[Illustration]
If the reader will pardon an unconventional obtrusion upon his attention
for a brief moment, he may be interested to follow somewhat the train of
thought in the artist's mind prior to his beginning to illustrate this
book.
When "The Story of an Ostrich" was put into his hands, his first
impression was, "Here is a merely juvenile theme, to be treated with
light, conventional and ornamental drawings, as an adornment to a fairy
tale."
As he read it, he gradually perceived a deeper significance concealed
beneath the laugh that must inevitably be aroused at the thought of the
ridiculous figure of the foolish ostrich pecking away at his homely
feet, under the delusion that they are not his own.
The longer he studied and pondered over it, the more was he impressed
with the conviction that underneath the simple phraseology of the poem,
the author had conveyed a lesson that humanity might well pause and
heed.... In these days of "making many books," how welcome should be that
one whose story aims to raise the burden that weighs down the surcharged
heart, or seeks to still the fever coursing through the blood of men and
women struggling with the complicated problems of life!
"The Story of an Ostrich" is so simple in its form that children may
read it with pleasure and profit, thereby drawing the simpler moral
from the tale; while there is also suggested a possible condition of
society that shall be attuned to the perfect chord of divine law,
through the subordination of individualism in such manner as to produce
complete harmony in all human affairs.
In the pride and dominance of the head over the rest of the body, in its
scorn of the feet, equally indispensable with the head to the welfare of
the whole, the poem has struck at the discordant note of all our human
disaffection and rebellion.
When the artist had thus searched and found between the lines the real
motive of the poem, it at once became pregnant with allusions and
references that suggested artistic elaboration, or pen analysis, of the
large area of social life, which the allegory, in its semi-humorous,
satirical vein, assumes to cover.
If his pencil seems at times to wander far afield, either in elaboration
or disregard of the canon principles of art, his plea must be that the
interpretation he has given is according to his carefully studied
conception of what the author must have had in mind when writing "The
Story of an Ostrich."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
_Thou sluggard in bonds to a vision of night,
Be not a king's fool, but a proud man of might:
Arise like a lord, that ye may not be slain,
No door shall imprison, no hope be in vain;
The world is for conquest, who seeks for such goal,
Will find the chain riven, the key in his soul!_
_The unknown spake out of the firmament, saying,--"Choose ye one
instrument first, and then attune another one to it. This accomplished,
attune then a third instrument to them; after that a fourth, and so on;
and ye shall be all attuned alike."_
_Thereupon, the musicians set to work, but could not agree as to whose
should be the first instrument._
_A pillar of fire descended from Heaven and stood in the midst of the
musicians; and in the centre of the pillar of fire there appeared an
instrument called the All Perfect. The instrument gave forth one note
and all the musicians attuned to it. The Voice said, "I have given the
keynote, find ye the rest!"_
_The pillar of fire departed. The instruments thus attuned in harmony
played rapturously._
_This I perceive,--to make the man and wife one, to make the village
one, to make the state one, to make the empire one,--all in harmony as
one instrument, cannot be done without a Central Son, a Creator to
attune to. When a man is attuned to Him, and a woman is attuned to Him,
they will themselves be as one. When the family and the village are
attuned to Him, it is easy. Without Him harmony cannot be._
_He, the Creator, then, must be first in all things, first in all
places. He must be the nearest of all things, the nearest of all places.
In our rites and ceremonies, He must be the All Ideal Perfection, the
embodiment of a Perfect Person._--Book of Saphah.