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

me and pompously told me that the first requirement was to bring him fromanother department a document certifying my 'personal loyalty,' as theyexpress it."This was the beginning of endless perambulations, from one departmentto another, from one administration to another, from one official specialist toanother . . . and so on without end."Things went so far that I was shuttled back and forth between the district'police commissioner' and the 'parish priest'—all but to the official citymidwife."On top of all this, one of these 'departments,' why I don't know, requiredthat a certificate issued by another department should be stamped by a third."In one department I had to sign a certain paper, in another to answerquestions having nothing to do with chemistry, while in a third I was toldexactly how to handle the equipment of the laboratory so as not to bepoisoned, and so on and so forth."It turned out that, without suspecting it at the time, I had been in thehands of an official among whose obligations was that of dissuading thosewho wished to set up 'chemical laboratories' from this 'abominable intention '"But the most ridiculous of all was that to get this permit it was necessaryto apply to one public servant after another, who had not even the remotestnotion of what a laboratory was."I do not know how all this would have ended if, having wasted almosttwo months, I had not finally given up all this foolish bother."And I gave it all up for a reason that was not without its humor."According to the rules of this senseless procedure, I had to get an officialpaper from a doctor certifying that my work in this laboratory would notendanger my personal health.