The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-03
Frdnkenstein's Monster
BY Mrs. Shelley.
z .iAssl:.N.' &c % .lssk 10 }sI

ss.asss. .)sslssss
er placed within my hands. I hesitated
a long time concerning the manner In
which | should employ it, Although /
possessed the capacity of bestowing
summation, yet to prepare a frame for
Inc reception of it, with all its intri-
cacies of fbers, muscles, and veins,
sun remained work Of ineonceivabIe
difneulty and labor. I doubted at first
whether | should attempt the creation
OF being like myself, or one of SIM
pier organization; but my imagination
was too much exalted by my first sue
cess to permit me to doubt of nv abili-
ty 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 should ultimately
succeed. I prepared myself for a null
titude Of reverses my operations
might be necessarily baffed. and at
last my work be imperfect: yet when
L considered the Improvement which
every day takes place in science and
mechanics, I was encouraged to hone
my present attempts would at least
lay the foundations of future success.
Nor could I consider the magnitude
and compIexity of my plan as any ar
gument of it's impracticability. 1t was
with these feelings that l began the
creation of a human being.
As the minuteness of the parts form
e. great hindrance to my speed, I
resolved, contrary to my first inten>
ton, to make the being of a gigantic
stature; that is to say, about eight
feet in height, and proportionably
large. After having formed this deter
mination, and having spent some
months in successfully collecting and
arranging my materials, began.
No one can conceive the variety of
feelings which bore me onward, like a
hurricane. in the first enthusiasm of
success. Life and death appeared to
me ideal bounds, which + should first
break through, and pour torrent OF
light into our dark world. A new
species would bless me as its creator
and source; many happy and excellent
natures would owe their being to me.
No father could claim the gratitude of
his child so completely as I should de-
serve theirs.
Pursuing these reflections, / thought
that if I could bestow animation upon
lifeless matter I might in process Of
time (although / now found it impos-
sible) renew life where death had ap-
parently devoted the body to corrup-
ton.
These thoughts supported my spirits
while pursued my undertaking with
ardor. My cheek had
grown pale with study, and my person
had become emaciated with conf1ne-
ment. Sometimes, on the very brink
of certainty, I failed, yet still I chung
to the hope which the next day or the
next hour might realize.
One secret which alone possessed
was the hope to which had dedicated
myself: and the moon gazed on my
midnight labors while, with unrelaxed
and GREATNESS eagerness, I pursued
nature to her hiding places. Who shall
conceive the horrors of my secret toll,
as I dabbled among the unhallowed
damps of the grave, or tortured the
living animal to animate the lifeless
clay? My limbs now tremble and my
eyes swim with the remembrance: but
then a resistless and almost frantic
impulse urged me forward: I seemed
to have lost all soul or sensation, but |
for this one pursuit.
1t was indeed but a passing trance,
that only made me feel with renewed
acuteness SO soon as, the unnatural
stimulus eeasing to operate, I had re-
turned to my old habits. I collected
bones from charnel-houses: and dis
turbed, with profane fingers, the ire
mendous secrets of the human frame.
In a solitary chamber, or rather cell.
at the top of the house, and separated
from all the other apartments by gall
lery and staircase, I kept my workshop