Thinkest thou--so indeed hath _man_ taught thee--that this sweet
world is but a vain illusion? Know then, that _we_, the Elfin Band,
are, in the order of the universe, spirits inferior to the angels, but
superior to thee. _We_ are the creatures and servants of the Most
High! (be His glorious name by all His infinite creation reverenced
and adored!)--and _we_, in conjunction with the most exalted
hierarchies of Heaven, are spirits, ministrant to _man_! Amongst
us, alas! are evil and wretched Fays, whose terrible study it is to
subvert our beneficent labours, to prevent our entrance into this
ethereal region, and in their own desolate and accursed country to
insult the veritable Fairy Land by employing their small remnant of
celestial power in creating imitations of it, as paltry as absurd. Know
also, O mortal! that whilst with, and for, man, we abide upon earth, we
have no land, no home;--like himself, 'strangers and pilgrims' are we;
nor is it until the period when our ministry is accomplished (and of the
finale of that period are none of us informed) that we are wafted on the
gentle breezes of heaven to this celestial planet, which, lighted by the
same sun which blesseth your own, is too small to be visible to the eyes
of its inquisitive philosophers.
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