Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/14

6 reigns. Oh, Willie, Willie, what a life mine has been! You will find among my effects, when I shall be removed from this world of trouble, a history of the trials and temptations to which I have been exposed. My great enemy is living still, and as active and determined as ever. Whether he is the king of evil himself, or merely a satrap of his empire, I cannot tell. The work I leave behind me fully describes him, and the conflicts I had with him. It is not a religious work. Many will despise it, doubtless, on account of the strain of merriment which runs through it; others will condemn it, because they will find it difficult to understand its hidden meanings, or to believe in the worth of its moral teaching. I leave it with you, Willie, to publish it, if you can find a publisher. Now let us go home; my mind is at rest; but all my life I have been in terror lest I should fall into the hell of unbelief, and so lose all hope of that glorious heaven on which I had set my heart.'

Some two or three months after this conversation we buried our aged progenitor, not without tears. He left his small estate in Tasmania to my parents, and through them it is destined to become mine. And to my sister he left all his personal property, which proved to be not inconsiderable.

The following is the work of which he had told me, and it is now published with very few alterations. Before its readers venture to condemn it for its 'absurdities,' will they receive the assurance that it was written by the author with a serious purpose, if also in the hope of amusing his fellow-men, whose happiness my great-grandfather always took in promoting?