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"During this period of my life I made these observations and studies of mine at all times with my whole inner real "I" while in a drunken, semi-drunken and also sober state.

"And then, among other things I also read assiduously every kind of literature existing here in Europe concerning these diseases, and also most of the books on this question in French and German.

"This I could easily do because, as you see, I have such a command of French that you can scarcely guess that I am not a real French intellectual; and with the German language also I get along very well, because I lived a fairly long time in Germany and always, in my free time studied their language and their literature for want of something to do.

"So, when I became interested in this question, I was able to become fully acquainted with all the knowledge that exists in contemporary civilization on the subject of venereal disease.

"In this literature there appeared to be hundreds of theories and hundreds of hypotheses concerning the causes of venereal infection, but I could not discover one convincingly categorical explanation how and why some people are infected with these diseases and others not, and I soon became convinced that I could not clear up this for myself with the knowledge existing on this question at the present time here in Europe.

"From all this literature - putting aside, of course, and not even mentioning the multitude of those thick "scientific-books" here, whose contents immediately show every more or less normal person that they were written by people who were as is said "complete-ignormauses" on these questions, that is to say, not specialists in human diseases at all - I got the general impression that people were infected and fall ill with venereal diseases, only owing to their own uncleanliness.

"When I made this categorical deduction, there was nothing left for me but to concentrate all my attention upon finding out in what my personal cleanliness particularly consisted which had so far protected me against infection.

"I then began to deliberate with myself as follows:

"I do not dress any more cleanly than everybody else living here in Europe; I wash my hands and face every morning also like everybody else; once a week I make a point of going to a Turkish bath, - also, it seems, like everyone; and in this way I turned over many things in my mind, and with the result I found nothing in which, in this respect, I was exceptional; and yet the fact remained that, from my loathsome life, I of course ran more chances of being infected.

"From then on my thoughts were guided by two definite convictions already fully established in me; firstly, that anyone having relations with such women must inevitably sooner or later be infected; and secondly, that only cleanliness protects one from such infection.

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"In this manner I continued to reflect for a whole week, until I suddenly remembered a certain habit of mine which here in Europe I always scrupulously concealed from my acquaintances; I remembered namely, about that habit of mine which is called among us in Persia 'Abdest'.

"The custom of "Abdest" which, according to the notions here might be called "ablution", is one of the chief customs among us in Persia.

"Strictly speaking, every follower of the Mohammedan religion must obey this custom, though it is practised particularly strictly only by Mohammedans of the Shiite sect; and as almost the whole of Persia is composed of Shiites, the custom is nowhere so widely spread as among us in Persia.

"This custom is that every adherent of the Shiite sect, male as well as female, must, after every "toilet" unfailingly wash his sex organs. For this purpose, every family has the necessary appurtenances considered among us even as the most important, consisting of a special vessel, a particular kind of bowl called "Ibrkh". And the richer the family the more of these bowls they must have, since such a bowl must at once and without fail be put at the disposal of every newly-arrived guest.

"I myself was from early childhood also personally accustomed to this habit, and it gradually so entered into my daily life that even when I came here to Europe, where this custom does not exist, I could not live a single day without making this "ablution".

"For instance it is much easier for me to go without washing my face even after a debauch, than to not wash certain parts of my body with cold water after the "toilet".

"At present, living here in Europe, I not only have to put up with a great many inconveniences owing to this habit of mine, but I even have to forgo some of the modern comfort which I could easily afford.

"For instance, I now live in Paris, where owing to my means I could well afford to live at the very best hotel with every modern comfort, but, thanks to this habit of mine, I cannot do this but am obliged to live in some dirty hotel situated far from the "centre" and from all those places where I have to be almost every day.

"In the hotel where I now live, there are no comforts beyond this single comfort which is very important for me; and this is due to the fact that being of old construction, this hotel has "water-closets" of the old type and not of the new contemporary American invention, and it is just that old system which is the most convenient and suitable for this habit of mine.

"It is quite likely that I even half consciously chose France as my chief dwelling-place because it is still possible to find everywhere here especially in the provinces "water-closets" of the old system as among us in Persia.

"In other countries of Europe this, as they now call it, "Asiatic-system" scarcely exists. It has almost everywhere been exchanged for the American

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system with its comfortable, polished "easy-chairs" upon which I, personally, could only rest and read the book called the "Decameron".

"And so, my honourable doctor, when I suddenly remembered this habit of mine, I at once understood without any further doubt, that if I had hitherto escaped being infected with some filthy disease, it was solely because I frequently wash my sex organs with cold water."

"Having said these last words, this sympathetic young Persian extended his arms upwards and with his whole being exclaimed:

"'Blessed forever be the memory of those who created for us that beneficial custom.'"

"He said nothing further for a long while but looked pensively at a party of Americans sitting nearby who were discussing at that moment whether women dress better in England or in America; and then he suddenly turned to me with the following words:

"'My highly esteemed and honourable doctor.'"

"'During my acquaintance with you I have become quite convinced that you are very well educated and as is said very well read.'"

"'Will you be so kind as to give me your weighty opinion so that I might at last understand and solve one problem which during recent years has aroused my curiosity and which when I am comparatively sober often arises in me and disturbs my thought.'"

"'The point is, that living here in Europe where people profess the religion whose followers compose almost half the world, I have not up to now come across a single good custom in their ordinary life, whereas among us who profess the Mohammedan religion, there are very many.'"

"'What is wrong? What is the cause of it? Were there no good ordinances fore-designed by the Founder of that great religion for the ordinary life of people, the followers of this religion?'....'"

"Well, my boy, as this young Persian had become sympathetic to me during our acquaintance, I could not refuse him this request; and I decided to explain the question to him, but also, of course, in such a form that he would not even suspect who I was and what was my genuine nature."

"I told him:

"You say that in the religion which half the world professes, and you probably mean the "Christian-religion" there are not such good customs as in your Mohammedan religion?"

"'Are there not? On the contrary; in that religion there were many more good customs than in any of the religions of today; in none of the ancient

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religious teachings were so many good regulations for ordinary everyday life laid down as in just that teaching on which this same "Christian-religion" was founded.

"If the followers of this great religion themselves, especially those called the "Elders-of-the-Church" of the Middle Ages, treated this religion, step by step, as "Bluebeard" treated his wives, that is to say, put them into derision and changed all their beauty and charm - that is already quite a different matter.

"In general you must know that all the great genuine religions which have existed down to the present time, created, as history itself testifies, by men of equal attainment in regard to the perfecting of their Pure Reason, are always based on the same truths. The difference in those religions is only in the definite regulations they lay down for the observance of certain details and of what are called rituals; and this difference is the result of the deliberate adoption by the great Founders of these regulations which suited the degree of mental perfection of the people of the given period.

"At the root of every new doctrine upon which religions are founded, dogmas are always to be found, which have been taken from earlier religions and which had already been well fixed in the life of the people.

"And in this case, the saying is fully justified which has existed among people from of old - "There-is-nothing-new-under-the-sun."

"The only things new in these religious teachings, as I have said, are the small details, intentionally adapted by the great Founders to the degree of the mental perfection of the people of the given epoch.

"And so, at the root of this same doctrine upon which the Christian religion is based, there was placed almost the whole of the previously existing great teaching which is now called Judaism, whose followers once also numbered almost, as is said, half the "world".

"The great Founders of the "Christian-religion", having taken the Jewish doctrine as their basis, changed only its outer details according to the degree of mental development of the contemporaries of Jesus Christ, and in it they effectively provided for everything necessary for the welfare of people.

"Provision was made in it as is said both for the soul and for the body; and it even provided all the necessary regulations for a peaceful and happy existence. And this was all surpassingly wisely provided for in such a way, that this religion might be suitable also for people of much later epochs.

"Had the doctrine of this religion remained unchanged, it might even perhaps have suited these contemporary people, who by the way, our Mullah Nassr Eddin defines by his expression, "He-will-blink-only-if-you-poke-his-eye-with-a-rafter".

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"At its origin there entered into this Christian religion besides those specially established regulations for ordinary existence which met the needs of the contemporaries of Jesus Christ, also many excellent customs which were already in existence and had become well fixed in the life of the people who were followers of the Judaic religion.

"Even those good customs which now exist among you in the Mohammedan religion were transmitted to you from the Judaic religion. Take, for example, just that custom of "Sunniat" or "Circumcision" which you mentioned. This custom was at first contained in this Christian religion also, and in the beginning was obligatorily and strictly carried out by all its followers. Only subsequently did it very quickly and suddenly entirely disappear from the Christian religion.

"If you wish, my young friend, I will tell you in detail about the arising of this custom, and you will understand from it why a custom so good for the health and normal life of people was included in the Judaic religion. And since the Judaic doctrine was made the basis of the Christian religion, this custom also could not fail to be taken over and introduced into the process of the ordinary life of the followers of the Christian religion.

"This custom which you call "Sunniat" was first created and introduced into the Judaic religious doctrine by the Great Moses.

"And why the Great Moses introduced this custom into the religion of the Judaic people I learned from a very ancient Chaldean manuscript.

"It was said in this manuscript that when the Great Moses was the leader of the Judaic people and conducted them from the land of Egypt to the land of Canaan, he constated the fact during the journey that among the youths and children of the people confided to him from Above, there was very widely spread the disease then called "Moordoorten" which contemporary people call "Onanism".

"It was further said in the manuscript that having constated this fact the Great Moses was greatly perturbed and from then on, began observing very closely in order to discover the causes of this evil and some means of uprooting it.

"These researches of his led this incomparable sage later to write a book under the title of "Tookha-Tes-Naloc1-Pan", which in contemporary language means "The-Quintessence-of-my-Reflections".

"With the contents of this remarkable book I also once(became acquainted?).

"At the beginning of the explanation about the disease "Moordoorten", it was said, among other things, that the human organism has been brought by Great Nature to such perfection that each and every organ has been provided with a means of defence against every external contingency; and hence that if any organ should function incorrectly in people, it must always be the people themselves who are to blame owing to their own established conditions of everyday life.

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"And concerning the causes themselves of the appearance of "Moordoorten" among children, it was said in Chapter VI, verse XI of this incomparable book, that this disease occurs in children for the following reasons:

"Among the definite substances elaborated by the human organism and constantly thrown off by it as waste, there is a definite substance called "Kulnabo".

"This substance is in general elaborated in the organism of beings for the purpose of neutralizing other also definite substances necessary for the functioning of their sex organs, and it is formed and participates in the functioning of the said organs from the very beginning of the arising of the beings of both sexes, that is to say, from their infancy.

"Great Nature has so arranged it that after its utilization the residue of this substance is discharged from the organism of boys at the place between the "Toolkhtotino" and the "Sarnuonino", and in girls from the places between the "Khartotakhnian-hills".

"The parts of the organism of boys located at the end of what is called the "genital-member" and which are named in this incomparable book "Toolkhtotino" and Sarnonio" are named by contemporary medicine there "Glans-Penis" and "Prepuce-Enis"; and the "Kartotakhnian-hills" covering what is called the "clitoris" of girls, are called "Labia-majora" and "Labia-Minora", or as is said in common language, "the-large-and-small-obscence-lips".

"For the substance "Kulnabo", contemporary medicine has no name at all, this independent substance being entirely unknown to it.

"Contemporary terrestrial medicine has a name only for the general mass of those substances among which is also the substance "Kulnabo".

"And this total mass it calls "Smegna", a composition of entirely heterogeneous substances, secreted by various what are called "glands", which have nothing in common with each other; as for instance, the "grease" gland, the "Cooperian", "Nolniolnian" the "Bartolynian" gland, and others.

"The separation and volatilization of these waste substances should in accordance with the providence of Great Nature be induced for the said places by means of all kinds of chance contacts and by various movements occurring in the atmosphere.

"But unforeseen by Nature, the clothing which people have invented for themselves prevent the said factors from freely effecting the separation and volatilization of these substances, with the result that this "Kulnabo", remaining for a long time on these places, promotes the arising of perspiration; moreover, as this substance is in general the very best medium for the multiplication of what are called "bacteria", which exist in the atmosphere as well as in what are called the "subjective-spheres" of all kinds of things coming into direct contact with the children, there occurs from this multiplying there on the given parts of the organism of children, a process called "itching".

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"On account of this itching, children begin, unconsciously at first, to rub or scratch these places. Later, as there are concentrated in these parts of the organism all the ends of the nerves created by Nature for the special sensation required for the completion of the sacred process Almuano, which normally arises in adult people at the end of what is called copulation, and as, especially at a certain period when according to the process of Great Nature there proceeds in these organs of children a process of preparation for future sex functionings, they experience from this rubbing or scratching a certain peculiar pleasant sensation, they therefore, begin intentionally - having instinctively realized from which of their actions this pleasant sensation is evoked in them - to rub these places even when there is no itching; and thus the ranks of the little "Moordooritenists" on the Earth are always increasing by leaps and bounds.

"As regards just what measures the Great Moses took for eradicating that evil, I learned not from the aforementioned book "Tookha-Tes-Nalool-Pan", but from the contents of an also very ancient papyrus.

"From the contents of this papyrus it could be clearly seen that the Great Moses gave practical effect to the thoughts set down on this question in the book "Tookha-Tes-Nalool-Pan", by creating for his people those two religious rites, one of which is called "Sikt-ner-chorn" and the other "Tzel-putz-kann".

"The sacred "Sikt-ner-chorn" was specially created for boys and the sacred "Tzel-putz-kann" for girls, and they were to be obligatorily performed on all children of both sexes.

"The rite of "Sikt-ner-chorn", for instance, was identical with your "Sooniat". But cutting what is called the "Vojiano" or the "Freniculum-penis" of boys, the connection is severed between the head and the skin covering it, and thus there is obtained the free movement of this skin, or, as it is called "Prepuce-penis".

"According to the information which has come down to us from ancient times and also according to our own common sense, it is plain that the Great Moses, who as we learn from another source, was a very great authority on medicine, wished by this means to secure that the totality of substances accumulating in the said places might of itself be mechanically removed owing to all kinds of accidental contact and thus cease to become a factor for the arising of the mentioned maleficient itching.

"Concerning the vast learning of the Great Moses in the province of medicine, many diverse historical sources agree that he obtained his medical knowledge during his stay in Egypt as a pupil of the Egyptian high-priests to whom this knowledge had come down from their ancestors of the continent Atlantis - the first and last genuinely learned beings of the Earth, the members of the society then called "Akhaldan".

"The beneficial results of the customs then created by the Great Moses even now continue to be fairly visible in practice.

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"Concerning for instance the custom of "circumcision" in particular, I, being a good diagnostician and able to tell from one glance at a man's face what disharmony he has in his organism, can safely say that this terrible children's-disease of "Onanism" is scarcely ever found among those children upon whom this rite has been performed, whereas the children of those parents who fail to observe this custom are almost all subject to it.

"The exceptions in this respect are only the children of those parents who are indeed cultured in the full sense of the word, and who clearly understand that the future normal mentation of their children depends exclusively upon whether they do or do not contract this disease in their childhood or youth.

"Such cultured parents know very well that if even once the sensation of the climax of what is called the "Oosamonvenosinian-process" occurs in what is called the "nervous-system" of their children before they reach majority, they will already never have the full possibility of normal mentation when they become adult; and hence it is that such cultured parents always consider it their first and chief duty towards their children, to educate them in this respect.

"Unlike most contemporary parents, they do not consider that the education of children consists in badgering them to learn by rote as much poetry as possible, composed by "Moordoortenist-psychopaths", or in teaching them to "click-their-heels-well" before their acquaintances, in which accomplishments according to the notions of people of recent times, the whole education of children unfortunately consists.

"And so my dear friend - and though very depraved yet nevertheless sympathetic young man.

"These two rites were created by the Great Moses and introduced then into the ordinary life of the Judaic people, in order to counteract that maleficent invention of clothes, thanks to which those factors were destroyed which were provided by Nature for the protection of these organs from the harmful action of the substances given off by them; and these two rites were transmitted from generation to generation both to the followers of this Judaic religion themselves, as well as to others who took over these useful rites almost unchanged. And it was only after "the-death-of-the-great-King-Solomon" that the rite "Tzel-putz-kun" ceased for some reason or other to be performed even by the followers of this Judaic religion and only the rite "Sikt-ner-chorn" automatically continued to be performed and reached the contemporary representatives of that race.

"And this custom together with many other ancient Judaic customs also reached the followers of the Christian religion who at first observed it very strictly in their everyday life; but very soon, both this custom itself and even the information about its adoption among them, similarly quickly disappeared from among the followers of this then still new religion.

"Yes...my dear friend. If only the teaching of the Divine Jesus Christ were carried out in full conformity with its original, then the religion unpre-

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cendently wisely founded on it, would not only be the best of all existing religions, but even of all religions which may arise and exist in the future.

"Besides the custom of polygamy, there is nothing in the Mohammedan religion which was not also in the Judaic as well as in the Christian teachings.

"The custom of polygamy, established on the basis of the scientific deductions of the then famous Arabian learned beings Nasoolan-El-Aool, was introduced into the everyday life of people in general after the period of the founding of the Christian religion.

"Your religion arose much later and its contents were intentionally restricted by its great creators, who had it in mind to lay particular stress on certain everyday customs.

"They did this because at that time there were clearly manifest both the decline of the Christian religion and the disappearance in ordinary people of the capacity for contemplation, that is, for the state in which alone the truths indicated in the detailedly genuine religious teachings can be understood.

"Having noticed all this, the great creators of the Mohammedan religion decided on the one hand to simplify the teaching itself, and on the other hand to emphasize certain customs so that the everyday life of the followers of this new teaching - who had lost the capacity for contemplation and consequently the possibility of understanding truths consciously - might at least mechanically flow more or less tolerably.

"Just at that time, among other customs, they established and laid particular stress on the customs you mentioned of "Sunniat", "Abdest" and "Polygamy", the beneficial results of which we can see even now in practice.

"For example, as you yourself have justly observed, thanks to "circumcision" and "ablution", one rarely finds among the followers of this "religion", either "onanism" or certain venereal diseases, and thanks to "polygamy" we see among the followers of this religion such a reciprocal so to say "psycho-organic" maintenance of the foundation of family life, as is almost entirely absent among the followers of the Christian religion.

"Of the useful customs originally contained in the Christian religion and which were introduced by the creators of that religion into the life of its followers for the preservation of health and for the maintenance of the foundations of morality necessary for a happy life, nothing now remains except the custom of periodic fasting, that is, of abstaining at certain times of the year from the consumption of certain edible products.

"And even this one surviving good custom is either already fading completely out of the ordinary life of the followers of this religion or its observance is so changing year by year that no shock is obtained from it for the fasters, though it was just for that shock that this "fast" was established.

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"The changes now taking place in the process of this Christian custom of fasting are very characteristic and provide an excellent example for understanding how in general all the "good-Christian-custums" have little by little undergone change, until they have finally entirely ceased to exist.

"A good illustration is the present-day observance of this fast by those called the Russian "orthodox-Christians".

"These Russian "orthodox-Christians" took their religion entirely from those called the "orthodox-Greeks", from whom together with many other Christian customs this same custom of "fasting" also passed to them.

"Most of the millions of these Russian "orthodox-Christians" still continue to fast, as is said "rigorously" in conformity with what is called the "orthodox-code" now existing there.

"But as to the manner of their fasting - one cannot help recalling the saying of our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin in such cases:

"Isn't-it-all-the-same-if-I-sing-like-a-donkey-as-long-as-they-call-me-a-nightingale".

"The fasting of these Russian "orthodox-Christians" is just a case of this kind.

"As long as they are called "Christians" and moreover "orthodox" - even though they receive no shock whatever from the fast, is it not all the same?

"As I have already said, these Russian orthodox christians even of the present time very strictly observe the seasons and the days of the "fasts" indicated in the aforesaid "codes".

"But as to what should and should not be consumed as food during a fast - just in that question "is-buried-the-left-paw-of-the-curly-haired-dog-of-the-ex-emperor-Wilhelm".

"You will clearly understand how these contemporary Russian orthodox christians fast, if I repeat to you the exact words of one of these genuine Russian orthodox christians, spoken to me not long ago there in Russia.

"I used to meet this Russian there on certain business and even became somewhat friendly with him and visited him in his home.

"He was considered by those around him a very good "christian" and the "patriarchal" father of a family; he was descended from what they call the "Old-Believers".

"Here my boy you might as well know that certain of the beings who compose this large group Russia are called by the rest "Old-Believers".

"Old-Believers" is the name given to those orthodox christians whose ancestors several centuries ago declined to accept the new rules then laid

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down by somebody or other for Russian orthodox christians but remained
faithful followers of the previously existing rules also laid down by
somebody or other, only a century or two before the given "religious-
schism" such as usually occurs among them from time to time.

"And so the said worthy Russian"Old-Believer" - I continued to the young
Persian - 'once when we were dining together at his house in the company of
several other Russians, also orthodox christians, turned to me and said:

"'Eh!' old dear!

"By the way, I must tell you that it is common among the beings of this group
there, after the second glass of genuine Russian vodka, to call their ac-
quaintances by various pet-names such as "old dear", "my Zapoopoonchik",
"my-potbellied-beauty", "eh,-my-little-brown-jug", and so on and so forth.

"And so this worthy genuine orthodox christian addressing me as "old dear"
said:

"Never mind, old dear! We shall soon be having Lent and then we shall feast
together on real Russian dishes.

"To tell the truth, here in Russia we almost always eat the same things
during the "meat" periods.

"But it is quite a different story during the fasts, especially during Lent.

"Not a day passes but one is privileged to see some of the most tasty
dishes.

"You know what, old dear?

"I made the other day a remarkably interesting "discovery" on this subject.

"This new "discovery" of mine is miles above the discovery of that old cod-
ger Copernicus, who when he was once lying dead drunk on the ground clearly
sensed, it seems, that the Earth goes round.

"'Ah!' What a marvel! What a discovery!

"In our own mother Moscow alone, hundreds of thousands of such discoveries
are probably made every day.

"No!...my discovery is a real one and exceedingly instruotive and substantial.

"This discovery of mine is, that we have all been complete fools and hopeless
idiot ever to have imagined and been fairly convinced that for the host of
good, varied and most tasty dishes during Lent, we are indebted to the famous
art of our chefs and cooks.

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"On the day, peculiarly blessed for those near to me, when I became worthy to understand this truth, that is to say, when our incomparable Doonyasha finally succeeded in placing within the layers of the pie for the "grom-well-fish-soup-with-burbot-livers" a series of secondary layers, I understood with my whole being that this had been a great mistake on our part.

"First I understood this myself, and afterwards I proved it to the whole of my household, that if we have so many varied and most tasty dishes during Lent, we are indebted only to our blessed and glorious fishes alone.

"During fasts and especially during Lent, our homes are made happy by the frequent visits of the

Most Honourable "Sturgeon", and the
Estimable "Sterlet", and the
Respected "Dried-Sturgeon", and the
Ever-memorable "Turbot", and
Her Illustrious Highness the "Salmon", and the
Musical "White-Sturgeon", and the
Serenely Plastic "Mackeral", and the
Eternally Angry "Pike", and the
Ever demure "Gwyniad", and the
Leaping Alive "Trout", and the
Beauty "Tioshka", and the
Proud "Shamai", and that

Worthy Personality "Bream", and all our other like benefactors and protectors.

"Merely the names alone of these our givers of good and felicity are already for us the greatest gift of God.

"When we hear their names, our hearts almost leap within.

"These names of theirs are not just names, but real music. Can one really compare the sounds of the music invented there by various Beethovenings and Chopinings, and other fashionable triflers, with the sounds of the names of these blessed fishes?

"Every time we hear the names of these glorious creations, a state of bliss flows within us and courses through our veins and nerves.

"Eh! Blessed fishes, first created by our Creator! Have mercy on us and sustain us also in these "meat-days", Amen.

"After this prayer, this worthy "orthodox-Russian-christian" drained a mon-ster glass of genuine "refined" Russian vodka and stared fondly at a little statue of "Venus and Psyche" which stood nearby.

"And indeed my friend, almost every Russian "orthodox-christian" has a simi-lar idea of fasting and a similar attitude towards it.

"During these "Christian-fasts" which passed to them from the orthodox Greeks, they all eat the flesh of fish.

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"It is not considered a "sin" among them to eat the flesh of fish, and they eat it heartily as a fast dish.

"I personally find only one thing incomprehensible - from where did these Russian "sorry-orthodox" get the idea that during the Christian fasts, especially during Lent, the flesh of fish may be eaten?

"I find it incomprehensible because the orthodox christians from whom they took this religion, namely the Greeks, neither in the past nor in the present, have ever eaten or do eat the flesh of fish during fasts.

"Even the Greeks of today eat fish during Lent only on one day, and even then in accordance with the code of the orthodox church in memory of a day associated with the Divine Jesus Christ.

"The result of a fast permitting the consumption of the flesh of fish not only gives no shock at all to the fasters, but is even directly contrary to what the Divine Jesus Christ himself intended and taught, and for which this custom was established by the great creators of this Christian religion.

"In confirmation of what I have just told you, you might as well, my young friend, listen to what I once chanced to read about Christian fasting in an ancient Judaic-Essene manuscript.

"In this ancient Judaic-Essene manuscript it was stated that the custom established for the followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ of fasting at certain times of the year, was instituted long after His death, namely, in the two hundred and fourteenth year after his birth.

"The custom of fasting was instituted and introduced into the Christian religion by the great secret Kelmuanian council.

"This secret Kelmuanian council was convened by all the followers of the then still new teaching of Jesus Christ in the locality of Kelmuk, lying on the shores of the Dead Sea. Hence, it is known in the history of the Christian religion as the Kelmuanian Council.

"And it was held in secret because the followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ were then everywhere rigorously persecuted by the "power-possessing" people.

"The "power-possessing" people persecuted them because they greatly feared that if people lived according to this teaching, then although they themselves, namely, the "power-possessing" people, could also live very well, yet all the motives for displaying their power would disappear, and thereby those shocks would cease the satisfaction of which evoke the tickling of their inner god named "Self-love".

"It was just during that Kelmuanian council, that its members first laid down the rule that the followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ should on certain days abstain from consuming certain edible products for food.

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"And the initial cause of the institution of this fast was the dispute at this Kelmuanian Council between two then famous learned men, namely, the Great Hertoonano and the great Greek Philosopher Veggendiadi.

"The great Hertoonano was the representative of all the followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ settled on the shores of the Red Sea, while the philosopher Veggendiadi was the representative of all the then followers of that teaching in Greece.

"The philosopher Veggendiadi was famous for his learning only in his own country, but Hertoonano was famous all over the Earth. He was considered the greatest authority on the laws of the inner organization of man, and also an authority on the science then called "Alchemy", - not of course the alchemical science of which contemporary people have a notion and which they express by the same word.

"The famous dispute between the great Hertoonano and Veggendiadi arose on the following occasion.

"The philosopher Veggendiadi, it seems, occupied two days in affirming and proving that it was absolutely necessary to spread among all the followers of the teaching of Jesus, the notion that to kill animals for the purpose of consuming their flesh for food, was the greatest sin, and moreover that such flesh was very harmful to the health and so on.

"After the philosopher Veggendiadi, several other representatives ascended the rostrum and spoke for or against his case.

"Finally, as this manuscript stated, the Great Hertoonano with measured dignity slowly mounted the rostrum and spoke in the manner proper to him, clearly and calmly.

"According to the text of this manuscript, he then spoke as follows:

"I fully concur in all the evidences and arguments set forth here by our Brother in Christ, the philosopher Veggendiadi.

"I for my part will even add to all he has said, that to cut short other lives merely to stuff one's own belly is an infamy of infamies such as only man is capable of.

"Had I not also been interested in this question for many years and had I not reached certain entirely different definite conclusions, then after all that our Brother in Christ Veggendiadi has said here, I should not hesitate a moment but should urge and conjure you all, not to delay until tomorrow, but without looking behind, to hasten back to your towns, and there in the public squares to cry aloud: 'Stop! Stop! People! Consume no more meat for food! This practice of yours is not only contrary to all the commandments of God, but is the cause of all your diseases.

"As you see, I do not do this now. And I do not do so only because during

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my long years of unremitting study of this question, I have, as I have already told you, arrived at an entirely different definite conclusion.

"Concerning the definite conclusion at which I have arrived, I can now tell you only this, that it will never happen on the Earth that all people will profess one and the same religion. Hence, in addition to our Christian religion, other religions will always exist. And it is not possible to be certain that the followers of these other religions will also abstain from consuming meat.

"But if we cannot now be certain that at some time or other all people on Earth will abstain from meat, then we must now, as regards the consumption of meat, take quite other more practicable measures, because if one part of mankind consumes meat and the other part does not, then according to the results of my experimental investigations, the greatest of evils, — than which nothing could be worse — would befall the people who did not consume meat.

"Namely, as my detailed experiments have shown me, among people who do not consume meat but who nevertheless live among those who do, the formation ceases of what is called "will-power".

"My experiments proved to me that although when they abstain from meat people's bodily health improves, nevertheless, when such abstainers find themselves mixing with those who consume meat, their psychic state inevitably grows worse, in spite of the fact that the state of their organism may at the same time sometimes improve.

"Thus, a good result for people who abstain from meat can be obtained exclusively only if they live always in complete isolation.

"As regards the people who constantly consume meat, or those products which contain the element called "Ekhnokh", although the appearance of the state of their organism undergoes no change, nevertheless their psyche, especially its chief feature which is sometimes designated by the general word the "character" of man, gradually changes in regard to positiveness and morality for the worse, beyond all recognition.

"I must tell you that I made all these deductions from the experiments I was enabled to conduct over a period of many years, thanks to two good philanthropic men, namely, to the rich shepherd Alla-Ek-Linakh and his money, and to the scientist we all respect El-Koona-Nassa with his remarkable invention, the apparatus "Arostodesokh".

"By means of this said remarkable apparatus "Arostodesokh" I was enabled for several years to register daily the general state of the organism of all those thousands of people who lived under test conditions at the expense of the good shepherd Alla-Ek-Linakh.

"May our Creator multiply his flocks!

"Well then, when thanks to these experimental researches of mine, I became

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clearly convinced that if people continue to consume meat for their food, it will be very bad for them and that on the other hand, if only some of them should abstain, no good would come of this either; I thereafter de-voted myself entirely for a time to finding out what could nevertheless be done for the future welfare of the majority of the people.

"At the outset I then established for myself two categorical propositons; the first - that people accustomed for so many centuries to consuming meat for their food would never, with their weak wills, be able to make them-selves cease consuming it in order to overcome this criminal tendency of theirs; and the second - that even if people should decide not to eat meat and should in fact keep their decision for a certain time, and should even lose the habit of eating meat, they would nevertheless never be able to ab-stain from eating it for a sufficient length of time to acquire a total aversion to it. They would not be able to do so because never on the Earth will it occur that all people will have the same religion or form a single government, without which condition there can never exist common to all, any suggestive, prohibitive, penal, or other kind of compulsory influence, owing to which alone, people, possessing in general the property of being stimulated by example, aroused by envy and influence magnetically, might be enabled to keep forever a resolution once taken.

"Notwithstanding these two facts incontestably clear in my conviction, I nevertheless, with these facts as the basis of my subsequent researches, per-severed in my search for some possible way of escape from the unhappy sit-uation confronting people.

"Of course all my further investigations on a large scale proceeded again with the aid of the inexhaustible wealth of the herdsman Alla-Ek-Linakh and the wonderful apparatus of the wise El-Koona-Nassa.

"The results of these last researches of mine made it clear to me that al-though in general people's psyche does indeed deteriorate from the constant introduction into the organism of the substance "Eknokh", yet this substance has a particularly harmful effect only at certain times of the year.

"So, my brethren in Christ,...from all I have said and chiefly from the ex-perimental observations which I made on people daily during a whole year and which clearly showed me that the intensity of the harmful effect of the sub-stance "Eknokh" decreases at certain times of the year, I can now confidently express my personal opinion that if the custom would be spread and confirmed among the followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ, of abstaining during at least certain times of the year from the use of these products in the form-ations of which that substance "Eknokh" takes a special part, then if such a measure could conceivably be put into effect, it would bring the people a certain amount of benefit.

"As my numerous alchemical investigations have shown me, the substance "Eknokh" participates in the formation of the organisms of all lives without exception breeding on the surface of the Earth as well as within its dif-ferent spheres, as for instance, within the Earth, in the water, in the at-mosphere and so on.

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"This substance is present also in everything which exists for the formation of the said organisms, as for example, in the vascular fluid of every pregnant female of every kind of life, and in such products as milk, eggs, caviar, etc.

"The ideas expressed by the great Hertoonano so astounded and agitated all the members of that Kelnuanian Council, that the commotion made it impossible for the Great Hertoonano to continue speaking, and he was compelled to abandon his speech and descend from the rostrum.

"It was further said in that manuscript that the day's result was a unanimous decision on the part of the members of the Kelnuanian Council to fix, with the help of the Great Hertoonano, those times of the year when the substance "Eknokh" has more harmful effects on people and to spread widely among the followers of Jesus Christ the custom of fasting at these times of the year - that is, of abstaining at certain times of the year from products containing the, for them, harmful substance "Eknokh".

"With this that Judaic-Essene manuscript ended.

"As you see from this, the creators of this custom had in view that the followers of that religion should abstain at the fixed times from those products which contain the substance very harmful for their health and particularly to their psyche.

"But these Russian "sorry-orthodox-Christians" who consider themselves faithful followers of that great religion, also fast, but during their fast, they eat the flesh of fish, that is to say, they eat just those organisms which contain according to the researches of the Great Hertoonano that harmful substance "Eknokh" precisely to guard them against which that wise and salutary custom was created."

"And with that, my boy, I then concluded my conversation with that sympathetic young Persian.

"Concerning the destruction and transformation by contemporary beings of these good customs which were handed down from the ancient days of their wise ancestors, our incomparable Mullá Nássr Eddin has also a very apt and wise sentence.

"Who? People, people! Why are you people? If only you were not people, you might perhaps be clever."

"A favourite saying of the American Uncle Sam also does very well to define the same idea.

"It is said that when that Uncle Sam from America happens to have drunk a little more gin than usual, he always says during a pause: 'When nothing's right - only then, all right'.

"But for myself I will only say, in this case, 'Wicked Moon'.

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"At any rate, my dear boy, I must admit that certain customs existing there which have reached the contemporary favourites of yours from remote antiquity are exceedingly good for the ordinary existence of the beings of certain communities there.

"These customs are good because they were invented and introduced into the process of the existence of beings by those three-brained beings there, who brought the perfecting of their Reason up to so high a degree, that unfortunately none of your contemporary beings there any longer attains.

"The contemporary people-beings are able to create only such customs as make the quality of their psyche still worse.

"For instance-they have recently made a practice of always here, there and everywhere dancing a certain dance called the 'Fox-trot'.

"At the present time this 'fox-trot' is indulged in everywhere at all times of the day and night not only by young still unformed beings who do not even begin to be aware of the sense and aim of their arising and existence, but also by those whose faces clearly express - as it can be constated by every normal more or less sensible three-brained beings - that in respect of their duration of existence, as our teacher would say 'not-only-have-they-one-foot-in-the-grave-but-even-both'. The point however is that the process of the experience in a being during the said 'fox-trot' is exactly similar to that which proceeds during that children's disease which the Great Moses called 'Moordoorten'.

"The disease which the Great Moses devoted half his existence to eradicating from among children, a host of your contemporary favourites of responsible age have, almost deliberately, resurrected again and spread not only among children and the general mass of adults, but also even among the aged as well.

"These good customs for ordinary existence reached your contemporary favourites from ancient three-brained beings of your planet, and very many now still exist there among the beings of various communities of the continent Asia.

"Certain of these customs existing there now, appear when first witnessed, as absurdly strange and barbaric, but on a close and impartial investigation of the inner meaning of any of these customs, one can see how skillfully there has been incorporated in them for the people who follow them, one or another moral or hygienic benefit.

"Take, as an example, one of the most seemingly senseless of the customs there, - one existing among a certain tribe of Asiatic beings called 'Kolenian Loors' or 'Kolenian gypsies' dwelling between Persia and Afghanistan, and which other beings there call 'Gypsy-self-fumigation'.

"Exactly the same end is served by this seemingly stupid custom as by the Persian custom of 'Ablution' or 'Abdest'.

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"This gypsy tribe is regarded as the lowest and filthiest of all the tribes existing on the Earth; and indeed they are so filthy that their clothes are always swarming with the insects called lice.

"Their custom of 'self-fumigation' also serves by the way to destroy these insects.

"Although the men-beings of that tribe are indeed exceedingly filthy, yet not only do no venereal diseases exist among them, but they do not even know and have never even heard that such diseases can be contracted.

"In my opinion, this is the outcome entirely of that custom of theirs, which some ancient clever being there invented, for the welfare of the people of his epoch, and which passing afterwards from generation to generation, chanced to reach these contemporary filthy beings of the tribe of 'Kolenian-gypsies'.

"For this rite of 'self-fumigation' every family of gypsies has also what is called an 'Ateshkaini', that is a stool of a special form which they regard as sacred; and this whole ritual of theirs they perform with the aid of this sacred stool.

"Every family of these gypsies has also what is called a 'Tandoor', that is, a special kind of earth pit, such as is found in the houses almost everywhere on the continent of Asia and which serves as a hearth on which they usually bake bread and prepare food.

"In these 'Tandoors' in Asia they burn chiefly what is called 'Keeziak' - a fuel composed of the dung of quadruped animals.

"The rite itself consists in this, that when the family of these gypsies returns home in the evening, they first remove all their clothing and shake them in this 'Tandoor'.

"It is almost always hot in this 'Tandoor', because the dung burns very slowly and the ashes formed around the Keeziak keep the fire burning for a very long time.

"By the way, it is interesting to remark, that when these gypsies shake their clothes in the 'Tandoor' a highly interesting phenomenon results from this action of theirs; namely, the lice in their clothes crawl out and falling into the fire explode before burning, and the various sounds of the explosion of these lice, large and small, produces altogether a surprising 'musical-symphony'.

"From the said explosion of the lice, a hearer sometimes has the impression that somewhere not far off, firing is going on from several dozen of their what are called machine-guns.

"Well then, after these 'worthy-gypsies' have shaken their no less worthy clothing, do they proceed with the sacred ritual.

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"First of all they solemnly and with a certain ceremony, lower their sacred family-stool into the 'Tandoor' and in turn, according to age, they step into the 'Tandoor' and stand upon it.

"The sacred stool consists simply of a small board to which four iron legs are fixed; and by this means it is possible to stand in the 'Tandoor' without burning one's feet in the hot ashes.

"As each member of the family stands on that sacred stool, all the other members of the family sing their sacred canticle, while the one standing upon this stool slowly and solemnly, bending the knees, lowers and raises himself and at the same time recites prayers. The custom requires that he should do this until every part of his sex organs has been warmed by the Tandoor.

"A second custom, very similar and seemingly just as stupid, I saw among the people of another small tribe, called 'Toosooly-Kurds', dwelling in Transcaucasia not far from Mt. Ararat.

"This tribe is not so filthy as the tribe of the 'Kolenian-gypsies'. On the contrary, from their daily bathing in the river Arax, and existing mostly in the fresh air - being chiefly shepherds - not only are the people of this tribe very clean but they even do not give off the specific odour which is peculiar to people of almost all the small tribes which populate this great Asia.

"Each family of this tribe has its own what is called 'hut', which serves as a dwelling and for the reception of guests - as the custom of visiting one another is highly developed among the separate families of this tribe.

"In each 'hut' it is customary for them to have, in the corner of the front section, what is called a 'sacred-Mungull', that is a hearth on which a fire of smouldering charcoal or of the said 'Keeziak' is constantly kept, and near each such sacred-Mungull there hangs a small wooden box called 'Ktul-notz' which is always kept supplied with the roots of a certain plant.

"The 'rite-of-self-fumigation' consists in this, that every member of the family and every guest of either sex, before going into the principal section of the hut, is obliged to enter this 'sacred-Mungull' in order as they say to purify himself from the influence of those evil spirits by which man is surrounded when he is busy with honest work.

"And this purification is carried out in the following manner:

"Each person going into the hut must approach and take a few roots out of the hanging box and throw them into the fire, and afterwards in the smoke from the burning of these roots, fumigate his sex organs. In the case of a woman, she simply spreads her skirt and stands over the 'Mungull'. If it is a man he either takes off or lets down his trousers and also stands over the said smoke.

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"Only after such a purification can they enter the chief room; otherwise, as they affirm, not only will evil influences be brought into the house, but owing to these accumulated influences, a man might contract very evil diseases.

"These sacred Mungulls are usually screened by the very best 'Djedjims', that is, by a special fabric woven only by the Kurds.

"I repeat, my boy, there exists at the present time on that continent Asia a great many similar customs.

"I personally saw hundreds of them which seemed at first sight no less strange and barbarous, but upon a serious and impartial study of their hidden meaning, always revealed one and the same aim, namely, either the destruction of the noxious carriers of various diseases, or the strengthening of moral shame.

"But on the continent of Europe I scarcely found a single custom specially created either for the purpose of hygiene or for instilling morality among the masses.

"It cannot be denied that various customs also exist on the continent of Europe, even thousands of them, but they are all established only in order that beings may have the possibility of pleasing each other, or to conceal the real state of affairs, that is to say, to disguise the undesirable forms of one's exterior - undesirable of course only according to subjective understanding - and to conceal the nullity of one's own inner significance.

"These customs existing there progressively increase year by year the 'duality' of the personality and mind of the beings there.

"But the principal evil lies in this, that at the present time there, all the 'Oskianotznel' of the rising generation, or the education of the children, is rendered and reduced only to the adoption of these innumerable customs which exist among them and engender only immorality. Hence it is that year by year, the data crystallized in them by tens of centuries for the Being 'of-an-image-of-God', and not simply, as they themselves would say, 'of-an-animal', are on the one hand decrystallized, and on the other hand their psyche is already becoming almost such as our dear teacher defines by the words:

"There-is-everything-in-him-except-himself".

"And indeed my boy, owing to the complete absence of good patriarchal customs and to their notorious 'education', the contemporary beings of that continent have already become completely transformed into what are called 'automatons' or living mechanical puppets.

"At the present time any one of them can become animated and manifest himself outwardly, only when there are accidentally pressed the corresponding what are called 'buttons' of those impressions already present in him, which

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he mechanically perceived during the whole of his preparatory age.

"But unless these 'buttons' are pressed, the beings there are in themselves only, as again our highly esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin says - 'pieces-of-pressed-meat'.

"It must without fail be remarked here that one of the principal causes of this state of the beings of contemporary civilization is also that same 'onanism' of theirs, a disease which in recent times has come to be almost epidemic there, and which is in its turn also a consequence again of their education of children, thanks to a certain maleficent idea established among its rulers and which is already, as it were, an inseparable part of the consciousness of everybody, namely, their maleficent idea that 'to-speak-to-children-about-the-sex-question-is-absolutely-improper'.

"And further, I again emphasize, that just this, for their naive reason, trifling idea, the significance of which none of them takes into consideration - considering it simply as what they call a question of 'decency' or 'indecency' - is the chief cause of their having come to this phenomenal so to say 'psychic-mechanicality'.

"In the totality of definite understandings which they call 'education', there is even a certain section which elucidates and exactly indicates just what is, as they express it, 'decent' and what is 'indecent' to say to children.

"You must know, that at the end of my last sojourn on the surface of your planet, I had to make this maleficent terrestrial question the subject of my special observation and even to study it in great detail.

"To know approximately what results the terrestrial contemporary education of children leads to, I will tell you of just that one occurrence which was the first cause of my subsequent special interest in the question of this terrestrial misunderstanding.

"Although this occurrence took place in the large community of Russia, yet nevertheless this 'story' which I shall now tell you is very characteristic and gives a very good picture in general, of the education of the children of their contemporary civilization.

"It is characteristic because in this large community Russia also, the contemporary responsible beings, especially the beings of what is called the upper 'ruling-class', educate their children exactly as the contemporary responsible beings of the other communities breeding on the continents of Europe and America educate theirs.

"My account of this occurrence, which evoked in me an impulse of interest to acquaint myself specially with the question of the terrestrial education of children, I shall preface with a story of something that occurred just previously to this and which admirably illustrates the significance of this education of theirs and was also, so to say, a 'link' in my gradually becoming interested in this question.

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"I happened once to exist continuously for several months in the capital of this community - in the city of St. Petersburg.

"During my stay there I became acquainted with an elderly couple.

"The man was what is called a "senator" and his wife was a 'society-lady' and a patroness of several 'welfare-institutions'

"I used to visit them often at their home and enjoyed playing chess with this senator, - as is customary there among what are called 'respectable people'.

"This elderly couple had several daughters.

"All the elder daughters were already settled, that is married; only their youngest daughter, twelve years old, remained at home.

"As this couple had no further care concerning their other daughters, they decided to give this youngest daughter of theirs the very best education according to the notions of that time, and for this purpose they placed her in a special 'boarding-school', a higher educational establishment called an 'Institute'.

"This youngest daughter of theirs came home only on Sundays and for the chief holidays, and once a week on special days her father or mother used to visit her at the boarding school.

"I was almost always with them during the holidays, and I met this charming as yet unspoiled girl and sometimes even took walks with her in the neighbouring what is called 'park'.

"During these walks we either joked or she told me about her lessons and her new impressions.

"During these meetings and conversations, a tie, something like friendship, grew up little by little between us.

"She was very quick in her perceptions and manifestations, or as your favourites themselves define such persons from among themselves, an 'alert-and-thoughtful' girl.

"My acquaintance, this senator, was sent on a certain, as they say there, 'inspection', somewhere far off in Siberia.

"His wife decided to accompany him, for the senator was suffering from what is called 'liver-trouble' and constantly needed care; but they could not make this joint trip because of their youngest daughter, since there would be no one to visit her at the institute and to take her home during the holidays.

"So, one morning, the parents - these elderly acquaintances of mine - came to see me at my apartment and asked me if I would agree to take their place with their youngest daughter during their absence, to visit her every week at the institute and to take her home with me for the holidays.

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"I, of course, at once agreed to this proposal of theirs, and when very soon after, the senator and his wife left for Siberia, I began punctually to fulfill the obligation taken upon myself in regard to their daughter who had by that time become a pet of mine.

"Upon my first visit to this educational establishment which existed specially for the education of children, I noticed a certain strange thing which also served as one of the causes of my subsequent observations and studies of the consequences of your contemporary favourites of that 'maleficence' invented by them themselves.

"On the day of my visit to this, as they call it, 'genteel-institution', there were many visitors in the reception room where the meetings of the parents or guardians with their children or wards actually took place.

"One or two parents or guardians had only just come in, others were already talking with their children or foster-children, others were waiting the arrival of their children, and all their attention was fixed on the door through which the pupils of that establishment usually entered. I also, after I had come into this reception room and had explained to the inspectress on duty who it was I wished to see, sat down to wait for my chance foster-child. While waiting I looked around. All the pupils of this 'genteel-establishment' were dressed alike and all wore their hair similarly braided in two braids, the ends of which, tied with ribbons, hung down their backs.

"What struck my eye was a certain peculiarity in these ribbons and braids. On some of the pupils these ribbons simply hung down the back, but on others, although they also hung down the back, yet the ends of these ribbons were tied together in a certain way.

"On the very next holiday, when I took my foster-child home, talking with her over what is called a samovar, I asked her:

"'Tell me Sonia please, why although the pupils of your institute dress alike in everything else, there is that peculiarity in the ends of their braids?' She immediately blushed and without answering this question of mine stared pensively into her tea, and only after a certain time, nervously replied:

"'It's not just a simple thing among us. Although this is our big institute secret, yet I cannot help telling it to you, my friend, as I am quite sure that you will not give away this big institute secret of ours to anybody.'

"She proceeded to tell me frankly as follows:

"'The manner of tying our ribbons was intentionally devised by the pupils so that they could recognize one another; that is, know to which club a pupil belongs, and, at the same time, so that the class-teachers and supervisors and in general anyone not a pupil of the institute, should not know or discover the secret.

"'All the pupils of our institute are divided into two categories, one belongs

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to what is called the 'men's-club' and the other to the 'women's-club', and we recognize one another just by the manner of tying these ribbons.'

"After this she explained to me in detail in just what the difference between these two clubs lies.

"She said that as a rule, all new arrivals in the Institute were at first members of the women's club, and only afterwards, if any pupil proved to be daring towards the teachers or in general showed herself very active in some way or other, then by the common consent of all the pupils she was enrolled as a member of the men's-club and from that moment tied the ends of the ribbons of her braids together.

"We usually make the meeting place of our club, a spare classroom or dormitory, but more often the toilets.

"The members of the men's club have in general the following privileges; they have the right to choose and to command as many as they like and whom they please of the pupils who are members of the women's club; and these latter are obliged always to gratify every wish of the given member of the men's club and do their utmost to make her stay in our boarding school easy for her, as for example: to make her bed in the morning, copy her lessons, share with her the presents sent from home and so on and so forth.

"The chief occupation in the clubs consists of reading together forbidden books procured by one of the pupils. They chiefly read one very rare manuscript, obtained with money raised by a general institute subscription, wherein is expounded in detail, the whole teaching of the famous poetess Sappho.

"I must tell you my boy, that Sappho was the name of a certain Greek poetess who first discovered there on your planet the 'way-to-real-happiness' for many women of the Greek-Roman as well as of the contemporary civilization.

"This great creatress of 'women's-happiness' had her dwelling place on the island of 'Lesbos', from which word originated the title of those women who have already become worthy to understand and to actualize during the process of their existence the teaching of this remarkable woman, and who at the present time are called 'Lesbians'.

"This foster-child of mine, who had chanced to become my enlightener upon the subtleties of the psyche of the beings of the female sex of your planet, further explained to me that every pupil of the Institute who was a member of the men's club could choose for herself as many partners as she wished for the common pastime; this of course proceeding in full accordance with the teachings of the poetess Sappho.

"I think that thanks merely to this one fact which I have related to you out of thousands of other observations of mine, you can already clearly picture to yourself that such a phenomenal ugliness could not exist among the rising generation if the notion was not prevalent there, that it is exceedingly 'indecent' to talk to children about the 'sex-question'.

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"This notion of 'decency' came down to contemporary civilization by inheritance from the beings of the epoch called the 'Middle-Ages'.

"These candidates for Hasnamuss of the Middle-Ages, having been among the chief agents in the destruction of the real meaning of the teaching of the Divine Teacher, Christ, then also devised and introduced into everyday existence, as a regulation, this maleficent invention which they called 'bon-ton'. And this maleficent invention then became so strongly fixed in the psyche of the majority that it became organized for them and began to pass by heredity from generation to generation, so that now your contemporary favourites, who have become completely weak-willed are unable, however they may try, to overcome such an abnormal psychic fixation as, in the given case, the notion of the indelicacy of talking to their children about the 'sex-question'.

"What? Talk to one's children about 'Sex'? Is that not indecent?

"At the present time the people of contemporary civilization talk to their children and teach them for their edification only what has been invented or is being invented in the manuals of various candidates for 'Hasnamuss-individuals' under the aforesaid title of 'bon-ton'.

"And since in all these manuals it seems that it is very indecent to talk about the 'sex-question' and in the case of children even immoral, then, even if contemporary people see their favourite son or daughter rotting, they simply cannot and even as I have already told you, with all their mental wish, dare not explain frankly to their children the harm and sin of these criminal habits.

"And so my boy, when my good acquaintances the senator and his wife had returned from Siberia and I was free of the obligation I had taken upon myself in regard to my pet, their youngest daughter, there just then occurred the aforementioned event which served as the beginning of my special observations and studies of this same terrestrial contemporary question, maleficent also to them themselves.

"This sorrowful event occurred there in St. Petersburg itself, in just such another educational institution and consisted in the following. The headmistress of this institution, finding that one of her pupils had behaved contrary to their famous regulations of 'decency' reprimanded her so harshly and so unfairly that as a result the accused and her friend, two growing girls with the germs of data for future normal women-mothers, hanged themselves.

"My investigations into this case elicited the following:

"It appeared that among the pupils of the mentioned educational institution was a certain young girl Elizabeth who had been brought by her parents from a distant estate here to the capital, in order that there in a special higher-educational-institution, she might receive this same contemporary 'education'.

"Here in St. Petersburg in this said boarding-school, it happened that this

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thirteen year old Elizabeth became great friends with another young girl, Mary, who like herself was not yet developed.

"The same year on the day of the 'spring-holiday' or as it is otherwise called there, 'May-Day', all the pupils of that higher educational-institution were taken, according to custom, for an excursion into the country, and these two 'bosom-friends' happened to be in different groups which were walking at some distance from each other.

"Out in the fields Elizabeth chanced to see a certain 'quadruped-animal' called there a 'bull', and very much wishing for some reason or other that her bosom-friend Mary should not miss seeing this dear quadruped animal, she shouted, 'Mary! Mary! Look, there goes a bull!'

"No sooner had she uttered the word 'bull' than all the, as they are called, 'governesses' swarmed round this Elizabeth and flung at her all kinds of cruel preachings.

"How could one utter the word 'bull'!! Does not that quadruped animal occupy itself with what no well-broughtup person would on any account speak of and still less a pupil of such a 'genteel-institution'?

"While the governesses were persecuting this poor Elizabeth, all the pupils of the institute gathered around and the head-mistress herself came up, who, having learned what it was all about, began in her turn to reproach Elizabeth.

"'Shame on you!' she said, 'to utter such a word which is considered so very, very 'indecent'.'

"At last Elizabeth could contain herself no longer and she asked amid her tears:

"'What then ought I to have called that quadruped animal if it actually was a 'bull'?

"'The word,' said the head-mistress, 'by which you called that animal, any of the scum call it. But you, since you are here in the institute, are not of the scum; so you should always find out how to call indecent things by names which do not sound indecent to the ear'.

"'For instance - when you saw that indecent animal and wanted your friend to look at it, you might have shouted: Mary, look, there goes a 'beefsteak', or, Mary look yonder, there goes something that is very good to eat when we are hungry, and so forth'.

"From all this poor Elizabeth became so nervous, especially as this 'repri-manding' took place in the presence of all her friends, that she could not restrain herself and cried out with all her might:

"'Oh you wretched old maids! Striped hobgoblins! Spawn of deepest hell! Because I called a thing by its name, you immediately begin to suck my blood. Be thrice damned!!!!'

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"Having said these last words, she fell as they say there, 'in-a-faint', followed in turn by the fainting of the head-mistress herself and of several 'class-mistresses' and 'governesses'.

"The 'class-mistresses' and 'governesses' of this 'genteel-institution' who had not fainted, then raised such a 'hubbub' as really only occurs at what is called the market where 'Jewesses' from the town of 'Berdichev' exclusively bargain.

"The result of it all was that when the 'class-mistresses' and 'governesses' who had fainted, revived, they then and there held in the field under the presidency of this same head-mistress of the institution, what is there called a 'teachers'-council', by whose sentence it was decided immediately on return to town to telegraph Elizabeth's father to come for his daughter, as she was expelled from the Institute with loss of right to enter any other similar institute in the Russian Empire.

"The same day an hour after the pupils were sent home, one of what are called the 'porters' of the institute happened to find in the 'wood-shed' that two as yet undeveloped growing 'future-mothers', were hanging by ropes fastened to the beams.

"In Mary's pocket was found a note with the contents:

"Together with my dear Elizabeth, I do not wish to live any longer with such nonentities as you, and I am going with her to a better world'.

"This case then so interested me that I began, of course privately, to investigate psycho-analytically from every aspect the psyche of all the parties in this sad story. I partly elucidated among other things that at the moment of the manifestation of her violet outburst, there was in the psyche of poor Elizabeth what is called there 'chaos'.

"And indeed it would have been astonishing if such a 'chaos' had not been in the psyche of this as yet unself-conscious thirteen year old girl, who before this miserable event had always lived on her father's big estate, where she had always seen and felt the same richness of nature as on that day in the field near the city of St. Petersburg.

"She had been brought to that stifling noisy city of St. Petersburg and been kept for a long time in an improvised box. Suddenly, she had found herself in an environment where every fresh impression evokes all kinds of memories of former pleasantly perceived sensations.

"On your planet, during what is called 'early-spring', there are indeed sometimes pictures, to the charm of which it is difficult not to yield.

"Picture to yourself the following - afar, cows are seen at pasture; near at one's feet snow-drops shyly peep out from the Earth; close to one's ear, a little bird flies by; to the right is heard the twittering of quite an unknown bird; and on the left, one's sense of smell is quickened by the perfume of some also unknown flower.

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"In short, at such moment as these, in the beings there, especially in one
so young as Elizabeth, finding themselves after a long period of oppressive
existence in a suffocating city in the midst of such a rich abundance of all
kinds of unaccustomed impressions - the mental associations evoked by a
natural being-joy would naturally arise of themselves from every external
thing perceived.

"Elizabeth must have felt this especially strongly, having lived, as I have already said, before the Institute, on her father's large estate which lay far from the already exceedingly abnormal conditions of city vanities.

"Thanks to this, every impression newly perceived by her would naturally call
up previous childhood memories, each connected in their turn with various
other pleasant incidents.

"So it is not difficult to picture to yourself that the sudden appearance of
that quadruped animal called 'bull', such as she had seen at home on the farm
and which had enjoyed there the affection of all the children, who secretly
even took it bread from the table, was to this as yet unformed impressionable
young girl a shock for the corresponding associations under the influence of
which, she, being full of a feeling of sincere happiness still unspoiled by
the abnormally established conditions of being-existence, instantly wished to
share her happiness with her bosom-friend who was some distance off, and
shouted to her to look at that dear 'bull'.

"Now I ask you, how should she have called this quadruped being, since it ac-
tually was a 'bull'?

"Really 'Beefsteak'? - as advised by the 'esteemed' head-mistress of this
'esteemed-higher-educational-institution' which existed there specially for
the 'education-of-children' according to the barbarous system of theirs exis-
ting there to their misfortune also at the present time.

"As you see my boy, intending to tell you a little more about the three-
brained beings who have interested you and who breed on that continent of
North America, I have, by the way, said a great deal in general about the t
three-brained beings arising and existing on all the continents of this pecu-
liar planet.

"I don't think you will have any grievance against me for this, since you have
at the same time managed to learn many more facts elucidating the details of
their strange psyche.

"Concerning specially what is called the 'degree-of-degeneration' of the
common presences of those who compose this contemporary large group on the
continent America in respect of the loss of possibilities for the acquisition
of Being nearer to the normal Being of three-brained beings in general, I can
tell you something somewhat consoling for them, namely, that in my opinion,
there remains among them the largest percentage of beings in whose presences
the said possibility is not entirely lost.

"Although this new group is composed of and still continues to be increased

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by three-brained beings breeding on the continent of Europe, where for such
beings with the aforementioned possibilities it is already necessary, parti-
cularly in recent times, as our wise teacher MullahNassr Eddin says on such
occasions, 'To-look specially-with-the-most-powerful-electric-arc-lamps',
nevertheless, I repeat, in this large group there is a larger percentage of
such beings than on the continent of Europe.

"It seems to me that this has happened because there have migrated there and still now migrate from the continent of Europe, beings chiefly from among what are called the 'simple-beings', who are not, so to say, the 'hereditary-offspring' of the European beings belonging to the "ruling-caste", in whom thanks to transmission by inheritance from generation to generation during long centuries of predisposition to Hasnamussian properties, there is at the present time so much of what is called 'inner-swagger', that it would never permit them to blend with the general mass in order to strive together with common efforts to become such three-brained beings as they should be.

"Thanks only to the fact that among the three-brained beings breeding on that continent there were only very few of the 'offspring-of-the-ruling-caste' and that the general mass of beings was in itself a medium in which it was still possible for 'our-brother' to exist and not be under the influence of those local radiations which are formed owing to surrounding beings and which act harmfully on what are called the 'subjectively-natural-inner-forces' of every being - I was therefore able during my stay among them to rest as I desired.

"Now my boy that I have spent so much of my time explaining the meaning of all the various innovations and all the renewals of former pernicious customs - which had already many times existed on their planet - among the beings of this big new contemporary grouping, and which have already at the present time become, in the objective sense, harmful not only for them themselves, but also for all the other three-brained beings who have interested you and who breed on quite other continents, it is therefore in my opinion already unavoidably necessary for a, so to say 'closing-chord', to initiate you also into those of my thoughts which began in my mentation on the last day of my sojourn among them in the city of New York and which ended on the steamer as it was moving away from that continent towards the East.

"On that day I was sitting in one of the singular cafes there named 'Child's, situated at what is called 'Columbus Circle', awaiting the beings from the continent Europe who had accompanied me to this continent, to go with them to the dock of the outgoing steamer, and I was looking out of the window at the various passing beings from among the inhabitants of that city, who although according to automatized perception were distinguishable on that day in exterior appearance - of course chiefly due to the usage, recently fixed in them more than in any beings of any other continents of becoming 'slaves' to always that same maleficent terrestrial invention which they call 'fashion' - nevertheless somehow seemed to me, in respect of their inner content, particularly alike.

"Observing them, I thought just about the final deduction I had made the day before, that in the present period of the flow of the Heropass in the common-

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planetary process of the ordinary existence of these in general strange three-brained beings, the source of the intensive manifestation of that already long established particularity of the general totality of their strange psyche, which one of the highest sacred Individuals once characterized by the words, 'the-periodic-fundamental-source-of-the-issuing-of-new-causes of abnormality', is represented just by the beings of this new grouping.

"The shock for the beginning of associations and for my further active meditations this time, was the constation I happened to make of the fact that everything constituting what is called the 'totality-of-the-subjective-appearance' of each one of them - such as clothes, gestures, manners and in general all the established usages which all three-brained beings acquire in the ordinary process of their collective existence - is a totally exact imitation exclusively only of all that exists among the beings of various other independent groupings breeding on other continents, an imitation of just that which is considered by the free beings of these other groupings, that is to say, by those beings among them who have already experienced and consequently been disappointed in everything the process of ordinary existence can give, as unworthy of manifestation by beings similar to them.

"This accidental constation of mine at once very much astonished me, chiefly because I was already informed from every aspect and wholly convinced that in the present period everywhere on this planet the beings of almost all the other groupings, those recently formed as well as those which are at a very advanced stage of their community, imitate to the full all the innovations of the beings of this still quite recently formed grouping and enthusiastically adopt these innovations in the process of their ordinary existence, and at the same time, all the external manifestations of the beings of this new grouping and consequently the 'inner-subjective-significance' which engenders these external manifestations, consist only of that which, as I have already said, has become to the great grief of the free beings of these other independent groupings fixed and inherent in the common presences of the ordinary beings of these groupings.

"In consequence of this unexpected constation of mine, there then arose in me a highly intensive impulse of curiosity to make clear to myself the logical causes which had engendered this terrestrial incongruity.

"All that day, while sitting in this 'Child's' awaiting the arrival of the beings from the continent of Europe who had accompanied me, and while riding in the 'motor-taxi' and also while on the boat itself, I continued to ponder very actively the solution of this question, of course appearing to strangers as an automatic observer of everything proceeding around me; and in the ability outwardly to appear such, in order to resemble them in this respect, and thus not be, so to say conspicuous, or as they say there, 'not-to-strike-the-eye', I became there on the Earth ideally, or as they would say 'artistically' expert.

"Sitting on the deck looking at the twinkling of the lights on the shore of this continent gradually growing fainter as the steamer moved away towards the East, and pondering over and logically comparing all the facts ensuing one from the other, I, as a result, made it almost entirely clear to myself

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some similar question, to make a 'logical-analysis' of just this strange feature of the psyche of these peculiar three-brained beings.

"I then among other things, also reasoned as follows:

> 'That they think thus, may perhaps be possibly justified by taking it into consideration that owing to the abnormal conditions of ordinary existence established in past epochs, no exact information has reached them about events which have occurred in the past in the process of the existence of the three-brained beings who existed before them on their planet; but how is it possible to admit that up till now there has not arisen in the mentation of any one of them - in whom it has already been established that even until quite recently there does sometimes proceed a 'something' similar to the process of 'comparative-logic' - at least the following simple and almost, as they themselves would call it, 'childish-idea'?

> "And namely, if as they themselves say and are even certain, that their planet has already existed many many centuries with their species on it being similar to them, that is to say, beings who could mentate, - and that many many millions of them must have also arisen and existed before them, would there really not have been then, from among these many many millions, at least a few beings who could also have invented for the well-being of their contemporaries all kinds of comforts, as in the given case, these contemporary American beings are now inventing and all the other are uncritically and even rapturously imitating, as for example; 'comfortable-seats' in the water-closets, preserves, and so on and so forth?

> "This unpardonable lack of thought is all the more strange in that they themselves admit the existence of many, as they now call them, 'ancient-sages', and also do not deny the great amount of most varied information which has come down to them concerning the many objective truths elucidated by these sages, which information, by the way, certain of your favourites at the present time are, without any remorse of conscience, giving out as having been thought of by themselves and exploiting to the full for their various egoistic aims, without at all suspecting that the totality of the results of these wiseacrings of theirs will inevitably lead their descendants sooner or later to total destruction.

> "This particularity of their mentation - very complicated for any 'logical-analysis' undertaken for the prupose of understanding it - engendering in them this false conviction, was during the whole of my observations of them, beginning with the end of the existence of the continent Atlantis, always, so to say, the 'gravity-centre-cause' of almost all the more or less major events unfavourable for them in the process of their collective existence.

> "Thanks to this false conviction, the result of their strange mentation, and in addition, thanks to the effect on the totality of the functioning of their feelings, of the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer which inevitably arise in their presences at responsible age and which are called 'envy', 'greed', and 'jealousy', it always happens there, that when the beings of any grouping become the possessors of anything which in the given period is considered desirable, in most cases because of that maleficent

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"This particularity of their mentation - very complicated for any 'logical-analysis' undertaken for the prurpose of understanding it - engendering in them this false conviction, was during the whole of my observations of them, beginning with the end of the existence of the continent Atlantis, always, so to say, the 'gravity-centre-cause' of almost all the more or less major events unfavourable for them in the process of their collective existence.

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practice fixed in their everyday existence, which they express by the words 'not-to-cease-progressing', there immediately arises in the common presences of all the beings of other groupings, on whatever continents they may breed, as soon as the rumor of this reaches them, the desire to have the same, and from that moment, there arises in each of them, firstly, the need to imitate them, and secondly, the 'indubitable-certainty' that the beings of this other grouping must exist very correctly, since they have been able to acquire just what in the given period is accounted desirable.

"In this connection, the so to say, 'piquancy' of the strangeness of the mentation of your favourites is that there never occurs in their mentation the process called 'to-ponder' in order to understand if only approximately the true causes of the possession by others of that on account of which there arise in them 'envy', 'greed', 'jealousy' and so on.

"and so my boy, in spite of the fact that as far as the acquisition and hence the possession of the results attained by the conscious labours and intentional sufferings of the three-brained beings of past epochs of their planet are concerned, the beings of their new group have absolutely nothing at all, but consist as to inner content as well as to exterior manifestations, only of everything bad that exists among contemporary beings of other independent groupings - solely because in recent times they have accidentally become the possessors of just that which in the objective sense is most despicable, yet which owing in general to the fixed abnormal conditions of the ordinary existence of these unfortunates is considered desirable - nevertheless the beings of all the other groupings now imitate to the full everything they invent.

"Of all the maleficent inventions of the beings of this contemporary grouping which have accidentally acquired authority, the most harmful for their common presences - in respect of the possibility of rectifying in the future the so to say already actualized maleficences - must be considered the practice they have established of passing a great part of the time of their existences in high houses.

"In order that you may clearly picture to yourself the significance of all the harm from just this invention of theirs, I must first of all explain to you the following:

"Do you remember, when I spoke to you about that 'maleficent-means' existing there at the present time called 'sport', I said that duration of the existence of these favourites of yours was in the beginning also 'Foolasnitanian', that is to say, they had to exist until their body 'Kesdjan' was completely coated in them and perfected up to the required gradation of Reason, and that afterwards, when very abnormal conditions of ordinary being-existence began to be established there, Great Nature was constrained to actualize their presences and also the subsequent process of their existence on the principle of 'Itoklanoz', that is, according to the results of certain surrounding causes.

"Thereafter, one of these causes has also been the 'degree-of-the-density-of-the-vibrations' of their 'second-being-food', that is, as they themselves

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would say, the 'degree-of-the-condensation-of-the-air-they-breathe'.

"The point is, that this cosmic formation which serves as the second food for beings, is also composed according to the second fundamental common cosmic law of the sacred Trimazikamno, and is also actualized by means of its three heterogeneous cosmic substances.

"And namely, the first is the emanation of the sun of that system in which this same definite cosmic arising serves as the 'second-food' for beings.

"The second are the substances transformed on that planet itself on which the beings fed by this food exist.

"And the third are those substances which are transformed through the other planets of this system and which come to the given planet through their radiations.

"And so, the process of fusion of all those substances required for the normal formation and existence of beings, which are transformed by the planet itself and which actualize the second holy force of the Sacred Trimazikamno, can proceed in the correspondingly required definite proportion, only within certain limits of the atmosphere from the surface of planets, because owing to the second grade cosmic law called 'Tenikdoa', or as your favourites would call it 'Law-of-gravity', these substances cannot penetrate beyond a definite height of the atmosphere.

"In my opinion you can yourself apprehend all the subsequent ensuing consequences of this question which I have just now brought to light, and compose data in yourself for your own opinion of the significance of this invention of theirs.

"I think my boy, that I have now already fully satisfied your curiosity concerning these 'dollar-fox-trotting' followers of what is called 'Christian-Science'.

"In the name of Objective Justice it now only remains for me to remark that whatever they may turn into in the future, I had however during my existence among them, the possibility of inwardly resting, and for this I ought now to express to them my sincere thanks.

"And you, just you, my heir, to whom has already been transmitted and will be transmitted by inheritance everything acquired by me during my long existence - of course only in so far as you yourself will deserve it by your own conscientious being-existence and honourable service to the ALL-COMMON FATHER MAINTAINER, OUR ENDLESSNESS - I command you, if you happen for some reason or other to be on the planet Earth, to visit without fail the city of New York, or if by that time this city should no longer exist, then at least to stop at that place where it was situated and to utter aloud:

"In this place, my beloved grandfather, my just Teacher Beelzebub pleasantly passed a few moments of his existence."

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"I even charge you - of course again as the heir to whom, as is general, will devolve the fulfillment of the obligations which your predecessor took upon himself and which for some reason or other were left unfulfilled - specially to turn your attention to and to elucidate a question which greatly interested me and which I personally was unable to elucidate as it was still premature to do so, that is to say, I charge you to elucidate for yourself into what a 'maleficent-form' for their descendants - if of course by that time their descendants still continue to arise - will the results have become moulded of the 'disease' very widespread at that time, which one of their Misters, by name Onanson, called 'writing-itch'.

"And indeed my boy, having then during my stay there, a more or less close relationship with many of them, I very soon found out that almost every one of them either had already written a book, or at that time was writing one, or was getting ready quickly to burst into authorship.

"Although this peculiar 'disease' was then, as I have already said, widespread amongst almost all the beings of this continent, moreover among the beings of both sexes and without distinction of age, yet among the beings at the beginning of responsible age, that is, as they themselves say, among the 'youth', and particularly among those who had many pimples on their faces and an abundance of liquid streaming from their nostrils, it was for some reason or other, as it is said 'epidemical'.

"I must further remark in just these connections, that there flourished that specific particularity of the strangeness of the common psyche of these peculiar beings who have taken your fancy, which has already long existed in their collective existence and which has been formulated by the following words: 'the-concentration-of-interests-on-an-idea-which-has-accidentally-become-the-question-of-the-day'.

"Here also, many of them who turned out to be a little, as is said there, 'more-cunning', and in whom the data for the being-impulse called 'instinctively-to-refrain-from-all-manifestations-which-may-lead-surrounding-beings-similar-to-oneself-into-error' were more atrophied, organized various what are called 'schools' and composed all kinds of 'manuals', in which much attention was given to showing in detail just what the sequence of words should be so that all compositions should be better perceived and assimilated by the reader.

"And thus all those attending these 'schools' and all readers of these 'manuals' being themselves in regard to Being and in regard to information concerning reality exactly such types as our Teacher Mullah Nassr Eddin defined by the words: Nullities-with-an-atmosphere-of-unendurable-vibrations' began according to these indications, 'to wiseacre'; and since firstly, thanks to various other abnormalities fixed in the conditions of the ordinary existence of the beings of this new grouping, the process of reading has previously in general become an organic need of theirs, and secondly, that it was possible to appreciate the contents of any composition exclusively only by reading it through, and all the other beings of this continent, seduced, what is more, by all kinds of, as they say there, 'loud' titles, read and read, and parallel with this, it was definitely noticeable how their mentation, which

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had already, so to say, become 'diluted' without this, continued to become
more 'diluted' and still more 'diluted'."

At this point of Beelzebub's tales, what is called a 'cross-current' or
'agitation' began in the ether which penetrated the whole of the ship
'Karnak'. This signified that the passengers of the ship 'Karnak' were
summoned to the 'Djamdjampal', that is, that 'refactory' of the ship in
which all the passengers together periodically fed on the 'second-and-first-
being-foods'.

So Beelzebub, Hassein, and Ahoon ceased their conversation and hastily went
off to the 'Djamdjampal'.

******************

******************

**********

CHAPTER XLIII

BEELZEBUB'S SURVEY OF THE PROCESS OF THE PERIODIC DESTRUCTION OF MEN

OR

BEELZEBUB'S OPINION OF WAR

On the following day, when the trans-solar-system ship Karnak set off from the planet 'Deskaltiko' in the direction of the planet Karatas, the grandson of Beelzebub, little Hassein, sat as usual at Beelzebub's feet, and turned to him with the following words:

"Dear and wise grandfather of mine, I've never been able to reconcile certain things concerning the beings of the planet Earth; and this question has been worrying me more and more during the last Dianosk.

(Dianosk - the word expresses the duration of a certain movement of one of the suns of the first magnitude, that is, it is something like what on the planet Earth is called twenty-four hours).

"From all your tales about these beings, I have definitely understood that although the reason is nearly always automatic among the majority of beings, yet even with this Reason they can quite often think fairly logically, and sometimes discover in the phenomena proceeding on their planet various more or less exact laws of Nature, according to which they invent something or other.

"At the same time that special peculiarity of the beings of that planet, namely, their peculiarity of becoming periodically engaged in mutual destruction has been like a red thread all through your tales.

"I cannot understand why over such a long period they have so far not perceived and become aware that this peculiarity of theirs is the horror of horrors in the whole Universe.

"Is it possible that they never think sufficiently seriously to feel this horror, and that they do not try to find some means of abolishing this awful horror from their planet?

"Why is it?

"There, my dear grandfather, that is what I have wished so much to understand during the last Dianosk. But I can discover nothing by myself in any way whatever.

"Help me, kind grandfather, to understand this as well, why this phenomenal peculiarity has existed on that unfortunate planet for so many long centuries."

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In reply to this question of his grandson, Beelzebub related as follows:

He began thus: "Ah! my dear boy! This very peculiarity of theirs is the chief reason why the processes of existence on that planet are always full of every sort of extraordinary absurdities.

"You ask whether it is possible that they never think seriously enough about this question, to see the horror of it?

"Don't they think seriously and don't they see!!!

"Some of them even very often think seriously; and they both see and understand that their mutual destruction is a hideousness beyond words to describe; but no result of course, is ever obtained from the serious thinking of certain beings of that place.

"No result is ever obtained first of all, because such beings are isolated, and secondly, owing to the conditions of existence abnormally established there, but chiefly from the absence of a general planetary organisation on that planet.

"It is impossible to spread there in the consciousness of other beings, any of the clear realisations of individual beings; and hence, from the serious thinking and realisations of such individual beings, no result is ever obtained.

"Owing to the conditions of existence abnormally established on your planet, it has gradually come about that the psyche of every Earth-being is such from childhood that he can think sincerely and see things in their real light exclusively only when his hunger and other needs have been thoroughly satisfied.

"And as owing to the conditions abnormally established there not all the beings can satisfy themselves to the degree of satiation, the majority of them for this and still other reasons even with all their mental wishes cannot see and feel reality.

"This sincere thinking and feeling of reality has already long ago become there on your planet a very rare luxury, inaccessible to the majority. Certain beings among them, however, have had, for quite a long time, the means of satisfying themselves to the degree of satiety - the beings namely called 'important' and 'powerful', - those very Earth-beings in fact who could possibly do something towards the abolition of this evil, or at least towards its diminution. But these 'important' and 'powerful' beings who have the means of satiety, and who could possibly do something towards this end, do absolutely nothing at all, for quite other reasons.

"And this is because the beings of your planet, particularly those young beings who later on become 'important' and 'powerful' do not profit at all by the years given to them by Nature, which in general Nature gives to all the beings of our great Universe, to prepare themselves for becoming responsible beings; but on the contrary they spend it entirely, either in 'self-calming'

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or in acquiring those peculiarities inculcated in their celebrated 'educa-
tion', those very peculiarities on account of which most of them ultimately
become the individuums called 'Hasnamusses'.

"So when your favourites become responsible beings, or as they themselves say, when they become adult and discharge responsible duties, they have in themselves nothing of which the thinking of beings consists.

"Besides on account of this abnormal education of theirs, nothing is formed
in them that enables them to do anything real; and, again, owing to this
same abnormal education, very many of those peculiarities formed in their
psyche by inheritance, as consequences of the properties of the organ Kunda-
buffer, gradually materialise and become organic functions.

"Those organic functions which are chiefly formed are called 'egoism', 'pre-judice', 'vanity', 'self-love' and so on. Our dear sage Mullah Nassr Eddin very wisely defines similar beings, particularly contemporary 'important' or 'powerful' beings of the Earth in the following words: 'The degree of the importance of men, depends on the number of their corners'.

"Well, whenever those beings of your planet, those very same 'important' and 'powerful' beings who can procure satiety and could possibly do something towards the abolition from their planet of this phenomenal evil peculiarity, are actually satiated, and are reclining in their easy chairs for better digestion, then when it is really possible for them to think sincerely about the horrors proceeding on their planet, they indulge only in that criminal 'self-calming of theirs instead.

"But as none of the beings of our Universe, including the beings of your planet, can exist without reasoning, your favourites in order to be able to indulge quite freely in their 'self-calming' have in a very masterful fashion gradually accustomed themselves to the condition in which, instead of thinking seriously, 'it' thinks in them quite mechanically, that is to say, entirely without the participation of their own 'I'.

"Justice must be done them; they have brought it to perfection.

"At the present time, their thoughts can flow in all directions without any effort whatsoever on the part of their personalities.

"For instance, when these 'important' and 'powerful' beings of the Earth are reclining in their arm-chairs after satiation, the thoughts in them receiving only shocks from the reflexes of their stomachs and sexual organs, walk about freely in all directions full of pleasure, just as their soul wishes, exactly as if they were strolling in the evening in Paris along the boulevard des Capucines.

"In short, when these 'important' and 'powerful' beings of the Earth are re-clining in their easy chairs, the following trains of thought unroll in them; as for instance, how he can get back on his friend John Smith, who, that day looked at his favourite lady, not with his right eye but just with his left.

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"Or such an 'important' Earth-being who is digesting his food thinks: why
the horse he had backed for yesterday's race did not win, but some outsider.

"Or he thinks, why did such and such stocks, which in reality are worth
nothing, rise on the Stock Exchange higher and higher every day?

"Or intimately he thinks as follows: If only I were in the place of John
Smith who invented the new method of the culture of flies and made ivory from
the bones of their skeletons, I should do this and that with the money and not
like that idiot who does not eat it himself and won't allow others to eat and
so on and so forth.

"It does however sometimes also happen that a few 'important' and 'powerful'
beings of the Earth think not from the reflexes of their stomachs and sexual
organs, but very sincerely and seriously about real things. Strictly speak-
ing this sincerity occurs frequently in most of them chemically on account
of external causes.

"And these external causes are as follows:

"When somebody very near to them dies, or when somebody deeply and grievously
offends them or when somebody evokes their tenderness by doing for them some-
thing very good and quite unexpected; or ultimately when they really feel the
approach of the end of their existence, that is of their death.

"Well, my dear boy, if these important and powerful beings of the Earth should
by chance for some reason or other, think sincerely in one of these states
about this peculiarity of their fellow men, they themselves would become also
inwardly very greatly agitated and of course inwardly resolve to begin to do
everything necessary, at all costs, that this great evil should never occur
again on their planet.

"But as soon as the stomachs of these 'important' and 'powerful' beings who
inwardly get greatly agitated begin to feel empty, those beings immediately
forget all about their inner resolution, not only this but they themselves
unconsciously begin to repeat everything that usually serves as a cause for
the outbreak of similar processes between social organisations.

"Very often it also happens there, that these same 'important' and 'powerful'
beings themselves deliberately aim at doing everything to ensure not only that
the process of reciprocal destruction should subsequently take place but on as
large a scale as possible.

"They do this because from their processes they always expect either for them-
selves personally or for their relatives some material or other advantage.

"And they hope that this process should take place on a larger scale, only
because they or their relatives should also gain on a larger scale.

"It also happens there that certain of these 'important' and 'powerful' beings
unite and form a society with the aim of abolishing this 'arch-criminal'
peculiarity from the Earth.

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"Just when I left that solar system and was on that planet for the last time, there was again a great deal of talk about the formation of such a society; it seems that they proposed to call this new society of theirs the 'League of Nations'.

"I say 'again' because there had already frequently been formed such societies which always died in an equally strange manner, that is without a struggle.

"Of course from this new society of beings-men also, nothing practical will result, just as nothing practical resuted on former occasions when similar societies with similar aims arose among Earth beings-men. I very well remember when such a society first arose. It was in the town Samonix in the land Tiklamish, when this Tiklamish was the main centre of culture for beings of the whole of the planet.

"It was then first that 'important' and 'powerful' beings of the majority of the communities of the continent Asia, met together with the wish to arrive at a general agreement, that reciprocal destruction should never again occur amongst communities.

"This society had for its motto: 'God is, where man's blood is not shed'.

"But very soon, owing to their own diverse and pretentious aims, these 'important' and 'powerful' beings of the Earth quarreled amongst themselves and ultimately separated without having accomplished anything.

"A Few centuries after Tiklamish, a similar society again arose but in the land then called 'Mongolplantsoor', also on the continent Asia.

"And there it took the motto: 'Love others and God will love you'.

"On this occasion also the results were the same.

"Still later beings-men again formed such a society in the land Egypt, but on this occasion under the text: 'When you know how to create a flea, then only dare to kill'.

"Beings-men of the land Persia had for a similar society of theirs the motto: 'All men are divine, and if even one is murdered all will become nothing'.

"The last such society arose in the town which, it seems was called Mosulopoli, also on the continent Asia.

"And this happened quite recently, only about four or five of their centuries ago. And this society of beings-men took the motto at the time of its formation: 'The Earth must be free for all'.

"But on an early misunderstanding amongst the members of this society, they gave it another name; and the society ended its existence under the motto: 'The Earth for men only'.

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"Beings-men of the society, 'The Earth must be free for all', might have accomplished something effective because, first of all, they had as the basis of their aims a program which could be realised; and secondly, they were all without exception old and respected beings who had already experienced the planetary existence and in consequence were disillusioned about everything which ordinary planetary existence can generally give. There were therefore among them fewer who were personal, egoistic, vain and had other characteristics, on account of which similar societies usually fail. But the chief reason why something effective might have resulted from this society of beings-men, was that there was scarcely a single 'important' and 'powerful' being amongst its members.

"But all the same on account of their egoistic and pretentious aims, these beings usually despatch with musical accompaniment, all the attainments sooner or later of any society of an ordinary planetary kind, whatever it may be, and to which they belong, to the famous pig of Mullah Nassr Eddin, which always gorges without any 'drawing-room' ceremonies whatsoever.

"These 'important' and 'powerful' Earth beings do not always frustrate the aims of any society, - when, that is, these aims are advantageous to them personally or to beings of their own caste.

"But if some advantage could result for all the beings of the whole planet without difference of caste, then at the first small crisis in the affairs of the particular society, the trouble immediately becomes too fatiguing; at the very mention of these problems, painful grimaces appear on their faces.

"And as regards the society 'The Earth must be free for all', nothing resulted, as I have already told you, owing to a misunderstanding, although the beings, members of that society, had already by that time accomplished a great deal toward their aim. A great deal was accomplished of what it is almost impossible to accomplish there under those conditions which always prevail on that incomparably peculiar planet.

"And what occurred with the beings-men, members of this society which was called 'The Earth must be free for all', I shall also tell you; your knowledge of the cause of the breaking up of this society of beings-men may be very useful for your better understanding of the psyche of your favourites. But I will tell you about this a little later.

"And meanwhile for your further elucidations know and remember the fact that at the present moment on your planet, beings-men are again forming, or they have already formed, quite a similar society which will be called, or which is already called, 'The League of Nations'.

"The problem of this new society there will also be to find some means of abolishing that terrifying peculiarity of theirs. Of course on this occasion as well, there will be no result. And there will be no result chiefly because this peculiarity has already entered into the flesh and blood of the beings of the Earth; and beings with the kind of Reason that contemporary beings of the Earth have, will of course be unable to accomplish anything decisive at all.

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"Nevertheless, the 'gentlemen' the contemporary 'important and 'powerful'
beings will obtain by means of this society of theirs, a result very important
for them.

"Namely, owing to this brand new society of theirs, of which they consent to be members, they will have a further excuse for excaping their wives and mistresses and to pass the time pleasantly amidst the circle of their friends, beings similar to themselves, - without being under the terrifying silent observations of their 'possessors', namely, their wives, mothers-in-law, mistresses and so on; that is to say, they will boldly enter into those official 'Five-oclock-teas', which no doubt will be frequently arranged for the purpose of the business, presumably connected with the aims of this important official society, called the 'League of Nations'.

"From the strategems of your contemporary favourites nothing effective will ever result, because if those Earth-beings of former epochs did not attain anything at all - those Earth-beings who, when they became responsible beings were sometimes able to attain, at least, in the sense of Being, to what is called 'Sefl-remembering' - then the contemporary beings of the Earth who attain, in the sense of Being, only as our wise Mullah Nassh Eddin would say, 'As far as they are already beginning to distinguish Mamma from Papa', can of course never achieve the complete abolition of this peculiarity, which, as I have already told you, has entered into the flesh and blood of the beings of that unfortunate planet.

"Such societies of beings-men arose there usually after one of their big processes of reciprocal destruction, and they usually arose in the following manner.

"During the latest process of their reciprocal destruction, or as they say, during the latest war, it happened that certain 'important' or 'powerful' beings of the Earth, themselves suffered some very serious losses, on account of which, there occurred within them mechanically what the Very Holy Ashiata Shiemash had hoped for all the beings of the Earth.

"And that is to say, the function of Objective Conscience which still remains in their organism, mechanically passes temporarily into their consciousness. And therefore in these 'important' or 'powerful' beings, Conscience begins to speak, and they begin to see this Earth peculiarity in its real light.

"The result of all this is that there appears a genuinely sincere wish in them to do everything possible in order to effect the abolition of that terrifying horror which proceeds on their planet.

"And usually, it so happens there that several of these 'important' and 'powerful' beings with resurrected consciences, unite in order to discover collectively, some means of realising these sincere wishes of theirs.

"It is thus that such societies are usually begun by beings with resurrected consciences. And then beings might perhaps somehow succeed in affecting something, but there the chief evil is that other ordinary 'important' and 'powerful' beings very quickly as a rule begin to take part in these societies, not

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because their consciences begin to speak, but only because, according to abnormal conditions of existence which have been established there, they must infallibly, as they are 'important' be in every 'important' society.

"And then as a rule, these same 'important' beings, as I have already told you, with their personal, egoistic, and vainglorious aims, not only very quickly send flying up the chimney all the problems and all that has already been done by beings with resurrected consciences, but very soon put a spoke in the wheels of the first founders of these societies.

"In consequence these societies of beings, formed there for the general planetary welfare, always die very quickly and as I have already told you, even without a struggle.

Regarding the effective results of the good undertakings of 'important' beings, there is also a very wise saying by our greatly respect Mullah Nassr Eddin, when he says: 'Past centuries have proved to us, that Karabach asses will never sing like nightingales, and will not be unwilling to spoil their taste with Shooshian thistles'.

"Do you know, my boy, during all the many centuries of my very close observations of the beings of this peculiar planet, I have never once noticed in the societies formed by beings-men of the Earth for the collective search of means for the happy existence of the great masses that there ever participated in these societies, beings with more or less Objective Reason, to which as I have already told you, quite a good number of them have nevertheless already attained, owing to their persevering self-perfecting.

"And beings with Objective Reason do not become members of such societies as these for the following reason.

"Owing always to the same abnormally established conditions of existence, any beings who wish to take part in any society must, without fail, be 'important' and an 'important' being there, again owing to abnormally established conditions of existence, can only be a being who either has a great deal of money, or who becomes famous amongst the other beings of the whole planet, or at least of one of the continents.

"And so, my boy, again owing to the same abnormal conditions, which have gradually come to prevail on that unfortunate planet, only those beings can become rich and famous among whom conscience is absolutely non-existent.

"And as, in general conscience is always connected with Objective Reason, then of course in any being in whom there is Objective Reason there is always conscience, also, and consequently, such a being in whom there is conscience, will never be 'important' amongst the ordinary beings of the Earth.

"Thus a being with Objective Reason can never take part in any society of beings-men, composed of beings who are 'important' and 'powerful'.

"And about this same question on your planet, it follows as our dear Mullah

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Nassr Eddin once said: 'This is a real punishment. Put at the tail and the mane gets stuck; pull at the mane and the tail gets stuck.'

"As regards the discovery of means of abolishing this Earth peculiarity - a peculiarity which is also indeed firmly rooted in their psyches - it is, in my opinion, impossible in any way whatsoever, to effect anything at all by rules and agreements, by which methods the ancient beings of the Earth tried, and without doubt also the contemporary members of The League of Nations will also try to achieve their aim.

"And about this peculiarity of theirs one can only say the same as the Very Holy Ashiata Shiemash once said regarding the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer in his meditations entitled 'The Terror of the Situation'.

"'If it is possible to save the beings of the Earth, then only Time can do so'.

"So we can now also say the same, that is that if this Earth peculiarity can ever be exterminated, then it can only be done by Time, or by beings with a very highly developed Reason, or by some exceptional cosmic events.

"And these arguments and various temporary agreements by which it was and is wished to attain this end, will never lead any of these societies of Earth-beings to anything at all, except perhaps only to those strategems of theirs which serve contemporary beings of the Earth as material for instance, for their inevitable newspapers, for salon gossip, and of course, for the speculations of exchange-jugglers Hasnamusses.

"In general the present position of affairs in regard to this peculiarity of the Earth-beings is such that if any beings with highly developed Reason, and even beings with ordinary Reason from the planet itself, sincerely wish to do good for all the beings of that unfortunate planet, they must do only what can be useful for beings of the planet in the future.

"If members of this contemporary society The League of Nations would even only do what they could, proportionate to their forces, they would render a very great service to the future beings of their planet.

"As for instance, if at the present time, they ceased to busy themselves in an effort to bring about the complete abolition of this peculiarity from their planet, which is already a far too difficult problem for their reason, and would instead try to do only what is proportionate to their forces, trying, let us say, to bring about the destruction of that Hasnamussian science invented by a number of pimpled Earth-beings.

These pimpled Hasnamusses indefatigably prove in this science of theirs, that the periodical destruction on the Earth is very, very necessary, and that if it did not exist, the result would be first of all, that there would be a surplus of beings-men on the Earth, to an impossible degree, and secondly, that such terrifying economical horrors would occur on the Earth as that beings-men would begin to eat each other.

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If only the members of this new 'important' society, The League of Nations, would busy themselves in trying to effect the destruction of this science, they might perhaps greatly help the beings of the future by preventing these idiotic idea reaching them - the ideas of which there are already more than enough without these, and which in their totality form in their minds that property, the manifestation of which they call doubt concerning the existence of the soul. The existence of this doubt on the Earth is the chief cause of the existence in them of these properties which three centred being really ought not to have.

Owing chiefly to these same 'doubts' the beings of that planet cannot feel deeply all those truths always felt by all the beings of the Universe and in consequence of which all beings always strive only to perfect themselves more quickly to the sacred degree of the Divine Reason necessary for a three-centred being.

But these contemporary society beings of the Earth, and namely the members of this new society, the League of Nations, will of course, not concern themselves to try to destroy this Hasnamussian science. They will not do so only because they will consider it beneath their dignity to occupy themselves with such a question.

"What?! Such 'important' members of such 'important' societies, to become suddenly occupied with such a trifling question!

"Besides if they should occupy themselves with this question, first of all, they might offend one of their caste, which God forbid! And secondly, if they should succeed in destroying this science, an unprecedented scandal might occur, since it would be their first attainment for the general welfare, which attainments are usually put forward as problems of societies formed of 'important' and 'powerful' beings of the Earth.

"Such aims have never before been attained there on the Earth and if they should now succeed, it would be very offensive for all former members as well as for future members like themselves.

"And thirdly, they will not do this, because, in general, beings of the Earth habitually occupy themselves with and judge only those matters which are higher than their Reason; they do not like at all to occupy themselves with those matters which are proportionate to their reason and their forces

"For instance, to be occupied in trying to effect the destruction of this science would seem to them quite unsuitable for such an 'important' society of which they are members, and more too, 'important' and 'powerful' members.

"Owing to such a trait of character, the beings of your planet, have even acquired an organic need always to teach and put on the 'right' path others only and not themselves at all, and in such a way on account of this, this highly interesting disease has begun to exist there called the 'Moat and the Beam.'

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"Listen, my dear Hassein, I think it will do you no harm if I also give you some useful advice such as our dear Ahun was given you.

"You remember that when our dear Ahun told you how the contemporary beings of the Earth, understand Art, he, by the way, personally advised you, that if, for some reason or other, you should happen to be on that planet Earth, you should always be very cautious with contemporary representatives of art so as not to offend them and make enemies for yourself.

"He also directed you what to do so that they might admire and be on very good terms with you. Our dear Ahun then cited all their weaknesses.

"He spoke about their self-love and about their pride, and their vanity, and about many other special peculiarities of theirs. He also then told you in what circumstances, which of these peculiarities one should, without fail, tickle.

"This advice of his, it cannot be denied was very good, and indeed among these types, one must, without fail, tickle these weaknesses of theirs.

"But personally I find this advice unpractical for you and not perfect, because, first of all, not all the beings of the Earth are like these representatives of Art, so that you cannot apply this advice to everyone; and secondly, because it will be difficult for you to remember all these numerous weaknesses of theirs, and every time you will have to think very hard in what circumstances one or other of these numerous weaknesses of theirs should be tickled.

"But I myself propose to tell you about only one weakness which almost all these Earth beings have. If by chance you should have to exist among them, then do everything with the help of this weakness of theirs.

"Owing to this weakness of theirs, about which I wish to tell you, you will not only be on friendly terms with everybody there, but even if you wish, you will be able, owing to the knowledge of this weakness of theirs, to guarantee fully your peaceful existence there, as far as the necessary money is concerned.

"Now listen, owing to the conditions of ordinary existence which were already very abnormally established there long ago, their psyche has taken especially during recent times, such a form, that in all of them without exception both young and old, male and female, after their appearance in the world of His Endlessness, and as soon as they begin to differ according to the difference there is between an Astrakan herring and a Paris brioche this same peculiar weakness immediately appears in them.

"And namely from that moment on, they cease forever to observe their own faults, and begin to see only the various faults of others, and in consequence there is formed among them from that time on, an organic necessity always to teach others and to put others on the path of 'truth'.

"They even begin to teach these others such things, the ideas of which they have not yet even dreamed of. And if these others do not learn from them, or

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at least do not pretend that they wish to learn, they not only become offen-
ed, but even always become quite genuinely agitated.

"But if some of these others learn from them, or at least pretend that they wish very much to do so, then they will not only love and esteem these others but they themselves will also feel happy and content.

"Here it is interesting to observe that only in cases such as these, can your
favoursites speak about others without being critical. On the contrary, they
will always praise these others who learn from them, and say the best things
about them, which they could never possibly have.

"And so, my boy, if for some reason or other, you ever happen to exist among them, then I strongly advise you, always to pretend that you wish to learn from them.

"Do this also with their children and then not only will you be on good terms with all of them but even in every family you will be honoured as a special friend.

"Know that every one of them, however insignificant he may be himself in his essence, yet owing to his self-conceit, which is only a product in him of his automatic mis-understanding, always regards the behaviour and actions of others haughtily and even with disdain, particularly if this behaviour and these actions of others are sharply opposed to his own subjectively established views.

"In such cases your favoursites always become very indignant and by the way, this inner rage of theirs is also one of those numerous causes owing to which their ordinary Being-existence proceeds with continuous moral suffering. For instance, this innerrage of theirs later contimes for a very long time, to react by momentum on their psyche 'semtsektsionalno', or as it can be otherwise said, 'depressionably'. And this inner rage also makes them nervous, as they themselves say, owing to which they also become quite uncontrollable in their daily affairs which have no connection with the original causes of their nervousness.

"In spite of the fact that your favoursites are brimful of all other kinds of misfortunes, they make their already abnormal existence quite objectively in-
tolerable, owing to this property of theirs of becoming uselessly indignant on account of the defects of others.

"I repeat, your favoursites always become furious because certain others have such and such defects, but they never see their own defects and do not acknow-
ledge them, and in consequence this same organic need develops in them about
which I am telling you, and that is, always to teach and to attempt to put
others on the path of 'truth'.

"Apart from everything else and only owing to this single property of theirs,
does the existence of beings on that peculiar planet become super-tragic.

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"For instance, at every step one meets there pictures like the following. One of these freaks for instance, who is a slave of others to the point of humiliation, or as they themselves say there, who finds himself as far as his whole inner experience is concerned under somebody's thumb, for instance of his wife or his mistress or someone similar who in some way or other penetrates into his inner significance. In other words, this Earth person has already ceased for the possessor of such an interesting thumb to have that artificial mask, which in general is gradually formed owing to the malevolent method existing there of what is called 'education', owing to which mask the majority of beings there can indeed very well hide their real inner Being-insignificance from their neighbors.

"But then it sometimes so happens there that this external mask ceases for some reason or other, to affect certain surrounding beings, who, in consequence, automatically acquire this same surprising thumb. In short, those Earth beings who find themselves under somebody else's thumb inwardly rage usually more than others, against all the other beings of that planet; as for instance, against some king or other who for some reason is not capable of dominating tens or hundreds of thousands of beings of his social community organisation.

"Besides this, those beings who find themselves under somebody's thumb usually write there various books, in which they prescribe in detail how beings-men should be governed.

"Or further if it should happen that one of the contemporary beings of this peculiar planet on seeing for instance a mouse, his soul from fright drops into his boots, as they say, and this same Earth hero learns that such and such another being was rather afraid on meeting a tiger, then he will inwardly rage very strongly against this other, and will of course speak very critically of him for being afraid of a tiger. On your planet, books about what one must do and what one much not do on meeting tigers are always written by such mouse-valiants.

"Pictures like the following also sometimes appear. One of them in whom there are tens of various chronic illnesses, owing to which first of all, his stomach does not work for weeks at a stretch; and secondly, his whole body is covered with every possible kind of malignant pimple; and thirdly, he suffers day and night from these innumerable illnesses; in short, one of those Earth-beings who for many years has been a walking museum of all the ailments existing on that planet, always inwardly rages more than others when somebody else, through carelessness happens to catch a cold. At the same time he will also teach this other with great authority how to get rid of his cold.

"These Earth-beings, that is to say, these walking museums, also usually do nothing but write various books there relating to every possible kind of illness, and in these books of theirs they explain in great detail what precautions to take and what one must do to get rid of these or other illnesses.

"Cases like the following also occur there. One who does not know at all what an ordinary flea which sometimes bites him really looks like, writes a big book or tries with great fury to prove orally that the flea from whose bite the neck

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of the historical king Naoohan became swollen had an abnormal pink growth on
his left paw.

"And if others do not believe it and should express a doubt to his face, not only will he be offended, but he will inwardly rage very strongly that they are so ignorant that even till then they had not learned about those truths.

"In short, my dear boy, at every step in the existence of your favourites, one meets quite enough pictures for observation, and study to become cultured in every branch of general science.

"At all events, when any of our tribe exists among them and is an eye-witness of such Being-absurd-manifestations, then in spite of the fact that one knows the reason of these absurdities and with all one's essence pities these unfortunates, yet at the same time one cannot help but laugh inwardly, though of course always with an admixture of sorrow.

"Owing to this property of theirs about which I am now telling you, the beings of this planet must have without fail individual victims for their instruction; though certain of these, who become by prolonged habit very brazen, must have many beings for their instructions, or if they cannot have them, suffer.

"You must also remember very well that this same weakness of Earth beings is developed particularly strongly among the beings 'intelligentsia', as they are called.

"The word 'intelligentsia' there signifies that idea which we define by the words 'Force in oneself'.

"Although the word 'intelligentsia' has there almost the same meaning, yet beings of that place call by this word those beings who are the very opposite of what this word signifies.

"The word 'intelligentsia' is also taken from the ancient Greek language; and among the ancient Greeks the following idea was signified by this word: a being or 'something' who is perfected to such a degree that he has already the possibility of directing his functions with his own will, and not as every action usually takes place in everyone, owing to external causes.

"On your planet one still meets beings who approximately correspond to the real sense of the word, but they are to found only among those beings who, according to the ideas of your favourites, are regarded as not belonging to the 'intelligentsia'.

"If instead of called them the 'intelligentsia' one called them the 'mechanogensia' then it would perhaps be quite correct.

"The 'intelligentsia' beings of your planet not only cannot give direction to their functions at all, according to their own wishes, but any Being-initiative for their ordinary process of daily-Being-existence, established by Nature itself, is even quite absent in them.

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"When the 'intelligentsia' beings of your planet become responsible beings, they act and manifest only in response to shocks from without. These external shocks just give them the possibility of becoming animated by unrolling corresponding series of perceptions and experiences, which exist in them.

"Only according to these unrollings do they move automatically and 'it' acts in them automatically, that is 'it' only experiences in them what has already been experienced long before.

"And these experiences proceed in them quite independently of their own wishes and will. And the cause of the external shocks for these experiences are usually animate or inanimate objects, which accidentally come within the range of their retinas, or as it may be the various beings they meet, or the sounds or words which accidentally fall where they happen to be; or the accents accidentally sensed by their sense or smell, or, again, unusual sensations in the processes of their organism, and so on and so forth.

"But their actions and manifestations never proceed according to the wishes of their beings 'I'.

"When many of these contemporary Earth 'intelligentsia' become responsible beings, and their ordinarily established forms of inner Being-functions change in them from various causes, the other beings of the Earth already cease to call them 'intelligentsia' but call them by other names, also words from the ancient Greek, such as; Bureaucrat, Plutocrat, Theocrat, Democrat, and also, Aristocrat.

"For instance those 'intelligentsia' beings of the Earth become bureaucrats among whom in their mature years the series of their mechanical inner experiences become very limited, in other words, however varied the shocks from without only one of their series of inner experiences is unrolled.

"By the way, it will do you no harm to tell you that such societies as the society called the League of Nations, consists for the most part of such bureaucrats as these.

"And as regards the caste of Earth-beings whom the other beings of your planet call plutocrats, this caste is also formed from amongst the Earth 'intelligentsia'. To these 'intelligentsia' beings of the Earth who become in mature years plutocrats, one could very well apply the following wisdom of our incomparable Hodja Nassr Eddin. For a similar case he says, 'The most disagreeable thing for man is if there appears amongst them a somebody with an enormous Asanadian boil in the very middle of his forehead.'

"These Earth 'intelligentsia' get into such an honourable caste in the following manner. Having during their responsible existences, thoroughly and artfully trapped al their honest, that is to say, naive, fellow-countrymen they meet, in consequence they become owners of great wealth.

"It would be quite justifiable if other beings called these beings simply 'Hasnamusses', since many of them ultimately become Hasnamus.

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"I accidentally even happened to become acquainted with the esoteric side of the origin of this word, namely, the word plutocrat.

"It appears that the story of this word is not very ancient, and that it was formed there only seven or eight centuries ago, though such beings also existed in ancient Greece.

"Then they were called 'Plucيوcrats'.

"First of all you must know that on your planet during the last twenty or twenty-five centuries, for some unknown reason, all the suspicious ideas and suspicious things have been given ancient Greek names.

"These and similar ideas, as for instance, Bureaucrat, Aristocrat, Democrat, and so on, were all composed and at the present time are also composed from two ancient Greek words.

"Take for instance, the word Bureaucrat; this word also consists of two ancient Greek words, 'bureau' which means office and 'crat' which means to 'hold' or to 'keep'.

"Both these words together mean - those.... who direct or take care of the whole office.

"In short, when several Earth centuries ago, there had increased on your planets many of these beings now called Plutocrats, and when it was necessary for other beings of the Earth to name them and entitle them, then certain clever beings of the Earth who settled questions such as these decided to invent an appropriate title. This title was to be composed of two ancient Greek Words.

"Those clever Earth beings who then had to form this word, already understood that those beings for whom such a name is necessary, are rogues of the highest degree, and that they ought to be simply called Hasnammoss.

"But as the word Hasnamus is considered a very offensive word, so out of fear of making them angry, it was impossible to call them Hasnamus to their face. There indeed one cannot help being afraid of them because owing to their wealth and to the abnormally established conditions of existence, they had greater influence and more varied possibilities than even the Earth kings themselves. That is why those clever Earth-beings decided to be cunning, and invented a word by which one could entitle them and yet at the same time call them by their real name.

"They did this in the following manner. As all similar names have 'crat' in their second half, then in order that it should strike the eyes of those 'scores' of the Earth, they also left crat in this new word. But they did not take the first half of this word from the ancient Greek language, as is usually done, but from the Russian language; Namely they took the word 'plut'; but the word 'plut' in Russian signifies 'rogue' and there was thus obtained 'plutocrat', that is to say 'Roguecrat'.

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"These brilliant fellows of the Earth then achieved this aim of theirs very well; better it would have been impossible because at the present time there on your planet, these Earth-parasites-Hasnamusses themselves as well as all the other beings of the Earth are quite satisfied with this title. The Earth Hasnamusses themselves are so pleased with their name, that they swagger about even on week days in silk top hats.

"And the other Earth-beings are satisfied that they can call these monsters by their real name, and the latter not only not be angry but even strut about like turkeys.

"Next to these Plutocrats, the important caste there is the caste of Theocrats.

"Theocrats are also usually formed from among the Earth 'intelligentsia'.

"And regarding the qualms of conscience of these Earth Intelligentsia who become Theocrats, almost the same occurs with them as occurs to the consciences of beings-intelligentsia of the Earth who become Plutocrats.

"As regards the Theocrats, our esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin also has a saying in which he defines their significance in the following very strange sentences:-

"Namely he says: - 'Isn't it all the same for the poor flies how they are killed, whether by a kick or by the hoofs of horned devils or by the stroke of the beautiful wings of divine angels?'

"The difference between the beings of the caste of Plutocrats and the caste of Theocrats is only that, for the satisfaction of their Hasnamussian needs the Plutocrats play on their fellow-countrymen through the function which is called 'trust', while the beings Theocrats paly on that function which is formed on Earth-beings in the place of one of the three sacred paths for self-perfecting, that is, in the place of the sacred 'Faith'.

"Now I must tell you also about the caste of the Democrats.

"With the objective conscience of those Earth intelligentsia beings who become Democrats, almost the same occurs as with the Plutocrats and Theocrats, but only amongst these Earth types this happens entirely without their conscienciousness, as it is called.

"Such Democrats, for the greatest part, do not become 'intelligentsia' by heredity. Usually before becoming 'intelligentsia' these Democrats are ordinary simple Earth-beings. And therefore when such simple beings become Democrats, and accidentally occupy the place of 'powerful' beings, then, owing to the fact that they have not in themselves the hereditary habit of being able instinctively to direct the existence of beings under their control, a very rare cosmic phenomenon sometimes happens there under their administration, that is, their very corns reincarnate into pedicure doctors.

"And regarding such Earth types, our incomparable sage Mullah Nassr Eddin applied the following sentence.

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"When our dear Mullah delivers this sentence, he usually extends his arms towards Heaven and with fervent devotion says: 'I thank Thee oh Great, Just Creator, that by Thy Great and Just Grace, it is so arranged that cows do not fly like little dicky-birds.'

"And as regards the beings of the caste of the Aristocrats, it is impossible to say anything at all in explanation of these Earth beings either in ordinary language, or in the language of our incomparable Mullah Nassr Eddin.

"Although Mullah Nassr Eddin also has a sentence about them, it scarcely explains anything at all.

"When it is a question about such beings our Mullah says: - 'Alas! Queer fellows! Can a barge riveted with that kind of rivet keep on the water a long time?'

"And as regards the existence of these Earth-Beings, one can truly say that it is a sport of Nature, or, as it is still sometimes said, a freak of Nature.

"Even all the hairs of the tip of the tail of great, cunning Lucifer became quite gray from profound thinking in trying to understand how their existence on the surface of this peculiar planet is made possible.

"I, personally was always astonished how these Earth-Aristocrats could exist on the Earth for almost as long a time as the other beings of the Earth.

"One can understand a little, for instance, that beings of the caste Bureaucrat are able to exist on the Earth, because although the series of inner experiences among them are very limited, yet nevertheless there are at least in them inner experiences for all times of the day and night.

"But among these Aristocrats, there are, all in all, only three series of inner experiences, yet they exist by them as long as the other beings.

"These three inner experiences are as follows:- the first about food; the second - memories of the former actions of their sexual organs, and the third, memories about their first nurse.

"Apart from these three series of experiences, there is not among them any Being-Tsarkovskinien, that is, thinking with the help of comparisons.

"It is interesting to notice that various nicknames are sometimes given to these Aristocrats to distinguish them from another; as for instance, Emir, Count, Khan, Prince, Melik, Baron and so on,

"The sound of these nicknames, for some unknown reason, acts on all your favourites very pleasantly, on their function called vanity, on that very function which remains in your favorites until their death.

"It is also interesting to observe that on your planet there are two kinds of Aristocrats.

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"Although each kind of these Earth types has its own name, yet both are quite equal in all respects. One kind is called by this same word, namely, Aristocrat, and the other kind is called Zevrocrat.

"In order that you should understand why these two different names for one and the same type began to exist there, you must first of all know that there on your planet, there gradually exist two kinds of state organisations; one is called Monarchy, the other - Republic.

"And so, in a monarchical state organisation such beings are called Aristocrats, and in republican state organisations they are called Zevrocrats.

"And why this acute difference across there, in the names of one and the same kind of beings, is due, it seems, to the following reason.

"First of all you must know that your favourites are very fond of arranging sometimes children-plays, as they are called.

"Your favourites, for some unknown reason, also very much like to have these Aristocrats or Zevrocrats take part in these children-plays of theirs, and therefore they introduce them into these children-plays of theirs.

"And as these Earth beings are quite empty, and in consequence also weak, therefore they must without fail be held up during these children-plays.

"And so the difference in their names was obtained from the different methods of support, that is, by which arms they were held up; namely, in the state organisations where there is a monarchy, they are held up by their arms, and where there is a Republic, they are held up by their left arms.

"Although I don't know very accurately about the causes of these different kinds of supportings, yet knowing the roots of the words from which both of these names were formed, I think that my supposition will be found quite accurate.

"In any case in both of these state organisations, although the beings have different names, yet in all respects they are strictly equal. As regards a similar difference in the names of Earth-beings, I still recollect a remarkable saying of our wise Mullah Nassr Eddin which he personally once told me.

"And this I heard from him in Ispahan where at that time the worthy Mullah dwelt, and where I happened to be, in order to elucidate on the spot how 'politeness' as it is called, originated on your planet.

"There in Ispahan, I often met the highly esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin, and together we had many talks in elucidating many matters. Once we spoke about the difference between the procedure during a trial, and the reaching of a verdict by Turkish and Persian 'Kasi' that is, justices of the peace, concerning the equality of their justice, when he said:

"'Ah, me! my dear friend! Is there anywhere among us on the Earth a wise investigation of man's guilt? Everywhere the 'Kasis' are alike only their

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names are different. In Persie they are celled Persian and in Turkey, Turkish.
It is exactly the same, just as everywhere donkeys are the same, only one calls
them by different names.

"For instance, the race of donkeys which breed in the Caucasus are entitled
'Karebsch' and exactly the same donkeys which breed in Turkestan are called
'Horassan'.

"And since that time this wise saying of his has been imprinted in my mind,
and whenever it was necessary for me during my existence on your planet to
make any comparisons about the differences, I always recalled this wise saying
of his.

"May his name be extolled forever on the planet where he was formed.

"And so, my dear boy, if you ever heppen to be on that planet Earth know that
the weakness about which I told you is the most highly developed among these
beings of your planet who are called the 'Intelligentsia'. (educated).

"Know also and remember well that the societies of beings-men, which are formed
for the investigations of the possibilities for the welfare of the great masses
of beings, consist for the greater part of Earth-'intelligentsia'.

"This new society which is called the League of Nations, also consists of these
'intelligentsia'.

"That is why, as I have already told you, nothing effective will result from
this society. On only one occasion did certain beings of the Earth who were
neither from amongst the Intelligentsia, nor from the 'important' beings of
the Earth, meet together for the purpose, that is, for the purpose of seeking
collectively some means of abolishing from their planet the property of their
mutuel destruction.

"Well, I promised to tell you about this same society of beings-men, how this
society arose and why it fell to pieces. I chanced to learn about the details
during my last descent to that planet, namely, during my investigations and
studies there of the effects on the beings of this planet of the organisation
of existence crested specially for them by the very holy labours of the Saint
Ashiata Shiemash.

"I wish to tell you the history of the formation of this society of beings-men
in somewhat greater detail, because owing to this story you will be able to
understand very well and to have an answer to your question why this peculiar-
ity of Earth beings constantly occurs on your planet.

"And secondly, owing to this history, you will also learn how those natures
of our Megalocosmos, when something unforseen hinders them to function regular-
ly towards the general cosmic Trogoeutoegocrat, adapted themselves in such a
manner, that the results could not be disharmonious for this greatest cosmic
law.

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"This society of beings-men arose, as I have already told you, four or five centuries ago on that same continent Asia. And this occurred in the following manner.

"During that period there proceeded on the continent Asia very many of these processes of reciprocal destruction.

"These processes proceeded partly between different communities, and partly within the communities themselves. The latter processes are there called 'Civil Wars'.

"But the cause of these Civil Wars, and partly of the Wars between communities at this period, was chiefly a religion which had just been founded and which was fantastically based on the teaching of the messenger of Our Endlessness, the Saint Mahomet.

"The foundation of this society which was called 'The Earth must be free for all', was made by the brothers from the monastery called 'Assembly of those who have seen'.

"And this brotherhood of 'Assembly of those who have seen', also existed at that time on the continent Asia, and this brotherhood was greatly revered by all the beings of your planet.

"This brotherhood was formed long before this of Earth-beings who had observed in themselves the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundebuffer and worked collectively to deliver themselves from these consequences.

"And indeed many beings of this brotherhood succeeded in delivering themselves, and many succeeded in following the right path of this deliverance.

"And so, when wars and civil wars became more and more frequent on the continent Asia, certain brothers of this society 'Assembly of those who have seen' with the very old brother 'Olmentaboor' at the head, laid the foundation of this society which was later called 'The Earth must be free for all'.

"These brothers then having perceived these processes of reciprocal destruction which had increased to an extraordinary degree, decided to try, if it were somehow possible, to achieve either the complete abolition of that horrible phenomenon from their planet, or at least to diminish a crying evil.

"And from that time on they devoted themselves to the realisation of their decision. With this aim in view, they then began to visit various lands of the continent Asia and everywhere to preach against this evil peculiarity of the beings of their planet; in consequence they found many beings who agreed with them, and the result was the formation and existence of this same society of beings-men in this town Mosulopolis with the name, 'The Earth must be free for all'.

"They then succeeded in doing a great deal, chiefly because almost the whole program of this society was very successfully composed, as far as its realisation, as far as the conditions which existed on that peculiar planet was concerned.

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"The fundamental program of this society, by the way, was the gradual working in the direction of achieving, first of all, the realisation of one common religion for all the beings of the continent Asia. And they wished to build such a religion on the teaching of the sect Persees, as they are called, after having changed it somewhat.

"The second aim was to establish one common language for all, and they wished to make this common language the Toorkian, as it was called which is the most ancient language on the continent Asia, and the roots of which had already entered into very many Asiatic languages.

"And thirdly, there entered into the fundamental program of this society the aim to organise in the centre of Asia, namely, in the town of 'Mergelen' the capital at that time of the Ferganian Khanate, the chief and fundamental administration of all countries of Asia without exception, composed of respected beings from all Asiatic communities also without exception, and it was proposed to call this administration 'The council of the seints'.

This council was named in this manner because only the very oldest beings, who had merited the honour could take part in it, because only such beings can be impartial and just towards beings of the Earth without difference of religion and nationality

"There in the town Musulopolis there were already amongst the members of this society beings of almost all the Asiatic social organisations. Amongst them were Mongols, Arabians and Persians, and Kirgisis, and Georgians, and Little Russians, and Tamlis, and even amongst them was the personal representative of the conqueror Tamerlane, who was quite famous at that time.

"Owing to their impartial and non-egoistic intense activity, these increasing wars and civil wars then began to diminish on the continent Asia, and a great deal was expected.

"But at that time something occurred which became the cause of the beginning of the breaking up of this society of capable beings-men on that incomparable planet.

"And namely amongst the beings of that society, there appeared the then famous philosopher Aternach with his theory called: 'Why wars exist on the Earth'.

"With the appearance of this philosopher and his theories, the ideas of all the members of this society of beings-men became confused. The history of the philosopher Aternach himself, I also know very well, as during my studies, always of the consequences of the creation of Ashiata Shiashash, I found it necessary to know in detail about the activity of this philosopher, and of course also about himself.

"The history of the philosopher is as follows: he was born in the same town Musulopolis in a family of Kurds, as they are called.

"Later on he indeed became a savant, very great for the planet Earth.

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"At first this same Kurd Aternach studied during very many long Earth years the kinds of questions, which, it seemed to him might give him the answer to the question, in what does the reason of man's existence consist.

"My investigations about him made it clear to me, that during his studies of such questions, by some means or other, a very ancient but well-preserved Sumerian manuscript fell into his hands. This manuscript was well kept because it was written with the blood of a being named 'Cheerman' on the skins of the being called 'Sneke Kelendjosh'.

"This ancient manuscript was written by a Selmenyian savant about his own suppositions. These same suppositions served as the first cause of the origin of the famous theory of the philosopher Aternach.

"The Kurd Aternach himself, as I afterwards discovered, was immediately struck by the contents of that portion of the manuscript, in which it was said that in all probability there exists in the Universe a certain Law of the Reciprocal Maintaining of the All-Existing. Either our life or our death must surely serve for the maintaining of something great or small in the Universe.

"This same portion of the manuscript of the Selmenyian savant, startled the Kurd Aternach; and from that time on, he devoted himself entirely to the study from this aspect alone of the question which interested him.

"The result of his minute investigations during several years, and complicated experimental verifications of his intellectual conclusions was the formation of this plausible theory of his, called as I have already told you, 'Why wars proceed on the Earth'.

"I also became very well acquainted with this theory of his. It was indeed near to reality. All the suppositions of this Kurd Aternach were very similar to the great fundamental cosmic Law 'Trogoautoegocrat', which exists in our Universe, and about which I have already explained to you in more or less detail, when I spoke about the sacred planet Purgetory.

"In this theory, the Kurd Aternach proved very conclusively and without any doubt, that there exists in the Universe a law of the Reciprocal Maintaining of the All-existing.

"Further, it was proved that for such a maintaining of 'something', chemical substances are also used, with the help of which the process is formed of the 'essence-ifficition' of beings, or giving life, as it is called.

"Chemical substances, however, go towards the maintaining of this 'something' only after the life of men ceases, that is to say, when he dies.

"In the theory of the famous Kurd Aternach it was also proved in detail by hundreds of logical examples that a definite quantity of deaths must, necessarily, proceed on the Earth at certain periods, it being all the same whether these deaths are of men or of other forms of life. In brief, this same unusual Earth-being, the Kurd Aternach, who was also chosen as representative of the whole of the population of Kurdestan to be a member of the society 'The Earth

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must be free for all', began to come into contact with many members of this great general planetary society, and once they approached him with the request to expound fully his theory at a general meeting.

"Hence it was that at one of the general meetings of the members of this society 'The Earth must be free for all', he expounded this theory of his in beautiful style and in great detail.

"After his detailed exposition, all the members of this society were so struck that for a long time none of them could move, and only after a fairly considerable time did a terrific uproar and din arise amongst them.

"The result of all their noise and din was that late in the evening of the same day, they unanimously decided to elect from amongst themselves a number of the learned beings who, together, should thoroughly in great detail examine this theory, which had struck them so forcibly, and later make a detailed report to the general meeting.

"From the next day, these elected learned members of the society 'The Earth must be free for all', began to become acquainted with the details of the theory of the philosopher Aternach.

"But as it appeared that certain of these learned members were not yet fully experienced and disillusioned Earth-beings, from that very day onwards, as the examination of this astonishing theory proceeded, they began to get into the state of 'typical' beings of the Earth, that is, they began to forget the extraordinary suppositions which had struck them, and gradually to return to their former, typical, subjective and therefore changeable convictions.

"The result from the very first day was that they divided into two opposing groups.

"Half of them, not fully experienced savants, immediately began without any 'segmentitilno; that is, without any logical criticism, to accept with conviction the suppositions put forward in this theory; and the other part of the same not fully experienced savants began to think and speak critically, as is peculiar to the majority of the savants of the Earth, against those who became at once convinced of everything. And this half of the savants eventually became hostile not only to this theory, but even towards the personality of the Kurd Aternach himself.

"In short, from the next day, these learned members of the society 'The Earth must be free for all', everywhere began of course with foam at the mouth to speak for and against this theory; and in consequence, amongst the other members of this great planetary society of beings-men there appeared two opposite views.

"The first was, that everything really occurs as was said in the theory of Aternach, that is, wars and civil wars must periodically proceed without fail on the Earth quite independently of the consciousness of men.

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"And the second view was the one which had already existed before all the members of this society, that if the program of their society could be realised, then it would be possible to abolish this evil of the reciprocal destruction of existence which proceeded on their planet.

"From that time on, quarrels, disputes and great discord began amongst all the members of this society, but ultimately, nevertheless, the adherents of the theory of the Kurd Atarnach obtained the upper hand, and at a stormy general meeting they unanimously decided to request this Kurd to help them find a way out of the situation which had arisen.

"Thereafter, when the philosopher Atarnach agreed to the request of the members of the society of beings-men called 'The Earth must be free for all', he was unanimously elected as the chief director of all the beings of this society, and the further meetings were held under his direction.

"And after several general meetings under his direction all the members of this society unanimously decided to disband their society for ever.

"And this decision was made when the following categorical conclusion was reached at one of their general meetings.

"In accordance with the laws of nature, wars and civil wars must always proceed periodically on the Earth, independently of the consciousness of men, because during certain periods Nature demands a greater number of deaths. Having this in view, we are all compelled to agree inwardly that it is impossible to destroy the events occurring between states and in the states themselves by any intellectual decisions of men, and therefore we unanimously decide to put an end to all that has already been accomplished, and also to all the current affairs of our society, and to separate and go home, and there to go on working for our daily bread.

"And so, my boy, when beings-men of the great general planetary society unanimously acknowledged the uselessness of their society, and definitely decided to put an end to all their devices, only then did the selfish proud Kurd Atarnach ascend to the platform and speak as follows:

"'My honourable colleagues!! I greatly regret that unwillingly I have become the cause of the termination of that great philanthropic work for which you, the most honoured and clever men of all the countries of the Earth, have given during several years so much impartial and non-egoistic toil, such toil as men of the Earth never were, nor will ever be able to do for others to whom they are indifferent.

"'Several years did you toil without rest, in order to obtain the greatest happiness for the masses, and my theory of which I toiled for many years for those same masses is responsible for the destruction of your super-human goodwill.

"'As I was personally to blame for all this, then let us try and see whether, with my assistance we can make good the failure you experienced.

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"I personally think that if the universal laws, which I happened to learn, are an obstacle for you in obtaining happiness for men of the Earth, then these same laws which I learned may help you towards the same aim of yours, if only they are used otherwise.

"It is because my investigations have proved that it is important for Nature, that at certain times a certain number of deaths on the Earth occur, and for Nature it is immaterial what kind of deaths they are.

"And so if the number of these deaths required by Nature should be replaced by the deaths of other forms of life on the Earth, then in my opinion, it is possible to obtain a diminution in the number of deaths of men themselves.

"And this I am sure will be quite possible if you will continue to work with the same intensity, but only not in order to realise the fundamental program of your society, but in order to restore on the Earth on a larger scale, the ancient custom of offering sacrifices by men to their Gods and saints, by means of the killing of other forms of life'.

"When this proud Kurd had finished his speech a great uproar arose amongst the members of the society 'The Earth must be free for all', which was not less than when he first expounded his famous theory.

"For three days and three nights after his peech they scarcely ever left the place, and owing to the disputes and the discussions, there was a rumbling noise in the halls which were placed by the citizens of Mosulopolis at the disposal of this all-planetary society of beings-men, and eventually on the fourth day, a general meeting was convened at which a resolution was passed by general agreement to do everything in the future as the great Kurd Aternach should advise them.

"On that day the name of the society was changed, and it began to be called 'The Earth must be only for men'.

"Some days later, the members of this new society, already with the name of 'The Earth must be only for men', began to leave the town Mosulopolis and departed to their native countries; and there, under the general direction of the philosopher Aternach, began to work in that direction to spread among the population of the continent Asia the idea of propitiating their Gods and idols by killing beings of various forms.

"And, indeed the members of this new society very soon began to put this new aim of theirs into practice, and the custom of offering sacrifices to their Gods or to imaginary saints by destroying the existence of various week and stupid quadruped beings began to be restored among all the beings of the continent Asia.

"The members of this new society 'The Earth only for men' accomplished this aim of theirs chiefly through the 'clergy', as it is called, of a religion, which was widely spread at that period, and which was based on the teaching of the Saint Mehomed.

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"On this occasion the custom had spread even more than when, at the request of the Angel Louisos, I decided to fly to that planet in order to try and achieve the abolition of this very custom among the beings there, and it was at that time very undesirable for His Conformity, for certain cosmic phenomena on a large scale.

"At this period, the beings began to destroy beings of other forms, because during this time the number of these three-centred beings of the Earth had increased very much, and the number of people who wished to propitiate their idols also increased there.

"Beings of other forms again began to be destroyed on your planet, not only privately but also in special public places.

"At this period, these special places were already associated, for the greatest part, with the saint Mahomed and those around him.

"For instance, each year, tens of thousands of what are called cows and sheep were destroyed in the native country of the Saint Mahomed, namely in the towns of Mecce and Medine in Arabia.

"The same also took place in the town of Meshed, in the locality called Bagdad, in the environs of Yenigisglad in the region of Turkestan, and in several other places, so that on the largest continent of your planet blood again began to flow like a river.

"This offering of sacrifices took place particularly during the Mahomedan festivals 'Beirem' and 'Gorban', as they are called.

"And indeed, owing to their labours there, year by year the mortality of your favourites gradually began to diminish in quantity and of course the necessity for the process of reciprocal destruction began to diminish, but, in consequence the number of the beings also year by year, began to increase, and, what is more important, from that moment on the length of their existence became shorter and shorter.

"This all proceeded chiefly because the substances they radiated and which were required by nature deteriorated in quality.

"It thus continued for several centuries.

"I do not know how it would all have finished if the famous Persian dervish Assedulla-Ibrahim-Ogli had not given it quite another direction.

"The dervish Assedulla-Ibrahim-Ogli began his activity there only twenty to thirty Earth years ago.

"Being only a fanatic of the Mahomedan religion, without any of the serious knowledge which the Kurd Atarnach had, he saw in this custom of offering sacrifices only a crying injustice on the part of men towards beings of other forms, and made it his aim at all costs to achieve the extermination on the Earth of the custom of offering sacrifices.

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"He began to act chiefly through the same dervishes, like himself, who exist on the continent Asia almost in all social organisations.

"This estute Persian dervish Assadulla-Ibrahim-Ogli began to go about everywhere and ably to persuade the other dervishes of his idea, and they, in their turn, everywhere persuaded ordinary beings of the continent Asia that the destruction of the existence of beings of other forms is not only undesirable to God, but that for all the sins of these destroyed beings, the destroyers themselves would be obliged to carry to the Beyond, to Hell, punishment in double measure, and so on.

"And of course, owing to preaching of this kind to dervishes regarding the Beyond, authorities on these questions among the beings of Asia, began to diminish year by year, their offering of sacrifices.

"And in consequence', as our Mullah would say: 'Grandmother no longer liked to eat beans'.

"In short there the result of all the activities of this 'kind' Persian dervish was the last big process of reciprocal destruction, or as you favourites call it 'the great world war'.

"And so, my boy, the suppositions made in the theory of this extraordinary Kurd Atarnach, as I have already told you, were quite near reality.

"He was mistaken in only one thing; but before I tell you about this mistake, you should know that a radiation from themselves of substances of a certain vibration is required for the great cosmic law of Trogoautoegocret from every form of being, also of that planet.

"Besides this, a special radiation is also required from beings of the planet Earth for maintaining its two former pieces, now small planets of this solar system, called Moon and Anulios.

"As on your planet your favourites began to dominate and had in themselves corresponding organisations, that is why during the whole of the time it was so, these vibrations required by Nature were obtained almost through the radiations of your favourites alone. But when Meditation disappeared from among your favourites and the quality of their radiations ceased to correspond to the vibrations required by Nature, then from that time on, Nature began to replace for these vibrations the vibrations from which consists the 'essence-ification', as it is called, or life of the three centred beings-men of the planet Earth.

"And according to the amount of these vibrations required by Nature, do the number of these three-centred beings cease their existence, that is to say, die.

"And really, my boy, for obtaining the required amount of vibrations it is necessary at certain times, that a certain quantity of deaths should occur on the planet. I repeat, that this does really take place, almost as was said in the famous theory of this unusual Earth being, the philosopher Atarnach.

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"But this proud Kurd was unable to think that vibrations which are formed from substances issuing from men during their existence and at death, are necessary for Nature, in quality and not in quantity."

"Perhaps this extraordinary Kurd Aterneh would have thought about this too, if he had known the details of the results which were obtained when the conditions of existence, which were specially created for the beings of the Earth by the very Holy Ashiata Shiemash, began to exist on that planet."

"At that period when the state of existence created by the Saint Ashiata Shiemash was established on your planet, not only did the mortality of your favourites begin to diminish, but also the number of births."

"And this was because the beings of this period began to exist more or less normally; and in consequence, the equalising of vibrations required by Nature was made by the quality of the radiations of normally existing beings of the Earth; that is to say, the beings of that period, owing to their Being-existence began to radiate from themselves the necessary vibrations for the great fundamental cosmic law 'Trogosautoegocrat' and the appropriate vibrations required from them for the Moon and Anulios."

"But regarding these substances or vibrations which are necessary for the maintaining of the Moon and Anulios, I accidentally happened to learn about the details when I had the joy of talking about this planet with His Conformity, the Archangel Louisos, the second time."

"From all that His Conformity then told me, I understood very well that for the maintaining of the former pieces of the planet Earth, vibrations of the sacred Askokin must constantly issue from it, that is, from the fundamental piece and go to the Moon and Anulios."

"And then it appears that this sacred substance Askokin exists in the Universe chiefly combined with the sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis, and in order that this Askokin could be vivifying, as far as the maintaining of the Moon and Anulios is concerned, this sacred substance must free itself from the sacred substances Helkdonis and Abrustdonis, and these latter substances are those very substances by which the higher bodies are formed and perfected in beings, and namely, the body Keskjen and the body of the soul."

"And so, my boy, in general everywhere on any of the planets, for the formation and perfection of their higher bodies by conscious labours and intentional sufferings, the beings transmute in themselves the sacred Askokin used for such a purpose, as for the maintaining of such little planets as the Moon and Anulios are for this solar system, to which your planet Earth also belongs."

"And so my boy, if your favourites, even from this aspect alone would serve Nature honestly, then in consequence, their being-perfecting first of all, would nevertheless proceed without the participation of their peculiar consciousness and secondly, the poor Nature of this unlucky planet would not have always to adjust and adjust herself to be able to maintain herself in the general cosmic harmony."

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"But unfortunately, your favourites do not honestly fulfill their obligations, as far as their service to that Nature is concerned, to which they indeed owe their existence.

"The absence of this honesty among your favourites justified that wise sentence, which our incomparable Mullah Nassr Eddin says in similar cases:

"'It is still possible for men who have conscience, to live peacefully during the pest and cholera, for their effects are at least nobler than human honesty'."

"And so, my dear Hassein, when it appeared that from the psyche of your favourites there finally disappeared the instinctive needs to labour consciously and suffer intentionally, in order to consume the sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis for the maintaining of their former pieces, then great Nature herself was compelled to adapt herself to extract the required sacred substance Askokin by other means. And these other ways are for your favourites very, very disadvantageous."

"Here, it will do you no harm to tell you that after the action of the organ Kundebuffer was destroyed in the first beings of your planet, they very quickly learned that a certain cosmic substance must be transformed through them, and that to help in this transformation is one of their duties."

"For instance the beings of the continent Atlantis not only already learned about this but they even invented all kinds of methods in order that this being's duty of theirs should be fulfilled as productively as possible."

"The beings of the continent Atlantis combined two being-duties, namely, the duty to perfect their higher bodies, and the duty of serving the great law Trogoautoegocrat for the maintaining of the two little planets of their solar system."

"And the combining of these duties was organised by them in the following manner. In each locality or in each neighborhood at that time, there had without fail, to be three very large special buildings."

"One, especially for beings of the male sex, which was called 'Aguro-xrostiny'."

"The second one specially for the beings of the female sex and this building was called, 'Guinnyerko-xrostiny'."

"And the third special building...this was built for those beings who were then called the intermediate sex and the sacred building was called 'Anoroperiohnikima'."

"These large buildings were then regarded as sacred by the beings of the continent Atlantis, and these buildings were for them what temples, cathedrals, churches and other sacred places are for the contemporary beings of the Earth."

"When I descended for the first time on that planet and was on the continent Atlantis, I visited certain of these buildings and also became very well acquainted with their significance. In the male temples, namely in these Aguro-

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xrostinys, the beings of the male sex of any particular locality or neighborhood, performed in turns appropriate 'mysteries' in special states called 'remembering oneself'.

"Among the beings of the continent Atlantis, there was a definite understanding that the beings of the male sex are the sources of the active manifestations, and therefore in their Aguro-xrostinys they meditated the whole time very actively and consciously and performed these appropriate sacred mysteries, so that owing to such conscious meditation, there should be transmuted in themselves the sacred Abrustdonis and Helkdonis.

"And they did this intentionally and with full awareness, so that this certain sacred substance freed in them and issuing through their radiations should become for its further vivification, an active part of the three-foldness of the sacred cosmic law Triamasikamno.

"And the buildings of Guinnyerko-xrostinys existed for all the beings of the female sex of the particular locality, and all of them were obliged during certain periods, months as they are called there, to remain in these Guinnyerko-xrostinys, without leaving.

"And also being fully aware that they are passive beings they were obliged to be very passive the whole time, so that the radiations of the vibrations issuing from them should serve for their further vivification, as a passive part of the law of threefoldness.

"And therefore in these Guinnyerko-xrostinys they passed their time in complete passivity, trying not to think about anything consciously.

"And this proceeded among them in the following manner. They lay down very passively in these Guinnyerko-xrostinys during their monthly states, and tried not to have any active experiences. And in order that the passing associative thoughts should not hinder them in their concentration, it was so arranged that they should think the whole concentration, it was so arranged that they should think the whole time about good wishes for their present and future children.

"By the way, it is interesting to remark, that also among the contemporary beings of the female sex, there also proceeds during these definite periods a certain organic process which you favourites call 'Menstruation'.

"And as regards the third kind of the sacred buildings which were on the continent Atlantis Anoroperiohnikime, about the beings for whom these temples Anoroperiohnikime were built, one could speak perhaps only in the language of our honoured Mullah Messr Eddin. To explain it in ordinary language is impossible.

"As I have already told you, the beings for whom these temples were built were called beings of the intermediate sex. Our Mullah would call them 'misconceptions' or 'men neither this nor that'.

"Amongst these beings of the intermediate sex, there were also beings of the male sex, and also beings of the female sex.

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"They were such as for various reasons had the possibility neither to perfect themselves nor to serve Nature.

"The saying of our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin could also be applied to them. In such cases he says: 'Neither a candle for an angel nor a poker for the devil.'

"The beings of the male sex were those who for various reasons were wholly deprived of the possibility of conscious meditation.

"The beings of the female sex, were those chiefly who had no menstruations, or whose menstruations proceeded abnormally, and there were others whose sex changed during certain periods into 'Haneoneni', or as our dear Mullah expresses himself, 'Into a woman, who is a real mare in the spring'.

"And on the continent Atlantis at that time, these beings possessed very peculiar distinguishing signs. The first were when they began to believe in all kinds of 'fiddle-faddle', and secondly, when a being began to prove to others what he himself did not know at all, or which he knew without being certain, and thirdly, if any being began to teach others about those truths of which he himself understood absolutely nothing at all and fourthly if the being was in the habit of breaking his promise, and of taking an oath in vain, and fifthly beings who had the profession of spy, stock-broker, prostitute. 'Tuk-su-sa', newspaper reporter, writer, representative of art, physician, lawyer and priest.

"But the most indisputable sign was the appearance among these beings of the property which was called 'Moyassol'.

"By the way, it will do you no harm to tell you also, that this property exists among your favourites also, and at the present time they also consider this property as an illness which they call 'Hemorrhoids'.

"In these temples which were called Anoropariohnikime, beings of this kind had to stay without leaving during the period indicated by the Earth beings around them. They were not obliged to do anything in these Anoropariohnikimes but existed how they pleased, only without either meeting or speaking with normal beings of the locality. They were so confined in these temples Anoropariohnikime of Atlantis at that time because according to current ideas they greatly hindered the peaceful and regular existence of the other beings of the Earth during certain periods of the month, owing to the radiations caused by their various harmfulnesses.

"Eh, my dear boy, beings of the continent Atlantis already had excellent good customs for normal existence, but to the great misfortune of contemporary beings of the Earth, all the good customs they invented and all the knowledge about these customs perished together with the destruction of the continent.

"As regards these good temples, about which I have just told you, it appeared as if, later, they would again be established among the beings of the Earth, but unfortunately, with the death of the restorer all was soon forgotten.

"But nevertheless one of these temples, namely, one similar to the temple Guinnyerko-xrostiny was again restored and existed a long time.

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"The necessity of these temples was again understood and they were again established by a certain very wise Hebrew King, named Solomon.

"He first of all decided to re-establish for beings of the female sex, special buildings where these beings should remain during the period of their menstruation, so that they should not hinder the normal existence of the beings of the male sex.

"This same wise King Solomon then understood also very well that generally during the period of menstruation the character of beings of the female sex becomes for other beings, particularly for their husbands, not only intolerable, but even organically harmful, and he therefore then promulgated a decree for his subjects, that they should build near each populated centre, special isolated places where the beings of the female sex should be confined during the whole time of this condition.

"I even happened to read the decree he promulgated:

"In it, by the way, it said, that during their menstruations women are unclean; and not only is it a great sin to touch them during these periods; but for others, particularly their husbands, even to converse with them, is a sacrilege of the highest order.

"If during this time, men, particularly the husbands, touch or talk with them, then first of all, evil spirits will enter into them, and secondly, these men, particularly the husbands, will without fail, quarrel with many other men, with whom they have daily affairs.

"This latter observation of the great Earth sage, King Solomon, still remains there an immutable truth.

"And indeed at the present time, it is also one of those numerous causes, owing to which in the general whole, existence for beings of your planet has now become absurd, in the highest degree.

"Among the contemporary beings of the Earth of the female sex, during these states, their specific property called hysteria still further increases, and owing to this they bring the beings around them, particularly their husbands, to such a condition, that the latter become as our great Mullah Nassr Eddin says in such cases:

"The most unperdonable carelessness of man in the presence of women is to put a barrel of gunpowder near a Tendur.

"And indeed owing to the fact that contemporary beings of the female sex are at liberty during their menstruations, many contemporary beings of the male sex not only cannot have permanent good relations among themselves, but owing to this they also very often become real 'After-repenting-blasphemers' as they are called.

"The custom created by this wise King Solomon existed for a very long time among the Jewish people, and would surely have spread everywhere on Earth.

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"But unfortunately, as usually happens there, after the glory of this Jewish people had departed from them and they were persecuted by other communities, this custom ceased to spread and was gradually forgotten, even among the Jewish people themselves.

"At the present time such customs exist there only among a very small social organisation dwelling on the mountains of Caucasia called 'Hevsoori', the problem of whose origin gives many contemporary Earth savants sleepless nights.

"And to speak about the unfortunate nature of this incomparable planet, one must also have recourse to the saying of the wisest of all the wise beings of your planet, who is particularly esteemed by me, Mullah Neasr Eddin.

"About these misfortunes, he first of all says:

"'AH! AH! 'ME! If you are very unlucky, you could get syphilis from your godmother'.

"And sometimes he says, 'Oh you unfortunate creatures. While you were being born, your mother sang Armenian songs.'

"For a similar misfortune even the Russian Kusme Prutkoff has a special saying which is as follows: 'Is there anything more unfortunate than these fir-cones, for do not all the Makkars stumble against them?'

"This unfortunate nature of the planet Earth, owing to the beings dwelling on it, must always keep on re-adapting itself constantly and without respite, and manifest itself always differently and differently to remain within the general cosmic harmony.

"For instance, quite recently during their last big process of mutual destruction, now called by them the Great World War, which proceeded between these super-peculiar beings, whether owing to the German invention of poisonous gases or to the inventions by the English, particularly of quick-firing machine-guns, or to any other of their inventions, I do not know, but the fact remains that during their last process the number of deaths was obviously not foreseen by Nature, and proceeded on a much larger scale than was required by this unfortunate Nature.

"In short, on this occasion the consequences of the deaths of beings-men, was es the Earth commercial Hasnammusses of a particular kind would say, 'Over-expenditure', and therefore, at the present time, the poor Nature of the planet 'puffs' again end jumps out of its skin in trying to accommodate itself for the future.

"On this last occasion, this unlucky Nature, it seems, is preparing to increase for future times, the numbers of other forms of beings.

"And I can assume this, because when I left that planet forever, in the streets of the towns of Petrograd and Tiflis, in the big social organisation of Russia, where there perished the majority of the beings who were destroyed in the world war, there were to be seen those quadruped beings who being usually afraid of the biped ones, never appear where the latter dwell..

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"These man-hating quadruped beings are there called 'wolves'.

"There also in Russia the births among what are called rats and mice have very greatly increased. To such an extent did the number of these little quadruped beings increase, that at the present time they eat up all the goods of beings of this community.

"By the way, in one of my etherogram reports from Mars I was informed that beings of this same community Russia have applied to the beings of another European community to undertake the destruction of the existence of these little beings rats and mice, who have multiplied among them, and for which they promise to pay them all the money necessary.

"Although a temporary diminution of the number of these poor rats and mice is possible for various methods existing for this purpose among these specialists in destroying the existence of others, yet maybe, the beings of other communities will not agree to do this for nothing.

"The beings of this Russia will of course, not be able to pay with money as they promised, as these payments will perhaps be much greater than the cost of their last war.

"And as regards the flesh of peasants - everybody knows that in peace time, it costs nothing.

When Beelzebub had finished explaining the extravagant multiplication on the planet Earth of rats and mice, his grandson Hessein, as if speaking to himself exclaimed very sadly in a voice full of despair:

"What will then be? Is it possible that there is no escape and that the unfortunate souls formed on that unfortunate planet must remain eternally imperiled and endlessly embodied in different planetary forms, tormented forever and ever by the consequences of that damned organ Kundabuffer, an organ which for reasons unknown to them was added to the planetary bodies of the first three-centred beings of that unlucky planet?

"Where then is that Pillar upon which it seems that the whole of our Megalocosmos rests and which is called 'Justice'?....No....This cannot be....Here something is not quite right...because during the whole duration of my existence, never on a single occasion has doubt crept into me regarding cosmic justice...I must really find out and understand what is the matter here...

"From this moment on, the aim of my existence shall be to understand clearly, why the souls of these Earth three-centred beings are found in such unprecedented terrible conditions.

Having said this, poor Hessein hung his head and became depressingly thoughtful.

And Beelzebub regarded him with a very strange look. Strange, because in this look his love for Hessein was very clearly visible, and at the same time it was obvious that Beelzebub was greatly pleased that his grandson was experiencing such a depression.

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A fairly long time passed in this manner. Finally Beelzebub sighed as if with the whole of his being and turned to his grandson with the following words:

"Yes, my dear Hassein, surely something here is not quite right. If nothing could be done for the beings of that planet by that being who has already at the present time the Reasonableness of the sacred 'Podkulad', and is one of the first helpers of Our Endlessness in the government of the Universe, namely, the former Saint Ashiata Shiemsash, - he could do nothing, what then can we say, beings with reasons of almost ordinary beings?

"You remember the Very Holy Ashiata Shiemsash in his deliberations entitled 'The Terror of the Situation' said: 'If it is still possible to save the beings of the Earth, then only Time can do it'.

"At the present time we can only repeat the same regarding that terrible property of theirs, about which we have just spoken, namely, about their periodical process of mutual destruction

"We can only now say, that if this property of the Earth beings will ever disappear from this unfortunate planet, then perhaps it will be only through Time, owing either to the guidance of some Being of a very highly developed Reason, or to some exceptional cosmic event.

---

CHAPTERS 44, 45, & 46

ELECTRICITY, JUSTICE, FORM & SEQUENCE

OR

(GOOD AND EVIL)

After this moving event, Beelzebub, Hassein and Ahun did not at once go to the place on the ship where they usually passed their time, but retired to their 'keshas' to recover. Keshas are the compartments on board a ship which are called cabins on terrestrial steamers.

Later when Beelzebub had rested a while he returned to the room on the cosmic ship Kernek where their conversations were usually held, and silently entered. The first thing he saw was his beloved grandson Hassein standing with his face towards the wall, his eyes covered with both his hands. Observing him more attentively, Beelzebub saw that Hassein's shoulders were heaving.

Profoundly moved, Beelzebub approached Hassein and in a tone full of compassion said: "What is the matter, my dear boy? Are you really weeping?"

Hassein tried to speak, but it was evident that he could not for his sobs. And some time passed before his agitation subsided. Then gazing with sad eyes at his grandfather but with a smile of deep affection he said:

"You must not be concerned about me, my dear grandfather. My present state will soon pass. During the recent Dianosk I certainly thought very intensely, and in all probability the tempo of my bodily functions was changed by the unusual activity.

"Until the new tempo of my intellection has become harmonised with the established tempos of all the rest of the functions of my body, such abnormalities as my present weeping will undoubtedly occur in me.

"But my weeping today is on account of the state of those same souls forming and perfecting themselves upon that planet Earth, and about whom you have recently told me so much. I remembered and thought of them just when I was myself overflowing with joy from all that has just taken place. I remembered the souls of the unfortunate beings of that remote planet who, owing to the consequences of the properties of that accursed organ Kundabuffer, can never experience the delight and happiness arising in souls and beings from these manifestations from Above, one of which I have just had the joy to witness."

When Hassein had finished speaking, Beelzebub looked long and fixedly at him and then said:

Good and Evil

2

"I also see now that during the recent Dionosk you assuredly did not, as your
favourites say, go to sleep, but actively pondered. I am very glad, because
by the laws of the great Heropess you are just now on the threshold of respons-
ible being and must be beginning to accustom yourself to what is becoming to
responsible beings, - to spend half your time in active pondering. And you
have begun.

"I am glad for you, chiefly because your active pondering is beginning at
the right moment, namely, at the moment when other being functions are devel-
oping in you which do not depend upon the reason of the being himself but upon
the great cosmic Law of Trogosautoegokret. All the same, my dear boy, try
during several Dionosks not to ponder actively, but let those functions in you
rest which participate in active intellection and do not depend upon the essence
of the being, but on the harmony of the general cosmic tempo.

"Always know and bear in mind that the planetary body of a being is an independent cosmic formation and only a dependent and unconscious part of the whole being. Hence, as the foundation of that cosmic pillar you called Justice, the conscious part of the being must act justly towards the unconscious part and never demand of it, the planetary body, more than it can give.

"And in order that this auxiliary planetary body may rightly, like everything else in the Megalocosmos, serve its principal part, that is, the essence of the being, this essence must be just towards it and demand only what the body can give.

"This must be done in order that this unconscious part may be able gradually
and freely to blend its individual tempos with the tempos of the general
Megalocosmos. You must remember without fail that in the Megalocosmos, the
blending of tempos is possible only with what is called 'Kasnookizker' or as
it may be said, by degrees or gradually.

"And so if you wish that your active intellection should proceed rightly and productively during your future existence, if and when such intellection has already begun in you, you must cease for a while and not continue in it however agreeable and interesting it may be, if such inner process had undesirable effects on your body. Otherwise there will result in you 'Desonakooasanz', in other words, a part only of your whole being will acquire another tempo, and, in consequence of this, you will become such a being as your favorites call lopsided. The majority of them are precisely of that kind.

"Only if the change of tempo of one part is gradual is it possible to change
the whole without risk of injury to the whole.

"You expressed yourself quite correctly, my dear boy, when you said that during
the recent Dionosk the tempo of your body certainly did not harmonise with your
intellection.

"But you would have been even more correct if you had used, instead of the word
body, the word feeling, because this function of feeling is predominant during
the active intellection of a being. As I am sure that it is extremely important
for you to understand this fully I will repeat a little more in detail the

Good and Evil

3

difference between the 'knowledge' and the 'understanding' of which we have
just spoken.

"But first of all let us go and sit where we usually do to talk. Ah, here
comes at just the right moment of our dear Ahun, the constant partner in our
conversations."

When they were all seated in their usual places Beelzebub continued as follows.
He said:

"For a clear understanding of the difference between understanding and know-
ledge we will again take for our example the peculiar Reason of the beings
of your planet and compare it with the Reason of the three-centred beings of
the other planets of the Universe.

"We can confidently describe the Reason of the beings of the planet Earth, and
particularly of the beings of the present day, as the Reason of Knowledge;
while the Reason of all the three-centred beings of our Great Universe can be
called the Reason of Understanding. In general, the Reason of Understanding
is such that it always becomes an integral and inalienable part of the being,
while the Reason of Knowledge is a temporary part, - as if it were something
strange or alien.

"In order that any knowledge newly acquired should remain in a being having
only the Reason of Knowledge it is absolutely necessary for him to repeat it.
Otherwise such knowledge will very quickly change or fede completely, - an
event that cannot happen in the case of knowledge acquired by a being possess-
ing real Reason of Understanding.

"However much a being possessing Reason of Understanding may change in other
respects, the knowledge he acquires remains in his essence always accessible
and an inalienable part of him forever."

As Beelzebub paused to adjust the curls of his tail, Hessein addressed him thus:

"Your Worthiness, the Sacred Podkoolad of His Endlessness, my dear grandfather.
Seeing that you have already told me so much concerning the beings of the planet
Earth, you surely will not refuse to give me as well the personal opinion you
formed during your prolonged observation of the chief cause of the moulding of
the psyche of the three-centred beings of that unfortunate planet into such mis-
happen form?"

To this question of Hessein's, Beelzebub replied as follows:

"Very well, my dear boy, now I can give you my personal opinion also. To tell
the truth if you had asked me this question before, I could not have replied
frankly, since I had a definite aim in mind concerning you, in telling you so
much about the beings of the planet Earth. But now that I have become con-
vinced that my aim has been attained, I can confidently give you my own frank
personal opinion as well. I will even tell you why I could not have given you
my frank opinion before, and the more readily because you will also be able
clearly to understand from it the difference of which I have just been speaking
between knowledge and understanding.

Good end Evil

4

"It is like this, my boy, -

"You are now at the period of your existence when that form of intellection is formed which is proper to all responsible beings of the Megalocosmos; and hence, when we set off on the Kernak, I decided to profit by the time to help you so that the formation of your active intellection might proceed rightly. And when at the outset, I noticed that you became very interested in the beings of the planet Earth, I began to tell you about them, under cover of gratifying your interest, in such a sequence that you yourself by your own intellection with just the facts I gave you, would be bound to arrive at certain conclusions and in consequence the 'aftolkolizikner' particularly necessary in your present stage would result in you.

"I told you very many things but just not the most important thing.

"The fact is that the real understanding in the essence of a being is also a material substance of chemical composition; and this substance also is always formed according to the same fundamental cosmic law of the sacred Triomazikemno.

"And the three separate factors in the manifestation of this sacred law are in the present case the formations already present and inalienably proper to the being.

"These already materialised, intellectually corresponding understandings become the positive and negative poles of this great law, and these results, which are called being-aftokolinzikner, or, otherwise, the realised endeavours of the individuum, serve as the neutralising principle of this omni-present law.

"The process of the great law of Triomazikemno proceeds in the present case in the following way.

"Relative to the knowledge newly entering, certain corresponding understandings already present in the being become his positive part and hence begin to affirm; while certain others, also corresponding understandings- begin to deny these affirmetions.

"The 'aftokolinzikner' set up between these affirmations and denials produce, what shall we say, sernofoorkalian friction; or as it is sometimes called in-stinkyoterebellic clash.

"And owing to all this the substantial result is crystallised in the being which becomes uniquely his very own being-understanding.

"By the way, it is indispensable for you to know also, that only understandings formed in this order are precipitated in the being into those series of perceptions which were there before and which are similar to this new understanding.

"But in other beings in which the Reason of Knowledge alone exists these newly transmuted knowledges are precipitated as information at random and are dependent entirely on the existing general state. These newly acquired perceptions become mixed with others having nothing in common with them. That is why in such consciousnesses there always results what our highly esteemed Mullah Nasser Eddin calls 'Eralash'.

5

Good and Evil

"In order that this 'aftokolinziknerian' friction or 'instinktkoterebellic' clash should be produced in the being it is necessary that the being himself should produce consciously from within or there must be produced from without such a new direction that new knowledges shall be perceived in the order 'Tavashtner', and this can occur only if gradation without violence be strictly followed.

"For instance, had I given you at once what you have just asked me, namely, my opinion for the reasons for the misfortunes of those three-centred beings of the planet Earth and had afterwards related the various things that I have told you concerning them, all those facts I gave you would at once have been clear to you without your own 'aftokolinziknerian' intellection; and the knowledge of these facts would have been for you only information without essential understanding. That is why I told you these things in such an order that this same 'Aftokolinziknerian' friction should proceed in you continuously throughout my whole story; I saw clearly just now the results of all this interior process of yours in the manner in which you answered my question why you were weeping.

"So my dear boy, now that I am fully convinced that the time I have spent in my stories concerning the beings of this peculiar planet have attained the desired result in you and as we are already nearing our beloved planet Keretas and our journey will soon be over I can now not only confidently and frankly give you my own opinion but I will tell you in detail about that real Objective Reason the details of which I myself unfortunately learned too late.

"I say unfortunately because had I known of it earlier I should not have wasted so many long years of my time in the observation and study of the peculiar psyche of the beings of that unique planet.

"It will be best for you if I tell you only about what, as I have just said, I myself learned too late.

"That you should better understand I must first of all tell you something about certain episodes which have nothing in common with this.

"You remember that I recently told you that when I descended on that planet Earth for the fifth time I stayed there only a short while. I returned to the planet Mars on account of the expected appearance there of one of the Cherubim attendant on Our Endlessness, who I had been informed bore a certain command concerning me.

"Soon after my arrival on the planet Mars this Cherubim appeared and the command proved to be this, that in response to the prayers of the Angel Louisos in recognition of my success in destroying the custom of sacrifices on your planet, Our Creator had most graciously reduced my punishment so that punishment for my transgressions should not fall to my posterity.

"That was why from that time my children, that is to say, your father and your uncle Tooilan could return to their native country and enter the service of His Endlessness.

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"Being well known for their ability my sons were very soon after their arrival
assigned some appropriate employment.

"Your father was appointed 'Zerlikner' of one part of the planet Keratas and
later rose to the rank he now holds which is that of Zerlikner in chief of the
whole of our planet Keratas.

"Your uncle Toolilan was appointed assistant to the director of the etherogram
station of the Holy Planet Purgatory, which then as well as now is in commun-
ication with almost all the planets of the Great Universe. He later on attain-
ed the position of Director in Chief, which office he still occupies.

"By the way, my dear boy, it is to the purpose that you should know that there
was once among the beings of your planet, a duty very similar to the duty of
our Zerlikners. The beings who fulfilled this duty were called by your
favoured Astrologers,

"Among the duties of your Earth Astrologers, as also among our Zerlikners
was the compilation for newly born beings of their 'Ablekeekoonerish' end on
the basis for these for every being on attaining the age of seven was prescrib-
ed a marriage partner. Such an 'Ablekeekoonerish' is called a horoscope on
your planet.

"Justice must be done to the beings of the Earth during the time of these
astrologers. Then indeed the directions of these astrologers were strictly
carried out and the conjugal unions were made exclusively accordingly to
their directions. In consequence during that period on the Earth, marriage
partners almost always corresponded to each other according to their type.

"These ancient astrologers made their selections successfully because although
they were very far from the knowledge of many cosmic Trogoautoegokratic laws
they at least knew very well the laws of the influence upon beings of the
different planets of their solar system, namely, the influence of their planets
on that planet during conception and birth. And having a many centuried prac-
tice in such knowledge passed from generation to generation among these astrol-
ogers, they already knew very well the female types corresponding to the types
of the male sex.

"And owing to all this, the couples selected according to their judgement
proved to be quite suited and not as at the present time. There on the planet
Earth as if by design almost always quite opposite types are united; and hence,
during the whole subsequent existence of these couples, half their time is
spent only in what our revered Mullach Nessr Eddin expressed in the following
words:

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"What a good husband or wife it is if their whole inner life is not always engaged in nagging their other half'.

"In any case, my dear boy, if some astrologers had continued there, then surely from their further practice they would by now have succeeded in making the existence of beings on that unfortunate planet in respect of family relations a little like the existence of the other three-centred beings of our Great Universe.

"But this custom also, like all the rest of their happy attainments, they have sent to the dogs of the revered Mullah Nissr Eddin, not having time to use it as it should be used. As it happens there usually, these Earth astrologers first began to dwindle gradually and finelly they were quite evaporated.

"After the final destruction of the function of these astrologers, their place was taken by other specialists, but from among the savants of quite a new order who also proposed to be concerned with those defterocosmoses and tritocosmoses.

"These strange fellows of the new order occupied themselves only with inventing different names for the different suns and planets of the Megalocosmos from among the milliards of suns and planets which have nothing to say to them. But they pretend to measure the distance between those cosmic points which they can sometimes see from their planet, through their children's toys also called telescopes. But how they measure, this is by now one of their professional secrets and known therefore to them alone.

"Please, my dear Hessein, don't be indignant with these contemporary Earth astronomers. Even if they do no good to your favourites, at least they are kept from doing harm. They must be busy with something. It is not without reason that they wear spectacles made in Germany, and nightshirts sewed in England, the more so that they wreck their respectable brains to name and measure just those same suns and planets that luckily for them do not quickly change their paths of felling relatively to their Solar System. Thus they can observe the form of the position of these Solar Systems during a long time, but even then for only several of their centuries. Let them!

"Let them occupy themselves with this! May the Creator be with them. Otherwise, like the majority of the rest of these queer Earth fellows they will from boredom occupy themselves either with titillation or with the five-fingered exercise. And as you know, my boy, beings so occupied give off to their surroundings - in this case to your favourites, very harmful emanations.

"Well, my boy! So my sons on their arrival were at once thought fitted for these responsible posts; and why this was so I must also tell you in greater or less detail.

"But first of all you must know that among the exiles with me to this Solar System from the very beginning was one of the 'zerlikners' of the planet Kerates. He was young at that time, but already very learned. His name is Pooloodjestus. By the way, since the pardon, this Pooloodjestus has already been thought worthy to become junior assistant of the Great Observer of the

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movement of all points of the Universe, His Samo keepness, Arch-cherubim Kshelltava. Well, from the very commencement of our exile, this same Pool-oodjestus as a great expert in the position of all the suns and planets of our Universe, offered to become the director in chief of the observatory on Mars which I began to organise shortly after my arrival there. Of course I accepted him with great pleasure; and it was in this way that the great savent Poolood-jestus came to reside in my house on the planet Mars.

"Later on when my sons were born and grew to the appropriate age I asked this great savent Pooloodjestus to undertake the further duty of the education of my children. He agreed to my proposal very willingly, because in the unusual circumstances he could not find employment for his varied knowledge, and my proposal opened up a large field for him.

"From that time, apart from his not very numerous duties, he gave himself entirely to the enlightenment or instruction of the Reason of my sons. They soon became so much attached to him that they did not leave him even while he was engaged in the duties of my observatory. Even during these moments the good Pooloodjestus constantly enlightened their Reason and explained practically the technique of the observation and study of cosmic points. He explained why such and such a point occupies such a place, the character of their influence on each other, their peculiarities and everything concerning the great and small sources of the substances of the great Trogoautoegokrat.

"In this way, both my sons, under the direction of this remarkable savent, not only acquired the knowledge necessary for responsible beings, but became as well particularly well acquainted with the properties and characteristics of most of the suns and planets of our great Megalocosmos.

"Thus it was, that at that time both my sons came to devote themselves to their observations. Your father learned to observe and study the distant suns and planets situated in the sphere of the Prime Source, the self-same Sun-Absolute, while your uncle Toolilan loved to observe the planet Earth.

"I was partly the cause of the latter fact because during the periods of my observations of the beings of your planet, I used to charge Toolilan to make a note of the changes taking place there; and little by little he became interested himself in these beings of a very strange psyche.

"Well, my boy, when my sons were prepared to leave the planet Mars, forever, to go to the centre, and when they received my final blessings, your uncle Toolilan begged me not to refuse to keep him periodically informed of the results of my observations and studies concerning the peculiar psyche of the biped beings of the Earth.

"Of course I promised Toolilan to do so; and they flew away from there to the centre nearer to Our Lord.

"When they arrived there it was soon discovered that they were well-informed concerning the position of cosmic points and knew their properties and characteristics. Your father was at once appointed to the office 'Zerlikner' of one part of the planet Karatas; and my younger son Toolilan was made assistant director of the Etherogram station on the Holy Planet Purgetory.

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"Well from that time onwards, I used, according to his request, to send Toolilan every quarter a complete copy of all the notes of our observations and studies of the psyche of the beings of the planet Earth.

"Many years passed from the time I first began to send Toolilan these etherograms; but I personally did not know what happened to them. Only later I learned that the Great Governor of the Holy Planet Purgetory, His All-Quarters Maintainer the Arch-cherubim Algemant, having learned by chance that the assistant director of the Etherogram station, Toolilan, periodically received from his father very full etherograms from the Solar System Ors, expressed the wish to be kept acquainted with their contents.

"It proved that these etherograms not only interested him personally, but His All-Quarters-Maintainer even requested your uncle Toolilan to reproduce the contents of these etherograms regularly in the 'Tooloohterzinek', in case some of the souls dwelling on the Holy Planet should wish for a rest to have the information concerning the peculiar beings dwelling on one of the very remote planets of the Great Megalocosmos. Your uncle Toolilan therefore always did so. When he received the etherogram from me, he always at once reproduced them in the general planetary 'Tooloohterzinek'; and by this means all the blessed souls dwelling on the Holy Planet were able if they wished to be kept informed of all my observations during those long years.

"Here, by the way, it will do no harm to tell you that beings of the planet Earth have now invented something like our 'Tooloohterzinek'. Certainly, however, the likeness is rather remote. They call this invention of theirs it seems radio.

"It further transpired that certain blessed souls dwelling on the Holy Planet Purgatory followed my observations very closely; and began to ponder over the peculiarities of the psyche of those beings. And the result of all their ponderings was that they finally saw that something was wrong with the psyche of the three-centred beings of the planet Earth.

"These same blessed souls noted my etherograms very attentively and began to share their impressions with others and these, in turn, with still others, with the result, as it proved, that many of them finally became seriously indignant at what at first seemed to them such an injustice from above. The number of such indignant blessed souls, moreover, gradually increased, until everywhere in the 'Zerrorrey' of that Holy Planet the matter was considered and discussed.

"'Zeroorrey' on the Holy Planet are those points of existence which on other planets are called towns and villages.

"The result of it all was that fifty blessed souls of those dwelling on the Holy Planet were chosen to investigate and discover in common with real reason why such an anomaly exists in the psyche of the beings on the planet Earth that hinders them from perfecting themselves.

"The fifty so chosen souls were just those who had been already considered worthy to be candidates for their promotion to the Sun-Absolute.

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"As soon as these fifty souls were chosen His All-Quarters-Maintainer the Arch-cherubim Algematant expressed his most gracious wish to assist them in their task.

"These fifty candidates for the Sun Absolute having begun their investigations, it became clear to them after long and complicated research that the fundamental cause of the abnormality of the psyche of the beings of the Earth was the rise and prevalence of a certain idea of Good and Evil, the idea namely, that Good and Evil exist outside of the beings themselves; and as if, as soon as they are formed, for some unknown reason there is crystallised in the essence of the three-centred beings of the planet Earth the idea that all their good and evil acts proceed not from their own essence but are manifestations induced by external circumstances.

"Having discovered this explanation, the blessed dwellers on the Holy Planet began to ponder what to do. It is said that everywhere in all the 'Zeroorrey' conferences began to be held in the hope of arriving at some practical issue. Eventually, after long and continued consideration, the following conclusion was unanimously agreed to by all the blessed souls of all the 'Zeroorrey' of the Holy Planet.

"Should the soul of that being who first promulgated this malevolent idea perfect itself to the sacred degree of Reason corresponding to the Holy Planet Purgatory this soul shall not be admitted to exist on the planet Purgatory but condemned to dwell for eternity on the planet 'Remorse of Conscience'. Meanwhile all those dwelling on the Holy Planet should lay at the feet of His Endlessness the petition to send such Reason as could find a means there of uprooting this wicked idea.

"By the way, after this resolution was carried out by these fifty candidates for the Sun-Absolute, the question was examined what being or soul it was that instigated this wicked idea on that planet. When it transpired that this soul was called during its planetary existence Makery Kronberhzyon, and that it had not only perfected itself and was now on the Holy Planet, but was ranked as one of the first candidates for the Sun-Absolute, - why there then occurred something on that planet which even now nobody can recall or speak of calmly. It is said that during that time there was not a righteous soul on the whole Holy Planet who was not smitten with remorse in face of such a terrifying fact.

"For nearly a quarter of their time they discussed this unprecedented scandal back and forth. In every 'Zeroorrey', it is also said, every kind of committee and sub-committee was formed; and in the end the following decision was unanimously arrived at; to leave in abeyance, the general planetary sentence concerning the soul of Makery Kronberhzyon; but in regard to its carrying out by the dweller on the Holy Planet to lay at the feet of His Most Gracious Endlessness the petition to mitigate this terrifying sentence. When on the occasion of His next visit this request was laid at His feet, the All Gracious Creator, so it is said, thought for a little while and then was pleased to order that the deserving soul should continue to exist on the Holy Planet until the future results of his misdeeds should be revealed.

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"This gracious order was evidently given by Our Creator on account of the fact that the soul of Makary Kronberyzyon, notwithstanding its being the cause of the inability of all souls on that unlucky planet to perfect themselves, and in spite of the unfavourable external conditions for perfecting Reason established on that planet had succeeded in attaining the required sacred degree of Reason. And, further, surely His Endlessness reckoned that the beings of the Earth themselves might finally come to understand their error and begin to exist as it becomes three-centred beings. And in that case there would be no necessity to punish so terribly the soul that without sparing itself and struggling with its own self-negation had perfected itself to the graduation of the sacred measure of Reason required of the soul. In short, owing to this command of Our Most Gracious, the soul of the poor Makary Kronberhyzyon remains to the present day on the Holy Planet; and his future now depends only upon your favours.

"Do you happen to know anything in general about the planet bearing the name 'Remorse of Conscience'? asked Beelzebub of his grandson.

"Yes, dear grandfather", replied Hassein, "I know that the planet 'Remorse of Conscience' is also called sometimes 'The Accursed Planet'. I know further that the Accursed Planet is situated all by itself somewhere on the furthestmost edge of the Megalocosmos, and that it is in every sense unique in the whole Universe.

"Quite recently my father explained to me", Hassein continued, 'that both on end within this unique planet the fundamental cosmic laws proceed in allversely; and their succession also they make backward. My dear father told me that the particularity of this planet will continue until in the souls dwelling upon it, owing to their terrible sufferings those substances will entirely disappear that were formed in their bodies by their wicked deeds. That is all I know of that planet" concluded Hassein.

Beelzebub then began to speak of this planet. He said: "Indeed, my boy, this planet called 'Remorse of Conscience' is in every respect unique in the Universe. On this planet 'Remorse of Conscience' only thirty-nine souls exist at the present time. And all the beings of the whole Universe must know their names and on every festival curse them. If the soul of Makary Kronberhyzyon were taken to this planet he would be the fortieth from among all the souls of our Great Universe.

"The story of this soul whom all the blessed dwellers on the Holy Planet condemned to exist eternally on the planet 'Remorse of Conscience' is as follows. He began his self-perfection on that planet Earth as a being of the second generation of Earth beings of the Society of the Akhaldans who, as I told you, were already on the continent Atlantis. This unfortunate soul was then first called Makary Kronberhyzyon.

"By the way, you may as well know that in general all souls, to whatever graduation of the sacred measure of Reason they attain, bear the name they received on the planets where they began their self-perfection.

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"Thus the Earth being named Makary Kronberhzyon perfected his soul to the gradation of the sacred measure of Reason which in general corresponds to that of the Holy Planet; and hence after his death the soul of this Makary Kronberhzyon was taken to the Holy Planet Purgatory.

"Owing to the good and strict directions concerning right existence which obtained in the Akhelden society of which Makary Kronberhzyon was a member, and being himself a very conscientious worker for self-perfection and having begun at the age of eighteen he had time before his death which occurred in his two hundred and tenth year, reckoning by Earth time, to improve the Reason of his soul in a single form of incarnation.

"This unfortunate soul of Makary Kronberhzyon on the Holy Planet also purified his body by persistent sufferings during very many years until he attained the Reason that made him worthy to be reckoned as a candidate for the Sun Absolute. And it was just there that this terrible misfortune happened to him.

"During my thorough investigation of the case of this unfortunate Makary Kronberhzyon, I convinced myself very clearly that owing to the fact that in the Earth beings of that period the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer had already begun to be manifest, these Earth-beings gradually transformed the nearly correct idea of the unfortunate Makary Kronberhzyon into an idea maleficent for themselves.

"The personal guilt of the unfortunate Makary Kronberhzyon, it seems to me, consisted only in the fact that after he had become one of the learned members of the Akhelden society and had clearly realised certain cosmic laws, he decided to share his new ideas with other beings of the Earth; and among his doctrines was this knowledge with the name 'Positive and Negative Influences'.

"And he created this knowledge because it was generally known among the beings of the continent Atlantis that every being in every respect represents in himself an exact likeness of the Megelocosmos, and that both the fundamental cosmic laws, the most sacred Epteparapershinoch and the sacred Triomezikamno, proceed in every being strictly in the same order down to the tiniest trifle as it proceeds in the Megelocosmos.

"Well, when the learned Makary Kronberhzyon by means of his persistent labours understood the details of this truth, he created a corresponding knowledge under the name, as I have just said, of 'Positive and Negative Influences'.

"And all the other beings of the Earth, owing to the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer which were already present in them, understood poor Makary Kronberhzyon's doctrine in their own way and converted it into their benevolent doctrine. I happened also to learn fully the contents of this same knowledge. I satisfied myself that the chief source of this idea of exterior good and evil in the consciousness of Earth-beings was there where among other things it was said: 'Like all the unities of the world, we men are formed by and consist of three independent forces'.

"The first of these is called Positive, the second, Negative, and the third Neutralising.

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"All our perceptions equally with all our manifestations as well as with our
substantiality depend solely on these three universal forces.

"The first and positive force may also be called descending or good, because
it arises in end creates from the prime source.

"And the second or issuing force is called negative because this force is
always end everywhere resistant and everything it meets it repels in the dir-
ection of the prime source. Hence this repelling force can also be called evil.

"As for the third or neutralising force it can be called the spirit, because it
is only the process of the blending of these two descending and issuing forces."

"Well, my boy, this formulation, I think, just made Earth beings imagine that
Good and Evil so-called exist outside themselves; and they came to consider
that the reason of their good manifestations, and of course, of their base and
unconscionable conduct was not in themselves or their own egoism, but in some
exterior and alien influence beyond their control. The consequences of this
fancy you can see for yourself today.

"So my boy, thanks only to this wicked idea, your favourites have at the present time absolutely no other foundation for their view of the world than their external conception of Good and Evil. For instance, the condition of their ordinary existence as beings and all the questions relative to self-perfection are based exclusively on this wicked idea. And even all the philosophy and knowledge existing among them, and of course, the innumerable religions of that place also, are founded solely on this imaginary but maleficent idea, you can safely remark here a most peculiar conjunction of circumstances, which arose solely owing to the fact that beings of our tribe once existed on this disastrous planet. This amusing conjunction was due also partly to the fact that this wicked idea of external Good and Evil existed there. The tragi-comedy originated thus:

"I told you a little while ago that for certain reasons the wish was once expressed from above that as few as possible of our beings should exist on that planet. The majority of our tribe thereupon migrated at once to another planet of the same solar system; but the reminder for some personal reason desired to stay there some time longer. And it was just at this time that the beings of our tribe, existing among the beings of the planet Earth came to be regarded by the letter as 'Beings of the Beyond', as they expressed it, whether because the beings of our tribe had an immeasurably longer existence than the beings of this planet or were much higher in Reason than those three-centred beings nobody knows. Later when this remnant of our beings also migrated from this planet, the Earth-beings invented a religion for themselves, based on this wicked idea of external Good and Evil. And it is just here that the comedy began.

"It happened that amongst other beings it was affirmed in this religion that the carriers of external Good are certain Angels, and the carriers of external Evil certain Devils. And the result was that certain beings of that planet, chiefly the more naive, became firmly convinced that the beings who had recently existed among them and who had suddenly disappeared were no other than just these very devils who without doubt had decided to become invisible.

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"From that time the tradition of the existence of certain invisible devils has been handed down from generation to generation; and even the actual names of our beings that remained in the memories of certain Earth-beings have also reached the contemporary queer fellows.

"To these names every possible fantastic attribute has been ascribed; and according to their imagination these must belong to the rank of beings called devils who are assumed to be specially organised and sent to this planet for their torment.

"Thus a devil for your favourites is an invisible being who, by the order of the Creator and for certain purposes, known, by the way, only to certain comics dwelling on the planet Earth, is obliged to suggest by every kind of truth and lie and make them commit the numerous uglinesses done by them.

"But they commit these uglinesses because by living unrighteously they become habitual; and even now, owing to the existence among them of this wicked idea of external Good and Evil, though they continue doing these uglinesses with all their might, they are quite sure that they do them not because they wish to but because they are compelled by devils sent from above.

"In reality, my boy, these unfortunate beings are always full of all kinds of uglinesses chiefly because such abnormal conditions of existence were finally established there and because they do not prepare themselves at the right time to become such real responsible beings as all the three-centred beings everywhere else in the Universe aim to become. Hence the grandmothers' fairy tales told them in their childhood not only direct their whole subsequent existence, but they act as a cover to conceal all those cosmic truths which they encounter on their planet at every step.

"On this account, my boy, thanks to your favourites, nowhere in the Universe are the talents of the incomparable Lucifer so extolled as on that planet.

At this point of Beelzebub's story one of the crew, having something, entered the room of the cosmic ship Kernek where this conversation was taking place between Beelzebub, Hassein and Ahun and addressing everybody, announced joyfully that the reflections of the spheres of the planet Kerates were already visible.

When the servant left Beelzebub sighed deeply and said: "Heigh-ho, my dear boy, it would not be half so bad if the abnormal existence of the beings of your planet had these terrible consequences only on the perfection of the souls that already have had the great misfortune to be formed and to exist on that unlucky planet. But owing to the abnormal existence of beings on the Earth horrors on an enormous scale are beginning. The abnormal existence of these three-centred beings of the planet Earth has already begun to influence very injuriously the development of beings dwelling on quite another planet, though on another planet of the same Solar System.

"If only the reflections of the spheres of our dear fatherland are yet visible, we have still a considerable time to fly, and perhaps we shall have time to talk a little further about how the abnormal existence of beings of the planet Earth begins to affect injuriously the development of beings of other planets also.

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"I learned of this also only just before my final departure from that Solar System.

"As you may find the events and conversations which threw a light for me on the lementable facts instructive and interesting in the highest degree, I shall tell you about this also in a little more detail.

"First of all you must know that I learned of my full pardon just while I was on the planet Earth. Having learned of it, I, of course, decided to return to my dear fetherland at the earliest possible moment.

"Put for this it was first absolutely necessary that I should ascend to the planet Mars and there make myself ready and prepare myself for the long journey; and several days later I left your planet forever.

"On the planet Mars there had already been received the order that all those who wished to return to the fetherland must take the ship 'Occasion' to the planet Saturn where the Trans-Solar-Ship 'Omnipresent' which would take us all to our fatherland was due to arrive.

"I had, however, to stay on Mars for several days in order to settle up my affairs there and give directions concerning the beings of our tribe. And it was just during these days that I was told that the Martian Toof-Nef-Tef very much wished to see me personally.

"Toof-Nef-Tef on the planet Mars is the name given to the head of all the beings of that planet. He corresponds to the beings called on the planet Earth, Emperor.

"This Toof-Nef-Tef I had known from his youth when he was still Tlef-Perf-Noof, or, as they are otherwise called there 'Trenquillisers!' It will do you no harm, by the way, to tell you that on almost all the planets of this Solar System the heads of the beings of the whole planets are selected on their merits from among such former Tlef-Perf-Noof.

"This same Toof-Nef-Tef when we first arrived on this planet where my court began to reside, was then Tlef-Perf-Noof for that same district.

"Tlef-Perf-Noof or tranquillisers on the planet Mars are beings whose whole lives are consecrated to helping those who for some reason or other temporarily cease or become less able to fulfill their being duties. There are beings like Tlef-Pef-Noof on your planet Earth also, and such beings are there called doctors.

"For this purpose it will not harm you to be told that on your planet, doctors understand their duty quite differently. Such Earth doctors are called in when someone in the district in which they are enrolled ceases to be able to carry on his being duties.

"So far so good, they come to the house to which they are called, but they manifest, by their essence, these helps in a manner peculiar in the highest degree.

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The peculiarity consists in that that their desire to help a being in need to whom they are called depends entirely upon the smell of the house. Their inner wish to help the being to whom they are called takes one of two quite opposite forms. For instance, when such a doctor comes to the house where some beings need his help, what happens to his psyche is as follows. If the house to which he has come smells of English pounds he is terribly concerned and wishes terribly to help the being who needs his assistance. In this case, even at the outset there will appear on his face, without his personal will, smugness, and secondly, his tail will curl quite between his legs. But if the house smells of cancelled German marks his wish rises to the maximum to write as quickly as possible for this being needing his help a prescription also invented by Germans and leave the house hastily.

"By the way, it is very interesting to note that when, in the second case, they leave the house of a needy being, these Earth doctors walk in the streets so that the whole of their exterior, even the muscles of their face, express something as follows:

"I'm not a dog's tail but a real dog who has taken his degree."

"In brief, this Martian Toof-Nef-Tef existed from that time on Mars in various districts; but when he began to attain the state of the Holy 'Ishmech' he had the desire to return to the district where his youth had been passed, and this was why he was now near my house again. The emperor of the planet Mars, Honor-able Toof-Nef-Tef, was considered very old even for the planet Mars. By the Martian time calculation he was about twelve thousand years old, which time is very little less than his age would be by the time calculation of the planet Earth.

"I must tell you also that beings on the planet Mars have the same length of life as the three-centred beings of our Universe, excepting, of course, those beings who are the direct heirs of the first Messacosmos whose length of existence is almost three times that of ordinary beings.

"Beings of the planet Mars, like the three-centred beings of all the planets of the Megalocosmos attain the sacred 'Ishmech', that is, that state when the existence of the being depends upon the cosmic Troggoautoegokrat from those substances derived from one prime source only and not as it proceeds in other beings whose existence depends upon substances rising from all the centres of gravity of the fundamental cosmic sacred law of Eptaparershinoch.

"When a being of this planet also attained the state of the holy 'Ishmech' if thereafter the Reason of his soul has been perfected to the necessary degree of the sacred measure of Reason, and when the said being, by his own wish, finishes his planetary existence, then his soul is taken directly to the Holy Planet Purgetory. And if this soul for some reason has not yet had time to perfect himself he continues to perfect himself in the state of the sacred 'Ishmech'.

"In the case of the Martian Emperor the state of the holy 'Ishmech' had already begun.

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"So, my dear boy, it was communicated to me during my last days on Mars that the Honourable Toof-Nef-Tef himself wished to see me personally.

"This request was transmitted to me through our Ahun by means of a 'Kele-e-foo'. Kele-e-foo on the planet Mars is similar to what your favorites, it seems, call a 'letter'. The text of this Kele-e-foo was as follows:

"I have heard that Your Reverence has become worthy to receive from Our General Creator a full pardon for the transgressions of your youth and that you are now leaving my fetherland forever. I, an old man am therefore very desirous to see you personally and to receive your blessing and in order also to think in your person all the beings of your tribe for their constantly kind relations with the beings of my fetherland during so many years'.

"At the end of this Kele-e-foo the following was further added:

"I myself would in person come to your house, but as you know my size does not permit it, and I am compelled therefore to beg you not to refuse to come to my 'fel-fef-oof'.

"You must know also that from the very beginning the beings of the planet Mars knew of our real nature and of the real reasons why we were dwelling on their planet and not as in the case of the beings of the planet Earth who never either knew or even suspected who were or why we dwelt on their planet.

"Having received such an invitation I, of course, immediately went to call on this simable Emperor of enormous beings. Well after the prescribed ceremonies and courtesies and in the course of conversation the great Toof-Nef-Tef suddenly addressed the following request to me.

"Yes, my boy, this same request of the Emperor of the planet Mars had the effect, furthermore, of making it very clear to me that the abnormal conditions of the beings of the planet Earth had already begun to injuriously affect the development of beings on quite another planet also. And the request of this great Toof-Nef-Tef was as follows:

"You will I think understand better if I tell you in full how he explained his request. He spoke as follows:

"Your Reverence and my oldest friend, owing to the most gracious pardon granted you from above, you can now be what you must be; and now surely you will often be meeting such creatures of Our Creator in General as have already attained a very high degree of Reason. So my request to you consists in this that you should especially remember, when you meet any such being of higher Reason, to learn from him what at the present time is my single wish, namely how to help the beings of the planet Mars who have been entrusted to me from above. And what you learn concerning this, I ask you, in the name of our old friendship, somehow to communicate to me'.

"He said further that it had been noticed during the last two 'Ftfoo' among the beings of the planet that for some unknown reason, the 'noof-lofta-fef'

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had year by year increased, and hence that every year the possibility of active intellection had been diminishing.

"So my old and impertial friend, day and night I am much concerned to know the cause of it in order to direct all the beings of our planet Mars to help me to find a means of dealing with this general planetary misfortune.

"I already begin to feel happier, my old friend, because the hope has arisen in me, that thanks to Your Reverence, I shall soon learn this'.

"With these words, the Honourable Emperor of the planet Mars concluded his request.

"Noof-lofts-faf' is the name given on the planet Mars to "will-lessness" or, as your favorites would say, 'Neurosis'.

"I, of course, at once promised my oldest friend to enquire concerning this of the first corresponding being I should meet and by some means to communicate the result to him.

"Several days later we left that planet for ever and on the ship Occasion ascended to the planet Saturn to await the arrival of the great cosmic ship 'Omnipresent'. But there on the planet Saturn our local beiliff immediately informed us of the contents of an etherogram which had been received concerning the arrival upon Saturn of the Omnipresent.

"It was said in the Etherogram that the 'Omnipresent' would reach harbour on the planet Saturn precisely at the time of Hre-hree-hra. Hre-hree-hra signifies on Saturn a certain period of time determined by the situation of the planet relatively to its Sun and another planet of the same system, namely, Neptune. They count seven such periods in each year, and each such period has its own name. There was still wanting almost half a year until this Hre-hree-hra, that is, about one and one half months by the time calculation of the planet Mars.

"As the time for waiting for the Omnipresent was fairly long, the beings of our tribe decided to organise their existence during this time more or less correspondingly and hence they divided themselves into several parties in order to arrange themselves conveniently. One party continued to exist on the ship Occasion itself; one party was accommodated in rooms assigned to us by the emiable beings of the planet Saturn. But I decided to go with Ahun to Rkrh, that is, to that large centre of beings of that place where my friend Gornahoor Herhach was just then existing.

"And so, my dear boy, in the course of my friendly talk with Gornahoor Herhach on the very first evening I enquired how his scion and my godson, dear Rhaork, was. He thanked me and said that my godson and his scion had already become his heir in all respects. He further explained his scion had made the aim of his existence the study of the same substance Okidonoch which was the aim of his own existence also. He added further that in respect of the science Okidonoch his scion had already surpassed him. The significance of his famous invention, namely, the non-redacting lamp, he had so completely pulverised, that he, Gornahoor Herhach himself, had not only destroyed it, but he even

Good and Evil

18

quite agreed with his scion that it had been the greatest evil for him to have
occupied himself so long in this pursuit.

"Just while Gornahoor Herhach was speaking, there came into the room where our conversation was taking place, Gornahoor Rheoork, his scion himself. Although the new arrival resembled his sire externally, he had the appearance of being very brave and full of exuberant youth. When he had taken his seat on the perch proper to the being of that planet, he welcomed me in a voice angelically musical.

"In his welcome among other things he said: 'Although you are only my god-father, you assuredly since my baptism have fulfilled your divine duty very conscientiously and on this account there has grown in me a feeling towards you such as I have toward my producer, and in consequence I very often remembered you in my thoughts and wished you always to be in such circumstances that could lead to a good future for you'.

"Ah, my dear boy, when I said that Gornahoor Rheoork took his seat on the perch, you surely did not clearly understand me.

"The case is that beings of the planet Saturn feel themselves very well only when, having bowed themselves in a particular way, they carry the whole weight of their body on their legs, and so rest. And as such rest is particularly agreeable when they are elevated, they erect in the rooms where they exist very high rods and stand on the top of them. These sticks are just called perches.

"By the way, it is interesting to notice that they decorate these perches of theirs chiefly with various ornaments or they carve all sorts of figures on them. Your favourites have a similar weakness which they call furniture.

After his welcome to me, my dear godson Gornahoor Rheoork began also to join in our general conversation.

## CHAPTER XLVII

### THE INEVITABLE RESULT OF IMPARTIAL MENTATION.

Beelzebub intended to say more but just then everything was lit up with a "pale blue something". From that moment the falling of the ship began to diminish perceptibly in speed.

All this meant that one of the great Cosmic Egionopties was about to come alongside the space Ship Karnac.

And indeed through the transparent outer parts of the Ship Karnac the source of that "pale blue something" soon became visible which lit up not only the whole of the interior of the Ship Karnac but also all the space of the Universe surrounding this great cosmic Egionopty as far as the ordinary vision of Beings could reach.

Of these great Egionipties there are only four in the Universe and each of them is under the jurisdiction of one of the four All-Great-Maintainers of the Universe.

A hurried and anxious commotion began among all of the beings aboard, and in a short time all the passengers and the crew assembled in the main hall set in the center of the ship.

Each of them bore a branch of myrtle in one hand and a branch of Devd'el Kascho in the other.

When the great cosmic Egionopty had come alongside the Ship Karnac, certain parts of the latter were moved apart in a special way and there passed from the Egionopty into the main hall of the ship a procession composed of several archangels and a multitude of angels, cherubim and seraphim, and they all bore branches in their hands but of palm.

At the head of this procession walked a venerable archangel and immediately after him two cherubim followed solemnly, bearing a casket from which something also radiated, but this time something strange.

In front of every one in the main hall of the Ship Karnac stood Beelzebub and behind him were ranged his kinsmen and the Captain of the ship and all the others stood behind them in a respectful posture.

When the said procession from the Egionopty reached the beings of Beelzebub's nature who were assembled in expectation, they halted and all of both forces, differently-natured three-brained beings, joined together in singing the Hymn to Our Endlessness, which Hymn is always sung on such occasions

IMPARTIAL MENTATION

2

everywhere in the Universe, by beings of all natures and all forms of exterior coating.

This Hymn consisted of the following words:

Thou long patient Creator of all that breathes,
Thou about to come of all that exists,
Thou unique Vanquisher of the merciless Heropas
Now to the sounds of our glorifying
Only rejoice and abide in beatitude

By they unprecedented labors thou has given us the beginnings
of our arisings,
By thy Vanquishing of the Heropas have we obtained the
possibility
Of perfecting ourselves to the Sacred Anklad
And now only rest, as merited,
And we, in gratitude, will maintain all that thou hast created
And always and in all things will extol thee forever.

Extol Thee Maker-Creator,
Thou, the beginning of all ends,
Thou, proceeding from Infinity,
Thou, having the end of all things within thee,
Thou, our Endless Endlessness.

When the Hymn had been sung, the venerable Archangel approached Beelzebub and solemnly proclaimed:

By the decree of his All-Quarters-Maintainer, the Arch-Cherubim Peshtvognera and bearing His own sacred rod, we appear before you, Your Right Reverence, in order to return to you, in accord with the pardon granted you from Above and for certain of your merits, what you lost during your exile - your horns.

Having said this, the venerable Archangel turned towards the casket borne by the Cherubim and with profound reverence carefully took from it the sacred rod.

Meanwhile all those present knelt down on one knee, while the Angels and Cherubim began to sing the appropriate sacred Canticles.

Taking the sacred rod in his hand, the Archangel turned again towards Beelzebub and spoke thus to the beings of Beelzebub's nature:

"Beings created by our same true being Endlessness who has pardoned this once erring being Beelzebub, who by the infinite grace of Our Creator will again exert among you, Beings like Himself . . . (in text)

"As the variety and degrees of Reason of beings of Your nature are defined and manifested by the horns on Your Head, we must with the permission of our All-Quarters-Maintainer, and with Your help, restore the horns lost by Beelzebub.

IMPARTIAL MENTATION

3

"Beings created by Our One Common Father, your aid will consist in this, that each of you should consent to renounce for Beelzebub's merited pardon, certain particles of your own horns.

"Whosoever therefore consents and wishes to do so, let him approach the sacred rod and touch its handle, and by the length of time the handle of the sacred rod is held, will depend the amount of active elements passing from your own horns for the formation of the corresponding horns on the pardoned being of your Nature".

Having said this, the Venerable Archangel, holding the chief end of the sacred rod, that is, the ball, over the kneeling Beelzebub, turned the handle towards those there assembled in such a way that whoever wished might touch it.

As soon as the Venerable Archangel had finished speaking, a very great com-
motion began among the beings of Beelzebub's nature, each desiring to ap-
proach neared and to be the first to touch the sacred rod with their hands
as long as possible.

Order, however, was soon established and each in turn approached and held the handle for as long as was indicated by the Captain of the ship, who had taken upon himself the necessary direction.

During the solemn, sacred action, horns little by little began to grow upon
the head of Beelzebub.

At first, while just the bare horns were being formed, only a concentrated
quiet gravely prevailed among those assembled. But from the moment that
forks began to appear upon the horns a tense interest and wrapt attention
proceeded among them, because everybody was agitated by the wish to learn
how many forks would make their appearance on Beelzebub, since by their
number, the gradation of Reason to which Beelzebub had attained according to
the sacred measure of Reason would be defined.

First, one fork formed, then another and then a third, and as each fork made
its appearance a clearly perceptible thrill of joy and unconcealed satis-
faction proceeded among all those present.

As the fourth fork began to be formed on the Horns, the tension among those
assembled reached its height, since the formation of the fourth fork on
the horns signified that the Reason of Beelzebub had already been perfected
to the sacred Ternoonald and hence that there remained for Beelzebub only
two gradations before attaining to the sacred Anklad.

When the whole of this unusual circumstance reached its end and before all
those assembled had had time to recover from their earlier joyful anticipa-
tion, there suddenly and inexplicably appeared on the horns of Beelzebub
quite independently a fifth fork of a special form known to them all.

Thereupon all without exception, even the Venerable Archangel himself, fell
prostrate before Beelzebub, who had now risen to his feet and stood trans-

## IMPARTIAL MENTATION

figured with a majestic appearance, owing to the majestic horns which had arisen on His head.

All fell prostrate before Beelzebub because by the fifth fork on His horns, it was indicated that he had attained the Reason of the Sacred Padkoolad, i.e., the last gradation before the Reason of the Sacred Anklad.

The Reason of the Sacred Anklad is the highest to which in general any being can attain, being the third in degree from the Absolute Reason of His Endlessness Himself.

And the Reason of the Sacred Podkoolad, to which Beelzebub had already perfected himself, is also very rare in the Universe, hence even the Venerable Archangel prostrated himself before Beelzebub because His own degree of Reason was as yet only that of the Sacred Degindad, i.e., wanting three degrees to the Reason of the Sacred Anklad.

When all had arisen to their feet, the Venerable Archangel, addressing this time all the assembled beings of various natures, proclaimed:

> "Beings Created by Our Creator,

> "We have all just become worthy to be the first to behold the final formation of the appearance of that which is the dream both of all those present and of the beings in general of the whole of our great Megalocosmos.

> "And now let us all together exult and rejoice over such a worthiness, which is for us such a vivifying shock of our ability to struggle against our own denying source, which ability alone can lead us to that Sacred Podkoolad attained by one of the Sons of Our Common Father, who although he first transgressed on account of his youth, yet afterwards was able by his conscious labors and intentional suffering to become worthy with his essence to be one of the very reverend Sacred Individuums of the whole of our great Universe."

After this proclamation of the Archangel all the beings without exception present on the space ship Karnac then began to sing the prescribed sacred canticle entitled, "I rejoice."

And when this latter sacred canticle also had been sung, all the Angels and Cherubim, with the Venerable Archangel at their head, returned to the cosmic Eglionopty which then left the ship Karnac and disappeared gradually into space, whereupon the passengers and crew began correspondingly to disperse to their places and the Karnac resumed its falling towards its destination.

After the termination of the most Great Universal Solemnity just described, Beelzebub with his grandson and his old servant Ahoon, deeply moved like all of the other passengers of the space ship Karnac by this inexpressible event, returned to that part of the ship where all their talks proceeded concerning the Men beings arising and existing on the Earth.

When Beelzebub, now with a transformed appearance corresponding to his merits

IMPARTIAL MENTATION

5

and visible to all, had occupied his usual place, Ahoon, the old servant who had been close to him during almost the whole of his existence, unexpectedly fell prostrate before him and in a sincerely entreating voice began to speak:

"Sacred Podkoolad of our Great Magalocosmos! Have mercy upon me and pardon me, an unfortunate ordinary being, for my past unrespectful manifestations, voluntary and involuntary, towards your Sacred Essence.

"Have mercy and pardon me - just this three-centered being, who, though he has existed a very long time, yet to his misfortune - only because in his preparatory age nobody aided the creation (?) in him of the data for the ability of intensely actualizing Being-Partdolgduty - had until now been so short-sighted that he has been unable to sense the reality present beneath an exterior with which, according to the Common Cosmic Triamasikamno, all those existing and newly arising units of the Messacosmos are coated, who ought to have in their presence that sacred Something which is called Reason."

Having said this, Ahoon stood as if sunk in a stupid silence of expectation.

And Beelzebub, also in silence, gazed at him with a look which though perceived externally from without, was full of love and forgiveness, yet there could be felt in it also his Essence-grief and inevitable resignation.

During the afore-described scene, Hassein stood apart in the posture everywhere called the Post-of-the-All-Universal-Hermit, Harnatoalkpararana of the plant Kirmanshana.

And when a little bit later Beelzebub cast his eyes around and perceived his grandson in the said posture, he turned to him and said:

"What, my boy! Can it be that the same proceeds in your presence as in our old Ahoon's?"

To this question of Beelzebub's, Hassein, also in an uncertain tone unusual for him, timidly replied:

"Almost....yes....Sacred Podkoolad of our Great Magalocosmos. Only with this difference - that at this moment the impulse of love both for our Ahoon and for the three-brained beings of the planet Earth now functions still more thoroughly in me."

"This impulse of love thus becomes stronger in me, evidently because, as it seems to me, both Ahoon and the three-brained being of the Earth have greatly aided me in becoming worthy to be a recent eye-witness of the great Solemnity of him who is the cause of the causes of my arising and whom hitherto I have called my dear Grandfather and who has already visibly become one of the Sacred Podkoolads of our Great Magalocosmos, before whom all will bow and before whom I have at this moment the happiness to stand".

6

IMPARTIAL MENTATION

"Eh-eh-eh!" exclaimed Beelzebub, and having given his features the usual expression he was wont to assume during his sojourn on the Earth, said:

"First of all I wish to remark and in the speech of Mullah Nessr Eddin, whom I particularly honor, to voice the thought which arises by association concerning Ahoon's words which were not peculiar to him and his assumed posture quite unusual for him.

"Our dear teacher in such a case would say, 'Don't shed tears in vein like that crocodile which snapped at the fisherman and missed biting off his lower left half'.

"And now first take your places and then let us talk a little more.

"Although our ship is now entering the spheres of our planet Kerates, yet as usually happens with space ships, in order to exhaust the momentum they have acquired, a fairly long time will elapse before it stops at its destined mooring place."

Hassein and Ahoon immediately and silently proceeded to follow the suggestion of Beelzebub, though by their movements and the translucency of their psyche, it was evident that there had been a marked change in their attitude towards the person of Beelzebub since the above-described Common Universal Event.

When they had taken their places they sat down this time not with the un-constraint they had formerly shown.

Then Beelzebub, turning to Hessein, said, "First of all, my dear boy, I give you my word that when we return home - unless any event from external causes independent of our Essence will prevent this - I shall explain to you everything relating to the three-brained beings who have taken your fancy, concerning that which during this journey of ours on the ship Karmac I promised to explain, but which I have for some reason or other left unexplained.

"And meanwhile, if you have any question in mind that now needs explanation, ask.

"I promise, however, that we have not enough time to reply in the manner that has become proper to our talk all this time and hence try to formulate your question in such a way that my answer may also be brief.

"By such a question you can even, apropos, once more show me to what extent your logical mentation has increased during my电话 concerning the strange psyche of the three-brained beings arising and existing on the planet Earth."

At this proposition of his grandfather, Hessein deeply thought rather a long time, and then in an exalted mood, spoke as follows:

7

IMPARTIAL MENTATION

"Sacred Podkoolad and fundamental cause of the causes of my arising!

"Since the solemnity which has just taken place, when your Sacred Essence became coated with a corresponding visible exterior and when thereby the whole of the significance which cannot be perceived nor understood by all three-brained beings became clear and even sensible to me as well as to every other cosmic unit, save yourself, every word spoken by you and every counsel of yours is taken by me as Law.

"I must therefore strive with the whole of my presence to carry out the suggestion you have just made to me and try as well and as briefly as possible to formulate my question.

"Sacred Podkoolad, and cause of the causes of my arising.

"In order that the conviction formed in me during this time, owing to your explanation of the abnormalities proceeding on the Earth may become definitely crystalized in me, I still wish very much to have this time your personal and frank opinion as to the following: How you would reply if, let us suppose, Our All-Embracing-Creator-Endlessness Himself, were to summon you before Him and ask you this:

"Beelzebub ! ! ! !"

"You, as one of the anticipated, accelerated results of all my actualizations, manifest briefly the sum of your long-continued important observations and studies of the psyche of the three-centered beings arising on the planet Earth and state in words whether it is still possible by some means or other to save them and to direct them into the becoming path?"

Having said this Hassein arose and standing in a posture of reverence began to look expectantly at Beelzebub.

And Ahoon also arose.

Beelzebub, smiling lovingly at this question of Hassein's, first said that he was now quite convinced that his tales had brought Hassein the desired results; and then, in a serious tone he continued, that if our All-Embracing-Universal-Body-Creator should indeed summon him before him and ask him this, he would answer.

Thereupon Beelzebub suddenly also arose unexpectedly and having stretched his right hand forward and his left hand back, he directed his vision somewhere afar off, and it seemed that with his sight he was, as it were, perceiving the very depths of space.

Simultaneously something pale yellow began little by little to rise round Beelzebub and to envelope him, and it was in no way possible to see nor to discern whence this something issued - whether it issued from Beelzebub himself or proceeded to him from space from sources outside of him.

8

IMPARTIAL MENTATION

Finding Himself in these cosmic actualizations incomprehensible for all three-brained beings Beelzebub in a low voice unusual to him very peculiarly intoned the following words:

"Thou All of the Allness of my Wholeness!

"The sole means now for the saving of the Beings of the planet Earth would be to implant again into their presences a new organ, an organ like Kunda-buffer, but this time of such proportion that very one of those unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of every one upon whom his eyes or attention rests.

"Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence and also the tendency to hate others which flows from it -- the tendency seemingly which engenders all those inimical relationships existing there which serves as the chief cause of all their abnormalities unbecoming to three-brained beings and maleficent for them themselves and for the whole of the Universe".