PREFACE.
THE event on which this fiction is 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, the tragic
poetry of Greece, Shakespeare, in the 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.