For the rebel is older than all the kingdoms, and the Jacobin has more tradition than the Jacobite.

There is the lesson of "Cinderella," which is the same as that of the Magnificat--_exaltavit humiles._ There is the great lesson of "Beauty and the Beast"; that a thing must be loved _before_ it is loveable.

There is the terrible allegory of the "Sleeping Beauty," which tells how the human creature was blessed with all birthday gifts, yet cursed with death; and how death also may perhaps be softened to a sleep.

But I am not concerned with any of the separate statutes of elfland, but with the whole spirit of its law, which I learnt before I could speak, and shall retain when I cannot write.

I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts.
It might be stated this way.