B617 <=> B619 (BTG XXXIV Russia, p. 618)

“In the course of the whole of that day, I was so occupied with the fulfillment of all the innumerable foolish manipulations required from me and which fatigued me in view of my declining years, that I did not even notice what the unfortunate Emperor there looked like or how he manifested himself in this comedy.

“Now, my boy, if you will strive to assimilate well the information about the subsequent events which happened to me and which were the results of this famous presentation of mine to His Majesty the Emperor, then you will probably acquire the possibility of clearly picturing to yourself and well understand how, there among your favorites, particularly in this large community Russia at that period, their what is called ‘individual significance,’ particularly in recent centuries, began to be appraised and be built up for the majority of these unfortunates always exclusively on the basis of the outer ephemeral as they are called ‘Vietro-yretznel,’ as, in the given case, it similarly took place in relation to me.

“This gradual acquiring of the habit of judging the merits of beings according to the outer ephemeral appearance in all other beings, developed and continued to develop their imagination, which became strengthened about this, that just in this consists the acquisition of ‘being-individuality,’ and all began subjectively to strive only for this.

“That is why at the present time, all of them from the very beginning of their arising gradually lose from their common presences even the ‘taste’ and ‘desire’ for what is called ‘objective-being-Being.’