The Secret Commonwealth

<b>A classic enchanting document of Scottish folklore about fairies elves and other supernatural creatures.</b><br><br>Late in the seventeenth century Robert Kirk an Episcopalian minister in the Scottish Highlands set out to collect his parishioners&#146; many striking stories about elves fairies fauns doppelg&#228;ngers wraiths and other beings of in Kirk&#146;s words &#147;a middle nature betwixt man and angel.&#148; For Kirk these stories constituted strong evidence for the reality of a supernatural world existing parallel to ours which he passionately believed demanded exploration as much as the New World across the seas. Kirk defended these views in <i>The Secret Commonwealth</i> an essay that was left in manuscript when he died in 1692. It is a rare and fascinating work an extraordinary amalgam of science religion and folklore suffused with the spirit of active curiosity and bemused wonder that fills Robert Burton&#146;s <i>Anatomy of Melancholy</i> and the works of Sir Thomas Browne. <i>The Secret Commonwealth</i> is not only a remarkable document in the history of ideas but a study of enchantment that enchants in its own right.<br><br> <br>First published in 1815 by Sir Walter Scott then reedited in 1893 by Andrew Lang with a dedication to Robert Louis Stevenson <i>The Secret Commonwealth</i> has long been difficult to obtain&#151;available if at all only in scholarly editions. This new edition modernizes the spelling and punctuation of Kirk&#146;s little book and features a wide-ranging and illuminating introduction by the critic and historian Marina Warner who brings out the originality of Kirk&#146;s contribution and reflects on the ongoing life of fairies in the modern mind.