r, when it
is too late, that both God and immortality exist, you have only
yourselves to blame. We are the arbiters of our own fate, and that fact
is the most important one of our lives. Our WILL is positively
unfettered; it is a rudder put freely into our hands, and with it we
can steer WHEREVER WE CHOOSE. God will not COMPEL our love or
obedience. We must ourselves DESIRE to love and obey--DESIRE IT ABOVE
ALL THINGS IN THE WORLD.

As for the Electric Origin of the Universe, a time is coming when
scientific men will acknowledge it to be the only theory of Creation
worthy of acceptance. All the wonders of Nature are the result of LIGHT
AND HEAT ALONE--i.e., are the work of the Electric Ring I have
endeavoured to describe, which MUST go on producing, absorbing and
reproducing worlds, suns and systems for ever and ever. The Ring, in
its turn, is merely the outcome of God's own personality--the
atmosphere surrounding the World in which He has His existence--a World
created by Love and for Love alone. I cannot force this theory on
public attention, which is at present claimed by various learned
professors, who give ingenious explanations of "atoms" and "molecules;"
yet, even regarding these same "atoms," the mild question may be put:
Where did the FIRST "atom" come from? Some may answer: "We call the
first atom GOD." Surely it is as well to call Him a Spirit of pure
Light as an atom? However, the fact of one person's being convinced of
a truth will not, I am aware, go very far to convince others. I have
related my "experience" exactly as it happened at the time, and my
readers can accept or deny the theories of Heliobas as they please.
Neither denial, acceptance, criticism, nor incredulity can affect ME
personally, inasmuch as I am not Heliobas, but simply the narrator of
an episode connected with him; and as such, my task is finished.

APPENDIX.

[In publishing these selections from letters received concerning the
"Romance," I am in honour bound not to disclose the names of my
correspondents, and this necessary reticence will no doubt induce the
incredulous to declare that they are not genuine epistles, but mere
inventions of my own. I am quite prepared for such a possible
aspersion, and in reply, I can but say that I hold the originals in my
possession, and that some of them have been read by my friend Mr.
George Bentley, under whose auspices this book has been successfully
launched on the sea of public favour.