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EPILOGUE
Letter Accompanying the Mysterious Manuscript.
The allotted thirty years have passed, and as directed, I, Llewellyn Drury, now
break the seals, and open the envelope accompanying the mysterious package which
was left in my hand, and read as follows:
Herein find the epilogue to your manuscript. Also a picture of your unwelcome
guest, I-Am-The-Man, which you are directed to have engraved, and to use as a
frontispiece to the volume. There are men yet living to bear witness to my
identity, who will need but this picture to convince them of the authenticity of
the statements in the manuscript, as it is the face of one they knew when he was
a young man, and will recognize now that he is in age. Do not concern yourself
about the reception of the work, for you are in no wise responsible for its
statements. Interested persons, if living, will not care to appear in public in
connection therewith, and those who grasp and appreciate, who can see the
pertinence of its truths, who can read between the lines and have the key to
connected conditions, will assuredly keep their knowledge of these facts locked
in their own bosoms, or insidiously oppose them, and by their silence or their
attacks cover from men outside the fraternity, their connection with the
unfortunate author. They dare not speak.
Revise the sentences; secure the services of an editor if you desire, and induce
another to publish the book if you shrink from the responsibility, but in your
revision do not in any way alter the meaning of the statements made in the
manuscript; have it copied for the printer, and take no part in comments that
may arise among men concerning its reception. Those who are best informed
regarding certain portions thereof, will seemingly be least interested in the
book, and those who realize most fully these truths, will persistently evade the
endorsement of them. The scientific enthusiast, like the fraternity to which I
belong, if appealed to, will obstruct the mind of the student either by
criticism or ridicule, for many of these revelations are not recorded in his
books.
You are at liberty to give in your own language as a prologue the history of
your connection with the author, reserving, however, if you desire to do so,
your personality, adding an introduction to the manuscript, and, as interludes,
every detail of our several conversations, and of your experience. Introduce
such illustrations as the selected artist and yourself think proper in order to
illuminate the statements. Do not question the advisability of stating all that
you know to have occurred; write the whole truth, for although mankind will not
now accept as fact all that you and I have experienced, strange phases of life
phenomena are revealing themselves, and humanity will yet surely be led to a
higher plane. As men investigate the points of historical interest, and the
ultra-scientific phenomena broached in this narrative, the curtain of obscurity
will be drawn aside, and evidence of the truths contained in these details will
be disclosed. Finally, you must mutilate a page of the manuscript that you may
select, and preserve the fragment intact and in secret. Do not print another
edition unless you are presented with the words of the part that is missing.
( Signed. ) I-Am-THE-MAN.
NOTE By MR. DRURY.- Thus the letter ended. After mature consideration it has
been decided to give verbatim most of the letter, and all of the manuscript, and
to append, as a prologue, an introduction to the manuscript, detailing exactly
the record of my connection therewith, including my arguments with Professors
Chickering and Vaughn, whom I consulted concerning the statements made to me
directly by its author. I will admit that perhaps the opening chapter in my
introduction may be such as page had been plated, it was discovered that the
conveyed meaning was exactly the reverse of the original. Luckily the error was
discovered in time to change the verse, and leave the spirit of this fair
creature unblemished.- J. U. L.
I have excised a portion to raise in the minds of some persons a question
concerning my mental responsibility, for as the principal personage in this
drama remarks: " Mankind can not now accept as facts what I have
seen." Yet I walk the streets of my native city, a business man of
recognized thoughtfulness and sobriety, and I only relate on my own
responsibility what has to my knowledge occurred. It has never been intimated
that I am mentally irresponsible, or speculative, and even were this the case,
the material proof that I hold, and have not mentioned as yet, and may not,
concerning my relations with this remarkable being, effectually disproves the
idea of mental aberration, or spectral delusion. Besides, many of the statements
are of such a nature as to be verified easily, or disproved by any person who
may be inclined to repeat the experiments suggested, or visit the localities
mentioned. The part of the whole production that will seem the most improbable
to the majority of persons, is that to which I can testify from my own
knowledge, as related in the first portion and the closing chapter. This
approaches necromancy, seemingly, and yet in my opinion, as I now see the
matter, such unexplained and recondite occurrences appear unscientific, because
of the shortcomings of students of science. Occult phenomena, at some future
day, will be proved to be based on ordinary physical conditions to be disclosed
by scientific investigations [ for " All that is is natural, and science
embraces all things "], but at present they are beyond our perception; yes,
beyond our conception.
Whether I have been mesmerized, or have written in a trance, whether I have been
the subject of mental aberration, or have faithfully given a life history to the
world, whether this book is altogether romance, or carries a vein of prophecy,
whether it sets in motion a train of wild speculations, or combines playful
arguments, science problems, and metaphysical reasonings, useful as well as
entertaining, remains for the reader to determine. So far as I, Llewellyn Drury,
am concerned, this is-
THE END.