The time has been, but happily exists no longer, when it would have been necessary to offer an apology for such a book as this. In those days it was not held that Beauty is its own excuse for being; on the contrary, a spurious utilitarianism reigned supreme in literature, and fancy and imagination were told to fold their wings, and travel only in the dusty paths of every-day life. Fairy tales, and all such flights into the region of the supernatural, were then condemned as merely idle things, or as pernicious occupations for faculties that should be always directed to serious and profitable concerns. But now we have cast off that pedantic folly, let us hope for ever. We now acknowledge that innocent amusement is good for its own sake, and we do not affect to prove our advance in civilisation by our incapacity to relish those sportive creations of unrestricted fancy that have been the delight of every generation in every land from times beyond the reach of history. The materials of the following Collection have been carefully chosen from more than a hundred volumes of the fairy lore of all nations; and none of them, so far as the Editor is aware, have been previously translated into English. STORIES: THE BIRTH OF THE FAIRY TALE. SNOW-WHITE AND ROSY-RED. THE STORY OF ARGILIUS AND THE FLAME-KING. PERSEVERE AND PROSPER. THE PRINCE OF THE GLOW-WORMS. THE TWO MISERS. PRINCE CHAFFINCH. THE WOLF AND THE NIGHTINGALE. THE ENCHANTED CROW. THE DRAGON-GIANT AND HIS STONE-STEED. THE STORY OF SIVA AND MADHAVA. THE GOBLIN BIRD. THE SHEPHERD AND THE SERPENT. THE EXPEDITIOUS FROG. EASTWARD OF THE SUN, AND WESTWARD OF THE MOON. THE LITTLE MAN IN GREY. RED, WHITE, AND BLACK. THE TWELVE LOST PRINCESSES AND THE WIZARD KING. THE STUDY OF MAGIC UNDER DIFFICULTIES. FORTUNES FAVOURITE; OR, THE VERY WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF PISTA, THE SWINEHERD. THE LUCKY DAYS. THE FEAST OF THE DWARFS. THE THREE DOGS. THE COURAGEOUS FLUTE-PLAYER. THE GLASS HATCHET. THE GOLDEN DUCK. GOLDY. THE SERPENT PRINCE. THE PROPHETIC DREAM.
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