You remember Maimoune, in the story of Prince Camaralzaman, and what she said to Danhasch, the genie who had just arrived from the farthest limits of China? "Be sure thou tellest me nothing but what is true or I shall clip thy wings!" This is what the modern child sometimes says to the genies of literature, and his own wings are too often clipped in consequence.
"The Empire of the Fairies is no more. Reason has banished them from ev'ry shore; Steam has outstripped their dragons and their cars, Gas has eclipsed their glow-worms and their stars."