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Article THE FAIRY FAMILY. Page 1 of 13 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Fairy Family.
THE FAIRY FAMILY .
" Upon the mushroom ' s head Our table-cloth we spread ; A grain o' the finest wheat Is the manehet that we eat ; The pearly drops of dew we drink , In acorn cups filled to the brink . "
OLD POEM . " Gay creatures of the element , That in the colours of the rainbow live , And play i' the plighted clouds . " MILTON ' S C ' omus .
SOME of us there are who will never weary of recurring to the grotesque yet singularly enchanting creations Aidhch formed the popular mythology of our ancestors . And let not him who cannot enter into the spirit of such day-dreams , consider it inexplicable or unreasonable that so it should be . The spirit of poetry is ready to gather its incorporeal stores from any and
every source—and the exquisite fairy creations of past ages form a fund of inexhaustible delight to an imaginative ancl poetic temperament . They are also not without great interest to the antiquarian ancl the historian , and will probably ever continue to prove the most suitable food for the unfettered imagination of early infancj' . Their delicate immateriality
seems to assimilate to the innocence of budding childhood , and of ethereal conceptions as yet unladen ivith the grosser residue of worldly contact . Let no one despise the fairy family : not only does it claim consideration on account of its intrinsic merit , but it can point to a descent of the greatest antiquity , from the most powerful nations earth has seen ; alliedtoo
, , with other families , sprung from the politest and noblest races of the world . Extending over successive political changes , in varied shape and various lands , its influence may be considered as almost universal . Let no one , then , regard the fairy tale solely as a puerility for the nursery , or as the recorded memento of the credulity of a recent century .
The popular belief in a race of beings of an order of intelligence ancl power , intermediate between that of heaven ancl earth , and dAvelling among the AVOOCIS and mountains , may be traced in most , if not in all countries . These appear to have been the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Fairy Family.
THE FAIRY FAMILY .
" Upon the mushroom ' s head Our table-cloth we spread ; A grain o' the finest wheat Is the manehet that we eat ; The pearly drops of dew we drink , In acorn cups filled to the brink . "
OLD POEM . " Gay creatures of the element , That in the colours of the rainbow live , And play i' the plighted clouds . " MILTON ' S C ' omus .
SOME of us there are who will never weary of recurring to the grotesque yet singularly enchanting creations Aidhch formed the popular mythology of our ancestors . And let not him who cannot enter into the spirit of such day-dreams , consider it inexplicable or unreasonable that so it should be . The spirit of poetry is ready to gather its incorporeal stores from any and
every source—and the exquisite fairy creations of past ages form a fund of inexhaustible delight to an imaginative ancl poetic temperament . They are also not without great interest to the antiquarian ancl the historian , and will probably ever continue to prove the most suitable food for the unfettered imagination of early infancj' . Their delicate immateriality
seems to assimilate to the innocence of budding childhood , and of ethereal conceptions as yet unladen ivith the grosser residue of worldly contact . Let no one despise the fairy family : not only does it claim consideration on account of its intrinsic merit , but it can point to a descent of the greatest antiquity , from the most powerful nations earth has seen ; alliedtoo
, , with other families , sprung from the politest and noblest races of the world . Extending over successive political changes , in varied shape and various lands , its influence may be considered as almost universal . Let no one , then , regard the fairy tale solely as a puerility for the nursery , or as the recorded memento of the credulity of a recent century .
The popular belief in a race of beings of an order of intelligence ancl power , intermediate between that of heaven ancl earth , and dAvelling among the AVOOCIS and mountains , may be traced in most , if not in all countries . These appear to have been the