The Holy Planet Purgatory;Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson / An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man

“When they destroy the existence of the quadruped beings called ‘sheep' and ‘goats,' whose planetary bodies they use for their first food, they do not do so all at once, but in order to give them this ‘pleasure' they do it ‘slowly' and ‘gently' over a period of many days, that is, one day they take off one leg, then a few days later, a second leg, then the third, and so on, for as long as the ‘sheep' or ‘goat' still breathes And ‘sheep' and ‘goats' can breathe for a long time without these parts of their common presence, because although these parts do not participate in the main functions of the taking in of cosmic substances required for existence, they do participate in those functions that engender in all beings the impulses giving selfsensations.