CHAPTER I. TO THE READER
Before the history of any life can be written, that life must be lived;so that it is not my life that I am now writing. Attacked in early youthby an abominable moral malady, I here narrate what happened to me duringthe space of three years. Were I the only victim of that disease, Iwould say nothing, but as many others suffer from the same evil, I writefor them, although I am not sure that they will give heed to me. Shouldmy warning be unheeded, I shall still have reaped the fruit of myagonizing in having cured myself, and, like the fox caught in a trap,shall have gnawed off my captive foot.