Art

“Before my enrollment as a member of the club, a great variety of reports and discussions concerning these two mentioned questions had already proceeded at that general meeting of theirs; and on the day of my entry a great deal was said on the question how to obtain the participation in the main task of the club of initiated beings, of the followers of those so-called ‘Ways’ then called ‘Onandjiki,’ ‘Shamanists,’ ‘Buddhists,’ and so on.

“Well then, on the third day after my enrollment as a member of this club, there was uttered for the first time that word which has chanced to reach contemporary be- ings there and which has become one of the potent factors for the total atrophy of all the still surviving data for more or less normal logical being-mentation, namely, the word ‘art’ which was then used in a different sense and whose definition referred to quite a different idea and had quite another meaning.

“This word was uttered in the following circumstances:

“On the day when the word ‘art’ was used for the first time and its real idea and exact meaning were established among the other reporters, there stepped forward a Chal- dean learned being, very well known in those times, named Aksharpanziar, who was then also a member of the club for Legominists.

“As the report of that already very aged Chaldean learned being, the great Aksharpanziar, was then the origin for all the further events connected with this same contemporary art there, I will try to recall his speech and repeat it to you as nearly as possible word for word.