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

" 'Even when no one is looking he struts and puffs himself out, and he doesthis solely because of his own imagination and silly dreams. '"Having said this, Mullah Nasr Eddin got up slowly and heavily, and againpronouncing his favorite saying 'So and so this must be it,' but this time withthe ending 'don't sit long where you shouldn't sit,' he took me by the arm andtogether we descended from the roof."Here, my dear boy, with all due respect to the subtle psychological analysisof our most wise Mullah Nasr Eddin, it should in justice be said that if theseRussians have become such exemplary turkeys, once more the blame must beplaced solely on the beings of the community of Germany."And the beings of Germany were guilty in this case because, in inventingthe famous aniline dyes, they overlooked one of the specific peculiarities ofthese colors."The point is that by means of these dyes it is possible to change into anyother color all natural colors except one, namely, genuine natural black."And it is through this lack of foresight on the part of the German beingsthat the scandalous misfortune of the poor Russians came about, that is to say,owing to the fact that the feathers of the 'crows' are dyed by nature, as it unexpectedlyturned out, Just a genuine black, then even with these aniline dyes—on account of their disgraceful imperfection—they can never be dyed anyother color, and so these poor 'Russian crows' cannot possibly become 'peacocks.' And worst of all, having ceased to be 'crows' and not yet being'peacocks,' they willy-nilly turn into 'turkeys,' which represent perfectly whathas been formulated by our dear teacher as 'a half and a quarter plus threequarters."Well, thanks to the wise explanation that the esteemed Mullah Nasr Eddingave me himself, I understood clearly