Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

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Martaadamlik

 

38 Religion

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“It may be noted, for example, that, indeed, in all the beings of that large community Russia, only one or two centuries ago, before they had yet begun to imitate everything European, these two being-functions still obtained which are called ‘Martaadamlik’ and ‘Nammuslik,’ or—as these being-feelings are still called—the ‘feeling-of-religiousness’ and the ‘feeling-of-patriarchality.’

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“And it was just those same being-feelings which a couple of centuries ago made the beings of that large community famous among other beings of the whole of this planet in respect of their morality and the patriarchality of their family foundations.

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“But when afterwards they began imitating everything European, both these being-feelings still remaining in them began gradually to atrophy in them, and now at the present time almost all the beings of that community have become, in the sense of religiousness and patriarchality, such… the notion of which our wise teacher Mullah Nassr Eddin expresses by the mere exclamation:

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“‘Eh!… get along with you.