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"The atrocities constituting this "cold collation" of diabolisms are
taken mainly from various Californian journals. They are cast in the American
language, and liberally enriched with unintelligibility. If they shall prove
incomprehensible on this side of the Atlantic, the reader can pass to the other
side at a moderately extortionate charge. In the pursuit of my design I think I
have killed a good many people in one way and another; but the reader will
please to observe that they were not people worth the trouble of leaving alive.
Besides, I had the interests of my collaborator to consult. In writing, as in
compiling, I have been ably assisted by my scholarly friend Mr. Satan; and to
this worthy gentleman must be attributed most of the views herein set forth.
While the plan of the work is partly my own, its spirit is wholly his; and this
illustrates the ascendancy of the creative over the merely imitative mind.
Palmam qui meruit ferat-I shall be content with the profit."
- Excerpted from "The Fiend's Delight"