FRANKENSTEIN
PART 3
Chapter 3
When I had
attained the age of seventeen my parents resolved that I should become a
student at the university of Ingolstadt. I had hitherto attended the schools of
Geneva, but my father thought it necessary for the completion of my education
that I should be made acquainted with other customs than those of my native
country. My departure was therefore fixed at an early date, but before the day
resolved upon could arrive, the first misfortune of my life occurred—an omen,
as it were, of my future misery. Elizabeth had caught the scarlet fever; her
illness was severe, and she was in the greatest danger. During her illness many
arguments had been urged to persuade my mother to refrain from attending upon
her. She had at first yielded to our entreaties, but when she heard that the
life of her favourite was menaced, she could no longer control her anxiety. She
attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of
the distemper—Elizabeth was saved, but the consequences of this imprudence were
fatal to her preserver. On the third day my mother sickened; her fever was
accompanied by the most alarming symptoms, and the looks of her medical
attendants prognosticated the worst event. On her deathbed the fortitude and
benignity of this best of women did not desert her. She joined the hands of
Elizabeth and myself. "My children," she said, "my firmest hopes
of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation
will now be the consolation of your father. Elizabeth, my love, you must supply
my place to my younger children. Alas! I regret that I am taken from you; and,
happy and beloved as I have been, is it not hard to quit you all? But these are
not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to
death and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world."
She died
calmly, and her countenance expressed affection even in death. I need not
describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most
irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair
that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can
persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence
appeared a part of our own can have departed forever—that the brightness of a beloved
eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to
the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the
first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the
actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent
away some dear connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all have
felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an
indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips, although
it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. My mother was dead, but we had
still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the
rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler
has not seized.
My
departure for Ingolstadt, which had been deferred by these events, was now
again determined upon. I obtained from my father a respite of some weeks. It
appeared to me sacrilege so soon to leave the repose, akin to death, of the
house of mourning and to rush into the thick of life. I was new to sorrow, but
it did not the less alarm me. I was unwilling to quit the sight of those that
remained to me, and above all, I desired to see my sweet Elizabeth in some
degree consoled.
She indeed
veiled her grief and strove to act the comforter to us all. She looked steadily
on life and assumed its duties with courage and zeal. She devoted herself to
those whom she had been taught to call her uncle and cousins. Never was she so
enchanting as at this time, when she recalled the sunshine of her smiles and
spent them upon us. She forgot even her own regret in her endeavours to make us
forget.
The day of
my departure at length arrived. Clerval spent the last evening with us. He had
endeavoured to persuade his father to permit him to accompany me and to become
my fellow student, but in vain. His father was a narrow-minded trader and saw
idleness and ruin in the aspirations and ambition of his son. Henry deeply felt
the misfortune of being debarred from a liberal education. He said little, but
when he spoke I read in his kindling eye and in his animated glance a
restrained but firm resolve not to be chained to the miserable details of
commerce.
We sat
late. We could not tear ourselves away from each other nor persuade ourselves
to say the word "Farewell!" It was said, and we retired under the
pretence of seeking repose, each fancying that the other was deceived; but when
at morning's dawn I descended to the carriage which was to convey me away, they
were all there—my father again to bless me, Clerval to press my hand once more,
my Elizabeth to renew her entreaties that I would write often and to bestow the
last feminine attentions on her playmate and friend.
I threw
myself into the chaise that was to convey me away and indulged in the most
melancholy reflections. I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions,
continually engaged in endeavouring to bestow mutual pleasure—I was now alone.
In the university whither I was going I must form my own friends and be my own
protector. My life had hitherto been remarkably secluded and domestic, and this
had given me invincible repugnance to new countenances. I loved my brothers,
Elizabeth, and Clerval; these were "old familiar faces," but I believed
myself totally unfitted for the company of strangers. Such were my reflections
as I commenced my journey; but as I proceeded, my spirits and hopes rose. I
ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge. I had often, when at home,
thought it hard to remain during my youth cooped up in one place and had longed
to enter the world and take my station among other human beings. Now my desires
were complied with, and it would, indeed, have been folly to repent.
I had
sufficient leisure for these and many other reflections during my journey to
Ingolstadt, which was long and fatiguing. At length the high white steeple of
the town met my eyes. I alighted and was conducted to my solitary apartment to
spend the evening as I pleased.
The next
morning I delivered my letters of introduction and paid a visit to some of the
principal professors. Chance—or rather the evil influence, the Angel of
Destruction, which asserted omnipotent sway over me from the moment I turned my
reluctant steps from my father's door—led me first to M. Krempe, professor of
natural philosophy. He was an uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of
his science. He asked me several questions concerning my progress in the
different branches of science appertaining to natural philosophy. I replied
carelessly, and partly in contempt, mentioned the names of my alchemists as the
principal authors I had studied. The professor stared. "Have you," he
said, "really spent your time in studying such nonsense?"
I replied
in the affirmative. "Every minute," continued M. Krempe with warmth,
"every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely
lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems and useless names.
Good God! In what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to
inform you that these fancies which you have so greedily imbibed are a thousand
years old and as musty as they are ancient? I little expected, in this
enlightened and scientific age, to find a disciple of Albertus Magnus and
Paracelsus. My dear sir, you must begin your studies entirely anew."
So saying,
he stepped aside and wrote down a list of several books treating of natural
philosophy which he desired me to procure, and dismissed me after mentioning
that in the beginning of the following week he intended to commence a course of
lectures upon natural philosophy in its general relations, and that M. Waldman,
a fellow professor, would lecture upon chemistry the alternate days that he
omitted.
I returned
home not disappointed, for I have said that I had long considered those authors
useless whom the professor reprobated; but I returned not at all the more
inclined to recur to these studies in any shape. M. Krempe was a little squat
man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did
not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits. In rather a too philosophical and
connected a strain, perhaps, I have given an account of the conclusions I had
come to concerning them in my early years. As a child I had not been content
with the results promised by the modern professors of natural science. With a
confusion of ideas only to be accounted for by my extreme youth and my want of
a guide on such matters, I had retrod the steps of knowledge along the paths of
time and exchanged the discoveries of recent inquirers for the dreams of
forgotten alchemists. Besides, I had a contempt for the uses of modern natural
philosophy. It was very different when the masters of the science sought
immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand; but now the
scene was changed. The ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the
annihilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly
founded. I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for
realities of little worth.
Such were
my reflections during the first two or three days of my residence at
Ingolstadt, which were chiefly spent in becoming acquainted with the localities
and the principal residents in my new abode. But as the ensuing week commenced,
I thought of the information which M. Krempe had given me concerning the
lectures. And although I could not consent to go and hear that little conceited
fellow deliver sentences out of a pulpit, I recollected what he had said of M.
Waldman, whom I had never seen, as he had hitherto been out of town.
Partly
from curiosity and partly from idleness, I went into the lecturing room, which
M. Waldman entered shortly after. This professor was very unlike his colleague.
He appeared about fifty years of age, but with an aspect expressive of the
greatest benevolence; a few grey hairs covered his temples, but those at the
back of his head were nearly black. His person was short but remarkably erect
and his voice the sweetest I had ever heard. He began his lecture by a recapitulation
of the history of chemistry and the various improvements made by different men
of learning, pronouncing with fervour the names of the most distinguished
discoverers. He then took a cursory view of the present state of the science
and explained many of its elementary terms. After having made a few preparatory
experiments, he concluded with a panegyric upon modern chemistry, the terms of
which I shall never forget: "The ancient teachers of this science,"
said he, "promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern
masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and
that the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem
only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible,
have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and
show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they
have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe.
They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the
thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world
with its own shadows."
Such were
the professor's words—rather let me say such the words of the fate—enounced to
destroy me. As he went on I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable
enemy; one by one the various keys were touched which formed the mechanism of
my being; chord after chord was sounded, and soon my mind was filled with one
thought, one conception, one purpose. So much has been done, exclaimed the soul
of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already
marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the
world the deepest mysteries of creation.
I closed
not my eyes that night. My internal being was in a state of insurrection and
turmoil; I felt that order would thence arise, but I had no power to produce
it. By degrees, after the morning's dawn, sleep came. I awoke, and my
yesternight's thoughts were as a dream. There only remained a resolution to
return to my ancient studies and to devote myself to a science for which I
believed myself to possess a natural talent. On the same day I paid M. Waldman
a visit. His manners in private were even more mild and attractive than in
public, for there was a certain dignity in his mien during his lecture which in
his own house was replaced by the greatest affability and kindness. I gave him
pretty nearly the same account of my former pursuits as I had given to his fellow
professor. He heard with attention the little narration concerning my studies
and smiled at the names of Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus, but without the
contempt that M. Krempe had exhibited. He said that "These were men to
whose indefatigable zeal modern philosophers were indebted for most of the
foundations of their knowledge. They had left to us, as an easier task, to give
new names and arrange in connected classifications the facts which they in a
great degree had been the instruments of bringing to light. The labours of men
of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately
turning to the solid advantage of mankind." I listened to his statement,
which was delivered without any presumption or affectation, and then added that
his lecture had removed my prejudices against modern chemists; I expressed
myself in measured terms, with the modesty and deference due from a youth to
his instructor, without letting escape (inexperience in life would have made me
ashamed) any of the enthusiasm which stimulated my intended labours. I
requested his advice concerning the books I ought to procure.
"I am
happy," said M. Waldman, "to have gained a disciple; and if your
application equals your ability, I have no doubt of your success. Chemistry is
that branch of natural philosophy in which the greatest improvements have been
and may be made; it is on that account that I have made it my peculiar study;
but at the same time, I have not neglected the other branches of science. A man
would make but a very sorry chemist if he attended to that department of human
knowledge alone. If your wish is to become really a man of science and not
merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of
natural philosophy, including mathematics." He then took me into his
laboratory and explained to me the uses of his various machines, instructing me
as to what I ought to procure and promising me the use of his own when I should
have advanced far enough in the science not to derange their mechanism. He also
gave me the list of books which I had requested, and I took my leave.
Thus ended
a day memorable to me; it decided my future destiny.
Chapter 4
From this
day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive
sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation. I read with ardour those
works, so full of genius and discrimination, which modern inquirers have
written on these subjects. I attended the lectures and cultivated the
acquaintance of the men of science of the university, and I found even in M.
Krempe a great deal of sound sense and real information, combined, it is true,
with a repulsive physiognomy and manners, but not on that account the less
valuable. In M. Waldman I found a true friend. His gentleness was never tinged
by dogmatism, and his instructions were given with an air of frankness and good
nature that banished every idea of pedantry. In a thousand ways he smoothed for
me the path of knowledge and made the most abstruse inquiries clear and facile
to my apprehension. My application was at first fluctuating and uncertain; it
gained strength as I proceeded and soon became so ardent and eager that the
stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my
laboratory.
As I
applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that my progress was rapid. My
ardour was indeed the astonishment of the students, and my proficiency that of
the masters. Professor Krempe often asked me, with a sly smile, how Cornelius
Agrippa went on, whilst M. Waldman expressed the most heartfelt exultation in
my progress. Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to
Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries
which I hoped to make. None but those who have experienced them can conceive of
the enticements of science. In other studies you go as far as others have gone
before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit
there is continual food for discovery and wonder. A mind of moderate capacity
which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in
that study; and I, who continually sought the attainment of one object of
pursuit and was solely wrapped up in this, improved so rapidly that at the end
of two years I made some discoveries in the improvement of some chemical
instruments, which procured me great esteem and admiration at the university.
When I had arrived at this point and had become as well acquainted with the
theory and practice of natural philosophy as depended on the lessons of any of
the professors at Ingolstadt, my residence there being no longer conducive to
my improvements, I thought of returning to my friends and my native town, when
an incident happened that protracted my stay.
One of the
phenomena which had peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of the
human frame, and, indeed, any animal endued with life. Whence, I often asked
myself, did the principle of life proceed? It was a bold question, and one
which has ever been considered as a mystery; yet with how many things are we
upon the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not
restrain our inquiries. I revolved these circumstances in my mind and
determined thenceforth to apply myself more particularly to those branches of
natural philosophy which relate to physiology. Unless I had been animated by an
almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been
irksome and almost intolerable. To examine the causes of life, we must first
have recourse to death. I became acquainted with the science of anatomy, but
this was not sufficient; I must also observe the natural decay and corruption
of the human body. In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions
that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors. I do not ever
remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the
apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard
was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being
the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm. Now I was led to
examine the cause and progress of this decay and forced to spend days and
nights in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon every object
the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. I saw how the
fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death
succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the wonders
of the eye and brain. I paused, examining and analysing all the minutiae of
causation, as exemplified in the change from life to death, and death to life,
until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me—a light
so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I became dizzy with the
immensity of the prospect which it illustrated, I was surprised that among so
many men of genius who had directed their inquiries towards the same science,
that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.
Remember,
I am not recording the vision of a madman. The sun does not more certainly
shine in the heavens than that which I now affirm is true. Some miracle might
have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable.
After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in
discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself
capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.
The
astonishment which I had at first experienced on this discovery soon gave place
to delight and rapture. After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive
at once at the summit of my desires was the most gratifying consummation of my
toils. But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by
which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only
the result. What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the
creation of the world was now within my grasp. Not that, like a magic scene, it
all opened upon me at once: the information I had obtained was of a nature
rather to direct my endeavours so soon as I should point them towards the
object of my search than to exhibit that object already accomplished. I was
like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life,
aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffectual light.
I see by
your eagerness and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that
you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot
be; listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive
why I am reserved upon that subject. I will not lead you on, unguarded and
ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from me,
if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement
of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to
be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.
When I
found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time
concerning the manner in which I should employ it. Although I possessed the
capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of
it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins, still remained a
work of inconceivable difficulty and labour. I doubted at first whether I
should attempt the creation of a being like myself, or one of simpler
organization; but my imagination was too much exalted by my first success to
permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and
wonderful as man. The materials at present within my command hardly appeared
adequate to so arduous an undertaking, but I doubted not that I should
ultimately succeed. I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my
operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect, yet
when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and
mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the
foundations of future success. Nor could I consider the magnitude and
complexity of my plan as any argument of its impracticability. It was with
these feelings that I began the creation of a human being. As the minuteness of
the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my
first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about
eight feet in height, and proportionably large. After having formed this
determination and having spent some months in successfully collecting and
arranging my materials, I began.
No one can
conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in
the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds,
which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark
world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and
excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the
gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs. Pursuing these
reflections, I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I
might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where
death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.
These
thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my undertaking with unremitting
ardour. My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated
with confinement. Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I failed; yet
still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realize.
One secret which I alone possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated
myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and
breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who shall conceive
the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the
grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay? My limbs now
tremble, and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless and
almost frantic impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or
sensation but for this one pursuit. It was indeed but a passing trance, that
only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural stimulus
ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits. I collected bones from
charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of
the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the
house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase,
I kept my workshop of filthy creation; my eyeballs were starting from their
sockets in attending to the details of my employment. The dissecting room and
the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did my human
nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an
eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.
The summer
months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was
a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest
or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage, but my eyes were insensible to the
charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around
me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and
whom I had not seen for so long a time. I knew my silence disquieted them, and
I well remembered the words of my father: "I know that while you are
pleased with yourself you will think of us with affection, and we shall hear
regularly from you. You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your
correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected."
I knew
well therefore what would be my father's feelings, but I could not tear my
thoughts from my employment, loathsome in itself, but which had taken an
irresistible hold of my imagination. I wished, as it were, to procrastinate all
that related to my feelings of affection until the great object, which
swallowed up every habit of my nature, should be completed.
I then
thought that my father would be unjust if he ascribed my neglect to vice or
faultiness on my part, but I am now convinced that he was justified in
conceiving that I should not be altogether free from blame. A human being in
perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow
passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that
the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which
you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your
taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that
study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. If
this rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to
interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not been
enslaved, Caesar would have spared his country, America would have been
discovered more gradually, and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been
destroyed.
But I
forget that I am moralizing in the most interesting part of my tale, and your
looks remind me to proceed. My father made no reproach in his letters and only
took notice of my silence by inquiring into my occupations more particularly
than before. Winter, spring, and summer passed away during my labours; but I
did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before always
yielded me supreme delight—so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation. The
leaves of that year had withered before my work drew near to a close, and now
every day showed me more plainly how well I had succeeded. But my enthusiasm
was checked by my anxiety, and I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery to
toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade than an artist occupied by
his favourite employment. Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I
became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I
shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime. Sometimes I
grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived that I had become; the energy of my
purpose alone sustained me: my labours would soon end, and I believed that
exercise and amusement would then drive away incipient disease; and I promised
myself both of these when my creation should be complete.
To be continued
