Yes,
Virginia
From the editorial page of the New York Sun, 21 September 1897
"We take pleasure in answering 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:
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Dear Editor
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends
say there is no Santa Claus.
Pa Pa says If you see
it in The Sun, it's so.
Please tell me the truth,
is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
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Virginia,
Your little friends are wrong. They have
been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not
believe except that which 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 countless 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 have
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 that 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 the strongest men, nor even the united
strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart.
Only faith, poetry, love and 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 lives forever.
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