B502 <=> B504 [BTG XXX Art, p. 503]

“The contents for these works of theirs are usually various events which are supposed to have occurred or which might occur in the future, or finally, events of their own contemporary ‘unreality.’

“In addition to this, among the symptoms of this peculiar illness there appear in the common presence of the sick being seven other very specific particularities.

“The first is that when this strange illness arises and is already functioning in the presence of a being, particular vibrations are spread around him which act on his environment – as they say – just like the ‘smell of an old goat.’

“The second is that from the change of the inner functioning in such a being, the exterior form of his planetary body undergoes the following changes: his nose is held aloft; his arms, as it is said, akimbo; his speech is punctuated by a special cough, and so on.

“The third, that such a being always becomes afraid of certain perfectly harmless, natural, or artificial formations, as for instance, what are called ‘mice,’ ‘hands-clenched-in-a-fist,’ ‘the-wife-of-the-chief-stage-manager-of-the-theater,’ ‘the-pimple-on-his-nose,’ ‘the-left-slipper-of-his-own-wife,’ and many other formations outside of himself.

“The fourth particularity makes him lose entirely all capacity for understanding the psyche of the surrounding beings similar to himself.

“The fifth, that inwardly and also in his manifestations he criticizes everybody and everything not connected with him himself.

“The sixth, that the data for the perception of anything objective are more atrophied in him than in all other terrestrial three-brained beings.

“And the seventh and last particularity is that there arise in him what are called ‘hemorrhoids,’ which, by the way, is the sole thing that he carries with modesty.