About two hours after this occurrence we heard the ground sea, and before nightthe ice broke and freed our ship. We, however, lay to until the morning,fearing to encounter in the dark those large loose masses which float aboutafter the breaking up of the ice. I profited of this time to rest for a fewhours.
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I then thought that my father would be unjust if he ascribed my neglect to viceor faultiness on my part, but I am now convinced that he was justified inconceiving that I should not be altogether free from blame. A human being inperfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allowpassion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think thatthe pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to whichyou apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy yourtaste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then thatstudy is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. Ifthis rule were always observed; if no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever tointerfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections, Greece had not beenenslaved, Cæsar would have spared his country, America would have beendiscovered more gradually, and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not beendestroyed.
I trembled excessively; I could not endure to think of, and far less to alludeto, the occurrences of the preceding night. I walked with a quick pace, and wesoon arrived at my college. I then reflected, and the thought made me shiver,that the creature whom I had left in my apartment might still be there, aliveand walking about. I dreaded to behold this monster, but I feared still morethat Henry should see him. Entreating him, therefore, to remain a few minutesat the bottom of the stairs, I darted up towards my own room. My hand wasalready on the lock of the door before I recollected myself. I then paused, anda cold shivering came over me. I threw the door forcibly open, as children areaccustomed to do when they expect a spectre to stand in waiting for them on theother side; but nothing appeared. I stepped fearfully in: the apartment wasempty, and my bedroom was also freed from its hideous guest. I could hardlybelieve that so great a good fortune could have befallen me, but when I becameassured that my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy and ran downto Clerval.
Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have beenworked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction andcertainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear. Justinedied, she rested, and I was alive. The blood flowed freely in my veins, but aweight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart which nothing could remove.Sleep fled from my eyes; I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had committeddeeds of mischief beyond description horrible, and more, much more (I persuadedmyself) was yet behind. Yet my heart overflowed with kindness and the love ofvirtue. I had begun life with benevolent intentions and thirsted for the momentwhen I should put them in practice and make myself useful to my fellow beings.Now all was blasted; instead of that serenity of conscience which allowed me tolook back upon the past with self-satisfaction, and from thence to gatherpromise of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, whichhurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe.
The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and shortwindings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain. Itis a scene terrifically desolate. In a thousand spots the traces of the winteravalanche may be perceived, where trees lie broken and strewed on the ground,some entirely destroyed, others bent, leaning upon the jutting rocks of themountain or transversely upon other trees. The path, as you ascend higher, isintersected by ravines of snow, down which stones continually roll from above;one of them is particularly dangerous, as the slightest sound, such as evenspeaking in a loud voice, produces a concussion of air sufficient to drawdestruction upon the head of the speaker. The pines are not tall or luxuriant,but they are sombre and add an air of severity to the scene. I looked on thevalley beneath; vast mists were rising from the rivers which ran through it andcurling in thick wreaths around the opposite mountains, whose summits were hidin the uniform clouds, while rain poured from the dark sky and added to themelancholy impression I received from the objects around me. Alas! Why does manboast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only rendersthem more necessary beings. If our impulses were confined to hunger, thirst,and desire, we might be nearly free; but now we are moved by every wind thatblows and a chance word or scene that that word may convey to us.
Safie related that her mother was a Christian Arab, seized and made a slave bythe Turks; recommended by her beauty, she had won the heart of the father ofSafie, who married her. The young girl spoke in high and enthusiastic terms ofher mother, who, born in freedom, spurned the bondage to which she was nowreduced. She instructed her daughter in the tenets of her religion and taughther to aspire to higher powers of intellect and an independence of spiritforbidden to the female followers of Muhammad. This lady died, but her lessonswere indelibly impressed on the mind of Safie, who sickened at the prospect ofagain returning to Asia and being immured within the walls of a harem, allowedonly to occupy herself with infantile amusements, ill-suited to the temper ofher soul, now accustomed to grand ideas and a noble emulation for virtue. Theprospect of marrying a Christian and remaining in a country where women wereallowed to take a rank in society was enchanting to her.
The government of France were greatly enraged at the escape of their victimand spared no pains to detect and punish his deliverer. The plot of Felix wasquickly discovered, and De Lacey and Agatha were thrown into prison. The newsreached Felix and roused him from his dream of pleasure. His blind and agedfather and his gentle sister lay in a noisome dungeon while he enjoyed the freeair and the society of her whom he loved. This idea was torture to him. Hequickly arranged with the Turk that if the latter should find a favourableopportunity for escape before Felix could return to Italy, Safie should remainas a boarder at a convent at Leghorn; and then, quitting the lovely Arabian, hehastened to Paris and delivered himself up to the vengeance of the law, hopingto free De Lacey and Agatha by this proceeding.
We passed a considerable period at Oxford, rambling among its environs andendeavouring to identify every spot which might relate to the most animatingepoch of English history. Our little voyages of discovery were often prolongedby the successive objects that presented themselves. We visited the tomb of theillustrious Hampden and the field on which that patriot fell. For a moment mysoul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears to contemplate thedivine ideas of liberty and self-sacrifice of which these sights were themonuments and the remembrancers. For an instant I dared to shake off my chainsand look around me with a free and lofty spirit, but the iron had eaten into myflesh, and I sank again, trembling and hopeless, into my miserable self.
Some hours passed thus; but by degrees, as the sun declined towards thehorizon, the wind died away into a gentle breeze and the sea became free frombreakers. But these gave place to a heavy swell; I felt sick and hardly able tohold the rudder, when suddenly I saw a line of high land towards the south.
My father was enraptured on finding me freed from the vexations of a criminalcharge, that I was again allowed to breathe the fresh atmosphere and permittedto return to my native country. I did not participate in these feelings, for tome the walls of a dungeon or a palace were alike hateful. The cup of life waspoisoned for ever, and although the sun shone upon me, as upon the happy andgay of heart, I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness,penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me.Sometimes they were the expressive eyes of Henry, languishing in death, thedark orbs nearly covered by the lids and the long black lashes that fringedthem; sometimes it was the watery, clouded eyes of the monster, as I first sawthem in my chamber at Ingolstadt.
You have travelled; you have spent several years of your life at Ingolstadt;and I confess to you, my friend, that when I saw you last autumn so unhappy,flying to solitude from the society of every creature, I could not helpsupposing that you might regret our connection and believe yourself bound inhonour to fulfil the wishes of your parents, although they opposed themselvesto your inclinations. But this is false reasoning. I confess to you, my friend,that I love you and that in my airy dreams of futurity you have been myconstant friend and companion. But it is your happiness I desire as well as myown when I declare to you that our marriage would render me eternally miserableunless it were the dictate of your own free choice. Even now I weep to thinkthat, borne down as you are by the cruellest misfortunes, you may stifle, bythe word honour, all hope of that love and happiness which would alonerestore you to yourself. I, who have so disinterested an affection for you, mayincrease your miseries tenfold by being an obstacle to your wishes. Ah! Victor,be assured that your cousin and playmate has too sincere a love for you not tobe made miserable by this supposition. Be happy, my friend; and if you obey mein this one request, remain satisfied that nothing on earth will have the powerto interrupt my tranquillity.
This speech troubled me. I had not despaired, nor had I yet conceived the ideaof returning if set free. Yet could I, in justice, or even in possibility,refuse this demand? I hesitated before I answered, when Frankenstein, who hadat first been silent, and indeed appeared hardly to have force enough toattend, now roused himself; his eyes sparkled, and his cheeks flushed withmomentary vigour. Turning towards the men, he said, 2ff7e9595c
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