In the Land of Ire the belief in fairies gnomes ogres and monsters is all but dead; in the Land of Ind it still flourishes in all the vigour of animism.
The words 'fairy tales' must accordingly be taken to include tales in which occurs something 'fairy ' something extraordinary - fairies giants dwarfs speaking animals.
The great problems of the Twentieth century will have immediate relation to the discoveries of America of Africa and of Australia.
The successful men of action are not sufficiently self-observant to know exactly on what their success depends.
Nowhere else is there so large and consistent a body of oral tradition about the national and mythical heroes as amongst the Gaels.
The fate of the Celt in the British Empire bids fair to resemble that of the Greeks among the Romans.
The Celtic folk-tales have been collected while the practice of story-telling is still in full vigour though there is every sign that its term of life is already numbered.
Children and sometimes those of larger growth will not read dialect.
One might almost say that the history of geographical discovery properly so called begins with Captain Cook the motive of whose voyages was purely scientific curiosity.
The truth is my folk-lore friends and my Saturday Reviewer differ with me on the important problem of the origin of folk-tales. They think that a tale probably originated where it was found.
Soils and national characters differ but fairy tales are the same in plot and incidents if not in treatment.
Forgiveness is the highest and most difficult of all moral lessons.
Generally speaking it has been my ambition to write as a good old nurse will speak when she tells fairy tales.