PREFACE 
ix 
this Caucasian mistress of vice so refined and lucid that 
it overtopped the highest peaks of virtue, gave me not 
one line, one thought.  I no longer aspired to be a 
poet ;  I was content to be a Chinese God ;  and of my 
success in this minor matter there is unhappily little 
doubt. 
Enough of this disastrous affair.  The play is ruined ;  
if I offer it to the public, it is that they may learn the 
great moral lesson, not to mix their drinks. 
 
ALEISTER CROWLEY.