PREFACE.
THE event on which this fiction is
[founded] <founded,> has been supposed, by
Dr. Darwin, and some of the physiological writers of Germany, as
not of impossible occurrence. I shall not be supposed as
according the remotest degree of serious faith to such an
imagination; yet, in assuming it as the basis of a work of
fancy, I have not considered myself as merely weaving a series of
supernatural terrors. The event on which the interest of the
story depends is exempt from the disadvantages of a mere tale of
spectres or enchantment. It was recommended by the novelty of the
situations which it developes; and, however impossible as a
physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the
delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding
than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can
yield.
I have thus endeavoured to preserve the truth of the elementary
principles of human nature, while I have not scrupled to innovate
upon their combinations. The [Iliad]
<Iliad>, the tragic poetry of Greece, Shakespeare,
in the [Tempest] <Tempest> and
Midsummer Night's Dream and most especially Milton, in
Paradise Lost, conform to this rule; and the most humble
novelist, who seeks to confer or receive amusement from his
labours, may, without presumption, apply to prose fiction a
licence, or rather a rule, from the adoption of which so many
exquisite combinations of human feeling have resulted in the
highest specimens of poetry.
