Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

30 Art

30.482

“In order, my boy, that you should have a concrete representation of these Saturday demonstrations, at which I was always glad to be present in order to rest from my intense activities at that time, I will give you an illustrative example of how these learned mysterists demonstrated before the other learned members of the club of the Adherents-of-Legominism various being-experiencings and manifestations according to the flow of associations, from among the number of which fragments for future mysteries were selected.

30.482

“For these demonstrations, they constructed in one of the large halls of the club a specially raised place which they then called the ‘reflector-of-reality,’ but beings of subsequent epochs to whom the information concerning these Babylonian learned mysterists chanced to be transmitted and who began imitating them and doing as it were the same, called and still call their constructions of a similar kind ‘stages.’

30.483

“Well, then, two of the participants would always come upon these ‘reflectors-of-reality’ or stages, first; and then usually one of them stood for a while and, as it were, listened to his own what is called ‘Darthelhlustnian’ state, or, as it is sometimes otherwise said, to the state of his own inner ‘associative-general-psychic-experiencings.’

30.483

“Listening in this way, he would make it clear to his Reason, for instance, that the sum total of his associating experiencings emerged in the form of an urgent inclination to hit another being in the face, the sight of whom had always served as the cause for the beginning of the association of those series of impressions present in him which had always evoked in his general psyche disagreeable experiencings offensive to his own self-consciousness.

30.483

“Let us suppose that these disagreeable experiencings always proceeded in him when he saw someone who was then called ‘Irodohahoon,’ which professional there contemporary beings now call a ‘policeman’!

30.483

“Having then made this Darthelhlustnian psychic state and inclination of his clear to his Reason, but at the same time being on the one hand well aware that in the existing conditions of external social existence it was impossible for him to gratify his inclination to the full, and, on the other hand, being already perfected by Reason and being well aware of his dependence on the automatic functioning of the other parts of his common presence, he clearly understands that on the gratification of this inclination of his depends the fulfillment of some imminent and important being-duty of his, of great importance to those around him; and having thought over everything in this way, he decides to gratify this urgent inclination of his as best he can by at least doing a ‘moral injury’ to that Irodohahoon by evoking in him associations that would lead to unpleasant experiencings.

30.483-4

“With this object in view, he turns to the other learned being who has come onto the stage with him, and treating him now as an Irodohahoon or policeman, he would say:

30.484

“‘Hi! you! Don’t-you-know-your-duty? Don’t-you-see-that-there…?’ pointing with his hand at that moment in the direction of another small room of the club where were the other participants of the demonstrations of that day, ‘Two-citizens-a-“soldier”-and-a-“cobbler”-are-fighting-in-the-street-and-disturbing-the-public-peace-and-here-you-are-leisurely-strolling-about-imagining-yourself-God-knows-who-and-leering-at-the-passing-wives-of-honest-and-respectable-citizens!-Just-you-wait-you-scamp!-Through-my-chief-the-city’s-chief-physician-I-shall-report-to-your-chief-your-negligence-and-breach-of-duty!’

30.484

“From that moment, the learned being who had spoken would become a physician, because he had chanced to call his chief the head physician of the city, while the second learned being whom the former had called a policeman would assume the role of a policeman. Two other participating learned beings were then immediately called from the other room by the one who assumed the role of policeman, and they assumed the roles of cobbler and soldier respectively.