How to Believe in Your Elf

There is a vast world of reality into which science can no more enter than an elf can be Santa Claus. We regret to observe that rather than face it, and confess its inability to measure it, science turns its back upon it. Life is not always every-day life, and the insolvable mysteries are correlated not to formal rules but to spirit and inspiration.

Are bits of wisdom liable to dwarf the subject? Indeed—and rightly! James Howell described the ingredients of a good proverb to be "sense, shortness, and salt." May Howell's cry resound through this present present collection of maxims on believing in one's elf.

Craig Conley is a magic enthusiast and scholar. Recognized by Encarta as "America's most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation," his intensive and eccentric research has led him to compile a true masterwork entitled Magic Words: A Dictionary. He has also authored One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, among other strange and unusual lexicons.