Ooh OoH OoH..comme on dit..

Comme mon retour ne se fera pas avant la date du 25, je vous souhaite à tous un Joyeux Noël . Je vous laisse avec cette touchante histoire vraie, courier des lecteurs d'un autre âge d'une tendresse et d'une chaleur rares. On voudrait presque le croire..(www.babylon.com pour certains mots..)



From the Editorial Page of The New York Sun, written by Francis P.

Church, September 21, 1897





"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 scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except in what they 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 child-like 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 you 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, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now,

he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.



Au 25!