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 measure by the
intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists 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 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 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, nay, ten times ten thousand
years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. |
