FRANKENSTEIN
PART 7
Chapter 12
"I
lay on my straw, but I could not sleep. I thought of the occurrences of the
day. What chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people, and I
longed to join them, but dared not. I remembered too well the treatment I had
suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers, and resolved, whatever
course of conduct I might hereafter think it right to pursue, that for the
present I would remain quietly in my hovel, watching and endeavouring to
discover the motives which influenced their actions.
"The
cottagers arose the next morning before the sun. The young woman arranged the
cottage and prepared the food, and the youth departed after the first meal.
"This
day was passed in the same routine as that which preceded it. The young man was
constantly employed out of doors, and the girl in various laborious occupations
within. The old man, whom I soon perceived to be blind, employed his leisure
hours on his instrument or in contemplation. Nothing could exceed the love and
respect which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable
companion. They performed towards him every little office of affection and duty
with gentleness, and he rewarded them by his benevolent smiles.
"They
were not entirely happy. The young man and his companion often went apart and
appeared to weep. I saw no cause for their unhappiness, but I was deeply
affected by it. If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange
that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched. Yet why were these
gentle beings unhappy? They possessed a delightful house (for such it was in my
eyes) and every luxury; they had a fire to warm them when chill and delicious
viands when hungry; they were dressed in excellent clothes; and, still more,
they enjoyed one another's company and speech, interchanging each day looks of
affection and kindness. What did their tears imply? Did they really express
pain? I was at first unable to solve these questions, but perpetual attention
and time explained to me many appearances which were at first enigmatic.
"A
considerable period elapsed before I discovered one of the causes of the
uneasiness of this amiable family: it was poverty, and they suffered that evil
in a very distressing degree. Their nourishment consisted entirely of the
vegetables of their garden and the milk of one cow, which gave very little
during the winter, when its masters could scarcely procure food to support it.
They often, I believe, suffered the pangs of hunger very poignantly, especially
the two younger cottagers, for several times they placed food before the old
man when they reserved none for themselves.
"This
trait of kindness moved me sensibly. I had been accustomed, during the night,
to steal a part of their store for my own consumption, but when I found that in
doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained and satisfied myself
with berries, nuts, and roots which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.
"I
discovered also another means through which I was enabled to assist their
labours. I found that the youth spent a great part of each day in collecting
wood for the family fire, and during the night I often took his tools, the use
of which I quickly discovered, and brought home firing sufficient for the
consumption of several days.
"I
remember, the first time that I did this, the young woman, when she opened the
door in the morning, appeared greatly astonished on seeing a great pile of wood
on the outside. She uttered some words in a loud voice, and the youth joined
her, who also expressed surprise. I observed, with pleasure, that he did not go
to the forest that day, but spent it in repairing the cottage and cultivating
the garden.
"By
degrees I made a discovery of still greater moment. I found that these people
possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one
another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes
produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenances of
the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to
become acquainted with it. But I was baffled in every attempt I made for this
purpose. Their pronunciation was quick, and the words they uttered, not having
any apparent connection with visible objects, I was unable to discover any clue
by which I could unravel the mystery of their reference. By great application,
however, and after having remained during the space of several revolutions of
the moon in my hovel, I discovered the names that were given to some of the
most familiar objects of discourse; I learned and applied the words, 'fire,'
'milk,' 'bread,' and 'wood.' I learned also the names of the cottagers themselves.
The youth and his companion had each of them several names, but the old man had
only one, which was 'father.' The girl was called 'sister' or 'Agatha,' and the
youth 'Felix,' 'brother,' or 'son.' I cannot describe the delight I felt when I
learned the ideas appropriated to each of these sounds and was able to
pronounce them. I distinguished several other words without being able as yet
to understand or apply them, such as 'good,' 'dearest,' 'unhappy.'
"I
spent the winter in this manner. The gentle manners and beauty of the cottagers
greatly endeared them to me; when they were unhappy, I felt depressed; when
they rejoiced, I sympathized in their joys. I saw few human beings besides
them, and if any other happened to enter the cottage, their harsh manners and
rude gait only enhanced to me the superior accomplishments of my friends. The
old man, I could perceive, often endeavoured to encourage his children, as
sometimes I found that he called them, to cast off their melancholy. He would
talk in a cheerful accent, with an expression of goodness that bestowed
pleasure even upon me. Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes filled
with tears, which she endeavoured to wipe away unperceived; but I generally
found that her countenance and tone were more cheerful after having listened to
the exhortations of her father. It was not thus with Felix. He was always the
saddest of the group, and even to my unpractised senses, he appeared to have
suffered more deeply than his friends. But if his countenance was more
sorrowful, his voice was more cheerful than that of his sister, especially when
he addressed the old man.
"I
could mention innumerable instances which, although slight, marked the
dispositions of these amiable cottagers. In the midst of poverty and want,
Felix carried with pleasure to his sister the first little white flower that
peeped out from beneath the snowy ground. Early in the morning, before she had
risen, he cleared away the snow that obstructed her path to the milk-house,
drew water from the well, and brought the wood from the outhouse, where, to his
perpetual astonishment, he found his store always replenished by an invisible
hand. In the day, I believe, he worked sometimes for a neighbouring farmer,
because he often went forth and did not return until dinner, yet brought no
wood with him. At other times he worked in the garden, but as there was little
to do in the frosty season, he read to the old man and Agatha.
"This
reading had puzzled me extremely at first, but by degrees I discovered that he
uttered many of the same sounds when he read as when he talked. I conjectured,
therefore, that he found on the paper signs for speech which he understood, and
I ardently longed to comprehend these also; but how was that possible when I
did not even understand the sounds for which they stood as signs? I improved,
however, sensibly in this science, but not sufficiently to follow up any kind
of conversation, although I applied my whole mind to the endeavour, for I
easily perceived that, although I eagerly longed to discover myself to the
cottagers, I ought not to make the attempt until I had first become master of
their language, which knowledge might enable me to make them overlook the
deformity of my figure, for with this also the contrast perpetually presented
to my eyes had made me acquainted.
"I
had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers—their grace, beauty, and delicate
complexions; but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent
pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was
reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in
reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of
despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects
of this miserable deformity.
"As
the sun became warmer and the light of day longer, the snow vanished, and I
beheld the bare trees and the black earth. From this time Felix was more
employed, and the heart-moving indications of impending famine disappeared.
Their food, as I afterwards found, was coarse, but it was wholesome; and they
procured a sufficiency of it. Several new kinds of plants sprang up in the
garden, which they dressed; and these signs of comfort increased daily as the
season advanced.
"The
old man, leaning on his son, walked each day at noon, when it did not rain, as
I found it was called when the heavens poured forth its waters. This frequently
took place, but a high wind quickly dried the earth, and the season became far
more pleasant than it had been.
"My
mode of life in my hovel was uniform. During the morning I attended the motions
of the cottagers, and when they were dispersed in various occupations, I slept;
the remainder of the day was spent in observing my friends. When they had
retired to rest, if there was any moon or the night was star-light, I went into
the woods and collected my own food and fuel for the cottage. When I returned,
as often as it was necessary, I cleared their path from the snow and performed
those offices that I had seen done by Felix. I afterwards found that these
labours, performed by an invisible hand, greatly astonished them; and once or
twice I heard them, on these occasions, utter the words 'good spirit,'
'wonderful'; but I did not then understand the signification of these terms.
"My
thoughts now became more active, and I longed to discover the motives and
feelings of these lovely creatures; I was inquisitive to know why Felix
appeared so miserable and Agatha so sad. I thought (foolish wretch!) that it
might be in my power to restore happiness to these deserving people. When I
slept or was absent, the forms of the venerable blind father, the gentle
Agatha, and the excellent Felix flitted before me. I looked upon them as
superior beings who would be the arbiters of my future destiny. I formed in my
imagination a thousand pictures of presenting myself to them, and their
reception of me. I imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle
demeanour and conciliating words, I should first win their favour and
afterwards their love.
"These
thoughts exhilarated me and led me to apply with fresh ardour to the acquiring
the art of language. My organs were indeed harsh, but supple; and although my
voice was very unlike the soft music of their tones, yet I pronounced such
words as I understood with tolerable ease. It was as the ass and the lap-dog;
yet surely the gentle ass whose intentions were affectionate, although his
manners were rude, deserved better treatment than blows and execration.
"The
pleasant showers and genial warmth of spring greatly altered the aspect of the
earth. Men who before this change seemed to have been hid in caves dispersed
themselves and were employed in various arts of cultivation. The birds sang in
more cheerful notes, and the leaves began to bud forth on the trees. Happy,
happy earth! Fit habitation for gods, which, so short a time before, was bleak,
damp, and unwholesome. My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of
nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the
future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy."
Chapter 13
"I
now hasten to the more moving part of my story. I shall relate events that
impressed me with feelings which, from what I had been, have made me what I am.
"Spring
advanced rapidly; the weather became fine and the skies cloudless. It surprised
me that what before was desert and gloomy should now bloom with the most
beautiful flowers and verdure. My senses were gratified and refreshed by a
thousand scents of delight and a thousand sights of beauty.
"It
was on one of these days, when my cottagers periodically rested from labour—the
old man played on his guitar, and the children listened to him—that I observed
the countenance of Felix was melancholy beyond expression; he sighed
frequently, and once his father paused in his music, and I conjectured by his
manner that he inquired the cause of his son's sorrow. Felix replied in a
cheerful accent, and the old man was recommencing his music when someone tapped
at the door.
"It
was a lady on horseback, accompanied by a country-man as a guide. The lady was
dressed in a dark suit and covered with a thick black veil. Agatha asked a
question, to which the stranger only replied by pronouncing, in a sweet accent,
the name of Felix. Her voice was musical but unlike that of either of my
friends. On hearing this word, Felix came up hastily to the lady, who, when she
saw him, threw up her veil, and I beheld a countenance of angelic beauty and
expression. Her hair of a shining raven black, and curiously braided; her eyes
were dark, but gentle, although animated; her features of a regular proportion,
and her complexion wondrously fair, each cheek tinged with a lovely pink.
"Felix
seemed ravished with delight when he saw her, every trait of sorrow vanished
from his face, and it instantly expressed a degree of ecstatic joy, of which I
could hardly have believed it capable; his eyes sparkled, as his cheek flushed
with pleasure; and at that moment I thought him as beautiful as the stranger.
She appeared affected by different feelings; wiping a few tears from her lovely
eyes, she held out her hand to Felix, who kissed it rapturously and called her,
as well as I could distinguish, his sweet Arabian. She did not appear to
understand him, but smiled. He assisted her to dismount, and dismissing her
guide, conducted her into the cottage. Some conversation took place between him
and his father, and the young stranger knelt at the old man's feet and would
have kissed his hand, but he raised her and embraced her affectionately.
"I
soon perceived that although the stranger uttered articulate sounds and
appeared to have a language of her own, she was neither understood by nor
herself understood the cottagers. They made many signs which I did not
comprehend, but I saw that her presence diffused gladness through the cottage,
dispelling their sorrow as the sun dissipates the morning mists. Felix seemed
peculiarly happy and with smiles of delight welcomed his Arabian. Agatha, the
ever-gentle Agatha, kissed the hands of the lovely stranger, and pointing to
her brother, made signs which appeared to me to mean that he had been sorrowful
until she came. Some hours passed thus, while they, by their countenances,
expressed joy, the cause of which I did not comprehend. Presently I found, by
the frequent recurrence of some sound which the stranger repeated after them,
that she was endeavouring to learn their language; and the idea instantly
occurred to me that I should make use of the same instructions to the same end.
The stranger learned about twenty words at the first lesson; most of them,
indeed, were those which I had before understood, but I profited by the others.
"As
night came on, Agatha and the Arabian retired early. When they separated Felix
kissed the hand of the stranger and said, 'Good night sweet Safie.' He sat up
much longer, conversing with his father, and by the frequent repetition of her
name I conjectured that their lovely guest was the subject of their
conversation. I ardently desired to understand them, and bent every faculty
towards that purpose, but found it utterly impossible.
"The
next morning Felix went out to his work, and after the usual occupations of
Agatha were finished, the Arabian sat at the feet of the old man, and taking
his guitar, played some airs so entrancingly beautiful that they at once drew
tears of sorrow and delight from my eyes. She sang, and her voice flowed in a
rich cadence, swelling or dying away like a nightingale of the woods.
"When
she had finished, she gave the guitar to Agatha, who at first declined it. She
played a simple air, and her voice accompanied it in sweet accents, but unlike
the wondrous strain of the stranger. The old man appeared enraptured and said
some words which Agatha endeavoured to explain to Safie, and by which he
appeared to wish to express that she bestowed on him the greatest delight by
her music.
"The
days now passed as peaceably as before, with the sole alteration that joy had
taken place of sadness in the countenances of my friends. Safie was always gay
and happy; she and I improved rapidly in the knowledge of language, so that in
two months I began to comprehend most of the words uttered by my protectors.
"In
the meanwhile also the black ground was covered with herbage, and the green
banks interspersed with innumerable flowers, sweet to the scent and the eyes,
stars of pale radiance among the moonlight woods; the sun became warmer, the
nights clear and balmy; and my nocturnal rambles were an extreme pleasure to
me, although they were considerably shortened by the late setting and early
rising of the sun, for I never ventured abroad during daylight, fearful of
meeting with the same treatment I had formerly endured in the first village
which I entered.
"My
days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the
language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who
understood very little and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and
could imitate almost every word that was spoken.
"While
I improved in speech, I also learned the science of letters as it was taught to
the stranger, and this opened before me a wide field for wonder and delight.
"The
book from which Felix instructed Safie was Volney's Ruins of Empires. I should
not have understood the purport of this book had not Felix, in reading it,
given very minute explanations. He had chosen this work, he said, because the
declamatory style was framed in imitation of the Eastern authors. Through this
work I obtained a cursory knowledge of history and a view of the several
empires at present existing in the world; it gave me an insight into the
manners, governments, and religions of the different nations of the earth. I
heard of the slothful Asiatics, of the stupendous genius and mental activity of
the Grecians, of the wars and wonderful virtue of the early Romans—of their
subsequent degenerating—of the decline of that mighty empire, of chivalry,
Christianity, and kings. I heard of the discovery of the American hemisphere
and wept with Safie over the hapless fate of its original inhabitants.
"These
wonderful narrations inspired me with strange feelings. Was man, indeed, at
once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He
appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle and at another as all
that can be conceived of noble and godlike. To be a great and virtuous man
appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and
vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a
condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm. For a long
time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or
even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and
bloodshed, my wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and loathing.
"Every
conversation of the cottagers now opened new wonders to me. While I listened to
the instructions which Felix bestowed upon the Arabian, the strange system of
human society was explained to me. I heard of the division of property, of
immense wealth and squalid poverty, of rank, descent, and noble blood.
"The
words induced me to turn towards myself. I learned that the possessions most esteemed
by your fellow creatures were high and unsullied descent united with riches. A
man might be respected with only one of these advantages, but without either he
was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave,
doomed to waste his powers for the profits of the chosen few! And what was I?
Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I
possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued
with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same
nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet;
I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature
far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was
I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all
men disowned?
"I
cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I
tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had
forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of
hunger, thirst, and heat!
"Of
what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once
seized on it like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all
thought and feeling, but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the
sensation of pain, and that was death—a state which I feared yet did not
understand. I admired virtue and good feelings and loved the gentle manners and
amiable qualities of my cottagers, but I was shut out from intercourse with
them, except through means which I obtained by stealth, when I was unseen and
unknown, and which rather increased than satisfied the desire I had of becoming
one among my fellows. The gentle words of Agatha and the animated smiles of the
charming Arabian were not for me. The mild exhortations of the old man and the
lively conversation of the loved Felix were not for me. Miserable, unhappy
wretch!
"Other
lessons were impressed upon me even more deeply. I heard of the difference of
sexes, and the birth and growth of children, how the father doted on the smiles
of the infant, and the lively sallies of the older child, how all the life and
cares of the mother were wrapped up in the precious charge, how the mind of
youth expanded and gained knowledge, of brother, sister, and all the various
relationships which bind one human being to another in mutual bonds.
"But
where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no
mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past
life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my
earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had
never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me.
What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.
"I
will soon explain to what these feelings tended, but allow me now to return to
the cottagers, whose story excited in me such various feelings of indignation,
delight, and wonder, but which all terminated in additional love and reverence
for my protectors (for so I loved, in an innocent, half-painful self-deceit, to
call them)."
To be continued
