Oh, and another thing, since I seem to be a topic killer.
When I said Faust, I meant Goethe, of course. Silly me.
But also I think that article writer waxes a little too much about modern "democracy" and the like. Humans being what they are, it may be the worse political system, besides all of the rest, but that's the best that can be said. There is no egalitarian meritocracy that I've ever heard of, and attempts to compel such things end in disaster. Lets face it, a large part of what people can do is determined by when and to whom their born, even here in the good 'ole US of A. In Tolkien's world, many such people live up to the expectations of nobility by a certain grace. In the real world of ancient monachies and aristocracies (to use the favorable Aristolean terms) they didn't always, but the stability and certainty of such systems were, in the past, indispensable. In fact, democracy is a cause and effect of technology, education and relative social justice, not anything about which we shouldn't quite modest respective of our forebears and the romantic idealisms of JRRT.
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The hoes unrecked in the fields were flung, __ and fallen ladders in the long grass lay __ of the lush orchards; every tree there turned __ its tangled head and eyed them secretly, __ and the ears listened of the nodding grasses; __ though noontide glowed on land and leaf, __ their limbs were chilled.
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