Chapter 4

• “Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva.”
• “Unless I had been animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been irksome, and almost intolerable.”
• “I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body.”
• “a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm.”
• “the stars often disappeared in the light of morning whilst I was yet engaged in my laboratory.”
• Remember, I am not recording the visions of a madman.
• After so much time spent in painful labour [...] consummation of my toils.
• I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless manner
• “from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me – a light so brilliant and wondrous"
• “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”
• Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by example, how dangerous the acquirement of knowledge
• "to make the being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large.”
• “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures owe their being to me.
• pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
• “I pursued nature to her hiding places”
• “I collected bones from charnel houses, and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.”
• I kept my workshop of filthy creation
• “my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature”
• often did my human nature turn with loathing
• I shunned my fellow-creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime
• “But I forget that I am moralising in the most interesting part of my tale; and your looks remind me to proceed.”
• 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.