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

have, in addition to their one legal wife, not seven but sometimes even seventimes seven "illegal wives."" 'And those European husbands who are unable to support several "illegalwives" in addition to their one "legal wife" spend almost the whole of theirtime "drooling," that is, they do nothing all day long but ogle and, as it were,"devour with their eyes" every woman they meet." 'In other words, in their thoughts and their feelings they betray their one"legal wife" innumerable times." 'Although among us in Persia a man can have as many as seven legalwives, all his thoughts and feelings are occupied day and night in planning asbest he can both the inner and outer life of these wives of his, and the latter, intheir turn, are absorbed in him and try their utmost, also day and night, to helphim in his life duties." 'Here, the inner relationship between husband and wife is the same onboth sides, Just as the inner life of the husband is almost entirely taken upwith being unfaithful to his one legal wife, so in her inner life, from the firstday of their union, she is always straying outside the family." 'As a rule, a European wife, as soon as she is married, considers herhusband, in her heart of hearts, as her "own property. "" 'After the first night, believing herself thenceforth secure in herownership, she begins to devote the whole of her inner life to the pursuit of acertain "something," that is, to the pursuit of an indefinable "ideal" which,thanks to their famous "education," is gradually formed in every Europeangirl from early childhood, and is constantly being embellished, with more andmore subtlety, by various contemporary conscienceless writers.'During my stay in these European countries, I have observed that thereis no longer formed in the being of women here that "something" whichshould constantly maintain in her—as in our women—what is called "organic