If a man _imagines_ or makes believe to himself that he has a fairy attendant, or a dog, and _fancies_ that he sees it, that man does really see _something_, though it be invisible to others.

There is some kind of creative brain-action going on, some employment of atoms and forces, and, if this be so, we may enter it among the Possibilities of the Future that the Material in any form whatever may be advanced, or further materialized or made real.
It is curious that this idea has long been familiar to believers in magic.

In more than one Italian legend which I have collected a sorceress or goddess evolves a life from her own soul, as a fire emits a spark.

In fact, the fancy occurs in some form in all mythologies, great or small.

In one old Irish legend a wizard turns a Thought into a watch-dog.