and, when you wanted more still, the Green Fairy Book was put
together.  The stories in all the books are borrowed from many
countries; some are French, some German, some Russian, some
Italian, some Scottish, some English, one Chinese.  However much
these nations differ about trifles, they all agree in liking
fairy tales.  The reason, no doubt, is that men were much like
children in their minds long ago, long, long ago, and so before
they took to writing newspapers, and sermons, and novels, and
long poems, they told each other stories, such as you read in the
fairy books.  They believed that witches could turn people into
beasts, that beasts could speak, that magic rings could make
their owners invisible, and all the other wonders in the stories.
Then, as the world became grown-up, the fairy tales which were
not written down would have been quite forgotten but that the old
grannies remembered them, and told them to the little
grandchildren: and when they, in their turn, became grannies,
they remembered them, and told them also.  In this way these tales
are older than reading and writing, far older than printing.  The
oldest fairy tales ever written down were written down in Egypt,
about Joseph's time, nearly three thousand five hundred years