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

"The document composed by these brethren gave a lengthy description ofthe changes of character in the beings after they had used Asiman'sremarkable preparation for five months, and by way of illustration, someexcellent and apt comparisons were included."Although none of the specific examples that were cited in this documenthave remained in my memory, I have retained the 'flavor' of them and cangive you their purport if I use once again the language of our respectedMullah Nasr Eddin."For example, a brother with the character of, as they say, one of 'God'sangels' would suddenly become as irritable as someone of whom our dearMullah Nasr Eddin once said:"He is as testy as a man who has just undergone the full treatment by afamous European nerve specialist.'"Or again, beings who one day were as placid as the little 'butter lambs'that the pious place on the festal table at their most important religious feastswould on the next day get as exasperated as a German professor when someFrenchman, also a professor, discovers something new in contemporaryscience."Or again, a being whose love was like that of a contemporary terrestrialsuitor for a rich widow—of course before he has received a single pennyfrom her—would turn just as spiteful as one of those venomous persons who,foaming at the mouth, will hate that poor author who is now writing aboutyou and me in his book entitled An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Lifeof Man."This poor upstart author, by the way, will be hated by the 'full-bloodedmaterialists' and by the 'ninety-six-carat deists' and even by those of the threebrainedbeings who have taken your fancy who, as long as their stomachs arefull and their 'mistresses' are making no 'scenes,' are 'in-