{"collection":"earth","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/earth/eti/eti02.htm","path":"earth/eti/eti02.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/earth/eti/eti02.htm","text":"Etidorhpa, by John Uri Lloyd, [1897]\nBOOKS are as tombstones made by the living for the living, but destined soon only to remind us of the dead. The preface, like an epitaph, seems vainly to \"implore the passing tribute\" of a moment's interest. No man is allured by either a grave-inscription or a preface, unless it be accompanied by that ineffable charm which age casts over mortal productions. Libraries, in one sense, represent cemeteries, and the rows of silent volumes, with their dim titles, suggest burial tablets, many of which, alas! mark only cenotaphs\u2014empty tombs. A modern book, no matter how talented the author, carries with it a\nfamiliar personality which may often be treated with neglect or even contempt, but a volume a century old demands some reverence; a vellum-bound or hog-skin print, or antique yellow parchment, two, three, five hundred years old, regardless of its contents, impresses one with an indescribable feeling akin to awe and veneration,\u2014as does the wheat from an Egyptian tomb, even though it be only wheat. We take such a work from the shelf carefully, and replace it gently. While the productions of modern writers are handled familiarly, as men living jostle men yet alive; those of authors long dead are touched as tho\u2019 clutched by a hand from the unseen world; the reader feels that a phantom form opposes his own, and that spectral eyes scan the pages as he turns them.\nThe stern face, the penetrating eye of the personage whose likeness\n| Click to enlarge \u201cTHE STERN FACE, . . ACROSS THE GULF.\u201d | \nStanding in a library of antiquated works, one senses the shadows of a cemetery. Each volume adds to the oppression, each old tome casts the influence of its spirit over the beholder, for have not these old books spirits? The earth-grave covers the mind as well as the body of its moldering occupant, and while\n| Click to enlarge \u201cTHE PLEASANT FACE OF ITS CREATOR . . . SMILES UPON YOU\u201d | \nAh! this antique library is not as is a church graveyard, only a cemetery for the dead; it is also a mansion for the living. These alcoves are trysting places for elemental shades. Essences of dis-enthralled minds meet here and revel. Thoughts of the past take shape and live in this atmosphere,\u2014who can say that pulsations unperceived, beyond the reach of physics or of chemistry, are not as ethereal mind-seeds which, although unseen, yet, in living brain, exposed to such an atmosphere as this, formulate embryotic\nthought-expressions destined to become energetic intellectual forces?\n| Click to enlarge \u201cSKELETON FORMS OPPOSE MY OWN.\u201d | \nWith the object of carrying to the future a section of thought current from the past, the antiquarian libraries of many nations have been culled, and purchases made in every book market of the world.\nThese books surround me. Naturally many persons have become interested in the movement, and, considering it a worthy one, unite to further the project, for the purpose is not personal gain. Thus it is not unusual for boxes of old chemical or pharmacal volumes to arrive by freight or express, without a word as to the donor. The mail brings manuscripts unprinted, and pamphlets recondite, with no word of introduction. They come unheralded. The authors or the senders realize that in this unique library a place is vacant if any work on connected subjects is missing, and thinking men of the world are uniting their contributions to fill such vacancies.\nEnough has been said concerning the ancient library that has bred these reflections, and my own personality does not concern the reader. He can now formulate his conclusions as well perhaps as I, regarding the origin of the manuscript that is to follow, if he concerns himself at all over subjects mysterious or historical, and\nmy connection therewith is of minor importance. Whether Mr. Drury brought the strange paper in person, or sent it by express or mail,\u2014whether it was slipped into a box of books from foreign lands, or whether my hand held the pen that made the record,\u2014whether I stood face to face with Mr. Drury in the shadows of this room, or have but a fanciful conception of his figure,\u2014whether the artist drew upon his imagination for the vivid likeness of the several personages figured in the book that follows, or from reliable data has given fac-similes authentic,\u2014is immaterial. Sufficient be it to say that the manuscript of this book has been in my possession for a period of seven years, and my lips must now be sealed concerning all that transpired in connection therewith outside the subject-matter recorded therein, And yet I can not deny that for these seven years I have hesitated concerning my proper course, and more than once have decided to cover from sight the fascinating leaflets, hide them among surrounding volumes, and let them slumber until chance should bring them to the attention of the future student.\nThese thoughts rise before me this gloomy day of December, 1894, as, snatching a moment from the exactions of business, I sit among these old volumes devoted to science-lore, and again study over the unique manuscript, and meditate; I hesitate again: Shall I, or shall I not?\u2014but a duty is a duty. Perhaps the mysterious part of the subject will be cleared to me only when my own thought-words come to rest among these venerable relics of the past\u2014when books that I have written become companions of ancient works about me\u2014for then I can claim relationship with the shadows that flit in and out, and can demand that they, the ghosts of the library, commune with the shade that guards the book that holds this preface.\nJOHN URI LLOYD.","title":"Etidorhpa: Preface","type":"page"}