Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

He tries to look imposing, wears a beard, and if he is thin, pads himself outto appear more important.As regards the feeling-localization in a man, the totality of itsmanifestations and the whole system of its functioning correspond perfectly tothe horse of the "hackney carriage" in our analogy.Incidentally, this comparison of the horse with the composition of humanfeeling will help to show particularly clearly the error and one-sidedness ofthe contemporary education inflicted on the rising generation.The horse, owing to the negligence of those around it during its early years,and to its constant solitude, is as if locked up within itself, in other words, its"inner life" is driven inside and for external manifestations it has nothing butinertia.Thanks to the abnormal conditions around it, the horse has never receivedany special education but has been molded solely under the influence ofconstant thrashings and vile abuse.It has always been kept tied up, and for food, instead of oats and hay it hasonly been given straw, which is utterly worthless for its real needs.Never having seen in any of the manifestations toward it the least love orfriendliness, the horse is now ready to surrender itself completely to anybodywho gives it the slightest caress.In consequence of all this, the inclinations of the horse, thus deprived of allinterests and aspirations, must inevitably concentrate on food, drink, and theautomatic yearning for the opposite sex, hence it invariably veers in thedirection where it can get any of these and if, for example, it catches sight of aplace where even once or twice it gratified one of these needs, it waits for thechance to run off in that direction.It must be added that although the coachman has a very feebleunderstanding of his duties, he can nevertheless, even