“There is no harm in remarking here that just when I was leaving that planet forever, precisely the same was being repeated there as had occurred to this Mesmer. Namely, on this occasion, an honest and humble learned being there from among the beings of the community France, after persistent and conscientious labors came across the possibility of curing that terrible disease, the spreading of which also had in recent times assumed a general planetary character. 3177 BTG XXXII

“Since the beings of this community France began automatically to influence the psyche of the beings of the community Russia, and these latter began even to strive to imitate the beings of this community France in everything, thus all the good customs among them which were already present in the process of their existence and those moral habits which had become inherent in them, either half-consciously or automatically taken by them from the beings of ancient Asiatic communities, were gradually forgotten, and new ones-French-acquired. 3599 BTG XXXIV

“And so, my boy, just this custom, namely, of washing themselves periodically in special hammams, was taken by the Russians from the Asiatic beings; but when they fell under the influence of the European beings and for the most part, as I have already told you, of the beings of the community France, then in view of the fact that these French beings have not the custom of going to the hammam, they also gradually ceased to use hammams and thus this good custom established for centuries among them, began little by little to disappear. 3626 BTG XXXIV

“In general, to follow the example of others or set an example to others is considered and cognized as fully reasonable and inevitably necessary everywhere in the Universe among all three-brained beings, and that the three-brained beings of this large community Russia follow the example of the beings of the community France, this on their part is even very sensible. Why not take example from what is good? 3641 BTG XXXIV

“But to throw away good customs already acquired, for the sole reason that they do not exist among the beings of this France from whom they take example — this is already indeed genuine ‘turkeyness’. 3644 BTG XXXIV

XXXVII France 3677 BTG XXXVII

Further, Beelzebub continued to speak thus: “After Germany, I had for a short time the place of my existence again there on the continent Europe among the beings of the community called ‘Italy’; and after Italy, among the beings of that community, who became for the beings of the community Russia what are called the ‘sources’ for the satisfaction of that ‘vice’ which long before had become fixed in the abnormal process of the ordinary being-existence of terrestrial three-brained beings of recent centuries, and which is called ‘suggestibility’; that is, I settled among the beings of the community France. 3679 BTG XXXVII

“Before this, namely, before my choice of the community France as the place of my permanent existence, data was formed in my common presence for just such a representation about them, because, going about everywhere and existing among the beings there of all kinds of groupings which exist at the present time on almost all terra firma parts of the surface of your planet, I frequently heard during all conversations such an opinion concerning the French beings. 3683 BTG XXXVII

“Although earlier, as I have already told you, I had sometimes been in just that community France, I had, nevertheless, on my preceding visits, paid no special attention to the particulars of the psyche of those beings and to that opinion which beings of nearly all the other communities there had about them. 3684 BTG XXXVII

“I looked and saw that indeed this couple greatly resembled those beings whom I had seen in the provincial towns of that community France. 3707 BTG XXXVII

“Visiting these disreputable places, we eventually reached the streets of the famous, as it is called ‘Montmartre’, not strictly on Montmartre itself, but on the lower slope of the district of that name, which abounds in every kind of nocturnal maleficent ‘disreputable establishment’, destined however not for the beings of that community France, but exclusively for the beings only who come there from other separately independent groupings, or, as they themselves say, for ‘foreigners’. 3727 BTG XXXVII

“While pondering, on my way home from that famous Montmartre, over everything I had seen and heard, it was then that I well understood why and how such an opinion not corresponding to reality about the beings of that community France which they always have, had been formed in the beings belonging to other communities. 3826 BTG XXXVII

“Thanks to everything I had seen and heard in that part of the city Paris, it had become clear to me that those beings of other communities who come here to France, come first of all to this part of Paris and to other such places where everything without exception is organized and adapted especially for them by foreigners like themselves, but who had come there long before and consequently had learned to speak the local language much better than they. 3827 BTG XXXVII

“Moreover, there is also another and deeper cause for this opinion which had been formed about the beings of the community France in the peculiar consciousnesses of the beings of other communities, and in the given case it is also based on one of the peculiarities of their general psyche. This peculiarity is acquired in them, once again thanks to that maleficent usage invented by themselves which they call ‘education’. 3830 BTG XXXVII

“I hope, my dear boy, that after all I have now told you, it will by itself become clear to you, why, just among the three-brained beings of other groupings on your planet, data as regards the beings of the separate grouping which exists there under the name of France, have been crystallized for such an opinion not corresponding to reality. 3838 BTG XXXVII

“However this may be, yet for the ordinary beings of this France, it was a great misfortune that the contemporary three-brained beings there of other separate groupings selected, for their what are called ‘cultural manifestations’, the capital of that community. 3839 BTG XXXVII

“One must simply even be astonished, that the majority of beings of the community France could, although without the participation of their consciousness, nevertheless preserve in their presences those data for the two being-impulses on which objective being-morality is chiefly based, and which are called ‘patriarchality’, that is, love of family, and ‘organic-shame’, in spite of the fact that they exist in the sphere of conditions of ordinary being-existence there which have now become quite abnormal, thanks to the fact that their capital, as I have already told you has to their misfortune begun to be considered, and really is, the contemporary ‘chief-center-of-culture’ for the whole of that ill-fated planet. 3841 BTG XXXVII

“Owing to all this, in this contemporary center of the whole planet, as it had for a long time been the practice, those beings rush and flock from the whole planet, who have completely given themselves up to the ‘evil–God’ reigning there already without limit inside each of them, namely, to that ‘evil–God’ who became their Ideal, and the conception of whom is very well expressed in the words: ‘to-attain-to-a-complete-absence-of-the-need-for-being-effort-and-for-every-essence-anxiety-of-whatever-kind-it-may-be’; and coming here to France, they must of course have, consciously or unconsciously, a corresponding harmful influence on the beings of the whole community. 3842 BTG XXXVII

“How great a misfortune it is for the ordinary beings of that France that the contemporary ‘center-of-culture’ should lie within their community, you will well understand my boy, if I tell you about one of the consequences of this. I learned about it thanks to that information which was communicated to me in one of the latest etherograms concerning the three-centered beings of that planet of yours. 3843 BTG XXXVII

“But as at that period, in the beings of the female sex of that same community France, the feelings of morality and patriarchality were still very strong, they did not adopt that maleficent invention; but the beings of the female sex of the communities called England and America did adopt it, and began to cut their hair. 3849 BTG XXXVII

“And so, my boy, although this same fashion, the cutting of the hair of the beings of the female sex, invented in this Paris itself by beings with Hasnamussian properties, was not then in the beginning implanted in this same community France, yet owing to their capital being the collecting place for the beings with Hasnamussian properties from other countries who continue to persist in this maleficent invention, these latter have ultimately succeeded in implanting it; and the beings of the female sex, there in France also, likewise have begun to cut their hair, and at the present time this cutting of their hair is in full swing for nearly all of them. At the hairdressers even, chiefly of course there in their capital Paris, they have to take their turn as I was informed in this etherogram, exactly as people had to take their turn not long ago in the community Russia for receiving ‘American flour’. And from this contagious rush of women to the hairdressers to get their hair cut, court proceedings are already arising between these hairdressers and the fathers, husbands, and brothers of these ‘shorn lambs’, and many what are called ‘divorces’ are also obtained. 3852 BTG XXXVII

“While telling you about this separate grouping of the three-brained beings, that is about France, I must also tell you for the fullness of its characterization that in France there are also beings of the ruling class, who also invented very ‘good means’ for the calming of the minds of the ordinary beings of their community, just as the power-possessing beings of the big community Russia employ such a means for the encouragement of the use of the famous Russian vodka, and the power-possessing beings of the community England at the present time attain the same by their not less famous ‘sport’. 3858 BTG XXXVII

“However, it must be admitted that although the power-possessing beings of the community France also adopt these ‘good means’ and successfully attain their egoistic aims, yet these means, though, be it said, to no credit of the power-possessing beings of the communities of England and Russia, bring scarcely any harm to the planetary bodies themselves of the ordinary beings. 3859 BTG XXXVII

“This is not all: by these means they unconsciously brought and bring to the ordinary beings of their community a certain benefit, diverting them and giving them temporary relief from the ill effects of their fascination by ‘fashions’, invented by present and future Hasnamusses gathered in this capital from various countries, and under the slavery of which fashions the ordinary beings of this same France have now fallen even more than all other beings of other communities. 3860 BTG XXXVII

“Only after a while, when you have finally managed to take in various details of the appearance of these displays and somehow start reflecting again, can you clearly constate how much greater is the variety of color and shape of the jars in these American displays of fruit preserves than in the mentioned displays of the continent of Europe; and this is evidently due to the fact that, in the common psyche of the beings of this new group, the combination resulting from the intermixture of former independent races, happens to correspond more completely to a better perception and a thorough cognition of the sense and beneficence of the achievements of the Reason both of the beings of the contemporary community of Germany in respect of the chemical substances they have invented, called there ‘aniline’ and ‘alizarin’, as well as of the beings of the community France in respect of ‘perfumery’. 5786 BTG XLII

Having said this, Beelzebub became thoughtful, and after a long pause said: “The present theme of our conversation has reminded me of a certain very interesting conversation, which I had there during my sojourn in France, with a young sympathetic three-brained being. I think that perhaps it would now be best for your understanding of all that has just been said, if I repeat to you that conversation in full, all the more so as, besides explaining the meaning of the custom abdest or ablution, this conversation will enlighten you on many further questions concerning the peculiar psyche of these favorites of yours. 5918 BTG XLII

“‘At first, as I have already told you, I went to Russia, then I went to Germany, Italy, and to other European countries, and now, finally, I have lived here in France already seven years. 5971 BTG XLII

“‘It is quite likely that I even half consciously chose France as my chief dwelling place because it is still possible to find everywhere here especially in the provinces, water closets of the old system as among us in Persia. 6046 BTG XLII