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"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8
years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA,
your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a
skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that
nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia,
whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours
man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless
world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole
of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA,
there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and
devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest
beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa
Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS.
There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable
this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The
eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus!
You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men
to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if
they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees
Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real
things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you
ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they
are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen
and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the
baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering
the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of
all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy,
poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the
supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA,
in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God!
he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia,
nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the
heart of childhood.
Makes me smile. Enjoy Christmas everyone! ^_^
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