B1158 <=> B1160 [BTG XLV Extraction of Electricity, p. 1159]

“And when during the further explanations of Gornahoor Rakhoorkh, I, by association, remembered the request of the great Toof-Nef-Tef of the planet Mars, I then with all my being became aware without any doubt of all the maleficent consequences of just this manifestation of the three-brained beings of your planet.

“They named the totality or the separate parts of this substance, sacred just for them, differently at different periods, and at the present time they name the result of the blending and the mutual destruction of two parts of this omnipresent substance ‘Electricity.’

“And, indeed, although there they had already several times in earlier epochs found out, of course thanks always to accidentally successive circumstances, how to extract by various means from the nature of their planet, and to use for every kind of their, as I already said, ‘naively egoistic’ aims, various parts of this omnipresent substance absolutely necessary for normal cosmic processes, yet never have they destroyed so much of it as in recent times.

“So in this way, thanks to the explanations of my ‘Kesdjanian-result-outside-of-me,’ in the first place it became indubitably clear to me concerning the maleficent action, already begun, of the results of the ordinary abnormal being-existence of the three-brained beings who have taken your fancy; and secondly, the disturbing question of my old friend was solved of itself, namely, why during recent times it had become more and more difficult for the three-brained beings of the planet Mars to perfect themselves.

“As regards the solution in this manner of this question, I might say that it was obtained, just as is said about similar cases, in one rarely used saying of our esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin, who formulated it in the following words: