s
to assert the flame immortal? Yet the soul, or vital principle of human
existence, is no more than the flame of a candle."

If you propound to these theorists the eternal question WHY?--why is
the world in existence? why is there a universe? why do we live? why do
we think and plan? why do we perish at the last?--their grandiose reply
is, "Because of the Law of Universal Necessity." They cannot explain
this mysterious Law to themselves, nor can they probe deep enough to
find the answer to a still more tremendous WHY--namely, WHY, is there a
Law of Universal Necessity?--but they are satisfied with the result of
their reasonings, if not wholly, yet in part, and seldom try to search
beyond that great vague vast Necessity, lest their finite brains should
reel into madness worse than death. Recognizing, therefore, that in
this cultivated age a wall of scepticism and cynicism is gradually
being built up by intellectual thinkers of every nation against all
that treats of the Supernatural and Unseen, I am aware that my
narration of the events I have recently experienced will be read with
incredulity. At a time when the great empire of the Christian Religion
is being assailed, or politely ignored by governments and public
speakers and teachers, I realize to the fullest extent how daring is
any attempt to prove, even by a plain history of strange occurrences
happening to one's self, the actual existence of the Supernatural
around us; and the absolute certainty of a future state of being, after
the passage through that brief soul-torpor in which the body perishes,
known to us as Death.

In the present narration, which I have purposely called a "romance," I
do not expect to be believed, as I can only relate what I myself have
experienced. I know that men and women of to-day must have proofs, or
what they are willing to accept as proofs, before they will credit
anything that purports to be of a spiritual tendency;--something
startling--some miracle of a stupendous nature, such as according to
prophecy they are all unfit to receive. Few will admit the subtle
influence and incontestable, though mysterious, authority exercised
upon their lives by higher intelligences than their own--intelligences
unseen, unknown, but felt. Yes! felt by the most careless, the most
cynical; in the uncomfortable prescience of danger, the inner
forebodings of guilt--the moral and mental torture endured by those who
fight a protracted battle to gain the