The Coming of the Fairies

Should the incidents here narrated, and the photographs attached, / hold their own against the criticism which they will excite, it is no / exaggeration to say that they will mark an epoch in human thought. / I put them and all the evidence before the public for examination / and judgment. If I am myself asked whether I consider the case to be / absolutely and finally proved, I should answer that in order to remove / the last faint shadow of doubt I should wish to see the result repeated / before a disinterested witness. At the same time, I recognize the / difficulty of such a request, since rare results must be obtained when / and how they can. But short of final and absolute proof, I consider, / after carefully going into every possible source of error, that a / strong _prima facie_ case has been built up. The cry of "fake" is sure / to be raised, and will make some impression upon those who have not had / the opportunity of knowing the people concerned, or the place. On the / photographic side every objection has been considered and adequately / met. The pictures stand or fall together. Both are false, or both are / true. All the circumstances point to the latter alternative, and yet in / a matter involving so tremendous a new departure one needs overpowering / evidence before one can say that there is no conceivable loophole for / error.

It was about the month of May in this year that I received the / information from Miss Felicia Scatcherd, so well-known in several / departments of human thought, to the effect that two photographs of / fairies had been taken in the North of England under circumstances / which seemed to put fraud out of the question. The statement would / have appealed to me at any time, but I happened at the moment to be / collecting material for an article on fairies, now completed, and I had / accumulated a surprising number of cases of people who claimed to be / able to see these little creatures. The evidence was so complete and / detailed, with such good names attached to it, that it was difficult / to believe that it was false; but, being by nature of a somewhat / sceptical turn, I felt that something closer was needed before I / could feel personal conviction and assure myself that these were not / thought-forms conjured up by the imagination or expectation of the / seers. The rumour of the photographs interested me deeply, therefore, / and following the matter up from one lady informant to another, I came / at last upon Mr. Edward L. Gardner, who has been ever since my most / efficient collaborator, to whom all credit is due. Mr. Gardner, it may / be remarked, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Theosophical / Society, and a well-known lecturer upon occult subjects.