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

somebody else who has 'ferreted out' his inner insignificance—and hasbecome the slave of one of these 'patrons' to the point of humiliation, waxesmore indignant than anyone if some king, for some reason or other, is unableto keep tens or hundreds of thousands of his subjects under control."And oddly enough, it is precisely such 'terrestrial humbugs' undersomebody's thumb who usually write all sorts of manuals expounding indetail what must be done to 'govern' others well."Or again, if one of these contemporary beings, whose heart always 'sinksinto his boots' when a mouse runs past him, learns that so and so was a bitscared on meeting a tiger, this 'hero' will be filled with indignation againsthim and, 'foaming at the mouth,' will not fail to denounce him to his friends,proving that he is a criminal coward for having been frightened by a 'meretiger."And here again the various books and manuals concerning what must bedone and how, and what must not be done on meeting a tiger or other suchbeing, are written by these 'mouse-flinching heroes. '"Or further, one of these beings who has collected a score of 'chronicdiseases,' so that his stomach does not work for weeks at a stretch and hiswhole body is covered with every kind of loathsome pimple, from all ofwhich he naturally suffers day and night—in short, a being who for manyyears has been a genuine 'walking anatomical museum' of all the diseasesexisting on that planet—is always more indignant than anyone else whensomeone is careless enough to catch, let us say, a cold in the head."And these 'walking anatomical museums' invariably instruct others withgreat authority on how to get rid of such a cold, and it is they who write allsorts of books and manuals on the multitude of diseases there and expound inminute detail their prevention and cure.