Франкенштейн, или Современный Прометей / Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus

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He then took me into his laboratory and explained to me the uses of his various machines. He also gave me the list of books. That day decided my future destiny.

Chapter 4

From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, became my sole occupation. I read with ardour those works, I attended the lectures. In M. Waldman I found a true friend. In a thousand ways he smoothed for me the path of knowledge and made the most abstruse inquiries clear and facile.

My progress was rapid. Two years passed in this manner, during which I did not come to Geneva.

I hoped to make great discoveries.

One of the phenomena which peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of the human body. Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life come? It was a bold question. I began to study physiology. My application to this study was irksome and almost intolerable. To examine the causes of life, we must first examine death. I studied the science of anatomy, but this was not sufficient.

I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body!

I was not afraid of darkness, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies, which became food for the worm. Now I wanted to examine the cause and progress of this decay and spent days and nights in vaults. I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted. I beheld the corruption of death; I saw how the worm inherited the eye and brain.

Remember, I am not a madman. After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I discovered the cause of life.

Moreover, I knew how to animate the lifeless matter.

The astonishment soon gave place to delight and rapture. This discovery was great and overwhelming.

I see, my friend, that you expect to hear that secret. That cannot be. Listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why not.

I found a power within my hands. But where to employ it? I could animate a lifeless body. How to prepare a frame for it? With all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins.

I wanted to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man. So I began the creation of a human being. I resolved to make the gigantic being, about eight feet in height. I collected and arranged my materials, and then I began.

I was the first man to know the secret of life and death! a new species will bless me as its creator. If I can bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I can renew life.