I cherished hope, it is true, but it vanished when my person reflected . . .

My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge.

After days and nights of incredible labor and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life. Nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.

One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought

...if I see but one smile on your lips when we meet, occasioned by this or any other exertion of mine, I shall need no other happiness.

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.

What are we, the inhabitants of this globe, least among the many that people infinite space? Our minds embrace infinity; the visible mechanism of our being is subject to merest accident.