IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

        An Editorial reprinted from the New York Sun, September 21, 1897


                            By Francis P. Church


We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the
  communication below, expressing at the same time our great
gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends
of The Sun:

      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 95th Street,

                                            New York City.

  Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected
by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except 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 in-
sect, 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 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, 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 in-
side, 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, ro-
mance, 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 thou-
sand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years
from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

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