Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus
--- A Masterpiece of Journalism
"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"
Dear 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 around 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 coming down, but what would that prove? Nobody
sees Santa Claus, but there 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 that are unseen and unseeable in this world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle to see what makes the noise inside, but
there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man nor
even the unified 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 supernatural 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, may 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will
continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
-- Francis P. Church, New York Sun, 1897作者: 胡文輝 時間: 2008-12-24 12:09
美好的東西，均應相信其的存在。作者: 伙伴天下 時間: 2008-12-25 00:38
信則有，不信則無！