An Evil Undoing

From The Preface: The Fact That There Is A Plurality Of Worlds That In Other Words The Planets Of Our Solar System Are Inhabited Has Been So Generally Maintained By Modern Astronomers That It Almost Takes Its Place Among The Truths Commonly Accepted By The Large Body Of Educated Persons. As Two Among The Many Works Which Bear Directly On The Subject It Will Be Here Sufficient To Name Sir David Brewster'S 'More Worlds Than One The Creed Of The Philosopher And The Hope Of The Christian' And Mr. B.A. Proctor'S 'Other Worlds Than Ours.' ... When The Assertion Is Made That The Account Is Derived Not From The Imagination But From An Actual Knowledge Of The Star It Will At First Receive Scant Credence And The Reader Will Be At Once Inclined To Class The Fragments Among Those Works About Imaginary Republics And Imaginary Travels Which Ever Since The Days Of Plato Have From Time To Time Made Their Appearance To Improve The Wisdom Impose On The Credulity Or Satirize The Follies Of Mankind. Nor Can The Reader'S Anticipated Want Of Faith Be Deemed Other Than Natural; For Although Tests Applied Daily During A Period Extending Over Nearly A Lifetime Have Proved The Source Of The Fragments To Be Such As Is Here Represented The Editor Feels Bound To Say That Notwithstanding Much Confirmatory Evidence Many Years Passed And Many Facts Were Communicated Before All Doubts Were Completely Removed From His Mind. One Great Obstacle To The Reader'S Belief That An Authentic Description Of Another World Is Before Him Will Arize From The Circumstance That The Means By Which Such Extraordinary Experience Was Acquired Are Not Included In The Sphere Of His Knowledge And That Any Attempt To Explain Them At Present Would Only Increase His Incredulity. He Would Only See One Enigma Solved By Another Apparently More Insoluble Than Itself. The Editor Therefore Would Call Espe