Frankenstein

I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me; whose eyes would reply to mine.

My lieutenant, for instance, is a man of wonderful courage and enterprise; he is madly desirous of glory: or rather, to word my phrase more characteristically, of advancement in his profession. He is an Englishman, and in the midst of national and professional prejudices, unsoftened by cultivation, retains some of the noblest endowments of humanity.

The master is a person of an excellent disposition, and is remarkable in the ship for his gentleness and the mildness of his discipline. This circumstance, added to his well-known integrity and dauntless courage, made me very desirous to engage him.

What a noble fellow!' you will exclaim. He is so; but then he is wholly uneducated: he is as silent as a Turk, and a kind of ignorant carelessness attends him, which, wile it renders his conduct the more astonishing, detracts from the interest and sympathy which otherwise he would command.

He was not as the other traveller seemed to be, a saveage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but an European.

I never saw a more intereting creature; his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if any one performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up...

he must have been a noble creature in his better days, being even now in wreck so attractive and amiable

How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery, withoiut feeling the most poignant grief?

We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves--such a friend ought to be-- do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures

But many things will appear possible in these wild and mysterious regions,

She appeared of a different stock. The four others were dark-eyed, hardy little vagrats; this child was thin and very fair. her hair was the brightest living gold, and despite the poverty of her clothing seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head.

The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture as they were unfolded to me are among the earliest sensations i can remember

We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed.

The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him, and was acquainted with their practical uses. The most learned philosopher knew little more.

He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery. He might dissect, anatomise and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him. I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediemtns that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citaddel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined

Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin

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

He was an uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of his science. He asked me several questions concernign my progress in the different brances of science. appertaining to natural philosophy. I replied carelessly,; and partly in contempt...

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.... person was short...voice the sweetest

A selfish pursuit had cramped and narrowed me, until your gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses

Justine was also a girl of merit, and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy; now all was to be bliterated in an ignominous grave, and I the cause!

A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine, but i was absent when it was committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman, and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me

During this conversation I had retired to the corner of the prison room, where I could conceal the horrid anguish that possessed me. Despair! Who dared talk of that? The poor victim, who on the morrow was to pass the awful boundary between life and death, felt not, as I did, such deep and bitter agony. I gnashed my teeth and ground them together, uttering a groan that came from my inmost soul.

Thus the poor sufferer tried to comfort others and herself. She indeed gained the resignation she desired. But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation. Elizabeth also wept and was unhappy; but hers also was the misery of innocence, which, like a cloud that passes over the fair moon, for a while hids but cannot tarnish its brightness.  Anguish and despair had penetrated into the core of my heart

I bore a hell within me which nothing could extinguish

I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed

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!

I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within me, adn abhorrence for vice

Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master--obey!"

I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued wtih hugh hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am i sunk! Oh! my friend, if you had known me as I once was, you would not recognzse me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until i fell, never, never again to rise

But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes the malignant devil