Frankenstein

I am already far north of London, and as I walk in the streets of Petersburgh, I feel a coldnorthern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills me with delight. Do youunderstand this feeling? This breeze, which has travelled from the regions towards which I amadvancing, gives me a foretaste of those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, mydaydreams become more fervent and vivid. I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat offrost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight. There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing aperpetual splendour. There-for with your leave, my sister, I will put some trust in precedingnavigators-there snow and frost are banished; and, sailing over a calm sea, we may be wafted to aland surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe. Itsproductions and features may be without example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodiesundoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes. What may not be expected in a country of eternallight? I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle and may regulate athousand celestial observations that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricitiesconsistent for ever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world neverbefore visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are myenticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to induce me tocommence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with hisholiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river. But supposing all these conjecturesto be false, you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which I shall confer on all mankind, to thelast generation, by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries, to reach which at presentso many months are requisite; or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet, which, if at all possible, can only be effected by an undertaking such as min