The Wreck of a World/Preface
PREFACE.
By Sir John Brown, C.E.
Those who did me the honour to read a short account of some strange events that occurred to me many years ago in Mexico, recently published under the name of "A Mexican Mystery," will recollect how a year after the death of my friend Pedro da Luz, I found a letter from him left in the shed where he had constructed the marvellous piece of mechanism with which that book is chiefly concerned. I did not think it necessary to mention, for it formed no part of my story, that the same case which held the letter contained a more voluminous document, which upon examination proved to be a romance of so wild a character as to confirm me in the opinion I was already inclined to form, that the poor fellow was hovering on the borders of insanity.
I put aside that work and never thought of it again until lately, when being asked by my publishers whether I had no more marvels to relate, and replying in the negative, suddenly the association of ideas brought back to my mind this story of Pedro's; which if marvels are at a premium in the literary market should surely command a sale. As to credibility—but there, I will say nothing on that head. The question of publication gave me much trouble to decide. It was not merely that the book would have to be translated, and while on the one hand I was unwilling to trust the translation to any pen but my own, on the other my Spanish had grown rusty by twenty year's disuse; though this difficulty was formidable enough. What troubled me more was the moral question,—Had I the right to give to the world, however greedy of wonders it might be, a production so calculated to pander to that morbid taste? Was it consistent with my reputation as a practical man, an engineer, a magistrate, and a churchwarden, to lend the weight of that reputation (whatever it may be worth) to a work of such a character.
The kind reception given by the public to the "Mexican Mystery" was due (I am persuaded) not merely to its marvels, but to the stamp of veracity imprinted on its every page. It is not too much to say, and I challenge any man to contradict me, that I can vouch for the precise accuracy of every line of that work. Nothing was there set down but what had come, mediately or immediately, and mostly the latter, under my own personal observation. The more was it incumbent upon me to do nothing that might impeach the character for truthfulness thereby gained, nor again to employ that character, the most valuable a man can bear, to mislead those whose confidence I had so happily won.
The result of much cogitation has been that I have determined to give this book to the world, rather, it may be for reasons of old friendship and the memory of former days, than for any which would commend themselves to my deliberate judgment. At the same time I have taken care to dissociate myself by means of these few words from any responsibility beyond that of translator and editor; which functions I have however exercised with an unsparing hand. Literally rendered Pedro's book would have seemed simply ridiculous in our mother tongue, and I have therefore, done my best to give an English or Anglo-American turn to the whole work. Into the mysteries of the great American language I have scarcely ventured to penetrate.
To the hands of the public I accordingly commit this fantastic work, only observing that if I do not brand it in so many words as a tissue of impossibilities, it is because my experience has made me slow to draw impassible lines between the possible and impossible or to say to the ocean of actual and potential fact, "So far shalt thou go, and no farther: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."
That the work in spite of its extravagant character contains some suggestions of interest and value will probably be admitted. In particular I would mention the idea of "organizing invention" which appears to me fraught with great possibilities, and which I commend to the attention of the rising generation of engineers.
London,
March 2nd, 1889.