 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
