Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 754, June 8, 1878

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 754, June 8, 1878

In the deep green lanes of leafy Devonshire, and over its broad heaths and moors, there are (as we had occasion to shew in a recent sketch) still pixies to be found by those who believe in them; as there are yet the little folkthe good peoplein the remotest parts of Scotland, leprechauns in Ireland, and les dames blanches in France. And still, as in olden time, poor dazed mortals are pixy-led;fascinated, like the victims of the Sirens of old, by the songs which to others are but as the sighing of the wind among the reeds, but which to them are divinest music, full of lovely promises and of fairest visions. To them that handful of withered leaves is a mass of shining gold; and Rbezahl, now a gnome of the mines and now a charcoal-burner of the mountains, is followed without question or suspicion when he poses for Apollo or offers himself as Alexander. The old old times, when fairy Melusines were women by day and snakes by nightwhen demon lovers abounded, and men and maidens lost their souls for eyes too bright to be trueare still repeated in the circumstances of to-day; and to one under the spell of the pixies, old age is youth, ugliness is beauty, and sordid meanness is magnanimity and goodness. The subtle enchantment of glamour is thrown over every part of life; and, like gardens seen in dreams, where the flowers of spring and the fruits of autumn grow side by side on the same branch, those touched with elfin fingers see things which never existed and as they never existed; enriching with the wealth of their own fancy natures left dowerless by genius, by beauty, by grace; exalting mediocrity into the high place of excellencelike the godhead once worshipped in a bull and reverenced in a hawk. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 64273
Author: Various
Release Date: Jan 12, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Chambers, Robert, 1802-1871 , Chambers, William, 1800-1883