The House of Souls
Place. The Puritans did not live in vain: they gave us the works of George Eliot and the profound studies of Mrs. Humphry Ward in place of the mysteries and mummeries of the Quest of the San Graal; and it is by their work that the enlightened man of to-day perceives that the stench of chlorine gas is really a holier, better thing than the fume of incense.
Now, it is entirely from the Puritan standpoint that I wish to rest my plea for these tales of mine. In the first place, I may say that only a very thoughtless reader will fail to note the moral which underlies each story. How plain, for instance, is the warning in the tale of "The White People," where we see the necessity of the careful supervision of young females; while in "The Great God Pan" the dangers of unauthorized research are clearly and terribly indicated.
But this is not the only point on which I rest my defence of this collection. I think it will dawn on many of my readers that almost every page contains a hint (under varied images and symbols) of a belief in a world that is not that of ordinary, everyday experience, that in a measure transcends the experience of Bethel and the Bank. I confess that it has been my design to convey some such hint as this; and I contend that as an English Novelist I am within my rights in doing so; since Science, the
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