Re: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: An Objectively Impart
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:43 am
CHAPTER 19: Beelzebub's tale about his second descent to the planet Earth
BEELZEBUB began thus: "I descended to your planet Earth for the second time only eleven of their centuries after my first descent.
"Shortly after my first descent a second catastrophe had occurred to that planet, but this one was local in character and did not threaten disaster on a great cosmic scale.
"During this second catastrophe, the continent of Atlantis, which at the time of my first descent had been the largest continent and the chief place of existence of the terrestrial three-brained beings, was engulfed within the planet along with other large and small land masses, as were most of the three-brained beings existing upon them, together with almost everything they had achieved and acquired in the course of centuries.
"In their place there emerged from within the planet other land masses forming new continents and islands, most of which still exist.
"It was on this very continent of Atlantis that the city of Samlios was situated where, do you remember, that young countryman of ours had existed who was the cause of my first descent in person.
"During this second great disaster to that planet, thanks to diverse circumstances, many of the three-brained beings who have taken your fancy nevertheless survived, and by the time of my second descent in person their posterity had already multiplied so much that they were now breeding on almost all the newly formed land masses.
"And in regard to the causes, conforming to law, which brought about their excessive multiplication, this also you will understand in the course of my further tales.
"Here, my boy, it will do no harm for you to take note that the beings of our tribe existing on that planet at the time of this catastrophe all escaped that 'apocalyptic end.'
"They escaped it for the following reasons:
"As I have already told you in one of our previous talks, at the time of my first descent most of the beings of our tribe who had chosen this planet of yours as their dwelling place existed on the continent of Atlantis.
"It appears that a year before this catastrophe our 'tribal pythoness' made a prophecy in which she called upon all our tribe to leave the continent of Atlantis and migrate to a smaller continent not far away, where they were to exist on a definite part of its surface that she indicated.
"This smaller continent was then called 'Grabontzi' and the part the 'pythoness' indicated did indeed escape the terrifying perturbation that occurred to all the other parts of the common presence of that ill-fated planet. "As a consequence of this perturbation the continent of Grabontzi, existing today under the name of 'Africa,' became much larger, as other land masses emerged from the water spaces of the planet and were added to it.
"So, my boy, our 'pythoness' was able to warn those members of our tribe who had been obliged to exist on your planet and thereby save them from an otherwise inevitable 'apocalyptic end'; and she was able to do this thanks to a special being-property which, by the way, can be acquired by beings only intentionally by means of what is called 'being-partkdolgduty,' about which I will tell you later.
"This time the reasons for my descent to the surface of that I planet were related to the following events:
"One day, on the planet Mars, we received an etherogram from the Center announcing the imminent appearance of certain Most High Sacred Individuals. And in fact, within half a Martian year, a number of archangels, angels, cherubim, and seraphim did appear there, the majority of whom had been members of the Most High Commission that had come to Mars at the time of the first great catastrophe to the planet Earth.
"Among these Most High Sacred Individuals was again His Conformity, the Angel—now already Archangel— Looisos who, during the first great catastrophe to the planet Earth, as you remember I recently told you, had been one of the chief administrators in charge of averting the possible consequences of that general cosmic misfortune.
"So, my boy, the day after the second appearance of those Sacred Individuals, His Conformity, accompanied by one of the seraphim, his second assistant, did me the honor to come to my house.
"After giving me his blessing, His Conformity condescended to reply to certain inquiries of mine about the Great Center, and then told me that after the collision of the comet Kondoor with the planet Earth, he and other responsible cosmic Individuals administering the affairs of 'harmonious world-existence' had frequently descended to this solar system to observe the effect of the measures they had taken to ward off the consequences of that cosmic miscalculation.
'And we descended,' His Conformity continued, 'because, although we had taken every possible precaution and had assured everyone that everything would be quite all right, we ourselves were not totally convinced that some unforeseen unpleasantness might not await us in the future.
"'Moreover it turned out that our apprehensions were partly justified though, thanks to chance, not in a serious form, that is to say, not on a general cosmic scale, since this new catastrophe affected only the planet Earth.
"'The second catastrophe to the planet Earth,' continued His Conformity, 'was due to the following circumstances:
"'When, during the first disaster, two large fragments were detached from this planet, the "center of gravity" of its entire presence had no time to shift to a corresponding new position. As a result, right up to the time of the second catastrophe, this planet existed with its "center of gravity" out of place, thanks to which ifs movement during that whole period was not uniformly harmonious and there often occurred, both within and upon it, various upheavals and displacements And it was just when the "center of gravity" finally shifted to the true center of the planet that the second catastrophe occurred.
"'But from now on,' added His Conformity with a shade of self-satisfaction, 'the existence of this planet will be quite normal from the point of view of common-cosmic harmony. This second cataclysm has finally put our minds completely at rest, and has convinced us that a catastrophe on a cosmic scale can never again occur on account of the planet Earth.
'Not only has this planet once more acquired a normal movement in the general cosmic equilibrium, but its two detached fragments, now called "Moon" and "Anulios," have also acquired a normal movement and have become independent, though small, "kofenshars," that is, additional planets, of the solar system Ors.
Having thought a moment, His Conformity went on to say:
'I have appeared to you, Your Reverence, just in order to talk over with you the future welfare of the large fragment of that planet existing today under the name of "Moon."
"'Not only,' His Conformity continued, 'has this fragment become an independent planet, but there is already proceeding on it the formation of an atmosphere, as is necessary for every planet serving the actualization of the Most Great Common-Cosmic Trogoautoegocrat. But now, Your Reverence, on that small, unexpectedly arisen planet, this regular process of the formation of an atmosphere is being hindered by an undesirable circumstance due to the three-brained beings existing on the planet Earth.
"'And this is why I decided to appeal to you, Your Reverence, to consent to undertake, in the name of our Uni-Being Creator, a task that would spare us the necessity of resorting to some extreme sacred process, unbecoming for any three-centered beings, and would, in some simpler way, remove this undesirable phenomenon by making use of the being-Reason they have in their presence.'
"His Conformity then explained to me in detail that after the second catastrophe to the Earth, the biped three-brained beings who had accidentally survived had again multiplied, and that the whole process of their existence was now concentrated on a large, newly formed continent called 'Ashhark,' where three large independent groups had been established, the first in a region then called 'Tikliamish,' the second in a region known as 'Maralpleicie,' and the third in a country which still exists and was then called 'Pearl-land.'
'In the psyche of the beings belonging to all three of these independent groups,' His Conformity went on to say, 'various peculiar "havatviernonis" have been formed, that is, certain psychic strivings, the total process of which they themselves call "religion."
"'Although these havatviernonis, or religions, have nothing in common, there is widely spread among all three groups a religious custom called "sacrificial offerings." This custom of theirs is based on the notion, which only their strange Reason could conceive of, that if they destroyed the existence of beings of other forms in honor of their "gods' and "idols," these imaginary gods and idols would find it very, very agreeable, and would help them without fail, always and in everything, to carry out their wild and fantastic enterprises.
"'This custom is now so widespread there and the destruction of the existence of beings of various forms has reached such proportions, that there is already a surplus of the sacred "askokin" required from the planet Earth for the maintenance of its former parts, a surplus, that is, of those vibrations that arise during the process of "rascooarno" of beings of every exterior form on that planet from which this sacred cosmic substance is required.
"'This surplus of the sacred "askokin" is already seriously hindering the correct exchange of substances between the Moon and its atmosphere, with the danger that the atmosphere may in consequence be formed abnormally, and later become an obstacle to the harmonious movement of the whole system Ors, and perhaps again give rise to yet another catastrophe on a great cosmic scale.
"'So, Your Reverence, my request consists in this, that since you are in the habit of often visiting various planets of this solar system, you should undertake the task of descending specially to the planet Earth and of trying to instill into the consciousness of these strange three-brained beings some idea of the senselessness of this notion of theirs.'
"After a few more words, His Conformity began to ascend, and when he was fairly high up, he added in a loud voice: 'Thereby, Your Reverence, you will be rendering a great service to our Uni-Being All-Embracing Endlessness.'
"When these Sacred Individuals had left the planet Mars, I resolved to carry out this task at all costs and to be worthy, If only by this specific aid to our Unique Burden-Bearing Endlessness, of becoming a particle, though an independent one, of everything existing in the Great Universe. So, my boy, imbued with this resolve, the next day I flew on the same ship Occasion to your planet Earth.
"This time our ship alighted on a sea then called the 'Colhidius,' recently formed by perturbations during the second great disaster to your planet. This sea was situated in the northwestern part of the great, newly arisen continent of Ashhark, which at that period was the chief center of existence of the three-brained beings there.
"The other shores of this sea belonged to those newly emerged land masses that had become joined to the continent of Ashhark, and taken together were at first known as 'Frianktzanaralis' and a little later as 'Colhidchissi.' It must be remarked that both this sea and the lands just mentioned still exist, but of course they now have other names. For example, the continent of Ashhark is now called 'Asia'; the Colhidius Sea, the 'Caspian'; and all the Frianktzanaralis together are now known as the 'Caucasus.'
"The Occasion alighted on the Colhidius, or Caspian, Sea because it was the most convenient place for mooring our ship; moreover, it offered great advantages for my further travels, since a large river, which watered almost the entire country of Tikliamish, flowed into it from the east. On the banks of this river stood the capital, the city of 'Koorkalai.'
"As the greatest center of existence of these favorites of yours was then the country of 'Tikliamish,' I decided to go there first.
"Here it might as well be added that although this large river, then called the 'Oxoseria,' still exists today, it no longer flows into the Caspian Sea because, as a result of a minor planetary tremor, it was diverted to the north about halfway down its course and flowed into one of the hollows on the surface of the continent of Ashhark, where it gradually formed a small sea still known as the 'Aral Sea.' By close observation the old bed of that great river now called the " 'Amu Darya' can be seen even at the present day.
"At the time of this second descent of mine in person, the country of Tikliamish had come to be considered, as indeed it was, the richest and most fertile of all the lands suitable for ordinary being-existence on that planet.
"But when a third great catastrophe occurred to that ill-fated planet, this flourishing country, along with other more or less fertile regions, was covered by 'kashmanoonoms,' or as they say, by 'sands.' After this third catastrophe the country of Tikliamish was long known as the 'Hungry Desert'; but nowadays the different parts have different names, and what was once its principal part is called 'Karakum,' which means 'black sands.'
"During that period the second quite independent group of three-brained beings on the continent of Ashhark dwelt in the country then called 'Maralpleicie.' Later, when this second group established a central place of existence, they called it the city of 'Gob,' and for a long time the whole country was called 'Goblandia.'
"This region in its turn was covered by 'kashmanoonoms,' and today the chief part of this once flourishing country is known simply as the 'Gobi Desert.'
"As for the third entirely independent group, the place of its existence was in the southeastern part of the continent of Ashhark, opposite Tikliamish, and on the other side of those abnormal projections of the continent that had been formed during the second catastrophe to this ill-fated planet.
"As I have already told you, the place of existence of this third group was then called Pearl-land.
"The name of this region also was changed many times, and at present the whole of that part of the land surface of your planet is known as 'Hindustan' or 'India.'
"It must be noted here without fail that at the time of my second descent in person to the surface of your planet, there Was present in all the three-brained beings of these three independent groups, instead of the impulse called 'needful.'
striving for self-perfection,' which should be in every three-brained being, an also needful but very strange striving already thoroughly crystallized, to have all the other beings of their planet consider their country the 'center of culture' of the whole Earth.
"This very strange needful striving had become for each of the three-centered beings of your planet the principal meaning and aim of existence and, in consequence, bitter struggles, both material and psychic, were constantly proceeding among the beings of the three independent groups for the attainment of this aim.
"So, my boy . . .
"From the Colhidius Sea, now the Caspian, we then set off on 'selchanakhs,' that is, on rafts of a special kind, up the river Oxoseria or, as it is now called, the 'Amu Darya.' We sailed for fifteen terrestrial days and finally arrived at the capital of the beings of the first Asiatic group.
"As soon as we were settled in the city of Koorkalai I began visiting the 'kaltaani' there, that is, those establishments which were later called on the continent of Ashhark 'chaikhanas,' 'ashkhanas,' 'caravanserais,' and so on, and which contemporary beings on that planet, especially those breeding on the continent of 'Europe,' call 'cafés,' 'restaurants,' 'clubs,' 'dance halls,' 'meeting places,' and so on.
"I began with these establishments because on the planet Earth, in those days just as now, there was no place where one could observe and study so well the specific peculiarities of the psyche of the beings of a country. And this was exactly what I needed in order to make clear to myself their real, inner essence-attitude toward the custom of sacrificial offerings, and to enable me more readily to draw up a plan of action to achieve the aim for which I had made this second descent to your planet.
"During my visits to those kaltaani I met a number of beings, among whom was one I happened to see rather often. This three-brained being whom I frequently met was by profession a 'priest'; his name was Abdil.
"Since most of my personal activities during this second descent were concerned with the external circumstances in which this priest Abdil had become involved, and since I had to go to a great deal of trouble on his account, I shall tell you about him more or less in detail. Moreover, from these tales you will be able to understand the results I obtained in pursuit of my aim of uprooting from the strange psyche of your favorites their need to destroy the existence of beings of other forms in order to 'please and appease' their gods and revered idols.
"Although this terrestrial being, who afterward became as dear to me as one of my own kin, was not a priest of the highest rank, he was well versed in the teaching of the religion then dominant in Tikliamish, and also knew well the psyche of the followers of that religion, particularly of course of the members of what is called his 'flock.'
"As soon as we were on friendly terms, I discovered that in the being of the priest Abdil, owing to many external circumstances, among others his heredity and the conditions in which he had been prepared to become a responsible being, the function called 'conscience,' which should be present in every three-centered being, was not yet altogether atrophied. So, when he recognized with his Reason certain cosmic truths I explained to him, he at once acquired in his presence almost that attitude toward other beings that is proper to all normal three-brained beings of the whole universe; in other words he became 'compassionate' and 'sensitive' to the beings around him.
"Before I tell you more about this priest Abdil, you must know that on the continent of Ashhark the terrible custom of sacrificial offerings was then at its height, and that the destruction of various weak 'one-brained' and 'two-brained' beings was proceeding everywhere in incalculable numbers.
"At that period, whenever the members of a household appealed to some imaginary 'god' or make-believe 'saint,' they invariably vowed that in return for good fortune they would destroy, in honor of that god or saint, the existence of some being, or even of several at once. And if by chance good fortune befell them, they would fulfill their vow with the utmost piety; while if it turned out otherwise, they would increase the slaughter, in the hope of eventually winning the favor of their imaginary patron.
"For this purpose these favorites of yours went so far as to divide the beings of all other forms into 'clean' and 'unclean.' They called 'unclean' those beings the destruction of whose existence was supposedly displeasing to their gods, and 'clean' those beings whose destruction was supposedly most agreeable to the various fantastic idols they revered.
"These sacrifices were offered not only privately by individual beings in their own houses, but also by large groups and sometimes by the whole populace. They even had special places for slaughterings of this kind, preferably near buildings erected in memory of something or somebody, usually of some 'saint'—a 'saint,' of course, whom they themselves had elevated to sainthood.
"There were several of these public places at that time in the country of Tikliamish, where the mass destruction of beings of different exterior forms was carried out, and the most celebrated of these was on top of a small mountain, where once upon a time a certain wonder-worker, Aliman, was supposed to have been 'taken up alive' to some heaven or other.
"In this place, as in others like it, especially at set times of the year, they destroyed vast numbers of beings called 'oxen,' 'sheep,' 'doves,' and so on— and sometimes even beings like themselves. In the last case, the strong usually brought the less strong to be sacrificed: a father, for instance, brought his son; a husband his wife; an elder brother his younger brother, and so on. But for the most part the victims were 'slaves,' who were usually what are called 'captives,' in other words, beings of a conquered community which had lost its importance through the action of the law of 'Solioonensius'; that is, in a period when the tendency to reciprocal destruction was intensified in the presence of your favorites.
"This custom of 'pleasing their gods' by destroying the existence of other beings is still followed on your planet, though not on the same scale as when these abominations were perpetrated on the continent of Ashhark.
"Well, my boy, during the early days of my stay in the town of Koorkalai I often talked with my friend the priest Abdil on various subjects, taking care of course to avoid questions that might have betrayed my real nature.
"Like almost all the three-brained beings I met on each of my descents, he took me for a being of his own planet, but considered me very learned and an authority on the psyche of his fellow beings.
"From our earliest meetings, the sensitivity and concern with which he spoke about beings like himself always touched me deeply. And when my Reason had clearly recognized that the function of 'conscience,' transmitted to him by heredity and fundamental for all three-centered beings, had not yet quite atrophied in him, there arose, and eventually became crystallized in my presence, a 'really functioning needful striving' toward him, as though he were a kinsman of my own nature.
From that moment, according to the cosmic law that 'every cause gives birth to a corresponding result,' the priest Abdil began to experience 'silnegordpana' toward me, or as your favorites would say, a feeling of 'trusting another as oneself.'
"So, my boy, no sooner was all this clearly evident to my Reason than the idea occurred to me to avail myself of this first terrestrial friend of mine to accomplish the task for the sake of which my second descent had been made. And I then began intentionally leading all our conversations toward the question of sacrificial offerings.
"Although many years have passed since I talked with that terrestrial friend of mine, I can still remember one of our conversations and repeat it to you word for word. I wish to repeat that particular talk, which was the last I had with him, because it served as the starting point of all the events which, though they brought the planetary existence of my terrestrial friend to a painful end, nevertheless opened to him the possibility of continuing the task of self-perfecting.
"This last talk took place in his house.
"I explained to him frankly the utter stupidity and absurdity of the custom of sacrificial offerings.
"What I said was this: 'Good. You have a religion, a faith in something. It is very good to have faith in something, whatever it may be, even if you don't know exactly in whom or in what—even if you have not the least idea of the significance and the possibilities of what you have faith in. To have faith, whether consciously or even quite unconsciously, is very necessary and desirable for every being.
'And it is desirable because it is by faith, and by faith alone, that there can appear the intensity of being-self-consciousness necessary for everyone, as well as the valuation of one's own personal being as a particle of everything existing in the Universe.
"'But what has the destruction of the existence of another being to do with this faith—above all when you destroy it in the name of its Creator? Does not that "life," which He created as He created yours, have the same value as your own?
"'Making use of your psychic strength and cunning, that is, those data with which our Common Creator has endowed you for the perfecting of your Reason, you take advantage of the psychic weakness of other beings and destroy their existence.
"'Do you understand, you wretched creature, what an evil deed, in the objective sense, you commit by this?
"'First of all, by destroying the existence of other beings you reduce for yourself the number of factors, the sum of whose results can alone provide the conditions required for the self-perfecting of beings like yourself; and in the second place, you diminish or entirely destroy the hopes of our Common Father Creator in those possibilities put into you as a three-brained being upon whom He counts as a help for the future.
"'The absurdity of this terrible being-action is already obvious in your imagining that by destroying the existence of another being you are doing something pleasing to the very One who intentionally created that being. Can it be that the thought has never even entered your head that if our Common Father Creator also created this "life," He probably did so for some definite purpose?'
"Think,' I said further, 'think a little, not like a "Khorassanian donkey," as you have been used to thinking during your whole existence, but think a little honestly and sincerely, as is proper for a being to think who is, as you say yourself, made "in the image of God." Could it be that, when creating you and the beings you destroy, our Creator would have written on the foreheads of certain of His own Creatures that they were to be destroyed in His honor and glory? Anyone who thinks seriously and sincerely about it, even an idiot from "Albion's Isles," will be able to understand that this could never be.
'This is only an invention of men—men who say they are "in the image and likeness of God"; it does not come from Him who created men and these other beings of different forms which they destroy, as they fancy, for His pleasure and satisfaction. For Him there is no difference between the life of men and the life of beings of any other form. Men are "life" and the beings of other exterior forms I are "life."
'In His wisdom He has foreseen that Nature should adapt different exterior forms of beings to the conditions and circumstances in which the process of their existence is destined to flow.
'Take yourself, for example: with your internal and external organs, could you go jump into the water and live there like a fish?
'Of course not, because you have neither the "gills," "fins," nor "tail" of a fish: you are not a "life" destined to exist in a medium such as water.
"'If it occurred to you to go live in the water, you would soon choke, and sink to the bottom, where you would become hors d'oeuvre for those same fish who, in their own medium, would naturally be incomparably stronger than you.
'It is the same for the fish. Could one of them come and sit at this table with us and sip the "green tea" we are now enjoying? Certainly not! It has not the corresponding organs for manifestations of this kind.
'It was created for the water, and its internal and external organs are adapted to that clement, which is the only one where it can manifest itself effectively, and fulfill the purpose of its existence preordained by the Creator. 'Again in your case, your external and internal organs were created by our Common Creator in a corresponding manner. You are given feet so that you can walk, and hands to prepare and take the necessary food. Your nose and the organs connected with it are so adapted that you may take in and transform in yourself those cosmic substances that serve, in three-brained beings like yourself, to coat the two higher being-bodies—on one of which rests the hope of our Common All-Embracing Creator, for help in His need to actualize what He has foreseen for the good of everything existing.
"'In short, our Common Creator has given Nature the corresponding principle that enables her to coat and adapt all your internal and external organs in accordance with that sphere in which the process of existence of beings with such a brain-system as yours is destined to flow.
"'To illustrate this, take your own "donkey," now tied up in its stall. Even in regard to your own donkey, you abuse the possibilities given you by our Common Creator, for if this donkey is compelled to stand unwillingly in your stable, it does so only because it was created two-brained; and it was created two-brained because that organization of its common presence is necessary for cosmic existence on the planet. And therefore it is according to law that the possibility of "logical mentation" is lacking in your donkey's presence and, in consequence, it is according to law that it should be what you call "dullwitted" or "stupid."
"'As for yourself, although you were created for this same purpose of cosmic existence on planets, you were created also as a "field of hope" for our Common All-Gracious Creator, in other words, with the possibility of coating in your presence that Higher Sacred for whose arising the whole of our now existing world was created. Yet in spite of the possibilities given you, that is, in spite of your having been created three-brained and thus capable of logical mentation, you do not use this sacred property for its preordained purpose, but manifest it as "cunning" toward His other creatures such as, for example, your own donkey.
'Apart from the possibilities given you of consciously coating this Higher Sacred in your presence, your donkey has the same value for the common-cosmic process, and consequently for our Common Creator, as yourself, since each of you is predestined for some definite purpose, and all these different purposes, taken together, constitute the meaning of everything existing.
"'The only difference between you and your donkey lies in the form and quality of functioning of the internal and external organization of your common presence. For instance, you have only two legs, whereas your donkey has four, any one of which is immeasurably stronger than yours. Can you on those two weak legs of yours carry as much as that donkey can? Certainly not, because your legs were given you only for carrying yourself and the little that is necessary for the normal existence of a three-brained being as foreseen by Nature.
"'This unequal distribution of power and strength, which at first sight may appear unjust on the part of our Most Just Creator, was made by Great Nature solely because the surplus of cosmic substances granted you by the foresight of the Creator and by Nature for the purpose of personal self-perfecting is not given to your donkey, but instead of this Great Nature herself transforms this surplus of cosmic substance in the donkey's presence—without, of course, the donkey being aware of it—into the power and strength of certain of its organs for its present existence alone, thus enabling it to manifest that power incomparably better than you.
'And these manifestations of the different powers of beings of diverse forms constitute in their totality the exterior conditions that alone make it possible for three-brained beings like yourself consciously to perfect the "germ of Reason" placed in their presence to the required gradation of pure Objective Reason.
"'I repeat: all beings, large and small, of all brain systems without exception, existing on the Earth, within the Earth, in the air, or beneath the waters—all are equally necessary to our Common Creator for the common harmony of universal existence.
"'And since all these forms of beings, taken as a whole, constitute the form of the process of universal existence required by our Creator, the essence of each being is equally dear and equally valuable to Him. For our Common Creator all beings are only particles of the existence of one whole Essence spiritualized by Himself.
"'But what do we see around us here now? One of the forms of beings created by Him, the very form in whose presence He has placed all His hopes for the future welfare of everything existing, taking advantage of its superiority to lord it over other forms, destroying their existence right and left and, what is more, allegedly "in His Name."
"'These monstrous and sacrilegious acts are committed in every house and on every square, yet it never enters the head of any of these unfortunates that those beings whose existence you and I are destroying are just as dear to Him who created them as we ourselves, and that if He created those other forms of beings it must also have been for some purpose.'
"Having said all this to my friend, the priest Abdil, I went on: 'And the most deplorable thing is that every man who destroys the existence of other beings in honor of his revered idols does so with all his heart, convinced beyond any doubt that he is doing a "good deed."
'If any one of them should become aware that in destroying the existence of another being he is not only committing an evil deed against the true God and every real saint, but is even causing them, in their essence, sorrow and grief that there should exist in the Great Universe such monsters made "in the image of God," who can manifest themselves so ruthlessly and without conscience toward other creatures of our Common Father—I repeat, if any one of them should become aware of this, he would certainly agree with all his heart never again to destroy the existence of beings of other forms for sacrificial offerings.
'Then perhaps on the Earth also there would be observed the eighteenth commandment of our Common Creator " ' "Love everything that breathes."
'Destroying the existence of His other creatures as an offering to God is just like some vandal breaking into your house and wantonly destroying all the "goods" there that have taken you years to collect and cost you so much labor and suffering.
'Think—but I say again, think seriously Picture to yourself what I have just said and then tell me would you like it? Would you thank the shameless vandal who broke into your house? No! A million times no! On the contrary, your whole being would be outraged, you would want to punish the scoundrel, and with every fiber of your psyche you would try to find a means of revenge.
"'You would no doubt reply that all this is true enough and so on and so forth, "but after all I am only a man " Yes, indeed, you are only a man It is fortunate that God is God, and not vindictive and evil like man Certainly He will not punish you or take revenge upon you, as you would have done to the vandal who destroyed the goods it had taken you years to collect.
'It goes without saying God forgives everything—this has even become a law in the world.
"'But His creatures—men in this case—should not abuse His all-gracious and everywhere-penetrating Goodness, it is their duty not only to watch over all that He has created but also to maintain it.
"'Yet here on Earth men have even divided beings of all other forms into "clean" and "unclean." Tell me, what guided them when they made this division? Why, for instance, is a sheep "clean" and a lion "unclean"? Are they not equally beings? This also was invented by men. But why this invention, why this distinction? Simply because the sheep is a weak being, and moreover stupid, and they can do just what they like with it.
"'But men call the lion "unclean" only because they dare not do what they like with it. The lion is cleverer and above all stronger than they are. Not only will the lion not allow itself to be destroyed, it will not even let people come near it. And if anyone should venture too close, this Mister Lion would give him such a crack on the noddle that our hero's life would fly away to regions concerning which the less said the better.
"'I repeat, a lion is "unclean" simply because men are afraid of it; it is a hundred times stronger than they are, a hundred times superior. A sheep is "clean" because it is much weaker than they and, as I said before, much more stupid.
"'Every being, according to its nature and the gradation of Reason attained by its ancestors and transmitted by heredity, occupies a definite place among beings of other forms.
'To clarify what I have just said, a good example is the difference between the presence, already definitely crystallized, of the psyche of your dog and your cat. You have only to pet your dog a little and get it used to anything you please, and it will become affectionate and obedient to the point of abasement. It will follow you around and cut every sort of caper just to please you. You can take liberties with it, beat it, be thoroughly mean to it; it will never turn on you, but only grovel still more at your feet.
'But try this sort of thing on your cat. Do you think it will respond to these indignities as your dog did, and cut the same humble capers for your amusement? Never in the world! Even if the cat is not strong enough to retaliate at once, it will never forget how you treated it, and sooner or later will get its revenge.
'There are stones of cats that have pounced on a man while he slept and bitten his throat, and I can well believe it, knowing what the cat's reasons may have been No, the cat will stand up for itself, it knows its own value, it is proud, and this is simply because it is a cat, and its nature is at that gradation of Reason which belongs to it according to the merits of its ancestors In any case no being, not even a man, should be angry with a cat for this Is it the cat's fault that it is a cat, and that owing to the merits of its ancestors its presence occupies that gradation of "self-consciousness"? A cat must not be despised for this, nor beaten, nor humiliated, on the contrary it should be given its due, as occupying a higher rung on the ladder of evolution of "self-consciousness."'
"By the way, my dear Hassein, on this subject of the mutual relations of beings, a famous former prophet from the planet 'Desagroanskrad,' the great Arhoonilo, now the assistant to the Chief Investigator of the whole Universe on matters of objective morality, once said 'If a being is higher than you in Reason, you should bow before him and try to imitate him in everything, but if he is lower than you, you should be just toward him, for you once occupied the same place, according to the Sacred Scale of Reason of our Creator and All-Maintainer.'
"So, my dear boy, this last conversation with that Earth friend of mine, the priest Abdil, made such a strong impression on him that for two whole days he did nothing but think and think In short, the result of it all was that he began to cognize and sense almost as he should have about the custom of 'sacrificial offerings.'
"Several days after this conversation of ours, one of the two big religious festivals in Tikliamish took place, the festival called 'Zadik'; and in the temple where he was the chief priest my friend Abdil, instead of delivering the usual sermon at the close of the ceremony, suddenly began speaking about 'sacrificial offerings.'
"I happened to go to the temple that day and was one of those who heard him speak. Although the theme of this sermon was unusual for such an occasion and such a place, it shocked no one, for he spoke better and more beautifully than ever before. He spoke so well and sincerely, and illustrated his theme with so many vivid and persuasive examples, that many of his listeners began to weep.
"His words produced such a strong impression on the whole congregation that although his sermon lasted into the next day, instead of the customary half hour or so, nobody wished to leave; and when it was over, everyone remained standing for a long time as if spellbound.
"In the days that followed, certain passages from his sermon began to circulate among those who had not been there to hear it.
"It is interesting to remark that it was the custom at that time for priests to exist solely on the offerings of their parishioners, and this priest Abdil had been receiving from his flock all kinds of food for his ordinary existence, for instance the roasted and boiled 'corpses' of beings of various exterior forms, such as chickens, sheep, geese, and so on. But after this famous sermon of his no one brought him any of these customary offerings, but only brought or sent him fruits, flowers, all kinds of handiwork, and other such products.
"My terrestrial friend became overnight the 'fashionable priest' of Koorkalai. And not only was the temple where he officiated always crammed with the citizens of the town, but he was also in great demand to preach in other temples. He delivered many sermons against sacrificial offerings, and the number of his admirers kept on growing, so that soon he was famous not only among the beings of the capital but throughout the whole country of Tikliamish.
"I do not know how it would all have ended had not the whole priesthood— that is, men-beings of the same profession as my friend—become alarmed by his popularity and I begun to oppose everything he preached. Obviously his colleagues were afraid that if the custom of sacrificial offerings were to disappear, their own excellent incomes would disappear also, and their authority would soon totter and finally crumble away altogether.
"Day by day the number of the priest Abdil's enemies increased, and they spread new slanders and innuendoes about him in order to lessen his popularity and destroy his authority.
"His colleagues began delivering sermons in their temples proving the exact opposite of everything Abdil had said.
"At last things came to such a pass that the priesthood bribed various beings with 'hasnamussian' properties to plan and commit all sorts of outrages upon this poor Abdil. And indeed these terrestrial nullities tried several times to destroy his existence by sprinkling poison on the various edible offerings brought to him.
"In spite of all this, the number of sincere admirers of his preaching grew daily.
"Finally the whole corporation of the priesthood could stand it no longer and one sad day my friend was brought to trial before the ecclesiastical high court, which sat for four days. By sentence of the high court, this Earth friend of mine was irrevocably expelled from the priesthood, and at the same meeting his colleagues also organized further ways of persecuting him.
"All this, of course, had a strong effect on the psyche of the ordinary beings, so that even those who had formerly respected him the most began to avoid him and to repeat all sorts of calumnies about him. The very ones who the day before had sent him flowers and other offerings, those who had almost worshiped him, were soon affected by the constant gossip and became his bitter enemies, as though he had not only insulted them personally but had slaughtered all their near and dear ones.
"Such is the psyche of the beings of that peculiar planet.
"In short, my friend's sincere wish for the good of those around him caused him only pain and suffering. But even this would hardly have mattered, if in a crowning act of treachery his colleagues, aided by other 'godlike' terrestrial beings, had not brought all this to an end; that is to say, they killed him.
"This happened in the following way. My friend had no relatives at all in the city of Koorkalai, as he was born in some distant place. And the hundreds of servants and other terrestrial nullities who had flocked around him when he was in a prominent position gradually left him when he lost his importance.
"Toward the end there remained only one very aged being, who had been with him for a long time. To tell the truth, this old man had stayed with him only on account of the infirmities of age which, owing to abnormal being-existence, are the inevitable lot of most of your favorites—in other words, owing to his complete uselessness for anything required in the ordinary conditions of being-existence there. He simply had no other place to go, and that was why he did not desert my friend, but stayed with him even after he had lost his importance and was being persecuted.
"Well, this old man went into my friend's room one sad morning and saw that his planetary body had been hacked to pieces. Knowing of my friendship with him, he ran at once to tell me about it. "I have already told you that I had begun to love the priest Abdil as though he were one of my own kin. So when I heard about this terrible event, there almost occurred in my presence a 'skinikoonartsino,' that is to say, the connections between my separate being-centers were almost shattered.
"But later that same day I became afraid that some unconscionable being might commit further outrages on my friend's planetary body and I decided to ward off at least that danger. So I immediately hired several suitable beings for a large sum of money and, unbeknownst to anybody else, had his planetary body removed and placed temporarily on my 'selchanakh,' or raft, which was moored not far away on the Oxoseria River and which I had kept there with the intention of returning on it to the Colhidius Sea, and to our ship Occasion.
"This sad end of my friend Abdil's existence did not prevent his sermons and exhortations from having a strong effect on a growing number of beings. And indeed the quantity of sacrificial slaughterings began to diminish perceptibly and it became evident that, even if this custom were not abolished, it would at least be considerably mitigated. And for the time being that was enough for me.
"As there was no reason for me to stay there any longer, I decided to return at once to the Colhidius Sea, and then to consider what to do with the planetary body of my friend.
"When I reached our ship Occasion I found an etherogram from Mars, informing me of the arrival there of another party of beings from the planet Karatas, and asking for my speedy return.
"Thanks to this etherogram a very strange idea came into my head, namely, that instead of disposing of my friend's planetary body on the Earth, I might take it with me and give it to the presence of the planet Mars.
"I decided to carry out this idea, for I feared that in their hatred, my friend's enemies might make a search for his planetary body; and if they happened to hear where it had been returned to the presence of their planet or, as your favorites say, 'buried,' they would no doubt find it and perpetrate further outrages upon it.
"And so, on the ship Occasion I soon ascended from the Colhidius Sea to the planet Mars, where the beings of our tribe, with the aid of several kind Martians who had already learned of the events that had just taken place on the Earth, paid due respect to the planetary body that I had brought back with me. They buried it with the ceremonies customary on the planet Mars, and over the burial place erected a suitable construction.
"In any case this was the first and will surely be the last 'grave,' as your favorites call it, for a being of the Earth on this at once so near yet so far and, for terrestrial beings, quite inaccessible planet Mars.
"I learned afterward that this story came to the attention of the Most Great Archangel Setrenotsinarco, the All-Quarters Maintainer of that part of the Universe to which the system Ors belongs, and that he manifested his approval by giving to the appropriate being a command concerning the soul of this terrestrial friend of mine.
"On the planet Mars I did indeed find awaiting me several beings of our tribe, recently arrived from the planet Karatas. Among them, by the way, was your grandmother, who, according to the indications of the chief 'zirlikner' of the planet Karatas, had been designated for me as the passive half for the continuation of my line."
BEELZEBUB began thus: "I descended to your planet Earth for the second time only eleven of their centuries after my first descent.
"Shortly after my first descent a second catastrophe had occurred to that planet, but this one was local in character and did not threaten disaster on a great cosmic scale.
"During this second catastrophe, the continent of Atlantis, which at the time of my first descent had been the largest continent and the chief place of existence of the terrestrial three-brained beings, was engulfed within the planet along with other large and small land masses, as were most of the three-brained beings existing upon them, together with almost everything they had achieved and acquired in the course of centuries.
"In their place there emerged from within the planet other land masses forming new continents and islands, most of which still exist.
"It was on this very continent of Atlantis that the city of Samlios was situated where, do you remember, that young countryman of ours had existed who was the cause of my first descent in person.
"During this second great disaster to that planet, thanks to diverse circumstances, many of the three-brained beings who have taken your fancy nevertheless survived, and by the time of my second descent in person their posterity had already multiplied so much that they were now breeding on almost all the newly formed land masses.
"And in regard to the causes, conforming to law, which brought about their excessive multiplication, this also you will understand in the course of my further tales.
"Here, my boy, it will do no harm for you to take note that the beings of our tribe existing on that planet at the time of this catastrophe all escaped that 'apocalyptic end.'
"They escaped it for the following reasons:
"As I have already told you in one of our previous talks, at the time of my first descent most of the beings of our tribe who had chosen this planet of yours as their dwelling place existed on the continent of Atlantis.
"It appears that a year before this catastrophe our 'tribal pythoness' made a prophecy in which she called upon all our tribe to leave the continent of Atlantis and migrate to a smaller continent not far away, where they were to exist on a definite part of its surface that she indicated.
"This smaller continent was then called 'Grabontzi' and the part the 'pythoness' indicated did indeed escape the terrifying perturbation that occurred to all the other parts of the common presence of that ill-fated planet. "As a consequence of this perturbation the continent of Grabontzi, existing today under the name of 'Africa,' became much larger, as other land masses emerged from the water spaces of the planet and were added to it.
"So, my boy, our 'pythoness' was able to warn those members of our tribe who had been obliged to exist on your planet and thereby save them from an otherwise inevitable 'apocalyptic end'; and she was able to do this thanks to a special being-property which, by the way, can be acquired by beings only intentionally by means of what is called 'being-partkdolgduty,' about which I will tell you later.
"This time the reasons for my descent to the surface of that I planet were related to the following events:
"One day, on the planet Mars, we received an etherogram from the Center announcing the imminent appearance of certain Most High Sacred Individuals. And in fact, within half a Martian year, a number of archangels, angels, cherubim, and seraphim did appear there, the majority of whom had been members of the Most High Commission that had come to Mars at the time of the first great catastrophe to the planet Earth.
"Among these Most High Sacred Individuals was again His Conformity, the Angel—now already Archangel— Looisos who, during the first great catastrophe to the planet Earth, as you remember I recently told you, had been one of the chief administrators in charge of averting the possible consequences of that general cosmic misfortune.
"So, my boy, the day after the second appearance of those Sacred Individuals, His Conformity, accompanied by one of the seraphim, his second assistant, did me the honor to come to my house.
"After giving me his blessing, His Conformity condescended to reply to certain inquiries of mine about the Great Center, and then told me that after the collision of the comet Kondoor with the planet Earth, he and other responsible cosmic Individuals administering the affairs of 'harmonious world-existence' had frequently descended to this solar system to observe the effect of the measures they had taken to ward off the consequences of that cosmic miscalculation.
'And we descended,' His Conformity continued, 'because, although we had taken every possible precaution and had assured everyone that everything would be quite all right, we ourselves were not totally convinced that some unforeseen unpleasantness might not await us in the future.
"'Moreover it turned out that our apprehensions were partly justified though, thanks to chance, not in a serious form, that is to say, not on a general cosmic scale, since this new catastrophe affected only the planet Earth.
"'The second catastrophe to the planet Earth,' continued His Conformity, 'was due to the following circumstances:
"'When, during the first disaster, two large fragments were detached from this planet, the "center of gravity" of its entire presence had no time to shift to a corresponding new position. As a result, right up to the time of the second catastrophe, this planet existed with its "center of gravity" out of place, thanks to which ifs movement during that whole period was not uniformly harmonious and there often occurred, both within and upon it, various upheavals and displacements And it was just when the "center of gravity" finally shifted to the true center of the planet that the second catastrophe occurred.
"'But from now on,' added His Conformity with a shade of self-satisfaction, 'the existence of this planet will be quite normal from the point of view of common-cosmic harmony. This second cataclysm has finally put our minds completely at rest, and has convinced us that a catastrophe on a cosmic scale can never again occur on account of the planet Earth.
'Not only has this planet once more acquired a normal movement in the general cosmic equilibrium, but its two detached fragments, now called "Moon" and "Anulios," have also acquired a normal movement and have become independent, though small, "kofenshars," that is, additional planets, of the solar system Ors.
Having thought a moment, His Conformity went on to say:
'I have appeared to you, Your Reverence, just in order to talk over with you the future welfare of the large fragment of that planet existing today under the name of "Moon."
"'Not only,' His Conformity continued, 'has this fragment become an independent planet, but there is already proceeding on it the formation of an atmosphere, as is necessary for every planet serving the actualization of the Most Great Common-Cosmic Trogoautoegocrat. But now, Your Reverence, on that small, unexpectedly arisen planet, this regular process of the formation of an atmosphere is being hindered by an undesirable circumstance due to the three-brained beings existing on the planet Earth.
"'And this is why I decided to appeal to you, Your Reverence, to consent to undertake, in the name of our Uni-Being Creator, a task that would spare us the necessity of resorting to some extreme sacred process, unbecoming for any three-centered beings, and would, in some simpler way, remove this undesirable phenomenon by making use of the being-Reason they have in their presence.'
"His Conformity then explained to me in detail that after the second catastrophe to the Earth, the biped three-brained beings who had accidentally survived had again multiplied, and that the whole process of their existence was now concentrated on a large, newly formed continent called 'Ashhark,' where three large independent groups had been established, the first in a region then called 'Tikliamish,' the second in a region known as 'Maralpleicie,' and the third in a country which still exists and was then called 'Pearl-land.'
'In the psyche of the beings belonging to all three of these independent groups,' His Conformity went on to say, 'various peculiar "havatviernonis" have been formed, that is, certain psychic strivings, the total process of which they themselves call "religion."
"'Although these havatviernonis, or religions, have nothing in common, there is widely spread among all three groups a religious custom called "sacrificial offerings." This custom of theirs is based on the notion, which only their strange Reason could conceive of, that if they destroyed the existence of beings of other forms in honor of their "gods' and "idols," these imaginary gods and idols would find it very, very agreeable, and would help them without fail, always and in everything, to carry out their wild and fantastic enterprises.
"'This custom is now so widespread there and the destruction of the existence of beings of various forms has reached such proportions, that there is already a surplus of the sacred "askokin" required from the planet Earth for the maintenance of its former parts, a surplus, that is, of those vibrations that arise during the process of "rascooarno" of beings of every exterior form on that planet from which this sacred cosmic substance is required.
"'This surplus of the sacred "askokin" is already seriously hindering the correct exchange of substances between the Moon and its atmosphere, with the danger that the atmosphere may in consequence be formed abnormally, and later become an obstacle to the harmonious movement of the whole system Ors, and perhaps again give rise to yet another catastrophe on a great cosmic scale.
"'So, Your Reverence, my request consists in this, that since you are in the habit of often visiting various planets of this solar system, you should undertake the task of descending specially to the planet Earth and of trying to instill into the consciousness of these strange three-brained beings some idea of the senselessness of this notion of theirs.'
"After a few more words, His Conformity began to ascend, and when he was fairly high up, he added in a loud voice: 'Thereby, Your Reverence, you will be rendering a great service to our Uni-Being All-Embracing Endlessness.'
The SWORD is also the symbol of war and of the soldier. Wars, like thunderstorms, are often necessary to purify the stagnant atmosphere. War is not a demon, without remorse or reward. It restores the brotherhood in letters of fire. When men are seated in their pleasant places, sunken in ease and indolence, with Pretence and Incapacity and Littleness usurping all the high places of State, war is the baptism of blood and fire, by which alone they can be renovated. It is the hurricane that brings the elemental equilibrium, the concord of Power and Wisdom. So long as these continue obstinately divorced, it will continue to chasten.
In the mutual appeal of nations to God, there is the acknowledgment of His might. It lights the beacons of Faith and Freedom, and heats the furnace through which the earnest and loyal pass to immortal glory. There is in war the doom of defeat, the quenchless sense of Duty, the stirring sense of Honor, the measureless solemn sacrifice of devotedness, and the incense of success. Even in the flame and smoke of battle, the Mason discovers his brother, and fulfills the sacred obligations of Fraternity.
-- Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, by Albert Pike
"When these Sacred Individuals had left the planet Mars, I resolved to carry out this task at all costs and to be worthy, If only by this specific aid to our Unique Burden-Bearing Endlessness, of becoming a particle, though an independent one, of everything existing in the Great Universe. So, my boy, imbued with this resolve, the next day I flew on the same ship Occasion to your planet Earth.
"This time our ship alighted on a sea then called the 'Colhidius,' recently formed by perturbations during the second great disaster to your planet. This sea was situated in the northwestern part of the great, newly arisen continent of Ashhark, which at that period was the chief center of existence of the three-brained beings there.
"The other shores of this sea belonged to those newly emerged land masses that had become joined to the continent of Ashhark, and taken together were at first known as 'Frianktzanaralis' and a little later as 'Colhidchissi.' It must be remarked that both this sea and the lands just mentioned still exist, but of course they now have other names. For example, the continent of Ashhark is now called 'Asia'; the Colhidius Sea, the 'Caspian'; and all the Frianktzanaralis together are now known as the 'Caucasus.'
"The Occasion alighted on the Colhidius, or Caspian, Sea because it was the most convenient place for mooring our ship; moreover, it offered great advantages for my further travels, since a large river, which watered almost the entire country of Tikliamish, flowed into it from the east. On the banks of this river stood the capital, the city of 'Koorkalai.'
"As the greatest center of existence of these favorites of yours was then the country of 'Tikliamish,' I decided to go there first.
"Here it might as well be added that although this large river, then called the 'Oxoseria,' still exists today, it no longer flows into the Caspian Sea because, as a result of a minor planetary tremor, it was diverted to the north about halfway down its course and flowed into one of the hollows on the surface of the continent of Ashhark, where it gradually formed a small sea still known as the 'Aral Sea.' By close observation the old bed of that great river now called the " 'Amu Darya' can be seen even at the present day.
"At the time of this second descent of mine in person, the country of Tikliamish had come to be considered, as indeed it was, the richest and most fertile of all the lands suitable for ordinary being-existence on that planet.
"But when a third great catastrophe occurred to that ill-fated planet, this flourishing country, along with other more or less fertile regions, was covered by 'kashmanoonoms,' or as they say, by 'sands.' After this third catastrophe the country of Tikliamish was long known as the 'Hungry Desert'; but nowadays the different parts have different names, and what was once its principal part is called 'Karakum,' which means 'black sands.'
"During that period the second quite independent group of three-brained beings on the continent of Ashhark dwelt in the country then called 'Maralpleicie.' Later, when this second group established a central place of existence, they called it the city of 'Gob,' and for a long time the whole country was called 'Goblandia.'
"This region in its turn was covered by 'kashmanoonoms,' and today the chief part of this once flourishing country is known simply as the 'Gobi Desert.'
"As for the third entirely independent group, the place of its existence was in the southeastern part of the continent of Ashhark, opposite Tikliamish, and on the other side of those abnormal projections of the continent that had been formed during the second catastrophe to this ill-fated planet.
"As I have already told you, the place of existence of this third group was then called Pearl-land.
"The name of this region also was changed many times, and at present the whole of that part of the land surface of your planet is known as 'Hindustan' or 'India.'
"It must be noted here without fail that at the time of my second descent in person to the surface of your planet, there Was present in all the three-brained beings of these three independent groups, instead of the impulse called 'needful.'
striving for self-perfection,' which should be in every three-brained being, an also needful but very strange striving already thoroughly crystallized, to have all the other beings of their planet consider their country the 'center of culture' of the whole Earth.
"This very strange needful striving had become for each of the three-centered beings of your planet the principal meaning and aim of existence and, in consequence, bitter struggles, both material and psychic, were constantly proceeding among the beings of the three independent groups for the attainment of this aim.
"So, my boy . . .
"From the Colhidius Sea, now the Caspian, we then set off on 'selchanakhs,' that is, on rafts of a special kind, up the river Oxoseria or, as it is now called, the 'Amu Darya.' We sailed for fifteen terrestrial days and finally arrived at the capital of the beings of the first Asiatic group.
"As soon as we were settled in the city of Koorkalai I began visiting the 'kaltaani' there, that is, those establishments which were later called on the continent of Ashhark 'chaikhanas,' 'ashkhanas,' 'caravanserais,' and so on, and which contemporary beings on that planet, especially those breeding on the continent of 'Europe,' call 'cafés,' 'restaurants,' 'clubs,' 'dance halls,' 'meeting places,' and so on.
"I began with these establishments because on the planet Earth, in those days just as now, there was no place where one could observe and study so well the specific peculiarities of the psyche of the beings of a country. And this was exactly what I needed in order to make clear to myself their real, inner essence-attitude toward the custom of sacrificial offerings, and to enable me more readily to draw up a plan of action to achieve the aim for which I had made this second descent to your planet.
"During my visits to those kaltaani I met a number of beings, among whom was one I happened to see rather often. This three-brained being whom I frequently met was by profession a 'priest'; his name was Abdil.
"Since most of my personal activities during this second descent were concerned with the external circumstances in which this priest Abdil had become involved, and since I had to go to a great deal of trouble on his account, I shall tell you about him more or less in detail. Moreover, from these tales you will be able to understand the results I obtained in pursuit of my aim of uprooting from the strange psyche of your favorites their need to destroy the existence of beings of other forms in order to 'please and appease' their gods and revered idols.
"Although this terrestrial being, who afterward became as dear to me as one of my own kin, was not a priest of the highest rank, he was well versed in the teaching of the religion then dominant in Tikliamish, and also knew well the psyche of the followers of that religion, particularly of course of the members of what is called his 'flock.'
"As soon as we were on friendly terms, I discovered that in the being of the priest Abdil, owing to many external circumstances, among others his heredity and the conditions in which he had been prepared to become a responsible being, the function called 'conscience,' which should be present in every three-centered being, was not yet altogether atrophied. So, when he recognized with his Reason certain cosmic truths I explained to him, he at once acquired in his presence almost that attitude toward other beings that is proper to all normal three-brained beings of the whole universe; in other words he became 'compassionate' and 'sensitive' to the beings around him.
"Before I tell you more about this priest Abdil, you must know that on the continent of Ashhark the terrible custom of sacrificial offerings was then at its height, and that the destruction of various weak 'one-brained' and 'two-brained' beings was proceeding everywhere in incalculable numbers.
"At that period, whenever the members of a household appealed to some imaginary 'god' or make-believe 'saint,' they invariably vowed that in return for good fortune they would destroy, in honor of that god or saint, the existence of some being, or even of several at once. And if by chance good fortune befell them, they would fulfill their vow with the utmost piety; while if it turned out otherwise, they would increase the slaughter, in the hope of eventually winning the favor of their imaginary patron.
"For this purpose these favorites of yours went so far as to divide the beings of all other forms into 'clean' and 'unclean.' They called 'unclean' those beings the destruction of whose existence was supposedly displeasing to their gods, and 'clean' those beings whose destruction was supposedly most agreeable to the various fantastic idols they revered.
"These sacrifices were offered not only privately by individual beings in their own houses, but also by large groups and sometimes by the whole populace. They even had special places for slaughterings of this kind, preferably near buildings erected in memory of something or somebody, usually of some 'saint'—a 'saint,' of course, whom they themselves had elevated to sainthood.
"There were several of these public places at that time in the country of Tikliamish, where the mass destruction of beings of different exterior forms was carried out, and the most celebrated of these was on top of a small mountain, where once upon a time a certain wonder-worker, Aliman, was supposed to have been 'taken up alive' to some heaven or other.
"In this place, as in others like it, especially at set times of the year, they destroyed vast numbers of beings called 'oxen,' 'sheep,' 'doves,' and so on— and sometimes even beings like themselves. In the last case, the strong usually brought the less strong to be sacrificed: a father, for instance, brought his son; a husband his wife; an elder brother his younger brother, and so on. But for the most part the victims were 'slaves,' who were usually what are called 'captives,' in other words, beings of a conquered community which had lost its importance through the action of the law of 'Solioonensius'; that is, in a period when the tendency to reciprocal destruction was intensified in the presence of your favorites.
"This custom of 'pleasing their gods' by destroying the existence of other beings is still followed on your planet, though not on the same scale as when these abominations were perpetrated on the continent of Ashhark.
"Well, my boy, during the early days of my stay in the town of Koorkalai I often talked with my friend the priest Abdil on various subjects, taking care of course to avoid questions that might have betrayed my real nature.
"Like almost all the three-brained beings I met on each of my descents, he took me for a being of his own planet, but considered me very learned and an authority on the psyche of his fellow beings.
"From our earliest meetings, the sensitivity and concern with which he spoke about beings like himself always touched me deeply. And when my Reason had clearly recognized that the function of 'conscience,' transmitted to him by heredity and fundamental for all three-centered beings, had not yet quite atrophied in him, there arose, and eventually became crystallized in my presence, a 'really functioning needful striving' toward him, as though he were a kinsman of my own nature.
From that moment, according to the cosmic law that 'every cause gives birth to a corresponding result,' the priest Abdil began to experience 'silnegordpana' toward me, or as your favorites would say, a feeling of 'trusting another as oneself.'
"So, my boy, no sooner was all this clearly evident to my Reason than the idea occurred to me to avail myself of this first terrestrial friend of mine to accomplish the task for the sake of which my second descent had been made. And I then began intentionally leading all our conversations toward the question of sacrificial offerings.
"Although many years have passed since I talked with that terrestrial friend of mine, I can still remember one of our conversations and repeat it to you word for word. I wish to repeat that particular talk, which was the last I had with him, because it served as the starting point of all the events which, though they brought the planetary existence of my terrestrial friend to a painful end, nevertheless opened to him the possibility of continuing the task of self-perfecting.
"This last talk took place in his house.
"I explained to him frankly the utter stupidity and absurdity of the custom of sacrificial offerings.
"What I said was this: 'Good. You have a religion, a faith in something. It is very good to have faith in something, whatever it may be, even if you don't know exactly in whom or in what—even if you have not the least idea of the significance and the possibilities of what you have faith in. To have faith, whether consciously or even quite unconsciously, is very necessary and desirable for every being.
'And it is desirable because it is by faith, and by faith alone, that there can appear the intensity of being-self-consciousness necessary for everyone, as well as the valuation of one's own personal being as a particle of everything existing in the Universe.
"'But what has the destruction of the existence of another being to do with this faith—above all when you destroy it in the name of its Creator? Does not that "life," which He created as He created yours, have the same value as your own?
"'Making use of your psychic strength and cunning, that is, those data with which our Common Creator has endowed you for the perfecting of your Reason, you take advantage of the psychic weakness of other beings and destroy their existence.
"'Do you understand, you wretched creature, what an evil deed, in the objective sense, you commit by this?
"'First of all, by destroying the existence of other beings you reduce for yourself the number of factors, the sum of whose results can alone provide the conditions required for the self-perfecting of beings like yourself; and in the second place, you diminish or entirely destroy the hopes of our Common Father Creator in those possibilities put into you as a three-brained being upon whom He counts as a help for the future.
"'The absurdity of this terrible being-action is already obvious in your imagining that by destroying the existence of another being you are doing something pleasing to the very One who intentionally created that being. Can it be that the thought has never even entered your head that if our Common Father Creator also created this "life," He probably did so for some definite purpose?'
"Think,' I said further, 'think a little, not like a "Khorassanian donkey," as you have been used to thinking during your whole existence, but think a little honestly and sincerely, as is proper for a being to think who is, as you say yourself, made "in the image of God." Could it be that, when creating you and the beings you destroy, our Creator would have written on the foreheads of certain of His own Creatures that they were to be destroyed in His honor and glory? Anyone who thinks seriously and sincerely about it, even an idiot from "Albion's Isles," will be able to understand that this could never be.
'This is only an invention of men—men who say they are "in the image and likeness of God"; it does not come from Him who created men and these other beings of different forms which they destroy, as they fancy, for His pleasure and satisfaction. For Him there is no difference between the life of men and the life of beings of any other form. Men are "life" and the beings of other exterior forms I are "life."
'In His wisdom He has foreseen that Nature should adapt different exterior forms of beings to the conditions and circumstances in which the process of their existence is destined to flow.
'Take yourself, for example: with your internal and external organs, could you go jump into the water and live there like a fish?
'Of course not, because you have neither the "gills," "fins," nor "tail" of a fish: you are not a "life" destined to exist in a medium such as water.
"'If it occurred to you to go live in the water, you would soon choke, and sink to the bottom, where you would become hors d'oeuvre for those same fish who, in their own medium, would naturally be incomparably stronger than you.
'It is the same for the fish. Could one of them come and sit at this table with us and sip the "green tea" we are now enjoying? Certainly not! It has not the corresponding organs for manifestations of this kind.
'It was created for the water, and its internal and external organs are adapted to that clement, which is the only one where it can manifest itself effectively, and fulfill the purpose of its existence preordained by the Creator. 'Again in your case, your external and internal organs were created by our Common Creator in a corresponding manner. You are given feet so that you can walk, and hands to prepare and take the necessary food. Your nose and the organs connected with it are so adapted that you may take in and transform in yourself those cosmic substances that serve, in three-brained beings like yourself, to coat the two higher being-bodies—on one of which rests the hope of our Common All-Embracing Creator, for help in His need to actualize what He has foreseen for the good of everything existing.
"'In short, our Common Creator has given Nature the corresponding principle that enables her to coat and adapt all your internal and external organs in accordance with that sphere in which the process of existence of beings with such a brain-system as yours is destined to flow.
"'To illustrate this, take your own "donkey," now tied up in its stall. Even in regard to your own donkey, you abuse the possibilities given you by our Common Creator, for if this donkey is compelled to stand unwillingly in your stable, it does so only because it was created two-brained; and it was created two-brained because that organization of its common presence is necessary for cosmic existence on the planet. And therefore it is according to law that the possibility of "logical mentation" is lacking in your donkey's presence and, in consequence, it is according to law that it should be what you call "dullwitted" or "stupid."
"'As for yourself, although you were created for this same purpose of cosmic existence on planets, you were created also as a "field of hope" for our Common All-Gracious Creator, in other words, with the possibility of coating in your presence that Higher Sacred for whose arising the whole of our now existing world was created. Yet in spite of the possibilities given you, that is, in spite of your having been created three-brained and thus capable of logical mentation, you do not use this sacred property for its preordained purpose, but manifest it as "cunning" toward His other creatures such as, for example, your own donkey.
'Apart from the possibilities given you of consciously coating this Higher Sacred in your presence, your donkey has the same value for the common-cosmic process, and consequently for our Common Creator, as yourself, since each of you is predestined for some definite purpose, and all these different purposes, taken together, constitute the meaning of everything existing.
"'The only difference between you and your donkey lies in the form and quality of functioning of the internal and external organization of your common presence. For instance, you have only two legs, whereas your donkey has four, any one of which is immeasurably stronger than yours. Can you on those two weak legs of yours carry as much as that donkey can? Certainly not, because your legs were given you only for carrying yourself and the little that is necessary for the normal existence of a three-brained being as foreseen by Nature.
"'This unequal distribution of power and strength, which at first sight may appear unjust on the part of our Most Just Creator, was made by Great Nature solely because the surplus of cosmic substances granted you by the foresight of the Creator and by Nature for the purpose of personal self-perfecting is not given to your donkey, but instead of this Great Nature herself transforms this surplus of cosmic substance in the donkey's presence—without, of course, the donkey being aware of it—into the power and strength of certain of its organs for its present existence alone, thus enabling it to manifest that power incomparably better than you.
'And these manifestations of the different powers of beings of diverse forms constitute in their totality the exterior conditions that alone make it possible for three-brained beings like yourself consciously to perfect the "germ of Reason" placed in their presence to the required gradation of pure Objective Reason.
"'I repeat: all beings, large and small, of all brain systems without exception, existing on the Earth, within the Earth, in the air, or beneath the waters—all are equally necessary to our Common Creator for the common harmony of universal existence.
"'And since all these forms of beings, taken as a whole, constitute the form of the process of universal existence required by our Creator, the essence of each being is equally dear and equally valuable to Him. For our Common Creator all beings are only particles of the existence of one whole Essence spiritualized by Himself.
"'But what do we see around us here now? One of the forms of beings created by Him, the very form in whose presence He has placed all His hopes for the future welfare of everything existing, taking advantage of its superiority to lord it over other forms, destroying their existence right and left and, what is more, allegedly "in His Name."
"'These monstrous and sacrilegious acts are committed in every house and on every square, yet it never enters the head of any of these unfortunates that those beings whose existence you and I are destroying are just as dear to Him who created them as we ourselves, and that if He created those other forms of beings it must also have been for some purpose.'
"Having said all this to my friend, the priest Abdil, I went on: 'And the most deplorable thing is that every man who destroys the existence of other beings in honor of his revered idols does so with all his heart, convinced beyond any doubt that he is doing a "good deed."
'If any one of them should become aware that in destroying the existence of another being he is not only committing an evil deed against the true God and every real saint, but is even causing them, in their essence, sorrow and grief that there should exist in the Great Universe such monsters made "in the image of God," who can manifest themselves so ruthlessly and without conscience toward other creatures of our Common Father—I repeat, if any one of them should become aware of this, he would certainly agree with all his heart never again to destroy the existence of beings of other forms for sacrificial offerings.
'Then perhaps on the Earth also there would be observed the eighteenth commandment of our Common Creator " ' "Love everything that breathes."
'Destroying the existence of His other creatures as an offering to God is just like some vandal breaking into your house and wantonly destroying all the "goods" there that have taken you years to collect and cost you so much labor and suffering.
'Think—but I say again, think seriously Picture to yourself what I have just said and then tell me would you like it? Would you thank the shameless vandal who broke into your house? No! A million times no! On the contrary, your whole being would be outraged, you would want to punish the scoundrel, and with every fiber of your psyche you would try to find a means of revenge.
"'You would no doubt reply that all this is true enough and so on and so forth, "but after all I am only a man " Yes, indeed, you are only a man It is fortunate that God is God, and not vindictive and evil like man Certainly He will not punish you or take revenge upon you, as you would have done to the vandal who destroyed the goods it had taken you years to collect.
'It goes without saying God forgives everything—this has even become a law in the world.
"'But His creatures—men in this case—should not abuse His all-gracious and everywhere-penetrating Goodness, it is their duty not only to watch over all that He has created but also to maintain it.
"'Yet here on Earth men have even divided beings of all other forms into "clean" and "unclean." Tell me, what guided them when they made this division? Why, for instance, is a sheep "clean" and a lion "unclean"? Are they not equally beings? This also was invented by men. But why this invention, why this distinction? Simply because the sheep is a weak being, and moreover stupid, and they can do just what they like with it.
"'But men call the lion "unclean" only because they dare not do what they like with it. The lion is cleverer and above all stronger than they are. Not only will the lion not allow itself to be destroyed, it will not even let people come near it. And if anyone should venture too close, this Mister Lion would give him such a crack on the noddle that our hero's life would fly away to regions concerning which the less said the better.
"'I repeat, a lion is "unclean" simply because men are afraid of it; it is a hundred times stronger than they are, a hundred times superior. A sheep is "clean" because it is much weaker than they and, as I said before, much more stupid.
"'Every being, according to its nature and the gradation of Reason attained by its ancestors and transmitted by heredity, occupies a definite place among beings of other forms.
'To clarify what I have just said, a good example is the difference between the presence, already definitely crystallized, of the psyche of your dog and your cat. You have only to pet your dog a little and get it used to anything you please, and it will become affectionate and obedient to the point of abasement. It will follow you around and cut every sort of caper just to please you. You can take liberties with it, beat it, be thoroughly mean to it; it will never turn on you, but only grovel still more at your feet.
'But try this sort of thing on your cat. Do you think it will respond to these indignities as your dog did, and cut the same humble capers for your amusement? Never in the world! Even if the cat is not strong enough to retaliate at once, it will never forget how you treated it, and sooner or later will get its revenge.
'There are stones of cats that have pounced on a man while he slept and bitten his throat, and I can well believe it, knowing what the cat's reasons may have been No, the cat will stand up for itself, it knows its own value, it is proud, and this is simply because it is a cat, and its nature is at that gradation of Reason which belongs to it according to the merits of its ancestors In any case no being, not even a man, should be angry with a cat for this Is it the cat's fault that it is a cat, and that owing to the merits of its ancestors its presence occupies that gradation of "self-consciousness"? A cat must not be despised for this, nor beaten, nor humiliated, on the contrary it should be given its due, as occupying a higher rung on the ladder of evolution of "self-consciousness."'
"By the way, my dear Hassein, on this subject of the mutual relations of beings, a famous former prophet from the planet 'Desagroanskrad,' the great Arhoonilo, now the assistant to the Chief Investigator of the whole Universe on matters of objective morality, once said 'If a being is higher than you in Reason, you should bow before him and try to imitate him in everything, but if he is lower than you, you should be just toward him, for you once occupied the same place, according to the Sacred Scale of Reason of our Creator and All-Maintainer.'
"So, my dear boy, this last conversation with that Earth friend of mine, the priest Abdil, made such a strong impression on him that for two whole days he did nothing but think and think In short, the result of it all was that he began to cognize and sense almost as he should have about the custom of 'sacrificial offerings.'
"Several days after this conversation of ours, one of the two big religious festivals in Tikliamish took place, the festival called 'Zadik'; and in the temple where he was the chief priest my friend Abdil, instead of delivering the usual sermon at the close of the ceremony, suddenly began speaking about 'sacrificial offerings.'
"I happened to go to the temple that day and was one of those who heard him speak. Although the theme of this sermon was unusual for such an occasion and such a place, it shocked no one, for he spoke better and more beautifully than ever before. He spoke so well and sincerely, and illustrated his theme with so many vivid and persuasive examples, that many of his listeners began to weep.
"His words produced such a strong impression on the whole congregation that although his sermon lasted into the next day, instead of the customary half hour or so, nobody wished to leave; and when it was over, everyone remained standing for a long time as if spellbound.
"In the days that followed, certain passages from his sermon began to circulate among those who had not been there to hear it.
"It is interesting to remark that it was the custom at that time for priests to exist solely on the offerings of their parishioners, and this priest Abdil had been receiving from his flock all kinds of food for his ordinary existence, for instance the roasted and boiled 'corpses' of beings of various exterior forms, such as chickens, sheep, geese, and so on. But after this famous sermon of his no one brought him any of these customary offerings, but only brought or sent him fruits, flowers, all kinds of handiwork, and other such products.
"My terrestrial friend became overnight the 'fashionable priest' of Koorkalai. And not only was the temple where he officiated always crammed with the citizens of the town, but he was also in great demand to preach in other temples. He delivered many sermons against sacrificial offerings, and the number of his admirers kept on growing, so that soon he was famous not only among the beings of the capital but throughout the whole country of Tikliamish.
"I do not know how it would all have ended had not the whole priesthood— that is, men-beings of the same profession as my friend—become alarmed by his popularity and I begun to oppose everything he preached. Obviously his colleagues were afraid that if the custom of sacrificial offerings were to disappear, their own excellent incomes would disappear also, and their authority would soon totter and finally crumble away altogether.
"Day by day the number of the priest Abdil's enemies increased, and they spread new slanders and innuendoes about him in order to lessen his popularity and destroy his authority.
"His colleagues began delivering sermons in their temples proving the exact opposite of everything Abdil had said.
"At last things came to such a pass that the priesthood bribed various beings with 'hasnamussian' properties to plan and commit all sorts of outrages upon this poor Abdil. And indeed these terrestrial nullities tried several times to destroy his existence by sprinkling poison on the various edible offerings brought to him.
"In spite of all this, the number of sincere admirers of his preaching grew daily.
"Finally the whole corporation of the priesthood could stand it no longer and one sad day my friend was brought to trial before the ecclesiastical high court, which sat for four days. By sentence of the high court, this Earth friend of mine was irrevocably expelled from the priesthood, and at the same meeting his colleagues also organized further ways of persecuting him.
"All this, of course, had a strong effect on the psyche of the ordinary beings, so that even those who had formerly respected him the most began to avoid him and to repeat all sorts of calumnies about him. The very ones who the day before had sent him flowers and other offerings, those who had almost worshiped him, were soon affected by the constant gossip and became his bitter enemies, as though he had not only insulted them personally but had slaughtered all their near and dear ones.
"Such is the psyche of the beings of that peculiar planet.
"In short, my friend's sincere wish for the good of those around him caused him only pain and suffering. But even this would hardly have mattered, if in a crowning act of treachery his colleagues, aided by other 'godlike' terrestrial beings, had not brought all this to an end; that is to say, they killed him.
"This happened in the following way. My friend had no relatives at all in the city of Koorkalai, as he was born in some distant place. And the hundreds of servants and other terrestrial nullities who had flocked around him when he was in a prominent position gradually left him when he lost his importance.
"Toward the end there remained only one very aged being, who had been with him for a long time. To tell the truth, this old man had stayed with him only on account of the infirmities of age which, owing to abnormal being-existence, are the inevitable lot of most of your favorites—in other words, owing to his complete uselessness for anything required in the ordinary conditions of being-existence there. He simply had no other place to go, and that was why he did not desert my friend, but stayed with him even after he had lost his importance and was being persecuted.
"Well, this old man went into my friend's room one sad morning and saw that his planetary body had been hacked to pieces. Knowing of my friendship with him, he ran at once to tell me about it. "I have already told you that I had begun to love the priest Abdil as though he were one of my own kin. So when I heard about this terrible event, there almost occurred in my presence a 'skinikoonartsino,' that is to say, the connections between my separate being-centers were almost shattered.
"But later that same day I became afraid that some unconscionable being might commit further outrages on my friend's planetary body and I decided to ward off at least that danger. So I immediately hired several suitable beings for a large sum of money and, unbeknownst to anybody else, had his planetary body removed and placed temporarily on my 'selchanakh,' or raft, which was moored not far away on the Oxoseria River and which I had kept there with the intention of returning on it to the Colhidius Sea, and to our ship Occasion.
"This sad end of my friend Abdil's existence did not prevent his sermons and exhortations from having a strong effect on a growing number of beings. And indeed the quantity of sacrificial slaughterings began to diminish perceptibly and it became evident that, even if this custom were not abolished, it would at least be considerably mitigated. And for the time being that was enough for me.
"As there was no reason for me to stay there any longer, I decided to return at once to the Colhidius Sea, and then to consider what to do with the planetary body of my friend.
"When I reached our ship Occasion I found an etherogram from Mars, informing me of the arrival there of another party of beings from the planet Karatas, and asking for my speedy return.
"Thanks to this etherogram a very strange idea came into my head, namely, that instead of disposing of my friend's planetary body on the Earth, I might take it with me and give it to the presence of the planet Mars.
"I decided to carry out this idea, for I feared that in their hatred, my friend's enemies might make a search for his planetary body; and if they happened to hear where it had been returned to the presence of their planet or, as your favorites say, 'buried,' they would no doubt find it and perpetrate further outrages upon it.
"And so, on the ship Occasion I soon ascended from the Colhidius Sea to the planet Mars, where the beings of our tribe, with the aid of several kind Martians who had already learned of the events that had just taken place on the Earth, paid due respect to the planetary body that I had brought back with me. They buried it with the ceremonies customary on the planet Mars, and over the burial place erected a suitable construction.
"In any case this was the first and will surely be the last 'grave,' as your favorites call it, for a being of the Earth on this at once so near yet so far and, for terrestrial beings, quite inaccessible planet Mars.
"I learned afterward that this story came to the attention of the Most Great Archangel Setrenotsinarco, the All-Quarters Maintainer of that part of the Universe to which the system Ors belongs, and that he manifested his approval by giving to the appropriate being a command concerning the soul of this terrestrial friend of mine.
"On the planet Mars I did indeed find awaiting me several beings of our tribe, recently arrived from the planet Karatas. Among them, by the way, was your grandmother, who, according to the indications of the chief 'zirlikner' of the planet Karatas, had been designated for me as the passive half for the continuation of my line."