Page:Man — Fragments of Forgotten History.djvu/12

viii renders them unintelligible to all but the initiated reader, prevents such a course being adopted: hence the necessity of the present plan.

It is herein attempted to show mankind of today what man was ages before those usually reckoned as the era of his first appearance on earth; and the early conditions of the race and its progressive growth will be found to teem with interest and instruction even in the meagre account that follows.

It will, perhaps, be asked—What is the source of information, who are the Teachers? They are the sages of the East, the inheritors of the knowledge of the Magian, the Chaldean, the Egyptian, and the ancient Rishis of India; from one of whom, a beloved and revered Master, known to many in the West as well as in the East, the present writers have received the instruction, part of which is presented to the world in the following pages. With the accuracy of the information here affordad [sic], if not with its fulness, the writers are satisfied, and they give it with the sincere hope that the world, for its own enlightenment, will extend to it an open-minded and wise consideration, notwithstanding the imperfections which the shortcomings of the writers may have produced.

The writers were perfect strangers to each other until they met last spring, and the circumstances which brought them together will be found narrated in the following prefaces. The mystical student of psychology, who knows the inadequacy of a bare statement of facts for the presentation of psychic incidents, will hardly need an apology for the form in which the narratives are cast.