B1077 <=> B1079 [BTG XLIII Beelzebub’s opinion of war, p. 1078]

“And indeed, it is just such a terrestrial being under somebody’s thumb who, as a rule, is more indignant than anyone else at other beings of their planet, as for instance at some King, who for some reason or other is unable to keep in submission tens or hundreds of thousands of his community. And it is just such beings who are under somebody’s thumb who usually write various manuals in which they show in detail how and what must be done for the good ‘government’ of others.

“Or again, when one of the contemporary beings of this peculiar planet, whose heart as they say always ‘sinks into his boots’ from fright when, for instance, a mouse runs past him, learns that so and so on meeting a tiger felt a little timid, then this ‘hero’ will be inwardly extremely indignant with him and will, without fail, in conversation with his friends, ‘foaming at the mouth,’ denounce him and prove that he is a vile, criminal ‘coward’ for having been frightened by such a ‘mere’ tiger.

“And yet again the various books and manuals concerning also what must be done and how, and what must not be done on meeting a tiger or other similar being, are written by these ‘mouse-unflinching-heroes’ there.

“Or, further, one of them who has a score of various as it is said there ‘chronic diseases,’ thanks to which for whole weeks at a time his stomach does not work and his whole body is covered with all kinds of malignant pimples, from which diseases he of course suffers day and night – in short, such a being there who for many years has been a genuine ‘walking anatomical museum’ of all the diseases existing on that planet – is always more indignant than anyone else when someone has carelessly caught, let us say, a cold.