The Book of Were-Wolves/Preface
PREFACE.
This book is a monograph on a peculiar form of popular superstition, prevalent among all nations, and in all ages.
That this is an exhaustive treatise, I do not pretend. I have material by me which would have extended it to double its size, but without tending further to elucidate the subject.
There are several interesting subjects connected with Lycanthropy, such as metempsychosis, innate cruelty, hallucination, &c., which could only be touched upon and indicated in the following pages, without being thoroughly investigated; this may give a fragmentary character to the book, but this, I believe, was unavoidable, without vastly extending its limits. The arrangement that I have followed will be found sketched out at the close of the introductory chapter. The chapter on a Galician cannibal has already appeared in print, in Once a Week.
I propose making this the first of a series on Popular Superstitions, to be followed by Treatises on Marine Monsters, as Mermaids and Sea-Serpents, Vampires, the Wild Huntsman, the Wandering Jew, &c.
The subject of this first instalment, though horrible, is nevertheless full of interest and importance as elucidating a very obscure and mysterious chapter in the history of the Human Mind. When a form of superstition is prevalent everywhere, and in all ages, it must rest upon a foundation of fact; what that foundation actually is, I have, I hope, proved conclusively in the following pages.