Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 1).djvu/12

invisible world is a thing which all reason denies, but all feeling allows, and which it always must allow, or fancy will be so completely subdued to truth that even poetry will have lost its value. Philosophy, or what is called philosophy, is, indeed, very busy in its vocation; fiction is banished from the nursery; Jack the Giant Killer is superseded by moral essays, and the reign of reason is speedily about to commence, when we shall believe nothing but what can be proved to be, and shall attain a happy exemption from those vulgar prejudices, which have hitherto held society together. But the dawn of that glory has not yet appeared; the dreams of Homer, Shakspear, and Milton are still tolerated; they still shine on in the night of our darkness—long may they do so! the daylight, that