PREFACE
This is a true story.
It has been rewritten only so far as was necessary
to conceal personalities.
It is a terrible story; but it is also a story of hope
and of beauty.
It reveals with startling clearness the abyss on which
our civilisation trembles. .
But the self-same Light illuminates the path of
humanity : it is our own fault if we go over the brink.
This story is also true not only of one kind of human
weakness, but (by analogy) of all kinds; and for all
alike there is but one way of salvation.
As Glanvil says: Man is not subjected to the angels,
nor even unto death utterly, save through the weak-
ness of his own feeble will.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
ALEISTER CROWLEY.