me to conceal my experiences from my fellow-men. I believe mankind has now
reached a stage of enlightenment--at least, in this country--when the
person who makes strange discoveries which cannot be explained, and the
person who announces facts which cannot be comprehended by the human mind,
need not fear to be punished as a sorcerer, or thrust into a cell as a
lunatic. I may be mistaken in regard to this latter point, but I think
I am right. In any case, I do not wish to live much longer as I have been
living. As I must live on, with generation after generation rising up
about me, I want those generations to know before they depart from this
earth that I am a person who does not die. I am tired of deceptions; I am
tired of leaving the places where I have lived long and am known, and
arriving in other places where I am a stranger, and where I must begin
my life again.

"I do not wish to be in a hurry to make my revelations to the world at
large. I do not wish to startle people without being able to show them
proof of what I say. I wish to speak only to persons who are worthy to
hear my story, and I have begun with you. I do not want you to believe
me until you are quite ready to do so. Think over what I have said,
consider it carefully, and make up your mind slowly.

"You are a young man in good health, and you will, in all probability,
live long enough to assure yourself of the truth or falsity of what
I have told you about my indefinite longevity. I should be glad to relate
my story to scientific men, to physicians, to students; but, as I have
said, we shall wait for that. In the meantime, you may, if you choose,
write down what I have told you, or as much of it as you remember. I have
no written records of my past life. Long, long ago I made such, but
I destroyed them, for I knew not what evil they might bring upon me were
they discovered. But you may write the little I have told you, and when