"I was born to a large fortune and a good mind, but I had a certain impatient gaiety that I hid from the world. Thus I came to live a double life, and I saw that man is not truly one, but two. If each self could be housed in a separate body, life would be easier to bear. I worked long at this idea, and at last I mixed the drug and drank it. The most racking pains followed; then I came to myself as if out of a great sickness, younger, lighter, happier in body, and I knew myself at the first breath to be more wicked. That night I was Edward Hyde. At first I could change back at will. But the evil side grew stronger with use. There came a morning when I woke in my own bed as Hyde, without the drug. Then I knew that I was losing my hold, and that the salt I had used was impure and could not be found again. This is my true hour of death. Here, as I lay down the pen, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end."