My Library

reached, therefore not to be looked for. Friendship is an empty name, or convenient cloak which men put on to enable them to rob with greater facility. No man is content to see another rise, except when such rising will assist his own elevation; and the man behind will stab the man in front, if he stands in his way. Human nature is infantile, childish, weak, passionate and desperately depraved, and as a rule, they are the greater villains who assume the most sanctity; they the most selfish who prate loudest of charity, faith and love. I begin my tutelage by warning, therefore arming you, against the world and those who constitute it. If you wish to truly rise, you must first learn to put the world and what it contains at its proper value. Remember, I who speak am Ettelavar. Awake!’ “Like the sudden black cloud in eastern seas, there came a darkness before me; my eyes opened, and fell upon the old clock face. Its hands told me that it was exactly thirteen minutes since I had marked the hour on the dial. Since that hour I have had much similar experience, and it is this that affords ground for the unusual powers in certain respects, not claimed by, but attributed to me.” ... Such was the substance of the young man’s narrative, in answer to questions propounded to him long before the date at which he is introduced to the reader.