The First Descent of Beelzebub upon the Planet Earth

“At this first general conference of ours, King Appolis, addressing himself to all, said as follows:

“ ‘Impartial friends!’

“ ‘I personally am deeply sorry for what has occurred and what has brought about so many troubles for those assembled here; and I am distressed in all my being that it is beyond my power to extricate you from your prospective difficulties.

“ ‘You must know, indeed,’ King Appolis continued, ‘that the machinery of the government of my community which has been wound up and organized during many centuries, is at the present time already radically changed; and to revert to the old order is already impossible without serious consequences, namely, without those consequences which must doubtless evoke the indignation of the majority of my subjects. The present situation is such that I alone am not able to abolish what has been created without provoking the mentioned serious consequences, and I therefore beg you all in the name of Justice to help me to deal with it.

“ ‘Still further,’ he then added, ‘I bitterly reproach myself in the presence of you all, because I also am greatly to blame for all these misfortunes.

“ ‘And I am to blame because I ought to have foreseen what has occurred, since I have existed in these conditions longer than my opponent and your kinsman, namely, he with whom I made the agreement known to you.

“ ‘To tell the truth it was unpardonable of me to risk entering into such conditions with a being who, although he may be of much higher Reason than I, is, nevertheless, not so practiced in such affairs as I am.

“ ‘Once more I beg all of you, and your Right Reverence in particular, to forgive me and to help me out of this sad plight, and enable me to find some issue from the situation that has been created.

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