B1060 <=> B1062 [BTG XLIII Beelzebub’s opinion of war, p. 1061]

“Still, it does occasionally happen there, that some power-possessing or important being of the Earth suddenly chances to think not under the influences of the reflexes of his stomach and sex organs, but thinks sincerely and quite seriously about these or other questions, with particular regards to this terrifying terrestrial question.

“But even these sincere reflections of the power-possessors occur for the most part also quite automatically from casual external causes of the following kind. Either someone very near to them has had his existence violently terminated during the last such process of theirs, or someone offends them strongly and painfully, or someone stirs their emotions by doing some great favor for them or giving them something which they did not at all expect, or finally, when they really feel the approach of the end of their own existence.

“And in these cases, when the power-possessing beings there sincerely ponder about this phenomenal horror which proceeds on their planet, they are always greatly agitated by it, and of course in this state of theirs they make a vow to undertake at all costs and to actualize everything necessary to put an end to this increasing evil.

“But here lies the trouble, no sooner do the stomachs of these sincerely agitated beings become empty or no sooner do they recover a little from these externally arisen impressions which had dejected them, than they not only instantly forget their vow, but even they themselves again begin consciously or unconsciously to do precisely everything which is generally the cause of the outbreak of these processes between communities.