B607 <=> B609 [BTG XXXIV Russia, p. 608]

“And you of course well understand that if any one of them were to have seen it, then everyone would very soon have known that I was not a being of their planet, after which it would have become already entirely impossible to remain among them and to continue the experiments interesting to me for the elucidation of the strangeness of their psyche.

“That is why I went from this doctor without the ‘paper’ necessary for me, and from that time I threw up everything and no longer tried to obtain a permit to set up my own laboratory.

“In spite of the fact that I went about there everywhere pursuing my special aim, hustling at the same time for the said permit, I nevertheless often met that important Russian, my first acquaintance, who, although he was, as I said, very busy with his own affairs, nevertheless found time to visit me or to receive me at his house.

“At these meetings we almost always talked only about the alcoholism in his fatherland, and about the measures for struggling with this evil.

“From such an exchange of opinion, there each time accumulated in me more and more material, as my impartial observations and studies of all the aspects of the psyche of the local beings were crystallizing in me always newer and newer data concerning them.

“This important Russian laid very great weight on my considerations and remarks on what had already been done by the Trusteeship of People’s Temperance and also concerning the projects of future undertakings, and was always sincerely delighted by the justice of my observations.