rmation of matter, was the scarf of Iris; the light-footed hours
preceded the car of night, and the rosy-fingered Aurora opened the
horizon to permit the car of Jove to pass. When the thunder rolled,
Jupiter spoke to attentive mortals. When volcanic mountains trembled, the
old Titans sought to throw off the mass of rocks which weighed on them as
an eternal punishment of crime. The middle age, yet more naive and
poetical, peopled the air, fields, woods, and waters with a crowd of
mysterious beings who spoke to the senses and thought, and awakened in
the human mind a mild sentiment of faith or healthful fear.

"Now, thanks to your haughty reason, we have banished, like idle fancies,
all these creations of our forefathers. Now we know that the air has no
other voice than that of the wind and tempest; that the wood has no
animals other than those the structure of whom has been minutely
described; that there are no fairies in the green fields, and no
invisible spirits watching over the hearth and fireside. Man, relying on
his reason, would be ashamed to suffer himself to be excited by tales of
ghosts. He has cast aside all supernatural apprehensions; and I see the
coming of the time when even Saint Nicholas will not impose on children.
What have we gained by thus shaking off the network of smiling and
serious fancies, which both enlivened and restrained our fancy? Are we
happier, stronger, or better? Alas! for my own part, even were I to pass
for a mind behind the times, I would confess that I regret those days of
candid credulity in which each dark forest had its legend, every chapel
its history. One of the reasons why I love the Swedes, amid whom I found
a peaceful home, is, that they have not yet sacrificed to the teachings
of modern times their old poetry; and that in the majority of their
woodland homes are a multitude of popular songs, of traditional faiths,
of domestic customs, which recall the poetic days of the middle age. Is
not this true, Ebba? You know something of this matter, for you
participate in my predilections in relation to them; and more than once
I have seen you listen anxiously to the stories of the old women of
Aland."

"Yes, father," said Ebba; who had listened with eager sympathy to the
long dissertation of the old man, while Eric and Ireneus listened
modestly to all he had said.

"When you give me a lesson in Swedish," said Ireneus, "will you be kind
enough to add to it some of those histories, w