MARK TWAIN

Through having mislaid his notebook, or for
some other reason, this London note was omitted
from the preceding book and here follows:

London, Jan. 7, '97. Last Sunday I struck upon a new
"solution" of a haunting mystery. A great many years ago
I published in the Atlantic "The Recent Carnival of Crime
in Connecticut."1

That was an attempt to account for our seeming dual-
ity—the presence in us of another person; not a slave of
ours, but free and independent, and with a character dis-
tinctly its own. I made my conscience that other person
and it came before me in the form of a malignant dwarf
and told me plain things about myself and shamed me
and scoffed at me and derided me. This creature was so
much its own master that it would leave the premises-
leave its post—forsake its duties—and go off on a spree
with other irresponsible consciences—and discuss their
masters (no—their slaves).

Presently Stevenson published Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. That was nearer this thing. J. and H. were the dual
persons in one body, quite distinct in nature and character
and presumably each with a conscience of its own. Nearer,
yes, but not near enough. Or, to put it differently, a truth
and a falsity harnessed together; the falsity being the
ability of the one person to step into the other person's
place, at will.

I have underscored "conscience of its own," When I
made my conscience my other person, and independent,
with Its own (original) character, it was a mistake. My
conscience is a part of me. It is a mere machine, like my
heart—but moral, not physical; and being moral is teach-
able, its action modifiable. It is merely a thing', the
creature of training* it is whatever one's mother and
Bible and comrades and laws and system of government
1 Included today in his collected works.

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