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 especial attention to the practical value of the revelations here communicated, convinced as he is that they are so replete with instruction to terrestial mankind, that the difficulty of giving credence to them ought not to be augmented by premature disclosures. Ultimately satisfied as to the origin of the fragments, he entreats the reader not, indeed, to surrender, but simply to suspend his judgment until he has carefully examined them, conceiving that, apart from all external proof, they rest upon an intrinsic evidence, the force of which it will be difficult to resist. Nay, he is even of opinion that an impartial student will find it easier to believe in their planetary origin than in their emanating from an ordinary human brain. The practical value of the facts, considered apart from their source, will excuse his request not to be too hastily judged.
The people to whom the fragments relate are, it will be found, not only human, but constituents of a highly civilized and even polished society. Their notions of good and evil, of happiness and mizery correspond to ours, and though they employ different means, the objects they pursue are the same with those sought by terrestrial philanthropists. Health, education, marriage, the removal of dizease, the prevention of madness and of crime, the arts of government, the regulation of amusement, the efficient employment of physical forces--themes so often discussed here--have equally occupied the attention of our planetary brethren, although, as will be seen, in the results of our studies we differ not a little. This is not a story of Anthropophagi, or men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, which can merely excite wonder, but a record of actual men, who, widely separated from us in the ocean of space, are beings with whom we can sympathize much more than with the inhabitants of the uncivilized portions of our own globe.
