INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE, in a former Work, * announced to the World, a very peculiar talent I possess, and that no less in celebrity, than the secret of the renowned Seer Swedenbergt....It introduces my soul to the souls of the departed; where it has the faculty of witnessing all their actions.....visibly or invisibly.....as I will.

This rare talent produces me infinite amusement....and, as I have no wish to employ it otherwise than to promote the entertainment of my friends.....the innocency of my aim

* Traits of Literature, Vol. I. p. 63.

The celebrated founder of a new sect of religion.

will.....I flatter myself.....protect me from the severity of animadversion, and shield me from the denomination of "A CONJUROR."...which,.... in the present day.....is no very dignified passport to a man's journey through life.

A short time since it was my good fortune to be present at the meeting of two very extraordinary spirits in Elysium...Their astonishment at seeing each other.....heightened by a recollection of their not having been very good friends in the other world.....led me to listen to their conversation.

With the writings of one of them I am intimately acquainted...... It was no other than honest Lucian, the dialogue maker...He who has often quaffed the merry bowl.......and passed the witty joke with laughter-loving Momus......and than whom......a better or more jovial soul ne'er broke bread,

The other is a personage of no common stamp.....While he lived, he was in all things the very reverse of my friend Lucian....and so ambiguous was the character he played on the Grand Theatre of human life, that, when he made his exit, he was idolized as a demigod by some.....while others were at a loss to decide whether the Fool.....the Profligate......the Impostor.....or the Fanatic.....formed the prevailing feature in his character. He was a compound of every thing extraordinary......eccentric......and enthusiastic........But, wonderful as his career was through life, his death was still more remarkable...He died voluntarily......He ascended a funeral pile prepared by his own order....He fired it with his own hand.....and thus..... solemnly and firmly.....took leave of millions of spectators who had assembled at Olympia.....from all parts

of the world.....to witness this awful

ceremony.

Lucian was present,...thinking it his duty, as a determined enemy to every specious mummery,..whether Philosophical or Religious....to remove from the minds of wondering posterity any dangerous conclusions which Peregrine, surnamed Proteus, might have excited by his daring and heroic end.....and to satisfy his cotemporaries that no advantageous impression ought to exist in favor of a lunatic, who so impiously terminated his earthly career.

In a simple relation...partly founded on his own knowledge, and partly collected from the best authority....... he asserted that they venerated a madman as a model of philosophy and human perfection........that their god was a mere sensualist................perpetually involved in disastrous and degrading dilemmas;....and, that the

conclusion he chose was the most becoming finale to his disgraceful pranks.

I have every reason to believe, that Lucian had no intention to injure the poor fanatic,.......or impose on the world by the history he gave them..... However,.....as his information might have been incorrect, and as the world may suppose him a prejudiced writer... it was no small satisfaction to me, to stumble, by accident, on the only means to solve the problem, and do justice to all parties.

The meeting of these two adversaries in the world of spirits,.....each purified from resentment, and actuated by truth and candor....stamps my memoirs with unquestionable veracity.

Previous to my relating the life of Peregrine, I will give my readers a summary of the manner and ceremony of his death.