Preface

I shall not blame you if you believe the events contained in my tale to be mere flights of fancy, or the product of an hysterical imagination. We live in an age of Science, where it is to be assumed that a rational explanation exists for each action and event. The ghosts and witches and fey-folk so well known to our ancestors are explained away by the learned ones of our day as mere reactions of ignorant people to the forces of Nature which they had not the means to comprehend. In our "brave new world" of motorcars and airships, electric torches and magic lanterns, the Scientists are our new High Priests and we look to them for the answers to all questions. Soon, we are assured, there will be no mysteries, and the world will enter a Golden Age of Enlighten-ment. They tell us that there will be no need for Wonder in the morning of Man's new day, for we will have found our way back to the Tree of Knowledge denied to Adam and Eve and we will then be free from Want and Fear and Ignorance.

Yet, I have seen what I have seen, I live where I live, and I know that the Old World still exists. Perhaps the Scientists have not truly removed the veils from your eyes, as they would have you believe. Perhaps, instead, they have blindered you like the horses which pull your carriages, so that you see the trail they have set for you quite clearly, but are blocked from seeing the rest of the beauty around you. So, as you read my tale, keep your mind unfettered, and find within yourself the child who discovered mira-cles and marvels in the butterflies and in the shadows and in the first snow of winter...

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