These are not new fairy-tales, the ones in this book that has been
newly made for you and placed in your hands. They are old fairy-tales
gathered together, some from one country, and some from another. They
are old, old, old. As old as the hills or the human race,—as old as
truth itself. Long ago, even so long ago as when your grandmother’s
grandmother’s grandmother was a little rosy-cheeked girl, and your
grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather was a noisy shouting little
boy, these stories were old.
No one knows who first told them, nor where nor when. Perhaps none of
them was told by any one particular person. Perhaps they just grew upon
the Tree of Wisdom when the world was young, like shining fruit, and
our wise and simple first parents plucked them, and gave them to their
children to play with, and to taste. They could not harm the children,
these fruits from the tree of wisdom, for each one was a lovely globe
of truth, rich and wholesome to the taste. Magic fruit, for one could
eat and eat, and still the fruit was there as perfect as ever to be
handed down through generations, until at last it comes to you, as
beautiful as in those days of long ago.
Perhaps you did not know that fairy tales were ever truths, but they
are—the best and oldest of them. That does not mean they are facts like
the things you see around you or learn from history books. Facts and
truths are as different as the body and the spirit. Facts are like the
body that we can see and touch and measure; we cannot see or measure
the Spirit, but it is there.
We can think of these truths as of different shapes and colors, like
pears and apples, and plums and other fruits, each with a different
taste and color. But there is one great truth that flows through them
all, and you know very well what it is:—evil in the end must always
defeat itself, and in the end good always triumphs. The bad magician is
tripped up by his own tricks, and the true prince marries the princess
and inherits the kingdom. If any one of these stories had told it
otherwise, that story would have died and withered away.
So take this book and read, being very sure that only good will come to
you however often you read them over and over and over again.