ABSTRACT
‘Magic’ was the heading I had in mind for the present chapter, but I have changed it at the last minute, considering that in modern English we employ this word only when speaking of something which is not magic: a conjuring trick for example, or even the drying property of a certain make of paint. The Supernatural’, which I next thought of, would fill the bill, but fill it to overflowing; being hallowed on a plane far above most of what I shall be writing about. So I have come down a peg or two to fix on The Preternatural’. My definition of this is: that which, situated alongside the world of the senses, is not explicable by the known laws of physical science. By insisting on the preposition ‘alongside’ I hope to convey that this adjacent region is not heaven, that its inhabitants are as often as not cantankerous, spiteful, malevolent, and deserve to be outwitted by stratagem or, should they unhappily get inside you, to be cast out for the devils they are.
