The Island of Doctor Moreau, H. G. Wells [best free ebook reader for pc .TXT] 📗

more rarely. I have withdrawn myself from the confusion of cities

and multitudes, and spend my days surrounded by wise books,—

bright windows in this life of ours, lit by the shining souls of men.

I see few strangers, and have but a small household.

My days I devote to reading and to experiments in chemistry,

and I spend many of the clear nights in the study of astronomy.

There is—though I do not know how there is or why there is—a sense

of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven.

There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter,

and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever

is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope. I hope,

or I could not live.

And so, in hope and solitude, my story ends.

EDWARD PRENDICK.

NOTE. The substance of the chapter entitled “Doctor Moreau explains,”

which contains the essential idea of the story, appeared as a middle

article in the “Saturday Review” in January, 1895. This is

the only portion of this story that has been previously published,

and it has been entirely recast to adapt it to the narrative form.

End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Island of Doctor Moreau