Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

the pages of this first book of mine, to read very attentively, even more thanonce, this first chapter of my writings.But if notwithstanding this warning of mine you still wish to becomeacquainted with the rest of my expositions, there is nothing left for me but towish you with all my "genuine soul" a very, very good "appetite," and thatyou may "digest" everything you read, not only for your own health but forthe health of all those near you.I said "with my genuine soul" because recently, living here in Europe, andfrequently meeting people who on every appropriate and inappropriateoccasion are fond of taking in vain sacred names that belong only to man'sinner life, that is to say, of swearing to no purpose, and being, as I havealready confessed, a follower—not only in theory, like contemporary people,but also in practice—of the sayings of popular wisdom established throughoutthe centuries, among which is one that corresponds to the present case and isexpressed in the words "When you are in Rome do as the Romans do"—inorder not to be out of harmony with the custom established here in Europe ofswearing in ordinary conversation, and at the same time to act according tothe commandment enunciated by the holy lips of Saint Moses not to take thesacred names in vain—I decided to make use of one of the oddities of thatfreshly baked fashionable language called "English," and each time the occasionrequires it, to swear by my "English soul."The point is that in this fashionable language the word for "soul" and theword for the bottom of the foot, also "sole," are pronounced and even writtenalmost alike.I do not know how it is for you, who are already half a candidate for abuyer of my writings, but as for me, no matter how great my mental desire,my peculiar nature cannot avoid being indignant at this manifestation ofpeople of contemporary civilization, whereby the very highest in man,