PART ONE
ISOLATED INCIDENTS

We live on a placid island of
ignorance in the midst of black
seas of infinity, and it was not
meant that we should voyage far.
The sciences, each straining in its
own direction, have hitherto
harmed us little; but some day the
piecing together of dissociated
knowledge will open up such
terrifying vistas of reality, and of
our frightful position therein,
that we shall either go mad from
the revelation or flee from the
deadly light into the peace and
safety of a new dark age.

HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT, 1926