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.