Produced by Greg Weeks, George P. Snoga, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net MIZORA: A PROPHECY. A MSS. FOUND AMONG THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF THE PRINCESS VERA ZAROVITCH; _Being a true and faithful account of her Journey to the Interior of the Earth, with a careful description of the Country and its Inhabitants, their Customs, Manners and Government._ WRITTEN BY HERSELF. [Illustration: Publisher's logo] NEW YORK: _G. W. Dillingham, Publisher_, Successor to G. W. Carleton & Co. MDCCCXC. _All Rights Reserved._ Copyright, 1889 by Mary E. Bradley. PREFACE. The narrative of Vera Zarovitch, published in the _Cincinnati Commercial_ in 1880 and 1881, attracted a great deal of attention. It commanded a wide circle of readers, and there was much more said about it than is usual when works of fiction run through a newspaper in weekly installments. Quite a number of persons who are unaccustomed to bestowing consideration upon works of fiction spoke of it, and grew greatly interested in it. I received many messages about it, and letters of inquiry, and some ladies and gentlemen desired to know the particulars about the production of the story in book form; and were inquisitive about it and the author who kept herself in concealment so closely that even her husband did not know that she was the writer who was making this stir in our limited literary world. I was myself so much interested in it that it occurred to me to make the suggestion that the story ought to have an extensive sale in book form, and to write to a publisher; but the lady who wrote the work seemed herself a shade indifferent on the subject, and it passed out of my hands and out of my mind. It is safe to say that it made an impression that was remarkable, and with a larger audience I do not doubt that it would make its mark as an original production wrought out with thoughtful care and literary skill, and take high rank. Yours very truly, Murat Halstead. _Nov. 14th, 1889._ PART FIRST CHAPTER I. Having little knowledge of rhetorical art, and possessing but a limited imagination, it is only a strong sense of the duty I owe to Science and the progressive minds of the age, that induces me to come before the public in the character of an author. True, I have only a simple narration of facts to deal with, and am, therefore, not expected to present artistic effects, and poetical imagery, nor any of those flights of imagination that are the trial and test of genius.