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1One of the phenomena which had peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of the human frame, and, indeed, any
2animal endued with life. Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed? It was a bold question, and
3one which has ever been considered as a mystery; yet with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted,
4if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries. I revolved these circumstances in my mind and determined
5thenceforth to apply myself more particularly to those branches of natural philosophy which relate to physiology. Unless
6I had been animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been irksome and
7almost intolerable. To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death. I became acquainted with the
8science of anatomy, but this was not sufficient; I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body.
9In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural
10horrors. I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit.
11Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life,
12which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm. Now I was led to examine the cause and
13progress of this decay and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon
14every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. I saw how the fine form of man was degraded
15and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the
16wonders of the eye and brain. I paused, examining and analysing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in the
17change from life to death, and death to life, until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me--a
18light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it
19illustrated, I was surprised that among so many men of genius who had directed their inquiries towards the same science,
20that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret. Remember, I am not recording the vision of a
21madman. The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens than that which I now affirm is true. Some miracle might
22have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable. After days and nights of incredible labour
23and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of
24bestowing animation upon lifeless matter. The astonishment which I had at first experienced on this discovery soon gave
25place to delight and rapture. After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires
26was the most gratifying consummation of my toils. But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by
27which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result. What had been the study and
28desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp. Not that, like a magic scene, it all
29opened upon me at once: the information I had obtained was of a nature rather to direct my endeavours so soon as I
30should point them towards the object of my search than to exhibit that object already accomplished. I was like the
31Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly
32ineffectual light. I see by your eagerness and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect
33to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be; listen patiently until the end of my story, and
34you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject. I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then
35was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how
36dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world,
37than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow. When I found so astonishing a power placed within my
38hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it. Although I possessed the capacity of
39bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and
40veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labour. I doubted at first whether I should attempt the
41creation of a being like myself, or one of simpler organization; but my imagination was too much exalted by my first
42success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man. The materials at
43present within my command hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an undertaking, but I doubted not that I should
44ultimately succeed. I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at
45last my work be imperfect, yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I
46was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success. Nor could I consider
47the magnitude and complexity of my plan as any argument of its impracticability. It was with these feelings that I began
48the creation of a human being. As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary
49to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and
50proportionably large. After having formed this determination and having spent some months in successfully collecting and
51arranging my materials, I began. No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in
52the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and
53pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and
54excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I
55should deserve theirs. Pursuing these reflections, I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I
56might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to
57corruption. These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my undertaking with unremitting ardour. My cheek had
58grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement. Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I
59failed; yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour might realise. One secret which I alone
60possessed was the hope to which I had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed
61and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I
62dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay? My limbs now
63tremble, and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless and almost frantic impulse urged me forward; I
64seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit. It was indeed but a passing trance, that only made
65me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits. I
66collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. In a
67solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and
68staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation; my eyeballs were starting from their sockets in attending to the
69details of my employment. The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did my
70human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased,
71I brought my work near to a conclusion.
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