Elephantine

“ The elephant Is elephantine everywhere but here (tapping her forehead) , And Man, whose brain is to the elephant's As Woman's brain to Man's - (that's rule of three) ,— Conquers the foolish giant of the woods, As Woman, in her turn, shall conquer Man. In Mathematics, Woman leads the way ”

“ The goddess becomes so maddened with the zest of killing that the god becomes alarmed and asks her to desist and spare some representatives of the race. But she is deaf to entreaties. Hence the god is [Pg 120] said to have sent to Elephantine for the red ochre to make a sedative draught to overcome her destructive zeal. We have already seen that this incident had an entirely different meaning—it was merely intended to explain the obtaining of the colouring matter wherewith to redden the sacred beer so as to make it resemble blood as an elixir for the god. ”

“ All immediately sang, with a strong chorus, a thanksgiving hymn, that his soul was saved; though what connection there was between corn whisky and salvation puzzled the Elephantines some, if not more.
When this interesting episode in the day's perform [Pg 143] ance was concluded, the participants picked themselves up, and prepared to again besiege Satan in his stronghold, the north side of Sebastopol of the hearts of sinful niggers. ”

“ Dunn had hidden in the attic until it was time for Santa Claus to come around.
"Do you, indeed?" asked the Elephant. "You must have lots of fun."
"I do," answered the Brown Rat. "But who are you?" and he stood up among the spokes of the Spinning Wheel and looked over toward the moonlight patch on the floor where stood the new toy.
"I am a Stuffed Elephant," was the answer. "And I have just had the most dreadful adventure! I was pitched out of the auto into a snow bank."
"I don't like snow!" squeaked the Rat. "It's too cold. But I am glad to see you, Mr. Elephant. ”

“ The wild elephant, when death approaches, moves slowly to seek the shadow of lofty trees, and there resigns his breath. Intelligent man, like the most sagacious of animals, might surely spare a few, as a shelter for his weary head, and a patrimony for an unborn race. He might save, here and there, one solitary witness to His goodness, who causeth those glorious columns of verdure to rise nearer and nearer to His heaven, while the heads of so many generations of men descend to the dust from whence they were at first taken. ”

“ Who are you?" asked a creaking voice, and near the Elephant a big wheel of wood began slowly turning. "Anybody want a ride?" asked the Wheel. "I'm a spinner, I am, and I'm making believe I'm a Merry-Go-Round! Any one want a ride?"
"Dear me! What a strange place an attic is," thought the Stuffed Elephant. "It isn't as nice as the toy shop, but still maybe I can have some fun. I wonder if I could ride on that wheel? I'm afraid I'm too big. ”

“ Those who are waiting for you are not as anxious as they would otherwise have been; believing in the wisdom of the Elephant, in whom they have entire confidence, they will suppose that he sought shelter from the storm, and that it alone has caused your delay. Go, then, the moon shines as bright as day. May the King and Queen of Golconda never learn the truth!"... ”

“ THE ELEPHANT. The huge elephant has by nature what is rarely found in man; that is Honesty, Prudence, Justice, and the Observance of Religion; inasmuch as when the moon is new, these beasts go down to the rivers, and there, solemnly cleansing themselves, they bathe, and so, having saluted the planet, return to the woods. And when they are ill, being laid down, they fling up plants towards Heaven as though they would offer sacrifice. ”

“ You, Bumble-Bumble, must go at mid-day and buzz so softly in the Elephant's ear that it will sound to him like the sweetest music, and he will close his eyes with pleasure. Then the Woodpecker must peck out the Elephant's eyes. When he is blind, and tormented with thirst, he will hear me and my brothers croaking loudly on the edge of a precipice. Thinking that we are in a pond he will dash forward over the precipice, and be killed. ”

“ In a forest there lived a holy man who had many disciples. One day he taught them to see God in all beings and, knowing this, to bow low before them all. A disciple went to the forest to gather wood for the saceificial fire. Suddenly he heard an outcry: 'Get out of the way! A mad elephant is coming!' All but the disciple of the holy man took to their heels. He reasoned that the elephant was also God in another form. Then why should he run from it? He stood still, bowed before the animal, and began to sing its praises. The mahut of the elephant was shouting: 'Run away! ”

“ Good has given as one of his characteristic symptoms of the genus elephantiasis, are all tersely, yet accurately described. Indeed, if Sauvages, Swediaur, Cullen, or any of our great nosologists of the last or present century, had been 80poets, I greatly doubt whether, with all their medical knowledge to boot, they could, in four fettered lines of rhyme, have described the Greek elephantiasis more faithfully and briefly than we have it described in the four first lines that I have just quoted from the Dunfermline schoolmaster of the fifteenth century. ”

“ As an allegory of Experience The Elephant's Child does not view life as a whole; it gives but a glimpse of life. It would say: Experience teaches us to make the best with what we have. The way to get experience is to try a new power, just as the Child with his trunk tried to kill the fly and eat grass. As soon as he had received his new power he tested it on the Hippopotamous. He won the respect of his kind by beating them at their own game.
The emotional appeal in The Elephant's Child would repay study. ”

“ With holy reverence we now come to worship the angels who preside over the destiny of all elephants. Most powerful angels, we entreat you to assemble now, in order that you may prevent all evil to His Majesty the King of Siam, and also to this magnificent elephant, which has recently arrived. We appeal to you all, whom we now worship, and beg that you will use your power in restraining the heart of this animal from all anger and unhappiness. ”

“ That has been his chief misfortune, sir. Matter, in the great warfare between itself and mind, has gone on the principle of ‘divide and conquer.’ You are nearer the truth than you imagined, for the trunk of the elephant is merely the abortion of a tail; and yet, you see, it contains nearly all the intelligence that the animal possesses. On the subject of the fate of the elephant, however, theory is confirmed by actual experiment. ”

“ The sixth man happened to catch hold of his tail, and cried, “O foolish fellows, he is not like a wall, nor a spear, nor a snake, nor a tree, nor a fan; he is exactly like a rope.” So the Elephant passed on while the six blind men stood there quarreling, each being sure he knew exactly how the Elephant looked, and each calling the others hard names because the rest did not agree with him. ”

“ I have spoken.”
“Now, friend Lion,” said the Elephant, turning solemnly to him, “it is thy turn, and say freely what thy wit conceives in this matter. Thy courage we all know, and none of us doubt that thy mind is equal to it.”
“Truly, friend Elephant, and ye others, the business we are met to consider is pressing. The sons of men are crafty, and their guile is beyond measure. The four-footed tribes have much cause of grievance against me and mine. However, none can accuse me or my family of having taken undue advantage of those whom we meditate striking. ”

“ We know that your elephant can not read the heart and mind of man. What kind of food do you give him and what do you teach him? Man himself lives only from sixty to one hundred years and he knows little. How could an elephant read the heart of man, a thing which man, himself, can not do? Did the spirit of a dead man grow wise and enter that elephant? ”

“ Oh, goddess wise That lovest light, Let fervent words and fervent thoughts be mine, That I may lead them to thy sacred shrine! Women of Adamant, fair Neophytes – Who thirst for such instruction as we give, Attend, while I unfold a parable. The elephant is mightier than Man, Yet Man subdues him. ”

“ THE MAN AND THE ELEPHANT In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful, who created the soul and gave to the tongue words of wisdom, Listen! and I will tell you the story of a king and an elephant; of a man who rose above environment and of an elephant who was a victim of it ”

“ An elephant escapes from a circus and puts his head in at your window while you are writing and thinking of a word. You look up. You may be alarmed, you may be astonished, you may be moved to sudden processes of thought; but one thing you will find about it, and you will find out quite quickly, and it will dominate all your other emotions of the time: the elephant's head will be surprising. ”

“ From the showman I learnt nothing about the Elephant Man, except that he was English, that his name was John Merrick and that he was twenty-one years of age.
As at the time of my discovery of the Elephant Man I was the Lecturer on Anatomy at the Medical College opposite, I was anxious to examine him in detail and to prepare an account of his abnormalities. I therefore arranged with the showman that I should interview his strange exhibit in my room at the college. I became at once conscious of a difficulty. The Elephant Man could not show himself in the streets. ”

“ The marble Fido in their sight, Enhanc'd their nuptial bliss; And Lucy every morn, and night, Gave him a grateful kiss.
THE ELEPHANT. BALLAD THE SECOND. Say, nature, on whose wond'rous reign Delighted fancy dwells, Of all thy numerous brutal train What animal excells? What quadruped most nobly vies In virtue with mankind, Like man deliberately wise, And resolutely kind? Beneath a form vast and uncouth Such excellence is found: Sagacious Elephant! thy truth, Thy kindness is renown'd. ”

“ Once upon a time the Elephant stood high in the good graces of the Lion. The forest immediately began to talk of the matter, and, as usual, many guesses were made as to the means by which the Elephant had gained such favour.
"It is no beauty," say the beasts to each other, "and it is not amusing; and what habits it has! what manners!"
Says the Fox, whisking about his brush, "If it had possessed such a bushy tail as mine, I should not have wondered."
"Or, sister," says the Bear, "if it had gotten into favour on account of its claws, no one would have found the matter at all extraordinary ”

“ Of the same nature is that noble mistake of a frighted stag in a full chace, who, saith the poet —
Hears his own feet, and thinks they sound like more;
And fears the hind-feet will o'ertake the fore.
So astonishing as these are, they yield to the following, which is profundity itself.
None but himself can be his parallel [22] .
Unless it may seem borrowed from the thought of that master of a show in Smithfield, who writ in large letters over the picture of his elephant,
This is the greatest elephant in the world, except himself. ”

“ Wait a minute!" trumpeted the Elephant. "I have not fin [Pg 98] ished. It is also true," he went on, "that the Rake is very useful. Before the Shovel can be used the ground must be raked clean, and after the Shovel has spaded the earth, it must be raked smooth."
"There! I knew it! Oh, what a fine Judge! He is going to say I am entitled to the prize!" exclaimed the Rake, laughing.
"Not yet! Wait a minute!" cried the Elephant. "I have not finished! I want to say that the Pick used very good arguments. He is right when he says without him, in case the ground is hard, nothing can be done. ”

“ As to imagination, The Elephant's Child is a delightful illustration of the appeal to the associative, the penetrative, and the contemplative imagination. While its philosophy may be understood in part by the child it has a deeper meaning for the adult. It seems to imply that it is the way of life to spank somebody else. It is the stronger who spank the weaker until they become strong enough to stand up for themselves. ”

“ Thus the following, I believe, is a complete definition of an elephant: An animal which naturally drinks by drawing the water into its nose, and then spurting it into its mouth."--Formal Logic, p. 36. Mr. De Morgan's general proposition and his example are at variance; for the peculiar mode of drinking of the elephant certainly forms no part of the meaning of the word elephant. It could not be said, because a person happened to be ignorant of this property, that he did not know what an elephant means. ”

“ You are neither a boy nor a youth below fifteen, Krishna. Nor is Balarâma so. You killed that elephant with the might of a thousand elephants as it were in sport. It is meet therefore you shall fight with the powerful. ”

“ That white elephant thou must mount, as the wielder of the thunderbolt mounts the elephant of the gods,2 and whatever king thou shalt travel through the air to visit, in fear shall bestow on thee, who art of god-like presence, tribute in the form of a daughter, for I will [329] myself command him to do so in a dream. Thus thou shalt conquer the whole earth, and all zenanas, and thou shalt obtain eighty thousand princesses.” When Vishṇu had said this, he disappeared, and the king broke his fast, and the next day he beheld that elephant, which had come to him through the air. ”

“ Round about the great glade the dark leafy arches ran, and Dudu and his wife saw that the elephant families were numerous—for by one sweeping look they could tell that there were more elephants than there are human beings in a goodly village. ”

“ But applying the argument once more, we at least assume to hold, that as the sagacious elephant is the highest example of animal life yet produced by the originating Cause, it would be unphilosophic to deem him capable of producing a higher example. And, while we are thus reasoning, man appears upon creation,—a creature immeasurably superior to all the others, and whose very nature it is to make use of his experience of the past for his guidance in the future. ”