We were brought up together;
there was not quite a year difference
in our ages. I need not say that
we were strangers to any species
of disunion or dispute. Harmony
was the soul of our companionship,
and the diversity and contrast
that subsisted in our characters
drew us nearer together. Elizabeth
was of a calmer and more concentrated
disposition; but, with all my
ardour, I was capable of a more
intense application, and was
more deeply smitten with the
thirst for knowledge. She busied
herself with following the aerial
creations of the poets; and in
the majestic and wondrous scenes
which surrounded our Swiss home--the
sublime shapes of the mountains;
the changes of the seasons; tempest
and calm; the silence of winter,
and the life and turbulence of
our Alpine summers--she found
ample scope for admiration and
delight. While my companion contemplated
with a serious and satisfied
spirit the magnificent appearances
of things, I delighted in investigating
their causes. 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.
On the birth of a second son,
my junior by seven years, my
parents gave up entirely their
wandering life, and fixed themselves
in their native country. We possessed
a house in Geneva, and a _campagne_
on Belrive, the eastern shore
of the lake, at the distance
of rather more than a league
from the city. We resided principally
in the latter, and the lives
of my parents were passed in
considerable seclusion. It was
my temper to avoid a crowd, and
to attach myself fervently to
a few. I was indifferent, therefore,
to my schoolfellows in general;
but I united myself in the bonds
of the closest friendship to
one among them. Henry Clerval
was the son of a merchant of
Geneva. He was a boy of singular
talent and fancy. He loved enterprise,
hardship, and even danger, for
its own sake. He was deeply read
in books of chivalry and romance.
He composed heroic songs, and
began to write many a tale of
enchantment and knightly adventure.
He tried to make us act plays,
and to enter into masquerades,
in which the characters were
drawn from the heroes of Roncesvalles,
of the Round Table of King Arthur,
and the chivalrous train who
shed their blood to redeem the
holy sepulchre from the hands
of the infidels.
No human being could have passed
a happier childhood than myself.
My parents were possessed by
the very spirit of kindness and
indulgence. 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. When I mingled with
other families, I distinctly
discerned how peculiarly fortunate
my lot was, and gratitude assisted
the development of filial love.
My temper was sometimes violent,
and my passions vehement; but
by some law in my temperature
they were turned, not towards
childish pursuits, but to an
eager desire to learn, and not
to learn all things indiscriminately.
I confess that neither the structure
of languages, nor the code of
governments, nor the politics
of various states, possessed
attractions for me. It was the
secrets of heaven and earth that
I desired to learn; and whether
it was the outward substance
of things, or the inner spirit
of nature and the mysterious
soul of man that occupied me,
still my inquiries were directed
to the metaphysical, or, in its
highest sense, the physical secrets
of the world.
Meanwhile Clerval occupied
himself, so to speak, with the
moral relations of things. The
busy stage of life, the virtues
of heroes, and the actions of
men, were his theme; and his
hope and his dream was to become
one among those whose names are
recorded in story, as the gallant
and adventurous benefactors of
our species. The saintly soul
of Elizabeth shone like a shrine
dedicated lamp in our peaceful
home. Her sympathy was ours;
her smile, her soft voice, the
sweet glance of her celestial
eyes, were ever there to bless
and animate us. She was the living
spirit of love to soften and
attract: I might have become
sullen in my study, rough through
the ardour of my nature, but
that she was there to subdue
me to a semblance of her own
gentleness. And Clerval--could
aught ill entrench on the noble
spirit of Clerval?--yet he might
not have been so perfectly humane,
so thoughtful in his generosity--so
full of kindness and tenderness
amidst his passion for adventurous
exploit, had she not unfolded
to him the real loveliness of
beneficence, and made the doing
good the end and aim of his soaring
ambition.
I feel exquisite pleasure in
dwelling on the recollections
of childhood, before misfortune
had tainted my mind, and changed
its bright visions of extensive
usefulness into gloomy and narrow
reflections upon self. Besides,
in drawing the picture of my
early days, I also record those
events which led, by insensible
steps, to my after tale of misery:
for when I would account to myself
for the birth of that passion,
which afterwards ruled my destiny,
I find it arise, like a mountain
river, from ignoble and almost
forgotten sources; but, swelling
as it proceeded, it became the
torrent which, in its course,
has swept away all my hopes and
joys.
Natural philosophy
is the genius that has regulated
my fate; I
desire, therefore, in this narration,
to state those facts which led
to my predilection for that science.
When I was thirteen years of
age, we all went on a party of
pleasure to the baths near Thonon:
the inclemency of the weather
obliged us to remain a day confined
to the inn. In this house I chanced
to find a volume of the works
of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened
it with apathy; the theory which
he attempts to demonstrate, and
the wonderful facts which he
relates, soon changed this feeling
into enthusiasm. A new light
seemed to dawn upon my mind;
and, bounding with joy, I communicated
my discovery to my father. My
father looked carelessly at the
title page of my book, and said, "Ah!
Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor,
do not waste your time upon this;
it is sad trash."
If, instead of this remark,
my father had taken the pains
to explain to me that the principles
of Agrippa had been entirely
exploded, and that a modern system
of science had been introduced,
which possessed much greater
powers than the ancient, because
the powers of the latter were
chimerical, while those of the
former were real and practical;
under such circumstances, I should
certainly have thrown Agrippa
aside, and have contented my
imagination, warmed as it was,
by returning with greater ardour
to my former studies. It is even
possible that the train of my
ideas would never have received
the fatal impulse that led to
my ruin. But the cursory glance
my father had taken of my volume
by no means assured me that he
was acquainted with its contents;
and I continued to read with
the greatest avidity.
When I returned home, my first
care was to procure the whole
works of this author, and afterwards
of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus.
I read and studied the wild fancies
of these writers with delight;
they appeared to me treasures
known to few beside myself. I
have described myself as always
having been embued with a fervent
longing to penetrate the secrets
of nature. In spite of the intense
labour and wonderful discoveries
of modern philosophers, I always
came from my studies discontented
and unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton
is said to have avowed that he
felt like a child picking up
shells beside the great and unexplored
ocean of truth. Those of his
successors in each branch of
natural philosophy with whom
I was acquainted appeared, even
to my boy's apprehensions, as
tyros engaged in the same pursuit.
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 impediments that seemed to
keep human beings from entering
the citadel of nature, and rashly
and ignorantly I had repined.
But here were books, and here
were men who had penetrated deeper
and knew more. I took their word
for all that they averred, and
I became their disciple. It may
appear strange that such should
arise in the eighteenth century;
but while I followed the routine
of education in the schools of
Geneva, I was, to a great degree,
self taught with regard to my
favourite studies. My father
was not scientific, and I was
left to struggle with a child's
blindness, added to a student's
thirst for knowledge. Under the
guidance of my new preceptors,
I entered with the greatest diligence
into the search of the philosopher's
stone and the elixir of life;
but the latter soon obtained
my undivided attention. Wealth
was an inferior object; but what
glory would attend the discovery,
if I could banish disease from
the human frame, and render man
invulnerable to any but a violent
death!
Nor were these my only visions.
The raising of ghosts or devils
was a promise liberally accorded
by my favourite authors, the
fulfilment of which I most eagerly
sought; and if my incantations
were always unsuccessful, I attributed
the failure rather to my own
inexperience and mistake than
to a want of skill or fidelity
in my instructors. And thus for
a time I was occupied by exploded
systems, mingling, like an unadept,
a thousand contradictory theories,
and floundering desperately in
a very slough of multifarious
knowledge, guided by an ardent
imagination and childish reasoning,
till an accident again changed
the current of my ideas.
When I was about fifteen years
old we had retired to our house
near Belrive, when we witnessed
a most violent and terrible thunderstorm.
It advanced from behind the mountains
of Jura; and the thunder burst
at once with frightful loudness
from various quarters of the
heavens. I remained, while the
storm lasted, watching its progress
with curiosity and delight. As
I stood at the door, on a sudden
I beheld a stream of fire issue
from an old and beautiful oak
which stood about twenty yards
from our house; and so soon as
the dazzling light vanished the
oak had disappeared, and nothing
remained but a blasted stump.
When we visited it the next morning,
we found the tree shattered in
a singular manner. It was not
splintered by the shock, but
entirely reduced to thin ribands
of wood. I never beheld anything
so utterly destroyed.
Before this I was not unacquainted
with the more obvious laws of
electricity. On this occasion
a man of great research in natural
philosophy was with us, and,
excited by this catastrophe,
he entered on the explanation
of a theory which he had formed
on the subject of electricity
and galvanism, which was at once
new and astonishing to me. All
that he said threw greatly into
the shade Cornelius Agrippa,
Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus,
the lords of my imagination;
but by some fatality the overthrow
of these men disinclined me to
pursue my accustomed studies.
It seemed to me as if nothing
would or could ever be known.
All that had so long engaged
my attention suddenly grew despicable.
By one of those caprices of the
mind, which we are perhaps most
subject to in early youth, I
at once gave up my former occupations;
set down natural history and
all its progeny as a deformed
and abortive creation; and entertained
the greatest disdain for a would-be
science, which could never even
step within the threshold of
real knowledge. In this mood
of mind I betook myself to the
mathematics, and the branches
of study appertaining to that
science, as being built upon
secure foundations, and so worthy
of my consideration.
Thus strangely are our souls
constructed, and by such slight
ligaments are we bound to prosperity
or ruin. When I look back, it
seems to me as if this almost
miraculous change of inclination
and will was the immediate suggestion
of the guardian angel of my life--the
last effort made by the spirit
of preservation to avert the
storm that was even then hanging
in the stars, and ready to envelope
me. Her victory was announced
by an unusual tranquillity and
gladness of soul, which followed
the relinquishing of my ancient
and latterly tormenting studies.
It was thus that I was to be
taught to associate evil with
their prosecution, happiness
with their disregard.
It was a strong effort of the
spirit of good; but it was ineffectual.
Destiny was too potent, and her
immutable laws had decreed my
utter and terrible destruction. |