Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

CHAPTER 43
Beelzebub’s Survey of the Process of the Periodic Reciprocal Destruction of Men, or Beelzebub’s Opinion of War

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43.1055

Beelzebub, Hassein, and Ahoon had returned from the “Djamdjampal” and had resumed their usual places, Hassein, again turning to Beelzebub, said:

43.1055

“Dear Grandfather! Although thanks to your exhaustive explanations relating to different episodes which proceeded on the planet Earth during the process of the existence of the three-brained beings, I obtained a clear conception and convincing understanding of the surprising strangeness of their psyche, nevertheless the question still arises in me about one particularity of this psyche of theirs which I cannot yet understand at all and which, even taking their strange psyche into account, appears to me not logical. My thoughts constantly return to this perplexing question and were even concentrated on it during the sacred sacrament in the Djamdjarnpal.

43.1055

“From all of your explanations concerning the process of the existence of these three-brained beings, I very definitely understood that although during all their responsible existence, particularly after the third Transapalnian perturbation there, they began to have chiefly purely automatic Reason, yet even with this automatic Reason they can mentate fairly often and deliberate so well that they are even able to constate all kinds of more of less exact laws of Nature on their planet, according to which they even invent something themselves.

43.1055-6

“At the same time, parallel with this, the mention of that particularity of theirs proper to them alone, namely, the need of periodically occupying themselves with the destruction of each other’s existence, runs like a crimson thread through all your tales.

43.1056

“And so, my dear Grandfather, I cannot at all understand how it can happen that in spite of having existed over such a long period, they have not yet become aware and until now continue to be unaware of the horror of this property of theirs.

43.1056

“Don’t they really ever see that these processes of theirs are the most terrible of all the horrors which can possibly exist in the whole of the Universe, and don’t they ever ponder on this matter, so that they might become aware of this horror and find a means of eradicating it?

43.1056

“Please, Grandfather, tell me why it is so, and which aspects, composing the totality of the strangenesses of their psyche, are the causes of this particularity of theirs?”

43.1056

Having said this, Hassein again looked expectantly, and with a tense desire to know, at his dear grandfather.

43.1056

In response to this request of his grandson, Beelzebub continued to look at him with, as it is said, a “remorseful smile” and then, sighing deeply, said:

43.1056

“Ekh!… my dear boy….

43.1056

“This particularity and all the results ensuing from it are chiefly the cause of all their abnormalities and so to say ‘muddled logic.’”

43.1056

And having again paused a little, he continued:

43.1056

“Good, I will help you to get clear about this question, the more so as I have already once promised to elucidate it to you in detail.

43.1056

“Of course, in this case, for the sake of the development of your active mentation, I shall not for this reason give you my personal opinion but will tell you about this also in such a way that you should be able to obtain the necessary material for logical confrontation and, in consequence, for the crystallization in you of the data for your own individual opinion about this matter.

43.1057

“By the way, you have asked whether they really never ponder on this predisposition of theirs—phenomenally terrible and exclusively inherent in them alone.

43.1057

“Of course they ponder, of course they see…

43.1057

“A number of them do ponder even very often and, in spite of the automaticity of their Reason, they fully understand that this particularity of theirs, namely, their predisposition to periodic reciprocal destruction, is such an unimaginable horror and such a hideousness that no name can even be found for it.

43.1057

“Yet, unfortunately, from this pondering of these three-brained beings there, no sense at all is ever obtained.

43.1057

“And no sense is ever obtained, partly because only isolated beings there ponder over this matter, and partly thanks to the absence there, as is usual, of one common-planetary-organization for a single line of action; and therefore, if even the mentioned isolated beings ponder over this question and constate something sensible about this horror, then this constating of theirs is never widely spread and fails to penetrate into the consciousness of other beings. And in addition, it is very sad about this ‘sincere pondering’ of the beings upon similar questions. I must tell you that thanks to the abnormally established conditions of being-existence there, the ‘waking psyche’ as it is expressed there, of each one of them gradually becomes from the very beginning of responsible existence such that he can ‘think sincerely’ and see things in the true light exclusively only if his stomach is so full of first being-food that it is impossible for what are called ‘wandering nerves’ in it to move, or, as they themselves say, he is ‘stuffed quite full’; and besides, all his needs already inherent in him which are unbecoming to three-brained beings and which have become the dominant factors for the whole of his presence, are fully satisfied, of course, only for that given moment.

43.1058

“And as, owing to those same wrongly established conditions there, not all the beings have the possibility of becoming thus satisfied, then, on this account and for many other reasons, most of them, even with their full desire, can neither think sincerely nor see and sense reality, and therefore ‘sincere thinking’ and the ‘sensing of reality’ have already long ago become a very rare luxury on this planet of yours and inaccessible to most of them.

43.1058

“Only certain beings there who are called ‘important’ and power-possessing have the possibility of being satisfied to satiety; in truth, it is precisely these terrible beings who it would seem could, owing to their position, do something for the eradication of this evil, or at least diminish it to a certain extent.

43.1058

“But just these ‘important’ and power-possessing beings who have the possibility of filling themselves to satiety and who could perhaps do something toward this end, in reality do nothing at all for still quite other reasons.

43.1058

“And the fundamental causes of this flow from always the same maleficent means fixed in the process of their ordinary being-existence and called by them ‘education.’

43.1058

“This maleficent means is adopted there for all the young during their preparatory age, but especially adopted everywhere in relation to those young beings who later almost always, as a rule, become power-possessing.

43.1058-9

“Well then, when these same young beings, who almost always become power-possessing, become responsible beings and begin to bear responsible obligations, they of course do not have any data at all for manifesting what is called ‘logical reflection,’ owing to the fact that they have not used the time destined by Great Nature exclusively for the purposes of preparing in themselves being-data for a worthy and responsible existence, but waste it only for developing in themselves the properties which flow from the totality of the results of this celebrated education of theirs, which, as a rule, dictates to them how better to give oneself up to what is called ‘self calming.’

43.1059

“Thanks to this abnormal education of theirs, not only is nothing crystallized in them to enable them to reflect and actualize anything effective in practice, but on the contrary, thanks to this abnormal education those many consequences of the properties of the for them accursed organ Kundabuffer devised by the great Angel, now already Archangel Looisos, are gradually formed in them and become organic functions, and, being transmitted by heredity from one generation to another, are in general crystallized in the psyche of these unfortunates.

43.1059

“Namely, those consequences of the said organ are formed in them, which exist there today under the names of ‘egoism,’ ‘partiality,’ ‘vanity,’ ‘self-love,’ and so on.

43.1059

“For such power-possessing or important beings there, our wise Mullah Nassr Eddin also has a very interesting definition, and, namely, he says:

43.1059

“‘The degree of the importance of these people depends only on the number of their corns.’

43.1059

“And so, my boy…

“When these three-brained beings of your planet, particularly of the present time, who have the means of gorging to satiety and of fully satisfying all their other needs and who perhaps could do something for the struggle against this phenomenal evil prevailing on their planet, are satiated, and their mentioned needs are satisfied, and they are seated on what are called their ‘soft English divans’ in order, as is said there, ‘to digest it all’—they do not profit, even during this time so suitable for sincere thinking, by those favorable conditions, but indulge instead in the maleficent self-calming.

43.1059-60

“And since it is impossible for all the three-brained beings of the Universe and therefore also for all the beings of your planet to exist without the process of mentation, and since at the same time your favorites wish to have the possibility of indulging very freely in their inner ‘evil god self-calming,’ they then gradually and very efficiently accustom themselves that a sort of thinking should proceed in them purely automatically, entirely without the participation of any being-effort of their own.

43.1060

“One must give them their due; in this they have attained perfection, and at the present time their thoughts flow in all directions without any intentional exertion of any part whatsoever of their presence.

43.1060

“For instance, when after gorging and satisfying themselves these important and power-possessing beings of the Earth are seated on their said divans, the associative thoughts which ought inevitably to flow in them receive shocks from the reflexes of their stomach and sex organs and wander freely in all directions, as they say there, ‘to their heart’s content,’ and so pleasantly free and easy, as if they, that is these thoughts of theirs, were ‘strolling of an evening in Paris along the Boulevard des Capucines.’

43.1060

“When these power-possessing beings of your planet are seated on their soft divans, subjects like the following a-think in them.

43.1060

“For instance, how to get his revenge on that acquaintance of his, John Smith, who a few days before looked at a woman he ‘liked,’ not with his right eye but with his left.

43.1060

“Or this ‘digesting’ terrestrial power-possessing or important being thinks: ‘Why did not my horse come in first yesterday at the races as I expected, but some other?’

43.1060

“Or, ‘Why do those stocks which are in fact quite worthless, go up every day on the market, higher and higher?’

43.1060-1

“Or, finally, he thinks something of this kind: ‘If I were in John Smith’s shoes who invented a new method of breeding flies for making ivory from their skeletons, then from the profits obtained I would do this, that, and the other, and not as that fool, who, like a dog in the manger, will neither himself eat nor let others eat,’ and so on in the same strain.

43.1061

“Still, it does occasionally happen there, that some power-possessing or important being of the Earth suddenly chances to think not under the influences of the reflexes of his stomach and sex organs, but thinks sincerely and quite seriously about these or other questions, with particular regard to this terrifying terrestrial question.

43.1061

“But even these sincere reflections of the power-possessors occur for the most part also quite automatically from casual external causes of the following kind. Either someone very near to them has had his existence violently terminated during the last such process of theirs, or someone offends them strongly and painfully, or someone stirs their emotions by doing some great favor for them or giving them something which they did not at all expect, or finally, when they really feel the approach of the end of their own existence.

43.1061

“And in these cases, when the power-possessing beings there sincerely ponder about this phenomenal horror which proceeds on their planet, they are always greatly agitated by it, and of course in this state of theirs they make a vow to undertake at all costs and to actualize everything necessary to put an end to this increasing evil.

43.1061

“But here lies the trouble, no sooner do the stomachs of these sincerely agitated beings become empty or no sooner do they recover a little from these externally arisen impressions which had dejected them, than they not only instantly forget their vow, but even they themselves again begin consciously or unconsciously to do precisely everything which is generally the cause of the outbreak of these processes between communities.

43.1062

“As a rule, in consequence of the fact that these power-possessing or important beings there do not use the time foreseen by Great Nature for preparing themselves to become worthy responsible beings—owing chiefly to which during their responsible existence, even in their waking state, all kinds of associations in their common presences almost always flow automatically—therefore they themselves without any individual intentions and at times even half-intentionally try to do everything in such a way that the next process of reciprocal destruction should occur sooner, and they even hope that this next process should proceed on as large a scale as possible.

43.1062

“Such a monstrous need arises in their abnormal psyche because they expect certain egoistic profits from these processes, either personally for themselves or for their nearest, and with their degenerated mentation they even hope that the greater the scale of the next process, the greater the extent of the said profits to be obtained, either personally for themselves or for their nearest.

43.1062

“It even sometimes happens there, my boy, that certain of the power-possessing and important beings among your favorites unite and form a special society with the aim of jointly finding out and actualizing in practice some possible means for the abolition of this archcriminal property of theirs.

43.1062

“Just as I was leaving that solar system forever, there was again there, on your planet, a great deal of talk about the formation of such a society and it seems that they intended to call their new society the ‘League of Nations.’

43.1062

“I said ‘again’ because they had already many times formed similar societies which always finally died in the same strange way—namely, they always died without any ‘death agony.’

43.1062-3

“I very well remember when such a society first arose there in the town of Samoniks in the country Tikliamish just at that period when this country was regarded as the chief center of culture for all the three-brained beings of this peculiar planet of yours.

43.1063

“Then for the first time, just such important beings from among the ordinary beings of most of the communities of the continent Asia assembled at the mentioned place with the aim of jointly drawing up a common agreement that there should never again arise among the different Asiatic communities any cause whatsoever for such ‘processes of reciprocal destruction.’

43.1063

“This society of beings then had as their motto the following sentence: ‘God is where man’s blood is not shed.’

43.1063

“But owing to their various personal egoistic and vainglorious aims, the ordinary terrestrial important and power-possessing beings who had then assembled, very soon quarreled among themselves and went their ways home without accomplishing anything.

43.1063

“Several centuries after the existence of Tikliamish there again arose a similar society of beings there on the same continent Asia, but this time in the country which was then called ‘Mongolplanzura.’

43.1063

“This society existed there with the motto: ‘Love one another and God will love you.’

43.1063

“And this society, having given no positive results for the same reason, ended its existence also in the same manner.

43.1063

“Later they again formed such a society, but this time in the country which is today called Egypt, and this society began to exist there under the motto: ‘If you learn how to create a flea only then dare you kill a man.’

43.1063

“Still later, the same arose in the country ‘Persia’ where the following sentence was taken as the motto for this society of theirs: ‘All men are divine, but if only one is violently killed by another, then all will be as nothing.’

43.1063-4

“On this last occasion which was quite recent, only about four or five of their centuries ago, such a society was formed also on the continent Asia, in the city which it seems was called ‘Mosulopolis,’ and at their arising this society was called, ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All.’

43.1064

“But when some dispute shortly afterwards arose among the members, they renamed their society and it later ended its existence under the new name of: ‘The-Earth-Must-Be-Only-for-Men.’

43.1064

“The members of this latter society, namely, ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All,’ might perhaps have accomplished something effective because, in the first place, they had as the basis of their aims an actualizable program and secondly, because they were all, without exception, old and honorable beings who had already had a great deal of experience during their planetary existence and had in consequence become disillusioned about everything that their ordinary planetary existence could in general give them.

43.1064

“And, thanks to this, they had fewer egoistic, vain, and other properties, on account of which similar societies there usually break down.

43.1064

“Above all, from this society something effective might have resulted because there was not a single power-possessing being among them, since on account of their same egoistic and vainglorious aims these beings sooner or later always dispatch all the accomplishments of any society whatsoever of a common planetary character of which they happen to be members—and moreover dispatch them with ‘musical accompaniment’—to the famous swine of our Mullah Nassr Eddin, which always gobble up everything, without what are called ‘parlor manners.’

43.1064-5

“These terrestrial power-possessing and important beings, particularly the contemporary ones, at times do not frustrate such national affairs from which they might expect considerable gain personally for themselves or for the beings of their own caste.

43.1065

“From the tasks of such a society good results might be obtained for all the beings of their planet without distinction of caste, but then, as soon as the affairs of this society begin to be somewhat difficult, or, as it is said, a crisis arises, these tasks instantly bore the terrestrial power-possessing beings and even at the mention of them or when by association they themselves remember about them, expressions of martyrdom immediately appear on their faces.

43.1065

“And the reason why also nothing resulted from the labors of those beings who called their society ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All’—although almost everything was done by them for this aim that was possible to do there in the conditions which almost always reign on this incomparable planet—I shall tell you a little later, and even rather in detail, because the information concerning the causes of the fall of just this society, which was formed by your favorites in their attempt to eradicate or at least to diminish this archcriminal property which had been implanted in them, is once again very characteristic for your elucidation of the strangeness of their psyche in general and at the same time this information will serve as material for the understanding to a certain extent of the chief objective causes why these terrifying processes of reciprocal destruction proceed among them.

43.1065-6

“And now as regards this contemporary society about which I spoke to you and told you that it was formed by the three-brained beings of your planet with the same aim of jointly elucidating and actualizing in practice corresponding measures for the total cessation on their planet of this terrifying process, and which contemporary society of theirs will be called or is already called the League of Nations, then if you wish to know my sincere opinion, I am more than sure that this time also nothing effective will come of it for two reasons.

43.1066

“The first reason will become clear to you at the end of this tale of mine; and the second reason is that this property has already entered into the three-brained beings of that planet Earth, as is said into their ‘flesh and blood.’ And just as nothing could be accomplished by the beings of their planet of former epochs, who, becoming responsible beings had even attained in respect of Being at least to what is called ‘self-remembering,’ then all the more, nothing effective can be done, devised, or actualized by beings with that Reason which the beings of this contemporary society possess and who in respect of Being are only perfected to the degree which our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin defines by the notion expressed in the following words: ‘Look! Look! He already begins to distinguish mama from papa!’

43.1066

“Still, I must remark that these contemporary important and power-possessing beings who are or will be members of this contemporary society will achieve personally for themselves by this new contrivance of theirs one ‘most formidable’ and ‘most useful’ result, namely, thanks to this ‘official society’ of theirs, they will have still another as it is said very plausible excuse for drawing wool over the eyes of their what are called ‘proprietresses,’ who are for these terrestrial contemporary power-possessing beings either their ‘wife,’ ‘mistress,’ ‘mother-in-law,’ or finally, the ‘assistant’ in some large store, and so on.

43.1066-7

“Whereupon, thanks to this new official society of theirs, they will have the opportunity of passing the time tranquilly among their friends, important and power-possessing beings like themselves, and at these official ‘five o’clocks’ which without doubt will be very often arranged ostensibly for affairs connected as it were with the aims of this important official society of theirs, they will be able to pass the time without the silent though terrifying glances and watchfulness on the part of their ‘proprietresses.’

43.1067

“Such societies of power-possessing beings usually arise there at the beginning of the end of the great processes of reciprocal destruction. And almost each time they arise in the following way:

43.1067

“A number of them, namely, from among those power-possessors, personally suffered during their last process of reciprocal destruction such ‘heavy losses’—the ‘momentum of the action’ of which had not yet ceased in their common presence and had engendered for the general functioning of their psyche a certain combination—that the data in their subconsciousness for the arising of the being-impulse named ‘conscience,’ had begun by itself to take part in the functioning of that ‘automatic consciousness’ of theirs, which had already long ago become habitual to them; that is to say, there was obtained by itself in their general psyche that combination about which the Most Saintly Ashiata Shiemash had dreamed for all the three-brained beings of that ill-fated planet.

43.1067

“Well then, my boy, owing to this, when the said power-possessing beings meet together and discuss a great deal about this terrible property of theirs, they gradually begin to see it almost in its true light and a genuine sincere desire just begins to appear in them to do everything possible to attain to the abolition of this appalling horror proceeding on their planet.

43.1067

“And so, if it happens that several such terrestrial power-possessing beings with so to say ‘resurrected conscience’ should chance to meet, and, thanks to a long mutual influence, see and feel reality almost in its true light, then they unite in order jointly to find some possibility or other of actualizing these sincere wishes of theirs.

43.1068

“In this manner all such societies formed there usually begin.

43.1068

“These beings might, perhaps, somehow or other achieve good results, but the evil lies in this, that, as a rule, other of these terrestrial important and power-possessing beings very soon enter such societies and begin to take part in them.

43.1068

“These latter enter and take part in the tasks of such societies not because their conscience also begins to speak—far from it. They join only because, according to all those same abnormally established conditions of ordinary being-existence, they, being important and power-possessing, must as a matter of course be members of and participate in every ‘important’ society.

43.1068

“When these other terrestrial important and power-possessing beings enter such societies and also begin to participate in their affairs, then they, with their personal egoistic and vainglorious aims, as a rule not only very soon send all the tasks of the society and everything that has been done by the beings with ‘resurrected consciences’ as is said ‘flying up the chimney,’ but as a rule, they also very soon, as it is also said there, ‘put genuine spokes into the wheels of the first founders of these societies.’

43.1068

“And therefore, these societies of beings which are formed there for common-planetary-welfare always quickly die—and die, as I already told you, even without ‘death agony.’

43.1068

“Concerning the effective results obtained from all these good beginnings of the important beings, our worthy Mullah Nassr Eddin has also a very wise saying, namely, he says:

43.1068

“‘Past centuries have shown us that Karabaghian asses will never sing like nightingales, nor will they refrain from indulging their noble taste for real Shooshoonian thistles.’

43.1068-9

“Here apropos, it will be opportune for you also to know that during the long centuries of my attentive observations of the three-brained beings of the planet Earth I never once noticed that in any of the societies formed by them with the aim of jointly devising means for the happy existence of the great masses—which societies there, now and then, also happen to exist—did beings ever participate who had more or less objective Reason, to which, as I have already told you, many there did nevertheless attain by their perseverant efforts in their aim for self-perfection.

43.1069

“In the course of observations during my last sojourn there I cleared up, among other things, that the beings with objective Reason do not happen to be in these societies for the following reasons:

43.1069

“The point is that in order to participate in any society whatsoever, a being must always of necessity be important and such a being there among them, thanks once again to the abnormally established conditions of being-existence, can only be one who either has a great deal of money or who becomes what is called ‘famous’ among the other beings there.

43.1069

“And since especially during recent times only those beings can become famous and important among them in whom the mentioned sacred function, namely ‘being-conscience,’ is entirely absent, then in consequence of the fact that this sacred function in the presences of beings is in general always associated with everything that represents and is Objective Reason, then, of course, those three-brained beings with Objective Reason always have conscience as well, and consequently such a being with conscience, will never be ‘important’ among the other beings.

43.1069-70

“That is why the beings with Pure Reason there never have had and never will have the possibility of taking part in the societies of beings who are formed of important and power-possessing beings.

43.1070

“And regarding the same question it happens there just as our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin has already once said, namely: ‘This is the highest punishment: pull at the tail the mane gets stuck, pull at the mane and the tail gets stuck.’

43.1070

“Whatever might have been, yet as I have already said, your favorites at the present time again wish to find possible ways and means for the abolition of this terrible property of theirs which has become inherent in them and fastened on their psyche as strongly as the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer.

43.1070

“And, of course, these members of the contemporary society, the League of Nations, will endeavor to attain this abolition by all kinds of regulations and various agreements devised by them, by which means those ancient beings also endeavored to attain it, that is to say, by those ways and means by which in my opinion it is now already absolutely impossible there to attain anything ‘effective.’

43.1070

“From this contrivance of your contemporary favorites some advantage might be derived, even quite a great one, but only for their inevitable newspapers, for drawing-room conversations, and, of course, for the various Hasnamussian manipulations of the terrestrial as they are called ‘stock-jugglers.’

43.1070

“The state of affairs in regard to this terrifying evil there is at the present time already such that to attain the immediate total destruction on the surface of their planet of this, as I said, hideous property which has already entered their flesh and blood, is not only a meaningless task for their miserable Reason, but is in general almost impossible.

43.1070-1

“However, my boy, even these contemporary beings of this contemporary common-planetary-society the League of Nations, might perhaps—in spite of the fact that impartial Reason, proper to the presence of all three-brained beings who have already attained responsible age, is absent in them—also achieve positive results in the fundamental aim they have set themselves, if they occupy themselves with the solving and actualizing of only those questions which are in the sphere of their competence and powers.

43.1071

“Knowing their, so to say, ‘ways,’ I am quite sure that they will not occupy themselves with those questions which are within the reach of their understanding.

43.1071

“They would like to do and really do everything in such a direction that these processes of reciprocal destruction should cease immediately and forever.

43.1071

“If, indeed, with all their Being they were aware of the whole objective terror of these processes and desired sincerely jointly to eradicate this evil from the surface of their planet, then they would willy-nilly penetrate into the essence of this question and would understand that such an inherency which had become fixed in their psyche during hundreds of centuries can never be decrystallized in the course of a few decades.

43.1071

“If they understood this, they would not attempt to decide or to actualize anything in this respect for the welfare of their contemporaries, but would direct and use all their attention, all their powers, and all their possibilities, having only the beings of future generations in view.

43.1071-2

“For instance, if instead of wiseacring now and as is still said there ‘Don-Quixoting’ with the aim of immediately attaining the total cessation of these processes of theirs, they were to occupy themselves with the eradication of the conviction, which has become fixed in their ordinary process of existence, of the virtue of two notions they have; that is to say, if they would try to attain the abolition of the practice of exalting certain of the participants in these processes to what are called ‘heroes’ and rewarding them with honors and what are called ‘orders,’ and also if they would try to attain the abolition even of one of their illustrious ‘sciences’ from among their many ‘Hasnamussian sciences,’ invented by certain pimpled beings among them, in which it is nonchalantly proved that the periodic reciprocal destruction on the Earth is very, very necessary, and that if it did not exist an intolerable overpopulation would result on the Earth, and such economic horrors would ensue that men-beings would begin to eat one another.

43.1072-3

“If they would attain the abolition of these two practices which have already become firmly fixed in the process of their abnormal ordinary being-existence, then, thanks to the abolition of the first, they would eradicate forever the greater part of those ‘automatic factors’ which make the psyche of the growing generation also predisposed to be subject to that special property on account of which they always fall into that state into which it has already become without fail habitual for them to fall during these processes; and thanks to the second they would help towards this, that there might not reach to the beings of future times at least one of those idiotic ideas from the number of already without this sufficiently numerous similar ideas constantly arising there, which are transmitted from generation to generation as ‘something’ lawful and indubitable and which all together are partly the cause of the formation in their presences of those properties not one of which is becoming to three-centered beings of our Great Megalocosmos and among the number of which there belongs also that property inherent in them alone which engenders in them even ‘doubt in the existence of Divinity’; and owing chiefly to this doubt there has almost entirely disappeared from their common presences the possibility of the precipitation of those data which should without fail be precipitated in the presences of all three-brained beings, the totality of which data engenders in them the impulse, called the ‘instinctive sensing,’ of those certain cosmic truths, which are always felt even by all one-centered and two-centered beings, wherever they might breed in the whole of the Universe.

43.1073

“But the misfortune for all the other ordinary favorites of yours is that these power-possessing and important beings assembled from the whole of the planet do not begin to occupy themselves with these questions, considering them to be beneath their dignity.

43.1073

“What next! Such ‘important’ members of such ‘important’ societies suddenly occupying themselves with such trivial matters!

43.1073

“In general, in consequence of the fact that every kind of data for individual manifestation have already quite ceased to be crystallized in most of these three-brained beings who have taken your fancy, particularly the contemporary ones, and they manifest themselves only according to the dictates of the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer, they therefore do not like to occupy themselves with such affairs which are within their Reason and within their power, but occupy themselves always with decisions of such questions which are incomparably higher than their Reason.

43.1073

“Thanks to this ‘feature’ of their strange psyche, one other peculiar and in the highest degree strange ‘psychic-organic need’ had been formed in them during the last twenty centuries.

43.1073

“The chief manifestation of just this psychic-organic need of theirs consists in this, that each of them must always of necessity as they say ‘teach others sense,’ or ‘put them on the right road.’

43.1073-4

“Do you know, my boy, my mentioning this exceptional feature of their character, inherent in all of them without exception, leads me to the thought of the desirableness of explaining to you at this point about their strange psyche and to give you the advice like that which that good old fellow, our Ahoon, already once gave you, when I ended my explanation about the contemporary terrestrial illustrious ‘Art.’

43.1074

“He then said, among other things, that if for some reason or other you happen to exist there on the planet Earth, and to mix with these strange three-brained beings, then you must always be very careful with those contemporary types there who are called ‘representatives of Art’ and never offend them, and thus not make ‘violent’ enemies among them.

43.1074

“At that time, our dear Ahoon, bearing in mind their numerous weaknesses, such as their self-love, pride, vanity, and still many others, indicated to you in which cases just which of these specific properties of theirs it was necessary, as he expressed it, to ‘tickle.’

43.1074

“He even then explained to you in detail about what and how it was necessary to speak to them so that they should always have good relations with you and so that they should always and everywhere praise you and only speak good about you.

43.1074

“Concerning this advice of his I can say nothing bad; it cannot be denied, it is ideal for the types he mentioned.

43.1074

“These contemporary representatives of Art there in fact have in great abundance the specific properties enumerated by our dear Ahoon and if on each occasion you ‘tickle’ these particular properties of theirs, they will indeed ‘worship’ you and in everything always behave towards you not worse than those who were called there Asklaian-slaves.’

43.1074-5

“But though this advice of his is excellent and even indispensable for existence among them, I personally do not consider it practical for you; not practical in the first place, because since not all the beings of the Earth are like representatives of Art, this advice does not apply to all of them in general; and secondly, because it will be inconvenient for you always to have to remember all these numerous particularities and each time to stop and think on which occasion which of these numerous weaknesses of theirs must be ‘tickled.’

43.1075

“I wish to point out to you one great ‘secret’ of their psyche, namely, I wish to point out to you only one particularity of theirs which, if you know how to profit by it, might create in each one of them the same effect in their manifestations about which Ahoon spoke.

43.1075

“If you will act upon them through this same particularity, then you will not only be on very good terms with them all, but even, if you wish, you will be able, knowing this ‘secret’ of their psyche, fully to ensure your tranquil and happy existence there both as regards ‘money’ necessarily required there, as well as other conveniences, the taste and blissful significance of which our dear Teacher expressed by the words ‘Roses, Roses.’

43.1075

“You, no doubt, my boy, have already guessed that by this secret of their psyche I refer just to this same, as I called it, ‘psycho-organic-need’ of theirs to ‘teach others sense’ and ‘to put them on the right road.’

43.1075

“This special property formed in their psyche, thanks of course also always to the same abnormally established conditions of ordinary being-existence, becomes as it were—when each one of them already becomes a responsible being—an obligatory part of his presence.

43.1075

“Everyone there without exception has this ‘psycho organic need’; old and young, men and women and even those whom they call ‘prematurely born.’

43.1075-6

“The mentioned ‘particular need’ of theirs arises in them, in its turn, thanks to another particular property of theirs which is that from the very moment when each of them acquires the capacity of distinguishing between ‘wet’ and ‘dry,’ then, carried away by this attainment, he ceases forever to see and observe his own abnormalities and defects, but sees and observes those same abnormalities and defects in others.

43.1076

“It has already become customary there at the present time that all your favorites always teach others like themselves even things the notion of which they have not even dreamed of, and the joke of it is that if these others do not learn from him, or at least, do not pretend that they wish to learn, then they are not only offended, but even always inwardly very sincerely indignant; and on the contrary, if one of these others should learn ‘sense’ from them or at least pretend that he is very anxious to learn it, then these beings will not only ‘love’ and ‘respect’ him but will feel fully satisfied and greatly delighted.

“It must be remarked here that only in these circumstances can your favorites speak about others without malice and without criticism.

43.1076

“And so, my boy…

“I strongly advise you that if for any reason you have to exist among them, always pretend that you wish to learn something from them. Act in the same way towards their children and then you will not only be on excellent terms with them all, but the whole family will even look on you as the honored friend of the house.

43.1076-7

“Always remember that any one of them, however insignificant he himself may be in essence, looks down, owing always to his self-conceit ensuing from this particular property, with contempt upon the conduct and actions of others, especially if their conduct and actions sharply contradict his own subjectively established point of view, and in these cases he, as I have already said, usually becomes inwardly sincerely offended and indignant.

43.1077

“I might as well here remark that thanks to this property of your favorites always to grow indignant at the defects of others around them, they make their existence, already wretched and abnormal without this, objectively unbearable.

43.1077

“Thanks to this constant indignation, the ordinary being-existence of these unfortunates flows almost always with unproductive what are called ‘moral sufferings,’ and these futile moral sufferings of theirs continue, as a rule, by momentum to act for a very long time on their psyche, so to say ‘Semzekionally’ or, as they would say there on your planet, ‘depressingly’; that is, they ultimately become, of course without the participation of their consciousness, ‘Instruarian’ or, as they would say, ‘nervous.’

43.1077

“And then they become in the process of their ordinary being-existence completely ‘uncontrolled,’ even in those being-manifestations of theirs, which have nothing in common with the primary causes which have evoked this ‘Instruarness’ or ‘nervousness’ of theirs.

43.1077

“Only thanks to this property of theirs alone, ‘to be indignant at the defects of others,’ their existence has become gradually even archtragic-comic.

43.1077

“For instance, at every step there you meet a picture of this sort:

43.1077-8

“These freaks lose, so to say, that outer mask which thanks to the same maleficent means existing there, called ‘education,’ most of them have little by little learned to wear from their childhood and thanks to which they can very well conceal their genuine inner and outer trifling significance from others, and in consequence they automatically become slaves of others to the degree of humiliation; or, as they themselves say there, they fall as regards all their inner experience, under somebody’s ‘thumb’; for instance, under the ‘thumb’ of ‘wife’ or ‘mistress,’ or of such another who by some means has ferreted out the inner insignificance of the given terrestrial being, and thus the latter ceases to have for them this artificial mask.

“And indeed, it is just such a terrestrial being under somebody’s thumb who, as a rule, is more indignant than anyone else at other beings of their planet, as for instance at some king, who for some reason or other is unable to keep in submission tens or hundreds of thousands of his community. And it is just such beings who are under somebody’s thumb who usually write various manuals in which they show in detail how and what must be done for the good ‘government’ of others.

43.1078

“Or again, when one of the contemporary beings of this peculiar planet, whose heart as they say always ‘sinks into his boots’ from fright when, for instance, a mouse runs past him, learns that so and so on meeting a tiger felt a little timid, then this ‘hero’ will be inwardly extremely indignant with him and will, without fail, in conversation with his friends, ‘foaming at the mouth’ denounce him and prove that he is a vile, criminal ‘coward’ for having been frightened by such a ‘mere’ tiger.

43.1078

“And yet again the various books and manuals concerning also what must be done and how, and what must not be done on meeting a tiger or other similar being, are written by these ‘mouse-unflinching-heroes’ there.

43.1078-9

“Or, further, one of them who has a score of various as it is said there ‘chronic diseases,’ thanks to which for whole weeks at a time his stomach does not work and his whole body is covered with all kinds of malignant pimples, from which diseases he of course suffers day and night—in short, such a being there who for many years has been a genuine ‘walking anatomical museum’ of all the diseases existing on that planet—is always more indignant than anyone else when someone has carelessly caught, let us say, a cold.

43.1079

“And these walking anatomical museums there invariably instruct others with great authority how to get rid of this cold and it is precisely they alone who write various books and manuals concerning all kinds of other diseases there and expound in minute detail how to guard against and get rid of them.

43.1079

“At every step one might also observe such an absurdity as this: One of them who even does not know in the least what that ordinary tiny being which often bites him, called ‘flea,’ looks like, writes a ‘huge volume’ or draws up a special what is called ‘popular lecture’ that the flea whose bite made the neck of a certain historical King Nokhan swell, had on its left paw an ‘abnormal orange-crimson growth of a peculiar strange form.’

43.1079

“Well then, if this expert in fleas there will write his voluminous work or if he will read for a whole evening his popular lecture on the ‘orange-crimson growth’ on the mentioned flea, then if anyone will not believe him and will express his doubt to his face, he will not only be offended but even greatly indignant; and he will be indignant chiefly because this somebody is such a what is called ‘ignoramus,’ that he has even not yet heard anything about the ‘truths’ communicated to him by this ‘expert.’

43.1079-80

“Thanks to all the aforementioned, such pictures are met with at every step there on your planet in the existence of these strange three-brained beings, that only from observing and studying them every normal being existing there, if he will indeed take in and study his perceptions, might become fully instructed in all branches of general objective science.

“For the satisfying of your favorites’ astonishingly strange need, as is said there, not to suffer, they must always have at least one ‘victim’ for their teachings, but among a number of them who have acquired for some reason or other in these manifestations of theirs a certain authority over others and who have become in consequence by increasing habit more impudent, the appetite grows to the point of acquiring an always greater number of these ‘victims.’

43.1080

“Yes, my boy, when you will exist among them and will be a witness of these incongruous being-manifestations, then, even in spite of the fact that you know the cause of these incongruities, you will be unable, as they express it, not to ‘laugh’ inwardly and at the same time with the whole of your Being you will pity these unfortunates, and with your ‘inner laughter’ there will gradually be mixed by itself what is called ‘an-essence-palnassoorian-grief.’

43.1080

“The same particularity of the psyche of the three-centered beings there is especially strongly developed there among the beings belonging to their caste, called the ‘intelligentsia.’

43.1080

“The word intelligentsia itself almost denotes that notion there which we define by the words ‘force-in-oneself.’

43.1080

“Yet, though by its essence the word intelligentsia has there almost the same sense, nevertheless the beings there, particularly the contemporary ones, for some reason or other call by this word just those beings who are the exact opposite of what this word denotes.

43.1080

“The word intelligentsia is also taken from the ancient Greek language.

43.1080

“It is interesting to notice that this same word was used also by the Romans; but having taken it from the Greeks not by its sense but by its sound, they later imagined that the roots of this word belonged to their own language.

43.1080-1

“But among the ancient Greeks this word denoted a being so perfected that he was already able to direct his functions as he wished, and not for instance as occurs with every what is called inanimate cosmic formation, every action of which proceeds only as a reaction to external causes.

43.1081

“Such beings, no doubt, are also still met with there on your planet as approximately answer to this sense of the word, but only among those contemporary beings of the planet Earth who are considered, according to the understanding of most of the beings there, as ‘unintelligent.’

43.1081

“In my opinion, if those beings especially of the most recent times who are called there intelligentsia would simply be called ‘mechanogentsia,’ then perhaps this would be more correct.

43.1081

“It would be more correct because the contemporary intelligentsia there can themselves not only give absolutely no direction at all to their being-functions, but there are already finally atrophied in them even those data for impulses of essence-initiative for daily being-existence which in general are always placed by Great Nature herself in all three-centered beings at their arising.

43.1081-2

“During their responsible existence these intelligentsia beings there always act or manifest only when they receive corresponding shocks from outside, and it is these same shocks proceeding from outside which give them the possibility of becoming correspondingly animated and of experiencing, only through the unrolling of the series of former corresponding automatic perceptions already present in them and not depending at all on their own wish or will; and these external shocks of theirs for the said kind of experiencing are usually in the first place animate or inanimate things accidentally coming within the sphere of their organs of perception of visibility; secondly, the various beings they meet; thirdly, the sounds or words reverberating where they happen to be; fourthly, scents accidentally perceived by their sense of smell; and finally, unaccustomed sensations that proceed from time to time during the functioning of their planetary body, or as they say, their ‘organism,’ and so on.

43.1082

“But never do their outer manifestations in general nor those inner-being-impulses of theirs, which ought to be under the directive of their being-‘I,’ proceed according to their own wish resulting from the whole of their entire presence.

43.1082

“I must here tell you further that certain of those terrestrial ‘intelligentsics,’ in whom during the period of their responsible existence certain already established forms of their inner functioning have, for various reasons, become definitely changed, are no longer called by the other terrestrial beings ‘intelligentsics’ but are given other names composed of different words, or, more exactly, of the roots of the words of ancient Greek.

“Namely, they name them:

‘Bureaucrats’
‘Plutocrats’
‘Theocrats’
‘Democrats’
Zevrocrats
‘Aristocrats’

and so on….

43.1082-3

“The first of the names enumerated, namely, bureaucrats, is given to those intelligentsics in whom the series of their ordinary automatic associations already present in them which engender experiencings are limited, that is to say, however varied the shocks coming from without may be, associations are evoked in these bureaucrats of always the same experiencings which thanks to the frequent repetition acquire their own specific character and manifest quite independently without the participation of any separate spiritualized being-part whatsoever of their common presence.

43.1083

“And as regards the beings of the second of the enumerated states, that is, those who also after a certain transformation of their psyche are called by other beings plutocrats, then to the beings thus called, those of the intelligentsics there are promoted who previously, during the period of their responsible existence, were able very artistically to get all the honest, that is ‘naïve,’ fellow countrymen of theirs they came across, into their toils, thanks to which they become the owners of a great quantity of what is called there ‘money’ and ‘slaves.’

43.1083

“Here, bear in mind that it is just from these terrestrial types that most Hasnamuss-individuals arise.

43.1083

“When I was there, during my investigations of the questions which interested me, I chanced to learn the secret of the origin of this word plutocrat.

43.1083

“As I have already told you, during the last twenty-five centuries there every suspicious notion and every suspicious thing has for some reason or other been called by ancient Greek words; likewise these names, as bureaucrats, aristocrats, democrats, and so on, which express in themselves suspicious notions, are also composed of two ancient Greek words.

43.1083

“For instance, the word bureaucrat consists of two words: ‘buro’ which means ‘chancellery’ and ‘crat’ which means ‘to keep’ or ‘to hold.’

43.1083

“And both of these words together mean: ‘those… who manage or keep the whole chancellery.’

43.1083

“And as regards the word plutocrat, it seems that the history of its origin is somewhat different and does not go very far back.

43.1083

“This word was formed only seven or eight of their centuries ago.

43.1084

“Although these types already existed in ancient Greece, also, yet they were then called there ‘plusiocrats.’

43.1084

“Several centuries ago, however, when many of these ‘types’ were developed there and when it became clear that the other beings of the Earth had somehow to dignify them with a title, then those beings there who at that time were in charge of such questions invented for them this name plutocrat.

43.1084

“It seems that they then deliberated and pondered a very long time precisely what name to invent for them. They deliberated and pondered a long time because they already very well understood that these types on their planet are scoundrels of the deepest dye, and already so to say, saturated by every kind of Hasnamussness to the marrow of their bones.

43.1084

“At first in order to dignify them they wished to invent some or other very ‘forceful’ word corresponding to their inner significance; but later they became afraid of doing so, because these terrestrial types, thanks to what is called ‘ill-gotten’ gains, had already then acquired ‘force and power’ far greater perhaps than that of their kings. And they were afraid that if they dignified them by just such a word as would define their real significance, then they might be greatly offended and begin to do still more harm to the other beings; and therefore they ultimately decided to be cunning and invented this word thanks to which they could call them by their real name and at the same time appear to ‘dignify’ them.

43.1084

“The mentioned beings of that time achieved this in the following way:

43.1084-5

“As the title of these terrestrial types had of course also to be composed of two ancient Greek words and as all such names have the ancient Greek word ‘crat’ as their second half, then, in order that the new word might not strike anyone’s eye, they left in it this same ancient Greek consonance.

43.1085

“The first half, however, of this word was not taken from the ancient Greek as was usually done, but from the what is called ‘Russian language,’ namely, they took the Russian word ‘plut’—in Russian ‘plut’ means ‘rogue’—and in this way obtained plutocrat.

43.1085

“These terrestrial beings then indeed attained their aim as perfectly as possible because at the present time there on your planet both these terrestrial parasites themselves and also all the other beings of the Earth are quite content with this ‘title.’

43.1085

“These terrestrial monsters are so satisfied with their title that, out of swagger, they go about in top hats, even on weekdays.

43.1085

“And the other terrestrial beings are also satisfied, since they call these ‘freaks’ by their genuine names, not only without making them angry, but even causing them to strut like ‘turkey cocks.’

43.1085

“As regards the third of the names I enumerated—namely, theocrats—by this title those ‘intelligentsics’ there were then dignified in whose common presences in the psycho-organic sense there proceeded almost the same ‘perturbation’ as in those who became plutocrats.

43.1085

“The difference between the plutocrats and the theocrats there is only this, that the first act upon their surroundings for the satisfaction of their Hasnamussian needs through that function which is called among them ‘trust’; while the second act through that function which has gradually replaced in your favorites the sacred function that serves all the three-brained beings as one of the three sacred paths for self-perfecting, and this function they call by the name ‘faith.’

43.1085-6

“In order that you should obtain a more complete notion about these theocrats, it will be sufficient, if I relate to you once more one of the sayings of our highly esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin. Concerning these theocrats there he once uttered something very strange.

43.1086

“Namely, he said: ‘Isn’t it all one to the poor flies how they are killed? By a kick of the hooves of horned devils, or by a stroke of the beautiful wings of divine angels?’

43.1086

“And concerning those types there whom all others called democrats, it is first of all necessary to tell you that these types there do not always come from the so to say ‘hereditary intelligentsics’; for the greater part they in the first place happen to be simple ordinary terrestrial beings and only afterwards when they chance to become intelligentsics and when with functions present in them degenerated also from the sacred function of ‘Conscience,’ almost the same proceeds in them as among the future plutocrats and theocrats—they are transformed into just these democrats.

43.1086

“Here it might as well be remarked that when some of these democrats for some reason or other occasionally occupy the places of the power-possessing beings, then a very, very rare cosmic phenomenon sometimes occurs from their actions, namely, as Mullah Nassr Eddin says, ‘the very corns turn pedicures.’

43.1086

“And this rare phenomenon occurs in my opinion because when the democrats there chance to occupy the places of the power-possessing beings, they have in themselves no inherited aptitudes at all for instinctively being able to direct others and in consequence they are quite unable to direct the existence of beings who happen to be in their power.

43.1086

“Our priceless Teacher Mullah Nassr Eddin has also for these terrestrial types a corresponding sentence; each time he recites it he first raises his arms to Heaven and only then with great reverence pronounces:

43.1086-7

“‘Thanks be to Thee, Great and Just CREATOR, that by Thy abundant and just grace it is so ordained that cows do not fly like pretty little birds.’

43.1087

“Now, my boy, from the various intelligentsics enumerated by me it remains for me to tell you about those terrestrial types whom the other beings call zevrocrats and aristocrats, who are distinguished by the cognomens given to them, such as ‘emir,’ ‘count,’ ‘khan,’ ‘prince,’ ‘melik,’ ‘baron,’ and so on, the consonance of which for some reason or other acts extremely pleasantly on that function of your favorites which is always very strongly expressed in them, which remains in them up to their very death and which is called ‘vanity.’

43.1087

“And I must frankly confess to you, that it is very difficult to explain about these types there not only in ordinary speech but also in the language of our most wise Mullah Nassr Eddin.

43.1087

“The most we can say of them is that they are simply ‘jokes of nature.’

43.1087

“Still, I must say that although both these types there among your favorites are called differently, yet in fact these same aristocrats and zevrocrats are similar in every respect and have exactly identical inner properties.

43.1087

“Remember I have already told you that there on your planet, in various communities, there exist two kinds, as is said there, of ‘state organization.’

“One is called a ‘monarchic’ state organization and the other a ‘republican.’

43.1087

“In the communities where a republican state organization exists, these types are called zevrocrats; but where a monarchic state organization exists, they are called aristocrats.

43.1087-8

“Trying to give you at least some notion about these two terrestrial types, I think it will be best if I tell you about one of my embarrassments which occurred to me every time when, being on your planet, I accidentally happened to meet these ‘misconceptions.’ At chance meetings with them, one thing chiefly surprised me—how could this kind of terrestrial three-brained type exist on your peculiar planet almost as long as the other three-brained beings there?

43.1088

“Such a question was evoked in me by the beings there who belong to the caste of the bureaucrats, yet nevertheless as regards them one might still explain this to you, at least ‘more or less.’ Although the series of experiencings in them is also very limited, yet at any rate they actually have them; they have them at least for every hour of the day and night.

“All the experiencings, however, of these aristocrats and zevrocrats there, according to my observation, can be reduced to only three series.

43.1088

“The first concerns the question of food; the second consists of the recollections associated with the former functionings of their sexual organs; and the third relates to the memories of their first nurse.

43.1088

“And how the beings, who have in all only three series of such experiencings, could have the length of their existence the same as other beings on the surface of your planet, will always be for me an insoluble puzzle.

43.1088

“It is said that about this same puzzling question, that is, about how these terrestrial types manage to exist on the surface of the planet, even the great cunning Lucifer once grew very thoughtful, and he grew so intensely thoughtful that all the hairs of the tip of his tail turned quite gray.

43.1088

“About these mentioned so to say ‘jokes of nature,’ it remains for me only to attempt to explain to you why such a sharp difference exists there in the names of one and the same kind of being.

43.1088-9

“I said ‘attempt’ because I myself do not know exactly the cause of it, yet, knowing the roots of both words from which these names were formed, I think I can presume with great certainty that it was obtained thanks to a certain custom existing there.

43.1089

“I must tell you that your favorites there for some reason or other delight in sometimes arranging what are called ‘puppet shows.’

43.1089

“For some reason or other it also pleases them that these same zevrocrats or aristocrats should also take part in these ‘puppet plays’ of theirs, and accordingly they drag them also into these ‘puppet shows.’

43.1089

“As these beings there are in themselves already quite vacuous and consequently feeble, it becomes necessary during these ‘puppet shows’ for other beings of the given community to support them.

43.1089

“And simply from the method of their supporting, that is to say, by which arm they are supported, the difference in name was obtained; in the communities, namely, where ‘monarchic state organization’ exists, it has already long ago been the custom to support them with the right arm, and hence in these communities such types are called aristocrats.

43.1089

“And in the communities in which a ‘republican state organization’ exists they are supported with the left arm, and hence they are called zevrocrats.

43.1089

“Concerning in general a similar difference in the names there of terrestrial beings, another remarkable saying of our wise Mullah Nassr Eddin comes to my mind which he himself once told me personally.

43.1089

“Once we spoke about the difference in the legal proceedings and in the sentences passed between the Turkish and Persian ‘kazi,’ that is, magistrates; and concerning the equality of their justice, he then said:

43.1089

“‘Ekh! My dear friend!

43.1089

“‘Is there such a thing anywhere on Earth as a wise legal examination of men’s guilt?

43.1090

“‘The kazi are the same everywhere, only their names are different. In Persia they are called Persian, in Turkey, Turkish.

43.1090

“‘And that is just as it is everywhere on Earth; donkeys are alike, they are only differently called.

43.1090

“‘For instance, the species of donkey breeding in the Caucasus is called “Karabaghian”; and precisely the same kind of donkey breeding in Turkestan is called “Khorassanian.”’

43.1090

“And this wise sentence of his was thereafter always imprinted in my brain; and during my existence on your planet I always remembered it when I had any comparison to make.

43.1090

“May his name be praised forever on that planet where he arose and was formed!

43.1090

“And so, my boy!

“I repeat once more! If for some reason or other you have to be on their planet, bear always in mind that the weakness about which I have told you is most strongly developed in the most ordinary intelligentsics there and in those who ordinarily spring from them and belong to one or another of the enumerated castes with the names ending in ‘crat.’

43.1090

“Well, now, my boy, after this digression which I have made for your practical benefit, let us return again to the serious question touched upon; I shall begin with the history promised you about how the society of terrestrial beings which had as its motto ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All’ arose and fell, because the information about this will give you the possibility to understand well just about that first and chief cause why there on your planet this terrible process of periodic reciprocal destruction by these unfortunate three-brained beings of our Great Megalocosmos must already almost inevitably proceed.

43.1090-1

“And likewise you will learn how the, so to say, local Nature—when something unforeseen hinders its correct functioning for the purposes of the common-cosmic Trogoautoegocrat—adapts itself so that its results should correspondingly blend with the harmony of this most great cosmic law.

43.1091

“The said society of terrestrial beings-men arose, as I have already told you, six or seven centuries ago on the continent Asia in a town then existing under the name of Mosulopolis.

43.1091

“And it arose from the following cause:

43.1091

“Just at that period, the processes I have mentioned were flowing particularly frequently on just that same continent.

43.1091

“These processes occurred partly between different communities and partly within the limits of these communities themselves; and these latter processes afterwards came to be called ‘civil wars.’

43.1091

“One of the chief causes of these terrible processes which became frequent both between and within communities on the continent Asia was, at that period, a religion, then only just formed, which had been fantastically founded on the teaching of a genuine messenger of our ENDLESSNESS—Saint Mohammed.

43.1091

“The foundation of the said society was then first laid by the brothers of the fraternity then existing in Central Asia under the name of ‘The Assembly of the Enlightened.’

43.1091-2

“Here it must be noticed that in those days the brothers of this fraternity were beings who were very much venerated by other three-brained beings around them of almost the whole of that planet, and hence this brotherhood was sometimes also called ‘The-Assembly-of-All-the-Living-Saints-of-the-Earth.’

“This brotherhood of the three-brained terrestrial beings had already long before been formed of such beings who had also noticed in themselves the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer and had banded together to work collectively for their deliverance from these properties.

43.1092

“And so, when on their continent Asia these terrible processes of reciprocal destruction there became already too frequent, certain brothers of the said fraternity, with the most venerable Brother Olmantaboor at their head, just decided for the first time to try whether it would not be possible to obtain by some means, if not the total abolition of this terrible phenomenon proceeding on their planet, at least the reduction of this crying evil.

43.1092

“Having devoted themselves to the carrying out of this decision of theirs they then began to visit various countries of the continent Asia and everywhere very movingly preached the colossal criminality and sin of these actions of men and in this way they found many people earnestly with them.

43.1092

“And as a consequence of all their impartial and truly philanthropic labors, there was formed in the city Mosulopolis the mentioned large and serious society of men-beings under the title, ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-For-All.’

43.1092

“Already quite from the beginning, the members of this society of men-beings actualized to this end many things which no beings of the Earth, either before or since, were able to actualize.

43.1092

“And they were able to do this, only because the program itself from the very beginning was very well drawn up in respect of its actualizability in the conditions existing there.

43.1092-3

“Among other things, there entered into the fundamental program of this society—gradually to act in such a direction as would enable them to obtain a result—in the first place, the actualization for all the beings of the continent Asia of one common religion which they wished to base upon the teaching of the sect of what are called the ‘Parsis,’ only changing it a little; secondly, one common language, and for this common language they wished to adopt what is called the ‘Turkoman’ language, the oldest on the continent Asia and one whose roots had already entered into very many Asiatic languages.

“And thirdly, there entered into the fundamental program of this society finally to bring about the organization in the center of Asia, namely, in the city Margelan, the capital of what was called the ‘Ferghanian Khanate,’ of a chief and basic government for all the countries of Asia under the name of The-Council-of-the-Elders,’ the members of which had to be honorable beings from all the Asiatic communities.

43.1093

“It had to be so named because only the oldest and most deservedly honorable beings could participate in it.

“According to their understanding only such beings of their planet are able to be impartial and just toward other beings of the Earth, irrespective of to what religion or nationality they belong.

43.1093

“Among the members of this society then in the city Mosulopolis, there were already beings belonging to almost all the Asiatic communities.

43.1093

“Among them were also those called ‘Mongols,’ ‘Arabs,’ ‘Kirghizes,’ and ‘Georgians,’ ‘Little Russians,’ and ‘Tamils,’ and even the personal representative of the then famous conqueror Tamarlane.

43.1093

“Thanks to their intensive and indeed impartial and unselfish activities, those increasing wars and civil wars on the continent Asia began to diminish, and it was anticipated that many other good things might still be done for this same end.

43.1093

“But something just then happened which began the breakup also of this society of effective men-beings of that unparalleled planet.

43.1094

“And everything subsequent came about through the influence of a then very famous philosopher, Atarnakh, and his theory expounded by him in a treatise under the title: ‘Why do Wars Occur on the Earth?’

43.1094

“When this philosopher made his appearance among the members of this society, all their notions were confounded.

43.1094

“I know very well the history of this same philosopher Atarnakh also, because during my studies of ever the same consequences of the creations of the Most Saintly Ashiata Shiemash it became necessary for me to learn in detail about his activities also, and of course also about himself.

43.1094

“This philosopher Atarnakh was born in that same city Mosulopolis in a family of those who are called ‘Kurds.’

43.1094

“He, on attaining responsible age, became for the planet Earth a very great learned being.

43.1094

“In the very beginning, this same Kurd, Atarnakh, perseveringly studied during many Earth-years every possible question which it seemed to him might give him an answer to the question, ‘what in general is the sense of man’s existence,’ and during his study of these questions it seems that by some means there fell into his hands a very ancient but well-preserved what is called ‘Sumerian manuscript.’

43.1094

“This manuscript was well preserved because it had been inscribed on the skins of being-snakes called ‘Kalianjesh’ with the blood of the being ‘Chirman.’

43.1094

“As my investigation made clear to me, the contents of this manuscript, inscribed by some ancient being, extremely interested the philosopher Atarnakh who was particularly struck by that place of the manuscript where, as presupposed by this ancient learned being, it was said:

43.1094

“‘In all probability there exists in the World some law of the reciprocal maintenance of everything existing.

43.1095

“‘Obviously our lives serve also for maintaining something great or small in the World.’

43.1095

“This idea expressed in the ancient manuscript so captivated the philosopher Atarnakh that thereafter he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the study of only this aspect of the question which had interested him.

43.1095

“This idea served as the basis for his whole further plausible theory, which, after minute researches during several years and elaborate experimental verifications of his own conclusions, he expounded in his chief work under the name ‘Why Do Wars Occur on the Earth?’

43.1095

“I became acquainted also with this theory of his.

43.1095

“It was indeed near to reality.

43.1095

“All the suppositions of this Kurd Atarnakh were very similar to the great fundamental cosmic law Trogoautoegocrat existing in our Universe, which law I explained to you in more or less detail when I was speaking about the holy planet Purgatory.

43.1095

“In this theory of the philosopher Atarnakh it was very definitely proved that there exists in the world, without any doubt, a law of the ‘reciprocal-maintenance-of-everything-that-exists’ and that for this reciprocal maintenance certain chemical substances also serve, with the help of which the process of the spiritualization of beings, that is to say ‘Life,’ is carried out, and these chemical substances serve for the maintenance of all that exists only after the given life ceases, that is, when a being dies.

43.1095

“With the help of very many elucidatory logical confrontations it was also fully proved in the theory of Atarnakh that at certain periods there must infallibly proceed on the Earth such a definite quantity of deaths as in their totality will yield vibrations of a ‘definite degree of power.’

43.1095-6

“Once, when at a general meeting of the beings-members of this society, ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All,’ this anything but ordinary terrestrial three-brained being, who was also the elected representative from the whole population of the country called ‘Kurdistan,’ expounded this theory of his very eloquently and in great detail at the request of his fellow members, then great confusion and agitation proceeded among the members of this society.

43.1096

“They were so struck with this theory of his, that at first, as is said there, a ‘sepulchral silence’ prevailed among them for quite a time, and, plunged into stupor, none of them could even stir, and only after the lapse of rather a long time such a great noise and hullabaloo arose among them as if the saving of each one’s life depended on the degree of his excitement and its outer manifestations.

43.1096

“The result of it all was that late in the evening of the same day they unanimously decided to elect from their midst several learned beings, jointly to investigate thoroughly the details of this theory which had struck them and afterwards to make a detailed report upon it to the general assembly.

43.1096

“From the very next day, those elected learned members of the society ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All’ very earnestly set to work to familiarize themselves with the theory of this Atarnakh.

43.1096-7

“But to the misfortune of all three-brained beings of future times, arising on this ill-fated planet, it turned out that although all the elected learned members were also already advanced in years, and those malignant functions which in the beings of the Earth make their Being so to say ‘jealous’ and ‘greedy’ were almost atrophied in them, yet for various reasons, chiefly owing to their abnormal education, certain of them it seems had not yet acquired enough ground to be convinced of the nonactualizability of their dreams—which they owed to that notorious abnormal education of theirs—with the result that they were still not yet sufficiently disillusioned to be able to be fully impartial and just.

43.1097

“In consequence of this, from that very same day, as they gradually became familiar with the details of this astonishing theory, they began to get into the state typical of beings of the Earth, that is to say, they began to forget the extraordinary hypothesis that had struck them, which was mentioned in that theory, and began gradually to return, as is proper to three-brained beings there, to their former typically subjective and therefore always changeable conviction, and immediately split into two opposite parties.

43.1097

“Some of these began without any logical criticism to take convincingly on faith all the hypotheses made in this theory; others however did not fail, as is in general proper to most of the learned beings of the Earth, to speak and to prove quite the opposite of these hypotheses; and as a result they worked themselves up into a state of enmity not only against the theory of Atarnakh, but even personally against him himself.

43.1097

“In short, my boy, instead of these learned members, who were elected for the detailed study of the theory of Atarnakh, helping the other members of their society to get out of their confusion and agitation and to unify their disputes among themselves, they brought still more bewilderment into their notions, and gradually in the common presence of each separate member of this earnest society, data began to arise automatically for two totally opposite convictions.

43.1097-8

“The first of these convictions was that everything takes place precisely according to the theory of the philosopher Atarnakh, that is to say, that there must necessarily proceed ‘wars’ and ‘civil wars’ on the Earth quite independently of the personal consciousness of men; and the second conviction was that which all the members of the society had already previously had, namely, that if they succeeded in carrying out the program which their society had set itself, this evil also which proceeded on their planet might be destroyed root and branch, and everything might proceed in a desirable way.

43.1098

“It was just from that time that discussions, quarrels, and disturbances arose among all the members of that society; and in this case also the same began to proceed as I already mentioned and as had in general long before become customary there: Those quarrels and disturbances of theirs gradually spread also among the ordinary beings there, in this case to the citizens of the city Mosulopolis, and were the cause of the inflaming of their abnormal psyche.

43.1098

“And I do not know how all this would have ended, if the brothers of the society, ‘The Assembly of the Enlightened,’ had not also just then arrived there and had not taken a hand in this affair.

43.1098

“Thanks to their influence, all the members of this serious society gradually calmed down and started anew peaceably and seriously to ponder and deliberate upon just what to do in the future.

43.1098

“The result of all their serious deliberations and ponderings was that they unanimously elected Atarnakh as their chief director, and begged him to help them to find an issue from this situation.

43.1098

“After several meetings, already directed by the Kurd philosopher Atarnakh himself, the following categorical conclusion was unanimously arrived at.

43.1098-9

“According to the laws of Nature, there must periodically always proceed on the Earth, independently of the will of men, ‘wars’ and ‘civil wars’; and this is because during certain periods there is required for Nature a greater quantity of deaths. In view of this we are all, with much grief but with inevitable inner resignation, compelled to agree that by no mental decisions of man is it possible to abolish the shedding of blood between states and within states themselves; and we therefore unanimously resolve to wind up current affairs and everything done by our society and perforce disperse for home and there to drag out our inescapable ‘burden of life.’

43.1099

“It was only after this categorical resolution was proposed when all the members without exception of that indeed serious society decided to begin that same day the complete liquidation of all their affairs; only then did that, in the opinion held there, truly learned, though very proud and self-loving Kurd Atarnakh ascend the cathedra and speak as follows:

43.1099

“‘My honorable colleagues:

43.1099

“‘I am very sincerely grieved that I have unintentionally been the cause of the dissolution of this great philanthropic undertaking, into which you, the most honorable and wise of all the countries of the Earth, have for several years put more impartial and unselfish labor than men of the Earth have ever been or ever again will be able to bear for others, that is, for men quite unknown and indifferent to them.

43.1099

“‘You have labored unceasingly for some years to obtain for the masses the most necessary welfare and, although I too have worked upon my theory for many years, also for people unknown to me, nevertheless it has been the cause of the frustration of your indefatigable labors and benevolent aspirations.

43.1099

“‘The consciousness that it seems that I am to blame for all the misunderstandings which have arisen among you has given me no peace during these last days, and I have been thinking and pondering all the time whether it is not possible somehow to repair this involuntary fault of mine.

43.1099-100

“‘And so, wise colleagues elected from the whole Earth, I wish to share with you the final conclusion to which these deliberations of mine have brought me.

43.1100

“‘If the universal laws I have discovered are opposed to the means you expected might bring a certain happiness to mankind, then, however strange it may seem to you at first glance, if only these same laws be employed otherwise, they might serve for the attainment of this aim we have set for ourselves.

43.1100

“‘Now listen to what we must do to attain this aim. The results of all my researches clearly prove that Nature requires that at certain periods a certain number of deaths should take place on the Earth; and at the same time I have succeeded in making clear that for the needs of Nature it is indifferent which deaths these are, whether deaths of people themselves or deaths of the lives of other forms of beings.

43.1100

“‘From this it follows that if the number of deaths required by Nature is made up by the deaths of other forms of lives of the Earth, then obviously the need for the number of deaths of men themselves will thus be of itself correspondingly reduced.

43.1100

“‘And it will be quite possible to attain to this if all the members of our society continue to work with the same intensity, only not with the aim of realizing our former program, but of reviving upon the Earth on a larger scale than before the ancient custom among men of offering sacrifices to their gods and saints by destroying the lives of other forms.’

43.1100

“When this proud Kurd had finished his speech, there arose among the members of the society ‘The-Earth-Is-Equally-Free-for-All’ an astonishment and agitation not less than on the occasion when he had first expounded his famous theory.

43.1100-1

“For nearly three days and three nights following that memorable day they scarcely adjourned, but in the halls that had been put by the citizens of Mosulopolis at the disposal of this all-planetary society of men-beings there was a continuous rumble of discussion and deliberation; at last, on the fourth day, an official general meeting was convened at which by general consent a resolution was carried, to do in the future also everything exactly as should be indicated by the great Kurd, the philosopher Atarnakh.

43.1101

“And on that same day, the name of that society was changed.

43.1101

“Some days later, the members of that society now under the new motto, ‘The-Earth-Only-for-Men,’ dispersed from the city Mosulopolis to their native countries where, under the general instructions issuing from the philosopher Atarnakh, they so acted that among the populations of the continent Asia the idea should be strengthened and again take root of ‘making themselves agreeable’ to their gods and idols by killing beings of different forms.

43.1101

“And indeed, afterward, when they began to actualize in practice this new program of theirs, there very soon began to be re-established among the beings all over the continent Asia the custom of offering sacrifices to their fancied ‘saints’ by the destruction of the existence of various weak and stupid one-brained and two-brained beings there.

43.1101

“From the beginning the members of this new society, ‘The-Earth-Only-for-Men,’ began to actualize this task of theirs for the most part through what are called the ‘clergy’ of that religion which was formed upon the teaching of Saint Mohammed and which at that period was very widely spread over the whole continent Asia.

43.1101-2

“And this custom was adopted this time on a larger scale than it had been when at the request of the Angel Looisos I descended there to try to do what I could to destroy that same custom among the three-brained beings there, which seemed at that time to His Conformity very undesirable for cosmic phenomena of a greater scale, because during all this time the number of your favorites had greatly increased and consequently the number also had increased of those anxious to ‘give pleasure’ to their fantastic idols.

43.1102

“The destruction of the existence of other forms of beings was resumed there not only privately in houses, among their families, but also publicly in special places.

43.1102

“But this time these special places were chiefly associated in a certain respect with the memory of Saint Mohammed, or with those around him.

43.1102

“The number of these slaughters increased there by year to year to such an extent that already only some hundred or so of their years after the time of the arising of the society ‘The-Earth-Only-for-Men’ the number had amounted during one of their years in one single place alone to a hundred thousand of such beings as they had sacrificed in previous times, namely, ‘oxen,’ ‘sheep,’ ‘camels,’ and so on.

43.1102

“During the last two centuries such special honored favorite places were the cities Mecca and Medina in Arabia, the city Meshed in the locality called Baghdad, the environs of Yenikishlak in Turkestan, and several others….

43.1102

“In a word, there on the continent Asia, blood again ‘flowed like a river.’

43.1102

“These sacrificial offerings were most frequent during the Mohammedan feasts called ‘Bairam’ and ‘Goorban,’ and likewise during the Christian feasts existing there under the name of ‘Shrovetide,’ ‘Saint George’s Day,’ and so on.

43.1102-3

“In this way, my boy, afterward when thanks to the strenuous efforts of the members of the society ‘The-Earth-Only-for-Men’ there had again been implanted in three-brained beings there such an abnormality, then these terrible processes of theirs began indeed to proceed there less often and on a smaller scale, and through this the sporadic, relatively great, what is called ‘mortality’ was diminished, yet the general ‘mortality’ of the three-brained beings was not only not reduced by this but even increased, since owing to the continued progressive deterioration of their being-existence and in consequence owing to the deterioration of the quality of the radiative vibrations of their presences in the process of their existence required from them by Nature, the length of their existence on the one hand was still further diminished, and on the other hand their what is called ‘birth rate’ was increased.

43.1103

“So it continued until that time when a certain famous Assadulla Ibrahim Ogly, a Persian dervish who obtained his arising and who was formed into a responsible being on that same continent, turned all this in another direction.

43.1103

“The dervish Assadulla Ibrahim Ogly began his activities there only some thirty or forty terrestrial years ago.

43.1103

“Being simply only a fanatic of the Mohammedan religion without that serious and deeply learned knowledge possessed by the Kurd Atarnakh, he perceived in the custom of sacrificial offerings only horrible injustice on the part of the people toward beings of other forms, and he set as the aim of his existence to obtain, at whatever cost, the destruction on the Earth of this, in his opinion, antireligious custom.

43.1103

“Having begun from that time to wander on the continent Asia, chiefly in those countries where the greater part of the three-brained beings were the followers of the Mohammedan religion, he began to work mainly through dervishes like himself, who are to be found in almost all the communities there on the continent Asia.

43.1104

“This ingenious and energetic Persian dervish Assadulla Ibrahim Ogly, here, there, and everywhere, very cleverly persuaded these other dervishes of the ‘truth’ of his idea, and these in their turn now everywhere persuaded the ordinary beings of the continent Asia that the destruction of the existence of beings of other forms is not only not pleasing to God, but that the destroyers would even be obliged to bear ‘in another world,’ in hell, a double punishment, one for their own what are called ‘sins’ and one for the ‘sins’ of the beings destroyed by them, and so on.

43.1104

“And thanks to preachings of this kind about the ‘other world’ by dervishes, considered great authorities on such questions, the beings of Asia did indeed year by year diminish their sacrificial offerings.

43.1104

“In short, the result of all the activity of this ‘good’ Persian dervish was precisely the latest great process of reciprocal destruction, or, as your favorites call it, ‘The Great World War.’

43.1104

“And so, my boy, although the hypothesis put forward in the theory of that uncommon learned Kurd Atarnakh very nearly, as I have already told you, approximated to reality, yet nevertheless he failed to understand what was most important, namely, that the vibrations required by Nature, which have to be formed from the radiations issuing from beings both during their existence as well as from the process of their Rascooarno, have no significance quantitatively, but only qualitatively.

43.1104

“It is possible that the Kurd Atarnakh, being an unusual terrestrial being, would have understood this also if he had known the details of the results that had been obtained after those conditions of being-existence had been already more or less established on this planet, which were especially created for the three-brained beings arising there by the Most Saintly Labors of the ‘essence-loving’ Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash.

43.1105

“During that said period, not only did their rate of ‘mortality’ begin to decline, but what they call their birth rate also began to decline.

43.1105

“Their birth rate declined because, when the three-brained beings there were already existing more or less as is becoming to three-centered beings and when the radiations issuing from them were yielding vibrations more akin to the vibrations required from them by Nature both for the Most Great common-cosmic Trogoautoegocrat in general and for the maintenance of the Moon and Anulios in particular, then Great Nature did not fail to adapt herself to the diminishing of their birth rate, the more so as in recent times the need for the said vibrations for the maintenance of the existence of the planet Moon had to be diminished.

43.1105

“The aspect of this fundamental question regarding the significance of the sense and aim of the existence of your favorites is so important for the understanding of a great deal that proceeds there on the Earth, and by the way also of the question touching the causes of war, that I consider it necessary to refer to it once more.

43.1105

“I first learned that the destiny of beings arising on this planet of yours is chiefly to elaborate—by means of the process of their existence—the vibrations required by Nature for the maintenance of those former parts of the planet now called Moon and Anulios, when, do you remember, I became worthy personally to converse for the second time with His Conformity the then still Angel, but now Archangel, Looisos.

43.1105-6

“His Conformity then told me that although the movements of both former parts of the planet Earth were now already finally regulated with the general harmony of movement and that every kind of apprehension of some or other surprise in the near future had absolutely vanished, yet to avoid any possible complications in the distant future it had been explicitly decided by the Most High, Most Sacred Individuals to actualize the ‘corresponding’ on the planet for the formation of what is called the Sacred Askokin so that this sacred cosmic substance, required for the maintenance of that planet’s former parts, might continuously issue from that planet.

43.1106

“And further, His Highness also explained that this cosmic substance, the Sacred Askokin, exists in general in the Universe chiefly blended with the sacred substances ‘Abrustdonis’ and ‘Helkdonis,’ and hence that this sacred substance Askokin in order to become vivifying for such a maintenance must first be freed from the said sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis.

43.1106

“To tell the truth, my boy, I did not at once clearly understand all that he then said, and it was only later that I came to understand it all clearly, when, during my studies of the fundamental cosmic laws, I learned that these sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis are just those substances by which the higher being-bodies of three-brained beings, namely, the body Kesdjan and the body of the Soul, are in general formed and perfected; and when I learned that the separation of the sacred Askokin from the said sacred substances proceeds in general when the beings on whatever planet it might be transubstantiate the sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis in themselves for the forming and perfecting of their higher bodies, by means of conscious labors and intentional sufferings.

43.1106

“And when I had become interested in these favorites of yours and had begun to observe and to study their strange psyche, only then did I finally understand to which end both Great Nature herself and the Most High and Most Saintly Individuals always patiently adapt themselves to everything, and concerning this, the following personal opinion was formed in me.

43.1107

“That if these favorite of yours would at least properly ponder over this and serve Nature honestly in this respect, then perhaps their being-self-perfecting might as a consequence proceed automatically even without the participation of their consciousness and, in any case, the poor Nature of their ill-fated planet would also not have to ‘puff and blow’ in order to adapt Herself to remain within the common cosmic harmony.

43.1107

“But unfortunately for everything existing in the Megalocosmos, there is no honesty in your favorites even in respect of the fulfillment of their duties to Nature, not even to that Nature to which, strictly speaking, they owe their very existence.

43.1107

“As regards the absence of honesty in your favorites in the fulfillment of their duty towards Nature, I have just now remembered a very wise sentence of our incomparable Teacher Mullah Nassr Eddin which in the present case justifies its hidden meaning.

43.1107

“He once said:

43.1107

“‘Plague and cholera are, at any rate, less ignoble than human honesty, since people with a conscience can at least live at peace with them.’

43.1107

“And so, my dear Hassein, when it appeared that the instinctive need for conscious labor and intentional suffering in order to be able to take in and transmute in themselves the sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis and thereby to liberate the sacred Askokin for the maintenance of the Moon and Anulios had finally disappeared from the psyche of your favorites, then Great Nature Herself was constrained to adapt Herself to extract this sacred substance by other means, one of which is precisely that periodic terrifying process there of reciprocal destruction.

43.1107-8

“Here, for the correct valuation of your contemporary favorites it will be apropos to remind you that after the action of the organ Kundabuffer had been destroyed in the three-brained beings of your planet, the first generations very soon learned that a certain cosmic substance had to be transformed through them and that their assistance in this transformation was one of their chief being-duties.

43.1108

“Do you remember, I have told you that the beings of the continent Atlantis even considered this being-duty of theirs as sacred and called it ‘Amarloos,’ which in their language means ‘Help-to-the-Moon.’

43.1108

“The three-brained beings of the continent Atlantis of that period, namely, the period then called the ‘Samliosian civilization,’ even devised and very strictly practiced certain customs that greatly contributed to the fulfillment of those being-duties as productively as possible.

43.1108

“The beings of the continent Atlantis even very wisely and expediently devised the fulfillment of these two being-duties—namely, the duty of the perfecting of their higher bodies and the duty of serving the Most Great cosmic-Trogoautoegocrat—by uniting them into one and performing them simultaneously.

43.1108

“And this union they organized in the following way:

43.1108

“In every populated locality, and even in separate districts of these localities, three very substantial indispensable special buildings were erected there.

43.1108

“One, for the beings of the male sex, was called Agoorokhrostiny.’

43.1108

“The second building, specially for beings of the female sex, was called ‘Gynekokhrostiny.’

43.1108

“And the third, for such beings as were then called the ‘middle sex’; this sacred building was called Anoroparionikima.’

43.1108-9

“The first two of these substantial buildings were then considered sacred by the beings of the continent Atlantis, and these buildings were for them the same as their ‘temples,’ ‘churches,’ ‘chapels,’ and other sacred places are for the contemporary beings of the Earth.

43.1109

“When I descended for the first time on that planet and was on the continent Atlantis, I personally visited certain of these buildings and at that time became very well acquainted with their purpose.

43.1109

“In the male temples, namely, in the Agoorokhrostiny, beings of the male sex of the given locality or of the given district performed in turn corresponding ‘mysteries’ while in the special state called ‘self-remembering.’

43.1109

“The beings of the continent Atlantis had a definite notion that beings of the male sex are sources of active manifestation, and hence in their Agoorokhrostiny they gave themselves up to active and conscious contemplation the whole time, and in this state performed these corresponding sacred mysteries, so that there should be transubstantiated in them the sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis.

43.1109

“And they did this deliberately and with full consciousness in order that this certain sacred substance, liberated in them, and issuing through their radiations for its further vivifyingness, should become the active part of that sacred law which they call the ‘Holy Trinity.’

43.1109

“In the sacred Gynekokhrostiny, built for the beings of the female sex, each of these beings was obliged at certain periods, namely, at those periods which contemporary beings call ‘menstruation,’ to stay without leaving. Moreover, the women, acknowledging themselves to be passive beings, had to be, the whole time of their stay there, only passive, in order that the vibrations issuing through their radiations should serve as the passive part of that same sacred law for their further vivifyingness.

43.1109

“And hence they passed their whole time in these Gynekokhrostiny in a state of complete passivity, trying consciously not to think about anything.

43.1110

“With this aim in view, they tried to have no active experiencings during their monthly states, and in order that thoughts flowing by association should not hinder them from concentrating, everything was arranged so that their thoughts should be directed the whole time to wishing well to their present or future children.

43.1110

“And as regards the third kind of the buildings of the beings of that time, which were called Anoroparionikima, as I already told you, the beings then called the ‘third sex,’ for whom these buildings were erected, our Mullah Nassr Eddin would call ‘misconceptions,’ or beings who are ‘neither one thing nor another.’

43.1110

“Among these middle-sex beings were beings both of the male sex and the female sex.

43.1110

“These were beings who, for various reasons, already lacked the possibility either of perfecting themselves or serving Nature; they were, as is said in a saying of our same Mullah Nassr Eddin, ‘Neither a candle for the Angel, nor a poker for the devil.’

43.1110

“Those beings of the male sex were put into these houses for a certain time who, for some reason or other, were already entirely deprived of the possibility of ever consciously contemplating; and of the number of the beings of the female sex, those were placed in them who generally either did not ‘menstruate’ at all, or in whom ‘menstruation’ occurred abnormally; likewise those who in the sense of their sexual desires became transformed at certain periods into, as it was said there, ‘Knaneomeny,’ or, as our dear Mullah would say, ‘into veritable mares in the spring.’

43.1110

“Among the beings then on the continent Atlantis, conceptions of several definite, very peculiar symptoms were current, according to which the given beings were recognized and confined in the Anoroparionikima.

43.1110-1

“And these symptoms were as follows:

(1) If a being believed in any kind of ‘balderdash’
(2) If a being began to prove to others anything about which he himself knew nothing whatsoever, or was not sure of
(3) If a being failed to keep his word of honor, or took his oath in vain
(4) And finally, if there appeared in any being tendencies to ‘spy’ upon the others and to be occupied with ‘Took-soo-kef

43.1111

“But the most conclusive symptom of all was when that property appeared in somebody which was then called ‘Moyussool’ and which contemporary beings already consider an illness and call ‘hemorrhoids.’

43.1111

“In these Anoroparionikima, beings of this kind were obliged to remain without stirring from them during those periods indicated by the surrounding beings; but they were under no compulsion to do anything, but existed as they liked. In regard to them there was only one aim, that they neither met nor spoke with normal beings of the given locality.

43.1111

“Such beings were then confined in these buildings because, according to the notions then, they at certain periods of the month, thanks to these various ‘taints’ of theirs, interfered by their radiations with the quiet and regular existence of the surrounding beings.

43.1111

“Yes, indeed… my dear boy….

43.1111

“Beings of the later period of the existence of the continent Atlantis had already many very good customs for normal being-existence; but, as regards the contemporary beings of your planet, one can only pity them, because owing to the second great calamity to their ill-fated planet, the said continent with everything upon it entered into the planet, and with it there disappeared also all those good customs for ordinary existence which had gradually during long centuries entered into the process of their ordinary existence.

43.1111-2

“After that continent of Atlantis had perished, the custom was again on the point of being re-established among later three-brained beings there, of having special constructions similar to those of which I have just told you for the process of ordinary existence.

43.1112

“The need for these special buildings was again understood and they were actualized by a very sensible Hebrew king named Solomon.

43.1112

“And that special building which this sensible Hebrew king decided first of all to construct and which still continued long afterwards among his subjects, was called ‘Tak-tschan-nan.’

43.1112

“They somewhat resembled the Gynekokhrostiny, such as had existed in Atlantis, and beings also of the female sex were put into them, and they were obliged to remain there during the whole of their menstruation.

43.1112

“The King Solomon hastened then to establish this custom because, during his wise reign, he had often constated that when beings of the female sex experienced the state of menstruation their character became for the surrounding beings, especially for their husbands, not only intolerable, but in respect of resulting ‘inconsistent relations and dealings’ with other beings like themselves, even psycho-organically harmful; and he therefore decided without delay to promulgate a severe law for his subjects according to which special isolated buildings were compulsorily constructed near every populated district in which to confine the beings of the female sex for the whole duration of their said state.

43.1112

“I even chanced to read the law he promulgated.

43.1112

“In this law it was said, among other things, that women during their menstruation are, in the consecrated sense, unclean; and that during these periods, for others, and especially for their husbands, not only to touch them, but to speak with them, is the highest sacrilege and a crime.

43.1113

“An unclean force or evil spirit will enter into those husbands or into men in general who touch or even speak with them during this period; in consequence of which there would be among men in their everyday relations and affairs only misunderstandings, quarrels, and enmity.

43.1113

“This last statement of this great ‘Earth-sage,’ King Solomon, remains today an unchangeable truth.

43.1113

“And indeed, at the present time, this also is one of the numerous causes thanks to which, in the general complexity, ordinary existence has already become nonsensical in the extreme for the beings of your planet.

43.1113

“In the contemporary ‘Earth-beings’ of the female sex, there is still further increased during these states that specific property of theirs which was acquired in them during recent centuries and which they call ‘hysteria,’ and during this state of theirs they bring surrounding beings, particularly their husbands, to this, that the latter become like those beings there of whom our great Mullah Nassr Eddin says:

43.1113

“‘The purpose of their existence is to be the victims of leeches.’

43.1113

“And indeed, it is only because the contemporary beings of the female sex go about freely during ‘menstruation’ that many contemporary beings of the male sex not only can never have good and kind relations with each other, but on account of this, very frequently become genuine what are called ‘later-repenting blasphemers.’

43.1113

“This favorable custom created by the wise King Solomon existed among the Hebrew people for a considerable time and would certainly have been spread all over the Earth also, had it not been for that specific property of the beings there, about which I have also already once told you.

43.1113-4

“Namely, when this Hebrew people, as usually happens there, had fallen from their greatness and were despised and persecuted by the beings of other communities, who on account of the impulses of jealousy and envy of all those higher than themselves, hated her in the days of her greatness and power, which impulses had already become inherent in the three-brained beings of your planet—then these beings of other communities, of course, also despised all the indeed good customs which they had already had.

43.1114

“That is why this good custom was not only not spread further, but gradually, also owing to their other characteristic properties, which I have already sufficiently explained to you, that is to say, owing to the fact that this Hebrew people had themselves fallen under the influence of other communities which had become great, and had followed their examples—this good custom began to be despised and was ultimately forsaken and forgotten by the very founders themselves.

43.1114

“At the present time, this custom exists there only among a very small community to be found in the mountains of the Caucasus and bearing the name ‘Khevsoory,’ just those same Khevsoory who give many scientists there no sleep, because of the problem of the origin of that small community.

43.1114

“As regards your favorites also destroying the good customs for ordinary existence already existing on their planet and attained by their ancestors, we must, like it or not, again express our condolence with poor Nature there who must always be adapting and readapting Herself.

43.1114

“And concerning a misfortune of this kind for their Nature, our very dear Teacher, the peerless Mullah Nassr Eddin, has also some very wise sentences.

43.1114

“Namely, in similar misfortunes he sometimes says:

43.1114

“‘Ekh… if you’re unlucky in life, you may even be infected by your godmother with venereal disease,’ or sometimes he also says:

43.1115

“‘Oh, you unfortunate creature! Your mother must have sung an Armenian ballad while you were being born.’

43.1115

“Even the interpreter of Russian wisdom, Kusma Proutkoff, has good sayings for such a case:

43.1115

“‘The unluckiest among us is the fir cone, because every Makkar stumbles over it.’

43.1115

“I repeat, this unfortunate Nature of the planet Earth must continuously and without respite adapt Herself to manifest always otherwise, and yet again otherwise, so as to remain within the common-cosmic harmony.

43.1115

“In order that you may represent to yourself and understand well in what way unfortunate Nature there so adapts Herself that there should be attained what is called the ‘equilibrium of vibrations,’ required from this planet for the common-cosmic harmony, I shall explain to you only about one fact which is just now being actualized there, that is to say, subsequent to that process of theirs which they called the ‘World War.’

43.1115

“It was plainly owing to the fact that during the said process what is called ‘poison gas’ was invented by beings called ‘Germans,’ and what are called special ‘rapid-fire machine guns’ by beings called ‘Englishmen,’ that the amount of Rascooarnos or deaths unforeseen by Nature took place on this occasion and in a far greater quantity than was then required by Her, or, as the candidates for Hasnamuss there, namely, the commercial businessmen, would say, ‘overproduction’ occurred in respect of the deaths of the three-brained beings required there.

43.1115

“In consequence, Nature there had again to begin from that moment to ‘puff and blow,’ and, as is said there, ‘jump out of Her skin’ in order to correct this unforeseeingness and adapt Herself once again in a corresponding manner.

43.1115-6

“This time, from what I myself learned for certain during my last stay there, and also from the intimation communicated to me by etherogram, Great Nature there is evidently about to increase, for future times, the birth rate of other forms of beings there.

43.1116

“I noticed in the cities Petrograd and Tiflis situated in the large community Russia, of which community more beings perished than of any other during that World War of theirs, that that kind of quadruped being which as a rule never appeared there, namely, the quadruped beings which hate people and which are called ‘wolves,’ were already prowling in the streets.

43.1116

“In the information communicated to me by etherogram it was said, among other things, that in the same large community Russia the birth rate of beings of the kinds of rodents called ‘mice’ and ‘rats’ had increased to such an unprecedented extent that at the present time they are beginning to devour most of the stored provisions of the beings of the said community.

43.1116

“It was further conveyed in the same etherogram that the power-possessing beings of the community Russia had applied to the beings of another European community to undertake the destruction of the existence of those small beings—mice and rats—which had multiplied among them, in return for which they promised to pay them as much money as it would cost.

43.1116

“Though a temporary reduction of the numbers of these poor rats and mice may be obtained by the various means at the disposal of those specialists in the destruction of the existences of others, yet the beings of the other communities will possibly not quite consent to do this ‘gratis.’ To pay in money, however, this the beings of that Russia who promised it will, of course, not be able to do, since it might cost them in money much more than their last war.

43.1116-7

“And to get money from the same sources from which they drained it during that great process, as our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin says, ‘As to this, nothing doing! Even a donkey can understand that peasant flesh costs nothing in peacetime.’”

43.1117

Having said this, Beelzebub became silent and began to look expectantly at his grandson who, as if talking to himself, very sadly, in a tone full of despair, said:

43.1117

“How will it all end? Is there really no way out at all?

43.1117

“Must these unfortunate souls who were formed on that unfortunate planet really remain eternally unperfected and be endlessly coated into various planetary forms and everlastingly toil and moil on account of the consequences of the properties of that accursed organ Kundabuffer, which, owing to the reasons extraneous to them themselves, was attached to the planetary bodies of the first three-centered beings of that ill-fated planet?

43.1117

“Where, then, is that pillar upon which, as it were, our whole Megalocosmos rests, and which is called Justice?!!!!

43.1117

“No! This cannot be! Something is wrong here, because during the whole time of my existence, not once has a single doubt ever crept into me as to the existence of objective Justice.

43.1117

“All I have to do is just to clarify and understand… why!… why!

43.1117

“At any rate, from this present moment, the aim of my existence shall be to understand clearly why the souls arising in these terrestrial three-centered beings are in such an unprecedented, terrifying situation….”

43.1117

Having said this, poor Hassein, full of melancholy, drooped his head and became sadly thoughtful.

43.1117

And Beelzebub looked at him with a very strange look; strange because in this look his love for Hassein was very clearly seen, and at the same time it could be sensed that he was nevertheless very glad that his grandson was experiencing such a depression.

43.1117-8

This silence continued a fairly long time. At last Beelzebub heaved a deep sigh, with, as it were, the whole of his essence, and spoke to his grandson in the following words:

43.1118

“Yes, my dear Hassein.…

43.1118

“Certainly there is something not quite right here.

43.1118

“But if nothing could be done for the beings of that planet by that Being who now already has the Reason of the sacred ‘Podkoolad’ and is one of the first assistants of our ENDLESSNESS in the government of the World, namely, the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash—if He could do nothing, what then can we expect, we, beings with the Reason of almost ordinary beings?

43.1118

“You remember the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, then in his deliberations, under the title ‘The Terror of the Situation’ said:

43.1118

“‘If it is still possible to save the beings of the Earth, then Time alone can do it.’

43.1118

“We can now only repeat the same in regard to this terrible property of theirs, of which we have just been speaking, namely, their periodic processes of the destruction of each other’s existence.

43.1118

“We can only say now, that if this property of terrestrial beings is to disappear from that unfortunate planet, then it will be with Time alone, thanks either to the guidance of a certain Being with very high Reason or to certain exceptional cosmic events.”

43.1118

Having said this, Beelzebub again began to look at Hassein with that same strange look.