TUBBER TURNER. 345 



not succeeded in disabusing the public mind 

 of any superstitions, absurd or not absurd : 

 on the contrary, he has confirmed them. 

 When he made this bold attempt, the fate 

 of the fairies lay trembling in the balance : 

 had the grand experiment been successful, 

 the whole of this western fairy-land would 

 have been depopulated ; but the balance has 

 turned in their favour, and it will not be in 

 our lives that their property will again be 

 meddled with." 



"For all that," said the Squire, "I sus- 

 pect that their fate is sealed. They must 

 ultimately give way before the increasing 

 wants of an increasing population. Like the 

 red man of the West, they merely hold the 

 country till its inhabitants are ready for it." 



" I fear so," replied the Parson ; "but how 

 necessary figures are to every landscape — 

 whenever they do not exist in reality, imagi- 

 nation supplies the deficiency. These fairies 

 are but the creatures of a poetical imagina- 

 tion, created to people solitudes ; we cannot 

 fancy that a beautiful scene should be unte- 

 nanted." 



" Very true," said the Squire. " Take, for 

 instance, that beautiful landscape before 



