ng, keen, and practical
study of political phenomena, guided by personal experience of public
life, and enlightened by a large, instinctive knowledge of the human
heart.

Such a belief is, at least, encouraged by the private communications
spontaneously made to him who expresses it, by persons of political
experience and social position in France, who have acknowledged
the general accuracy of the author's descriptions, and noticed the
suggestive sagacity and penetration of his occasional comments on the
circumstances and sentiments he describes.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

They who chance to have read the "Coming Race" may perhaps remember that
I, the adventurous discoverer of the land without a sun, concluded the
sketch of my adventures by a brief reference to the malady which, though
giving no perceptible notice of its encroachments, might, in the opinion
of my medical attendant, prove suddenly fatal.

I had brought my little book to this somewhat melancholy close a few
years before the date of its publication, and in the meanwhile I was
induced to transfer my residence to Paris, in order to place myself
under the care of an English physician, renowned for his successful
treatment of complaints analogous to my own.

I was the more readily persuaded to undertake this journey,--partly
because I enjoyed a familiar acquaintance with the eminent physician
referred to, who had commenced his career and founded his reputation in
the United States; partly because I had become a solitary man, the ties
of home broken, and dear friends of mine were domiciled in Paris, with
whom I should be sure of tender sympathy and cheerful companionship. I
had reason to be thankful for this change of residence: the skill of
Dr. C______ soon restored me to health. Brought much into contact
with various circles of Parisian society, I became acquainted with the
persons and a witness of the events that form the substance of the tale
I am about to submit to the public, which has treated my former book
with so generous an indulgence. Sensitively tenacious of that character
for strict and unalloyed veracity which, I flatter myself, my account
of the abodes and manners of the Vril-ya has established, I could have
wished to preserve the following narrative no less jealously guarded
than its predecessor from the vagaries of fancy. But Truth undisguised,
never welcome in any civilized community above ground, is exposed at
this time to especial da