_CAST OUT._
[Illustration: Initial]
A serene and happy old age may delight in recalling the glory and the
dream of youth, of which it is the crown and the fulfillment; but the
wretched and desolate, nearing the grave, revert seldom to the past things
of a life they are eager to exchange for a better.
A solemn sense of duty to mankind impels me to be my own biographer.
My story is the most wonderful in the world: so wonderful that the men of
the present age cannot comprehend or believe me. I am spiritually alone.
None before me have penetrated consciously into the invisible world:
examined its structure and its people: and returned to his fellow-men,
enriched and burdened with its awful secrets.
This have I done.