The oldest fairy stories constitute a fascinating introduction to the book of modern science, curiously predicting its discoveries, its uncovering of the resources of the earth and air, its growing control of the tremendous forces which work in earth and air. And it is significant that the recent progress of science is steadily toward what our ancestors would have considered fairy land; for in all the imaginings of the childhood of the race there was nothing more marvellous or more audaciously improbable than the transmission of the accents and modulations of familiar voices through long distances, and the power of communication across leagues of sea without mechanical connections of any kind.

The faculty which created the fairy tale is the same faculty which, supplemented by a broader observation and based on more accurate knowledge, has broadened the range and activities of modern man, made the world accessible to him, enabled him to live in one place but to speak and act in places thousands of miles distant, given him command of colossal forces, and is fast making him rich on a scale which would have seemed incredible to men of a half-century ago. There is nothing in any fairy tale more marvellous and inherently improbable than many of the achievements of scientific observation and invention, and we are only at the beginning of the wonders that lie within the reach of the human spirit!

Contents

One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes

The Magic Mirror

The Enchanted Stag

Hansel and Grethel

The Story of Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp

The History of Ali Baba, and of the Forty Robbers Killed by One Slave

The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor

The White Cat

The Golden Goose

The Twelve Brothers

The Fair One With the Golden Locks

Tom Thumb

Blue Beard

Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper

Puss In Boots

The Sleeping Beauty In the Wood

Jack and the Bean-stalk

Jack the Giant Killer

Little Red Riding Hood

The Three Bears

The Princess on the Pea

The Ugly Duckling

The Light Princess

Beauty and the Beast