94 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



bilities in thought and feeling, it is a realization 

 of their dreams and longings, their heart is hot 

 and their brain is fiery and the overflow is a 

 creation, and naturally it is a fairy! What 

 mean the old legends and traditionary tales 

 coming from a remote past; what of the old- 

 time folklore, dating back beyond the childhood 

 of our grandfathers and grandmothers, those 

 strange and weird tales of giants and fairies 

 possessing such charm and power? Every na- 

 tion and every age have them. Homer and 

 iVirgil and all the earlier poets had their naiads 

 and oreads and dryads and wood-nymphs and 

 mermaids. The old astrologers peopled the 

 heavens with gods and goddesses, heroes and 

 heroines, and how vividly they are grouped 

 there yet; see them about the Pole, Cepheus 

 and Cassiopeia and Andromeda and Perseus 

 and Pegasus and oh! so many others, and we 

 accept it all. 



The "Wandering" minstrel is gone, the 

 "Troubadour" has turned to other professions, 

 the "Round Table" is crowded with eager chil- 

 dren reading the "Arabian Nights," "Mother 

 Goose," "Robinson Crusoe" and Andersen and 

 Grimm and Lang, and still the clamor is for 

 the fairy story. The fairy idea is inworked in 

 all literature, ingrained in all art, cropping out 



