I write to you of a morbid affair of honour and of reason that has afflicted both the likes of our dear friend the late Doctor Lanyon and myself to a degree of incalculable lament. It is time the likes of my immoral research and the tempestuous Mr. Hyde were palliated for my distress can no longer be confined to my liking. Yet I admit it is this knowledge that killed Lanyon and blackened to no exaggeration his soul.
My nature forbade me to carry out the true hyperbolic side of my character, a terrible shackle upon my soul and a hard life to conceal. Eventually I was inspired by the idea of a duplicate life; with another identity I could hold my head high and break from my humble self. Yet philosophical thinking and the side effects that could arise as the result of such experiments I put aside, and woe did betide me when these effects were presented and I knew I was guilty of a black sin. …
