beings there of the old ruling class the data present in their subconsciousness for the engendering of real being-conscience also did not take part in the functioning of their what is called waking-consciousness, yet, at least, they usually have the habit of ruling, acquired by heredity and improving automatically from generation to generation.
34.629	“In the presences of the beings who had newly attained to power not only is real being-conscience absent, as it was also absent in the beings of the former ruling class, but further, in them in addition, those ‘charms’ begin particularly stormily to manifest and give extraordinary and terrifying results, which ‘charms’ are crystallized in general in the presences of terrestrial three-brained beings especially of recent times in consequence of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer, such as ‘vanity,’ ‘pride,’ ‘self-conceit,’ ‘self-love,’ and others, which, as they had as yet hardly ever been satisfied to a sufficient degree, are in them in their functionings, particularly new.
34.629-30	“To these terrestrial beings who become impromptu power-possessing and who have not any hereditary data at all in themselves even for the automatic ability to rule, one of the sayings of our dear Teacher can well be applied, which he expresses in the following words:
34.630	“‘I never yet met that idiot who, accustomed to shuffle in a pair of old shoes, would feel comfortable in smart new ones.’
34.630	“And really, my boy, when, each time on the planet Earth, the action of Solioonensius ceases, and their ‘relatively normal’ existence, already somehow established, again begins among your favorites, then the ‘newly-baked-power-possessing’ beings usually cut those capers thanks to which the birth rate of what are called ‘slugs,’ ‘snails,’ ‘lice,’ ‘mole crickets,’ and many other similar parasites who destroy everything good, each time always increases more and more on that planet.
34.630	“As I have begun to speak about Bolshevism, then I will relate to you here on this subject, in order yet once again to give you an example of one peculiarity of the being-existence of your favorites which had already become fully proper to them, about one of their naïve arguments which is not without its humor.
34.630	“This naïvete of theirs, which may arise through an already excessively wretched logical-confrontative being-rumination, consists in this, that although all events there without exception, in the sense of mutual relationships among themselves, proceeded during the last two centuries exclusively already by themselves without any participation of the consciousness or intention of whomever it may be of the contemporary beings, they nevertheless always ascribe with certainty and even with jealousy all the results, good as well as bad, flowing from these events to one or another among them similar to themselves.
34.630	“And such an abnormality which had become fixed in the totality of their spiritualized parts resulted from the following causes.
34.630-1	“First of all, from their common presences there gradually totally disappeared all those being-data, the totality of which in general is capable of engendering in the presences of beings a property called ‘presentiment of the future,’ in consequence of which they are entirely deprived of the possibility, in any degree whatever of foreseeing imminent events; secondly, having a narrow what is called ‘horizon’ and a ‘short memory,’ they not only know nothing about long-past events on their planet, but even do not remember about that which proceeded quite recently—almost even yesterday; and thirdly, these cosmic laws are unknown to them, thanks to which there chiefly arise those sorrowful events which proceed among them. Owing to all this, these same contemporary favorites of yours are sure in all their presences that this terrifying process, which they call Bolshevism, proceeded for the first time on their planet and that nothing like this already ‘darling’ civilization of theirs had ever existed previous to them; and they are even sure that this has happened thanks only to the evolution of the gradually progressing reason of the beings similar to themselves of their planet.
34.631	“Their confrontative argument on the subject of similar processes which had taken place many times in the past on their planet may serve as a very good example for the illustration and characterization of the phenomenal dullness and bluntness of that being-rumination which they have.
34.631	“According to the common-sense of every three-brained being, similar processes had to proceed, and since I became interested in the strange psyche of these favorites of yours and occupied myself with every aspect of the observation of them, I myself have been a witness as I have said, no less than forty times, of exactly similar processes which I would call the process of the ‘destruction-of-everything-within-sight.’
34.631-2	“It is interesting to notice that almost half of all these terrifying processes proceeded not very far from that place where their, as they themselves call it, ‘cultured existence’ is now concentrated; they proceeded on that part of the surface of their planet which they name Egypt.
34.632	“These terrifying processes proceeded on this same Egypt so often, in consequence of the fact that this part of the surface of your planet, during the course of long periods of time, found itself in relation to the common-cosmic Harmonious-Movement in the position of what is called the ‘center-of-gravity-radiations,’ and that is why the influence of the cosmic law Solioonensius often acted on the presence of the three-brained beings breeding there, and often brought forth in them such an abnormality.
34.632	“A parallel comparison of the real data concerning the events which took place on the same Egypt and those data about them which became fixed in the being-representation and understanding of almost every responsible being of famous contemporary ‘culture,’ and which are known to them, as it were, thanks to their already ‘perfected reason’ might serve as an obvious illustrative example of from what general data their ‘logical mentation’ at the period of their responsible existence is built up and consists, and likewise gives me the possibility yet once again to notice and emphasize to you all the maleficence in an objective sense of their usage, which was finally fixed in the process of their ordinary existence, and which they themselves call by the high-sounding words, ‘education’ and ‘schooling’ of the growing generation.
34.632	“The point is that, among the number of all possible kinds of ephemeral fantastic informations from the totality of which, as a result, their strange Reason proper to them alone is formed there, there is likewise the history of this same Egypt.
34.632-3	“This fantastic history evidently thought out by some or other candidate for Hasnamuss individuals among them, was even made for them what is called an ‘obligatory subject’ in all educational establishments, in which this ‘history,’ among other similar ‘stupidities,’ is strongly ‘hammered’ into their separate concentrations for the functioning of spiritual perceptions and manifestations, that is into what they themselves would call the ‘brains’ of these unfortunate future responsible beings; and further, when they become such, these ‘fantastic-informations-learned-by-them-parrotlike’ by compulsion serve them as material for being-associations and for ‘logical-confrontative-mentation.’
34.633	“That is why, my boy, at the present time there on that ill-fated planet, every being who has already reached responsible age, instead of the real knowledge which every normal three-brained being should have concerning the events which took place on their planet in the past, knows about everything in the same way in which, as in the present case, he ruminates with his being-Reason and ‘unconsciously’ becomes aware with all his being about this same Egypt.
34.633	“There’s no gainsaying it, each one of the already, according to them, responsible three-brained beings of this strange planet, already knows thanks to their system of education and schooling, the history of the beings who existed in the past on this Egypt.
34.633	“Yet how, thanks to the said means of perception of informations which they themselves call ‘learning-parrotlike,’ he knows this, and what totality of the being-representation about this ‘results’ from all three of his spiritualized being-parts, you may picture to yourself with your own eyes, and clearly understand from the following illustration of mine.
34.633-4	“Almost every one of them ‘knows’ that among ancient Egyptians there were twenty-four dynasties. But if any one of them is asked, ‘Why are there so many dynasties among them?’ it would then appear that he had never even thought about it.
34.634	“Further if one continues to insist on an answer, then this same being who up to now knew and was sure with all his being that there were twenty-four dynasties among the ancient Egyptians, he at best—of course on the condition if one helps him to be able to be sincere and to express aloud associations flowing in his mentation—reveals his logical mentation in some such way:
34.634	“‘Among the Egyptians there were twenty-four dynasties….
34.634	“‘Well… “‘This proves that among the Egyptians there existed a monarchical state organization and that the position of the “king” passed by inheritance from father to son, and as it was customary that the kings of one generation should have the same family name, and that all the kings who had this name composed one dynasty, then therefore they had as many different dynasties of kings as there were family names’… very ‘understandable,’ and as ‘clear’ as the ‘patch on the baggy trousers’ of the honorable Mullah Nassr Eddin.
34.634	“And if any of the beings of contemporary ‘culture’ infallibly desires and will continue to ‘pant’ in order to explain well to his Reason why among these ancient Egyptians the family name of their kings changed so often, then again, at very best, his being-mentation will associate approximately in the following sequence. He will say:
34.634	“‘Evidently in olden times in this Egypt it often happened that the kings, or as they are named there Pharaohs, grew tired of reigning and abdicated their power—and this abdication in all probability proceeded in the following way and approximately under the following circumstances.
34.635	“‘Let us suppose that some Pharaoh or other named “John Geoffrey” lived peacefully and with full satisfaction, and ruled over all the Egyptians.
34.635	“‘Well, once this same king or Pharaoh John Geoffrey felt a very great “weariness” from this reigning of his, and one sleepless night, having pondered over his “kingly position” first of all constated and realized with all his being that, wish it or not, one grows tired of reigning, and that this occupation, in general, is an extremely trying “job” and could not be said to be, for his personal felicity, either useful or safe.
34.635	“‘The Pharaoh John Geoffrey became impressed with this realization and, profiting by the experience of his existence in the past, decided to try and find out how to “prevail upon” somebody or other, so that this “other” might deliver him from the said, for him, undesirable weariness.
34.635	“‘To this end, he probably invited some or other still ordinary John Geoffrey to come to him, and in a very polite way spoke to him, roughly as follows:
34.635	“‘“My highly honorable and incomparably kind John Geoffrey, I frankly confess to you, as to my only friend and subject worthy of my trust, that this kingdom over which I rule has already grown too wearisome for me and this has happened perhaps because I am already extremely tired.
34.635	“‘“As regards my dear son and heir, to whom I might now hand over the kingdom, he, speaking between ourselves, is, in spite of his very strong and healthy appearance, in fact neither one nor the other.
34.635-6	“‘“You as a father known for his love for his posterity will surely understand if I tell you that I very much love my son and heir, and that I would not like him to reign and get tired as I have; wherefore, I have just decided to propose to you, as a faithful subject and personal friend, to deliver me and my son from reigning and to take this high obligation upon yourself.”
34.636	“‘And since evidently this still ordinary John Geoffrey was firstly, as is said there, a “good sport,” and secondly being a “rascal” who had much “vanity,” he with tears in his eyes shrugged his shoulders—“If I must be lost, then let me be lost”—consented, and from the very next day began to reign.
34.636	“‘As the family name of this second John Geoffrey was different, therefore on the very next day the number of Egyptian dynasties was increased by yet one more.
34.636	“‘And so, as many Pharaohs of this Egypt often grew tired and, loving their sons, did not desire the same for them, they renounced their kingdoms in this way to others, and hence so many dynasties “piled up” there.’
34.636	“In reality, however, the change of dynasty in this Egypt did not proceed so simply, and in the intervals between two dynasties there proceeded such perturbations in comparison with which this contemporary Bolshevism is ‘merely child’s play.’
34.636	“In the heat of this contemporary Bolshevism, I happened several times to be an eyewitness of the sincere indignation of several of those who, for some reasons, of course personally independent of them, did not happen to take part in this same process, and who could therefore half-consciously observe from the outside and with all their presences grow sincerely indignant at the actions of the individual beings similar to themselves who were active persons in this terrifying process, namely, at the action of those individuals similar to them, whom on this occasion they called, and still up to now call ‘Bolsheviks.’
34.636-7	“In my opinion, it will do no harm here, apropos, to tell you that that being-experiencing of theirs which is excellently characterized by the words, ‘vainly-to-grow-sincerely-indignant,’ also appears to be one of the unfortunate particularities of the psyche of these ill-fated three-brained beings who please you, especially of the contemporary ones.
34.637	“Thanks only to this psychic abnormality, there gradually become more deranged in their common presences many functionings, both of their planetary body, already deranged without this, and of their ‘body-Kesdjan’—if of course this second being-body is already coated in them and has attained to the required, what is called, ‘individuality.’
34.637	“And such an abnormality of their psyche, namely, ‘vainly-to-grow-indignant,’ or as they themselves say ‘vainly-to-grow-agitated,’ also flows from this, that from their common presences there has already long since disappeared the ‘being-horizon’ proper to be present in the three-brained beings, as well as the ‘instinctive-sensing-of-reality-in-its-real-light.’
34.637	“On account of the absence in their psyche of these two particularities, they could not even approximately suspect that individuals similar to themselves were in no way the cause of these terrifying processes there, and that these processes of their ill-fated planet proceed from two inevitable great causes. The first of these causes is just the cosmic law Solioonensius, entirely independent of them; and the second cause, partly dependent on them, consists in this that, thanks to the totality of all the results of the abnormal conditions of ordinary being-existence established by themselves, which still continue to be crystallized in their common presences, the data for bringing forth the sacred impulse ‘conscience’ do not in general take part in any of them in the functioning of their ordinary waking state, in consequence of which the action of the first cause takes just this terrible form.
34.637-8	“They, as I have already said, could not even approximately consider and understand that, during these common planetary terrifying processes, individual persons are in no way the cause, and only by chance happen to be in those posts, the occupation of which, on account of the conditions of mutual existence which had already been established, compels them to manifest themselves in one or other role, the results of which roles, according to law-conformity entirely independent of them themselves, are cast into these or other forms.
34.638	“In the heat of this last process of theirs, namely, during this Russian Bolshevism, the contemporary beings of other communities grew very sincerely agitated when the beings, who by chance had become as it were ‘active’ in this distressing process, gave orders to other ordinary beings, as it is said, to ‘shoot’ any Tom, Dick, or Harry.
34.638	“For the clarity of my further explanation concerning these terrifying processes of your unfortunate favorites, you must be further told about this, that this last process proceeded and until today continues to proceed on a large area of the surface of this ill-fated planet, and that during recent times these favorites of yours have very greatly increased in quantity. If therefore we compare the quantity of the contemporary three-brained beings who have been destroyed during this last process, with those destroyed in the previous process, then this last process will indeed seem ‘child’s play.’
34.638	“In order that you may better understand this and compare those former processes with this contemporary Bolshevism, I will now give you a couple of little scenes from former history, from, let us say, the Egypt I have already mentioned.
34.638-9	“When, in one of the intervals between the dynasties of these Egyptian Pharaohs or kings, there proceeded in Egypt a process such as this contemporary Bolshevism, the chief committee of the ‘revolutionaries’ announced to all the population of that country among other things, that ‘elections’ would soon begin for the chiefs of the large and small points of theirs, or as they say ‘towns’ and ‘villages,’ and that these elections would proceed on the following principles:
34.639	“Those were to be elected as chiefs for the towns and villages who would put in their ‘sacred’ vessels more of what are called ‘kroahns’ than others; a kroahn was the name given then in Egypt to sacrificial offerings.
34.639	“The point is that, according to what is called the ‘religion’ of the beings of this country, it was the custom among others during ‘religious ceremonies’ which proceeded in special places to put before each ordinary being who went to these ceremonies special ‘clay vessels,’ so that each ordinary being there had to put into these sacred vessels each time after the utterances of certain prayers, vegetables or fruit specially designated for the given day. “Well, these ‘worthy’ things for offering as sacrifices were then called kroahns. In all probability this ‘manipulation’ was devised by the ‘theocrats’ of that time as a profitable item for the welfare of their, as they are called, ‘sycophants.’
34.639	“In that decree about which I have just told you, it was stated that on that occasion kroahns had to consist of the eyes of ‘outcasts,’ by which word the ordinary three-brained beings there called those beings behind their backs who belonged to the caste of the ruling class, by which name then all the beings of this caste ‘wholesale’ were called without excluding the beings of the ‘passive half,’ children or old folk.
34.639-40	“Further in this announcement it was stated that he who would have on the day of the elections the most kroahns in his sacred vessel would be appointed as chief of the whole of Egypt, and in the remaining towns and villages those would be appointed as chiefs who in their sacred vessels had the correspondingly greatest number of kroahns.
34.640	“You may picture to yourself, my boy, what on that day began to be accomplished everywhere in that Egypt, in order to have in their sacred vessels the greatest number of eyes of the beings who belonged in that period of the flow of time to the caste of the ruling class.
34.640	“On another occasion also there in Egypt, I became a witness of a not less terrifying scene.
34.640	“For a clear representation about this also terrifying scene, it is first of all necessary to tell you that there, that is in this Egypt, there was formerly in every one of their large points or ‘towns’ a large square on which proceeded all kinds of public, as they are called, ‘religious’ and ‘military’ ceremonies, where during these ceremonies were gathered masses of the beings from the whole of Egypt.
34.640	“These beings, and specially the masses of beings who belonged at the given moment to the weak castes, impeded the ceremonies, and therefore a certain Pharaoh ordered ropes to be stretched around these squares so that the beings who belonged to the ‘simple’ castes should not disturb the progress of the ceremony. “But when the said ropes were stretched, it soon became evident that they would not withstand the pressure of the crowd and might often break. Then the Pharaoh ordered what are called ‘metal ropes’ to be made, whereupon those who are called ‘priests’ there, consecrated them and gave them the name of ‘sacred cables.’
34.640	“These sacred cables around the squares for the public ceremonies, particularly in the large towns of Egypt, had at that time a colossal length, sometimes reaching to one ‘centrotino,’ or, as the contemporary beings of your planet would say, ten miles long.
34.640-1	“Well, I was a witness of how a crowd of ordinary Egyptian beings began to string onto one of these sacred cables—just like an Asiatic shashlik—the beings, without distinction of sex or age, who up till then had belonged to the ruling class.
34.641	“And the very same night, with the help of forty pairs of buffalo, this original ‘skewer’ was dragged and thrown into the river Nile.
34.641	“I saw such punishment meted out in this spirit, both during my stay personally on the surface of this planet of yours, as well as through the large Teskooano from the planet Mars.
34.641	“And these contemporary favorites of yours, naïve already to the nth degree, grew sincerely indignant that these contemporary ‘Bolsheviks’ of theirs shot a certain Tom Brown.
34.641	“If we compare the actions of the former three-brained beings there, who were subject to this ‘psychic state,’ with the actions of these contemporary Bolsheviks, then they, i.e., the contemporary Bolsheviks, ought even to be given praise and thanks that in spite of the fact that the various consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer are infallibly completely crystallized in their common presences—as in general in the presences of contemporary three-brained beings—they, in the very heat of that period when they were entirely ‘puppets’ under the influence of the inevitable cosmic law Solioonensius, manifested themselves with these consequences in such a way that the dead body of the person shot by them could at least be recognized as whose it was, namely, ‘Tom Brown’s and nobody else’s.’”
34.641	In this place of his tale, Beelzebub deeply sighed, and gazing at one spot, became concentratedly thoughtful.
34.641	Hassein and Ahoon, with a shade of surprise, but also with some sadness on their faces, began to stare expectantly at him with, as it were, a stark fixed gaze.
34.642	A little later Hassein, having first made quite an unintelligible grimace, and then with a voice expressing pained tenderness, turned to Beelzebub who was still continuing to think.
34.642	“Grandfather! Dear Grandfather! Manifest please aloud those informations which you have in your common presence particularly dear to me, and which you have learned during your long existence and which may serve me as material for the elucidation of that question which has just arisen in my essence, and even for the approximate representation of which I have as yet positively no data for a logical confrontation in any of the spiritualized parts of my common presence.
34.642	“This question arising in my essence, the answer to which has already become necessary to the whole of my presence, consists in this: To inquire about the reasons why, namely, if these unfortunate three-brained beings who breed on the planet Earth do not have the possibility, owing to reasons not depending on themselves, of acquiring and having in the period of their responsible existence Divine Objective Reason, why since they arose so long ago and their species has continued to exist such a long time, could not those customs have been gradually formed by now, only thanks to the flow of time, in the process of their ordinary existence even under those abnormal conditions, and those proper ‘instinctive-automatic-habits’ have been acquired in the presences of every being in general, thanks to which their ordinary existence, both ‘egoistically personal’ as well as ‘collectively general,’ might flow more or less tolerably in the sense of objective reality?”
34.642	Having said this, our poor Hassein began questioningly to gaze at the Cause of the Cause of his arising.
34.642	At the question of his favorite grandson, Beelzebub began to relate the following:
34.643	“Why of course… my dear boy. In the course of long centuries of their existence, and among them as everywhere on planets where beings arise who spend likewise part of the time of their existence simply in the ordinary process, many customs and also what are called ‘moral habits,’ at times very good and useful for their ordinary existence, were also gradually formed, and even at the present time are sometimes formed among several of their groupings; but herein lies the evil, that such a being-welfare as becomes fixed in the process of ordinary existence from the flow of time alone, and which improves thanks to transmission from generation to generation, also soon either entirely disappears or is changed to such a direction that these happy achievements of theirs are transformed of their own accord into ‘unhappy’ ones and increase the number of those small factors maleficent for them, the totality of which year by year ‘dilutes,’ more and more, both their psyche as well as their very essence.
34.643	“If they were even to possess and were to use at least those ‘trifles’ worthy of the three-brained beings, then this would already be to the good for them, or as they themselves would say, ‘would-in-any-case-be-better-than-nothing.’
34.643	“Of course, if at least any of these good customs, fixed by them in the process of their existence, and already automatized ‘moral habits’ could have survived and been transformed by inheritance into the mode of existence of their subsequent generations, then thanks at least to this, their, in the objective sense, ‘desolate’ existence would have seemed to be, to an outside impartial observer, at least a little reconcilable.
34.643-4	“The causes of the complete destruction and change of even this being-welfare for their tolerable existence achieved by time, both of good customs as well as ‘moral usages,’ are of course also engendered by these abnormal conditions for the ordinary being-existence around them established by them themselves.
34.644	“As a concentrated result flowing from these abnormal conditions around them and which became the basic cause for this evil of theirs, there is a special property which arose not long ago in their psyche which they themselves call ‘suggestibility.’
34.644	“Thanks to this strange property which had only recently become fixed in their psyche, all the functionings in their common presences began gradually to change, and as a result, each of them, particularly the beings who arose and became responsible during the last centuries of theirs, already began to represent in themselves such a peculiar cosmic formation as has in itself the possibility of acting exclusively only if it were to find itself constantly under the influence of another formation similar to itself.
34.644	“And indeed, my boy, at the present time, these three-brained beings who please you, must already as separate persons as well as entire large and small groupings, infallibly ‘influence’ or find themselves under the ‘influence’ of others.
34.644	“For your better representation and all-round understanding in what way customs and automatic habits useful for their ordinary existence acquired by them during centuries also disappear without a trace, or change for the worst on account of the mentioned property of their strange psyche, we will take as an example just these same terrestrial three-brained beings with their customs whom all other beings of your planet call ‘Russians’ and who represent the majority of that community named Russia.
34.644-5	“In consequence of the fact that the existence of beings which had been put as a basis of the formation of this large contemporary community there and of their subsequent generations, proceeded in the course of many centuries in the neighborhood of beings who belonged to those Asiatic communities, who, thanks to various events, existed so relatively long a period in consequence of which in the process of their ordinary existence—as this in general happens from a long existence—very many good customs and ‘moral habits’ were gradually formed by themselves and became fixed in the process of their ordinary existence, then these Russians, after meeting with the beings of these, for terrestrial beings, ancient communities and even at times having friendly mutual relationships with them, gradually adopted and began to use in the process of their ordinary existence, many of the useful customs and ‘moral habits.’
34.645	“And so, my boy, thanks to the mentioned strange property of the three-brained beings of this planet of yours, which property, as I have already told you, arose and gradually became, soon after the Tikliamishian civilization, fixed in their general psyche—the intensity of the fixing proceeded chiefly in consequence of all the more deteriorating conditions around them of ordinary being-existence established by themselves—and which special psychic property already from the very beginning became obligatorily inherent in the common presences of beings composing this later largest community there, then on account of all this, they all in former centuries found themselves under the influence of beings of one or other of the Asiatic communities, and all the, as it is called, ‘external-mode’ and ‘psychic-associative-form’ of their ordinary existence proceeded also under their influence.
34.645-6	“And so, again in consequence of the fact that in the common presences of the three-brained beings of this planet Earth of yours who dwell on that part of the continent Asia which was called, and until now is called Russia, ‘being-Partkdolg-duty’ also finally ceased to be actualized, on account of which this, for them, most maleficent property of their psyche, namely, ‘suggestibility,’ began gradually to increase; and in consequence of the fact that they, thanks to changed circumstances which flowed from always the same terrifying process of periodic reciprocal destruction, existing only on that ill-starred planet, were deprived of the former influence and were compelled, not having the possibility of independent existence, to fall under new influences, they this time fell under the influence of beings of European communities, chiefly of the community which exists there under the name ‘France.’
34.646	“Since the beings of this community France began automatically to influence the psyche of the beings of the community Russia, and these latter began even to strive to imitate the beings of this community France in everything, thus all the good customs among them which were already present in the process of their existence and those moral habits which had become inherent in them, either half-consciously or automatically taken by them from the beings of ancient Asiatic communities, were gradually forgotten, and new ones—French—acquired.
34.646	“Among the customs and automatic moral habits useful for the beings of the community Russia, transmitted to them from the beings of old Asiatic communities, there were thousands of indeed very good ones.
34.646	“From these thousands of good customs and useful habits, let us take for example at least two: the custom, after using the first being-food, of chewing what is called ‘keva’; and the usage of periodically washing oneself in what are called ‘hammams.’
34.646-7	“Keva is a certain mastic prepared from various roots which is chewed after eating and which however long it is chewed hardly ever decomposes, but on the contrary becomes still more elastic.
34.647	“This mastic was also invented by a certain being with good Reason who belonged to one of the old Asiatic communities.
34.647	“The use of chewing this keva consists in this, that by chewing it, much what is called there on Earth ‘saliva and also other substances are formed in beings, which are worked out by their planetary bodies so that their first being-food may be the better and more easily transformed in them, or as they themselves say, so that this food may be the better and more easily ‘digested and assimilated.’
34.647	“Thanks to this keva their teeth are also strengthened and the cavities in their mouths too are cleaned from the remains of the first food; the use of keva is very necessary for your favorites, particularly for this second purpose, as these remains, not decomposing owing to the chewing of keva, do not give off that disagreeable ‘odor’ from their mouths which has already become proper particularly to the contemporary three-brained beings there.
34.647	“And the second custom, namely, the washing at times in special rooms of theirs called the ‘hammam’ was also invented by a certain ancient Asiatic being. “In order clearly to understand the necessity for this second custom in the process of the existence of terrestrial beings, the following must be first explained to you.
34.647	“The functioning of the planetary body of beings of all forms of external coatings is adapted by Nature in general in such a way that the process of their nourishment with the second being-food, which your favorites call ‘breathing of air,’ proceeds in them, and this nourishment is taken in not only through the organs of breathing, but also through what are called the ‘pores’ present in their skin.
34.647-8	“Through the ‘pores’ of the skin of the beings, not only the new second being-food enters, but also through several of these pores, after the transformation of this second being-food, those parts of this food are given off from the skin which are either no longer necessary for the planetary body of the beings or which are already the result of its transmutation.
34.648	“These unnecessary parts should be given off from the said ‘pores’ of the skin of beings by evaporating gradually by themselves, thanks to those factors which obtain from the process proceeding in that sphere itself where the given beings exist, as for instance, from the movement of the atmosphere, from accidental contacts and so on.
34.648	“Now, when your favorites invented the covering of themselves with what are called ‘clothes,’ then, since these clothes of theirs began to hinder the normal elimination or evaporation of those parts of the second being-food unnecessary for the planetary body, these unnecessary substances having no possibility of evaporating into space and at the same time always continuing to accumulate, they, condensing, begin to form in these various pores of their skin the accumulation of a certain ‘oily-something.’
34.648	“From that time on, among a number of other factors, this also began to aid in the formation on this ill-fated planet of innumerable and various illnesses which taken altogether are the chief cause of the gradual shortening of the length of the existence of these unfortunates.
34.648-9	“Well, my boy, when still in, as your contemporary favorites say, the ‘dim ancient past,’ a wise and learned being by name ‘Amambakhlootr,’ also from the continent Asia there, once clearly constated during his conscious observations of various facts proceeding around him, that this ‘oily-something’ which collects in the pores of the skin, has also a maleficent influence on the general functioning of the whole planetary body, he began to elucidate and seek for means for wiping out at least this evil.
34.649	“As a result of the investigations and long deliberations of this Amambakhlootr, and of several other also learned beings who then became his followers and began to help him, they arrived at the conclusion and became convinced of the impossibility of obtaining that beings similar to themselves should not wear clothes, and that it was necessary to seek a method for artificially eliminating from the pores of the skin these remains of the ‘second-food’ by means of implanting in the psyche of the beings around them some or other being-usage, which in the course of time would become indispensably necessary to them and in this way enter into their habits and customs.
34.649	“And that these Asiatic learned beings with this great Amambakhlootr at their head then experimentally elucidated and actualized this in practice, well, this served as a beginning of those hammams which exist there in places even till now.
34.649	“At that time, they during the learned experiments elucidated among other things, that by ordinary washing, even with hot water, it was impossible to obtain the elimination of these deposits from the pores of the skin, as these excretions of the planetary body are found not on the surface of the skin but in the depths of the pores.
34.649	“Their further elucidatory experiments showed them that the cleansing of the ‘pores’ of the skin from these deposits was possible only by means of slow warming, thanks to which, this deposited ‘oily-something’ acquires the possibility of gradually dissolving and of being eliminated from the pores of the skins of beings.
34.649-50	“Well, for this same purpose, they then invented and actualized in practice special rooms which later came to be called hammams, the sense and significance of which they knew how to spread among the beings of the whole continent in such a way that in the psyche of all the Asiatic beings, the need was implanted in the process of their existence for the use of these rooms for the given procedure.
34.650	“Well, it is this need of going periodically to such hammams which had already become inherent in the beings of the continent Asia, and which later passed also to the beings of this community Russia.
34.650	“As regards this ‘oily-something’ which collects in certain pores of the skin of your favorites, it is necessary further to tell the following:
34.650	“As this substance, i.e., the ‘oily-something,’ like everything in general that exists in our Great Universe, cannot remain in one and the same state, therefore there inevitably proceed with these substances in these pores the processes of what are called evolution and involution required by Great Nature. And in consequence of the fact that during these processes, from all cosmic, what are called ‘temporary’ or ‘transitory’ arisings, there are given off what are called ‘secondary’ active elements, that is, those which are temporarily crystallized by the momentum of vibrations, and which, as is known to all, have the property, when adjacent to the organ of smell of beings, of being perceived very ‘cacophonically,’ therefore there on the planet Earth, there is always given off from your favorites who do not use the said hammams, a particular ‘Rastropoonilo’ or as they themselves say ‘odor,’ which even they consider ‘not altogether pleasant.’
34.650	“And indeed, my boy, there on certain continents, particularly on the continent Europe, where the custom of going to the hammam does not obtain, it was very difficult for me as a being with a very acute sense of smell to exist among those three-brained beings on account of this specific ‘Rastropoonilo’ or as they sometimes call it, odor, which issues from them.
34.650-1	“This unpleasant odor which issues from those, the pores of whose skin are never specially cleaned, was so strong that I could without any difficulty detect to which community the given being belonged, and even by those odors I could distinguish one being from another.
34.651	“Now the variety of these specific odors depends upon how long the decomposition of these ‘oily-excretions’ found in the pores of the skin has proceeded.
34.651	“These unpleasant odors fortunately for them do not affect them so ‘tormentingly.’ “And they do not affect them because their sense of smell is very slightly developed and besides this, existing always among these odors, they gradually become accustomed to them.
34.651	“And so, my boy, just this custom, namely, of washing themselves periodically in special hammams, was taken by the Russians from the Asiatic beings; but when they fell under the influence of the European beings and for the most part, as I have already told you, of the beings of the community France, then in view of the fact that these French beings have not the custom of going to the hammam, they also gradually ceased to use hammams and thus this good custom established for centuries among them began little by little to disappear.
34.651	“Formerly, almost every Russian family had its own hammam, but recently when I was in their chief place of existence, the former St. Petersburg, for the last time, and where at that time more than two millions of these Russian beings existed, there were only seven or eight of such hammams there—and even then, only those beings went to these hammams who were called there ‘house porters’ and ‘workmen,’ that is, beings who happened to come there to the capital from distant villages where the custom of going to the hammam or, as they sometimes call it, the ‘bath’ had not yet been quite wiped out.
34.651-2	“Now, as regards the main population of this capital who consisted chiefly of the beings of what are called the ruling class, they, these beings, in recent times did not go to the hammam at all, and if any ‘queer fellow’ were still sometimes from old habit to go, he would then try in every way that no one else in his caste should know about it.
34.652	“‘May crooked luck save him,’ otherwise such ‘gossip’ would fly around about this bold fellow as would inevitably ‘ruin’ the whole of his future career.
34.652	“To go to the hammam is now considered among beings belonging to the ruling class as very ‘indecent’ and ‘unintelligent.’ But indecent and unintelligent only because the contemporary ‘most intelligent’ beings of their planet, who according to their understanding are the French, do not go to the hammam.
34.652	“These unfortunates do not know of course that these same French, thanks always to the same reasons, namely, thanks to the abnormally established conditions of ordinary being-existence still but a few decades ago, not only did not go to the hammam, but these French, particularly, as they are called, the ‘intelligentsia,’ did not even wash themselves in the morning in order not to spoil their, at that time, fashionable artificial appearance which was difficult to rearrange.
34.652	“Now as regards the second of the good customs taken as an example by us, the fulfilling of which two centuries ago was still organically needed by every being of this community Russia, namely, the custom of chewing keva after the use of the first being-food, this custom already no longer exists there at all now among contemporary Russians.
34.652-3	“It must be remarked that at the present time the custom of chewing keva without meanwhile understanding its purport, began to implant itself while I was still there among the beings dwelling on the continent called ‘America,’ where the use of such keva, or as they have already called it, by another name, ‘chewing gum,’ is very widely spread and even takes on the dimensions of a great manufacturing branch of commerce there. Meanwhile it is interesting to notice that the fundamental part of this American chewing gum is exported just from Russia, namely, from the locality called ‘Caucasia.’ The beings dwelling in this locality do not even know why these ‘mad’ Americans import this unnecessary root good for nothing and for nobody.
34.653	“Of course to no one of them does the thought even enter his head that these Americans importing this ‘good-for-nothing’ root are indeed, though in a subjective sense, ‘mad,’ yet in an objective sense they are merely, as they themselves express it, ‘daylight robbers’ of the beings of this Russia.
34.653	“Well, my boy; in the same way a mass of other good customs as well as moral habits, adopted in the course of centuries by these Russian beings and already well fixed in the process of their ordinary existence during the last two centuries when these Russians became the object of influence of the European beings, began gradually to disappear, and instead of them new customs and new moral habits were formed among them, which they have at the present time, such as the usage of ‘kissing a lady’s hand,’ ‘being polite only with young ladies,’ ‘looking at a wife before her husband with the left eye,’ and so on and so forth.
34.653	“It is necessary to emphasize with an impulse of regret, that at the present time the same continues to proceed in the processes of the ordinary existence of the beings of all communities there, on whatever continent it may be.
34.653-4	“I hope, my boy, that by now you may approximately picture to yourself and be satisfied about the question arising in your being, why, namely, in spite of the fact that there among those unfortunate favorites of yours, their species has arisen and existed so long a time, could not those automatic being-usages and ‘instinctive habits’ have, by now, been formed, by which their existence although even with the absence of objective consciousness, might flow more or less tolerably.
34.654	“I repeat: thanks to the said property which only recently became fixed in their general psyche, it has already become natural at the present time, and as it were according to law, always either to influence another or to find oneself under the influence of others.
34.654	“In both cases the results of the action of this peculiar property are obtained without any consciousness on their part, and even without their desire.
34.654	“From all that I have told you about this, that these contemporary Russians always follow the example of someone and imitate somebody, it can be clearly understood how much of the functioning of the data for being-confrontative-logical-mentation is already deteriorated in the presences of terrestrial three-brained beings.
34.654	“In general, to follow the example of others or set an example to others is considered and cognized as fully reasonable and inevitably necessary everywhere in the Universe among all three-brained beings, and that the three-brained beings of this large community Russia follow the example of the beings of the community France, this on their part is even very sensible. Why not take example from what is good?
34.654-5	“But these unfortunates, on account of the said particular property of their psyche, and of still several other specific features of their strange character which have finally become fixed in them, thanks to the total disappearance from their common presences of the usage of sometimes actualizing being-Partkdolg-duty, became what is called ‘adopters-by-compulsion,’ and began to follow the example also of what is bad and even to reject their own good customs only because they do not exist elsewhere.
34.655	“They could not for instance consider even this, that conditions of ordinary existence among these French beings are perhaps being built up all the time abnormally and therefore they had not yet had time to become aware of the necessity of sometimes, as in the given case, washing themselves in hammams and chewing keva after using the first being-food.
34.655	“But to throw away good customs already acquired, for the sole reason that they do not exist among the beings of this France from whom they take example—this is already indeed genuine ‘turkeyness.’
34.655	“Although this strange peculiarity which I have just called ‘turkeyness,’ has already become inherent in almost all the three-brained beings who breed on this planet of yours, yet the ‘manifestation’ and the results of it are noticed to a great extent among the three-brained beings who breed on the continent Europe.
34.655	“This I constated and understood later when I departed from St. Petersburg to travel in various countries of this continent Europe, on which this time I remained for a long while and not for a short time as had happened on my former travels, and I had therefore time for observation and investigation of the finer details of the psyche, not only of separate beings, but also of many together in all kinds of surrounding conditions.
34.655	“The form of external existence of all communities existing on this continent Europe is little distinguished from the external form of existence of the beings of that large community Russia.
34.655-6	“The form, however, of existence of the beings of the various groupings of this continent differs among themselves only in so much as, thanks to the accidental longer or shorter continuity of the existence of the given community, there had been time for certain good customs and ‘instinctive habits’ to be automatically acquired and which became proper to the beings only of just this said community.
34.656	“Here, by the way, it is necessary to remark that the duration there of the existence of any community plays indeed a great role in the sense of the acquisition by beings of its good customs and instinctive habits.
34.656	“But unfortunately for all the three-brained beings of the whole Universe of every degree of Reason, the existence of every grouping of theirs, already more or less organized, is in general short-lived, thanks of course to that ever same chief particularity of theirs, namely, ‘periodic reciprocal destruction.’
34.656	“As soon as good being-usages for automatic existence begin to be established in the general process of any of their groupings, this terrifying process suddenly begins to proceed, and thus either these good customs and ‘automatic habits’ acquired during centuries are totally destroyed, or the beings of the given grouping, thanks already to the mentioned property, fall under the influence of beings of another grouping who have nothing in common with those under whose influence they were before this, and therefore very soon all these customs and moral habits acquired during centuries are replaced by other ‘new ones,’ which in most cases are premature and which in most cases are good for only, as is said, ‘a day.’”

CHAPTER 34 Russia

CHAPTER 34
Russia