this is a TLC recording all TLC recordings are in the public domain Frankenstein by Mary Shelley chapter six Clerval then put the following letter into my hands it was from my own Elizabeth my dearest cousin you have been ill very ill and even the constant letters of dear kind Henry are not sufficient to reassure me on your account you are forbidden to write to hold a pen yet one word from you dear Victor is necessary to calm our apprehensions for a long time I have thought that each post would bring this line and my persuasions have restrained my uncle from undertaking a journey to Ingolstadt I have prevented his encountering the inconveniences and perhaps dangers of so long a journey yet how often have I regretted not being able to perform it myself I figured to myself that the task of attending on your sick bed has devolved on some mercenary or nurse who could never guess your wishes norm in astir to them with the care and affection of your poor cousin yet that is over now Clerval writes that indeed you are getting better I eagerly hope that you will confirm this intelligence soon in your own handwriting get well and return to us you will find a happy cheerful home and friends who love you dearly your father's health is vigorous and he asks but to see you but to be assured that you are well and not a care will ever cloud his benevolent countenance how pleased you would be to remark the improvement or of our earnest he is now sixteen and full of activity and spirit he is desirous to be a true Swiss and to enter into foreign service but we cannot part with him at least until his elder brother returned to us my uncle is not pleased with the idea of a military career in a distant country but Ernest never had your powers of application he looks upon study as an odious fetter his time was spent in the open air climbing the hills or rowing on the lake I fear that he will become an idler unless we yield the point and permit him to enter on the profession which he has selected little alteration except the growth of our dear children has taken place since you left the blue lake and snow clad mountains they never change and I think our Placid home and our contented hearts are related by the same immutable laws my trifling occupations take up my time and amuse me and I am rewarded for any exertions by seeing none but happy kind faces around me since you left us but one change has taken place in our little household do you remember on what occasion Justine Moritz entered our family probably you do not I will relate her history therefore in a few words Madame Moritz her mother was a widow with four children of whom Justine was the third this girl had always been the favor of her father but through a strange perversity her mother could not endure her and after the death of M Moritz treated her very ill my aunt observed this and when Justine was 12 years of age prevailed on her mother to allow her to live in our house the Republican institutions of our country have produced simpler and happier manners than those would prevail in the great monarchies that surround it hence there is less distinction between the several classes of its inhabitants and the lower orders being neither so poor nor so despised their manners are more reined and moral a servant and Geneva does not mean the same thing as a servant in France in England Justine thus received in our family learned the duties of a servant a condition which in our fortunate country does not include the idea of ignorance and a sacrifice of dignity of a human being Justine you may remember was a great favorite of yours and I recollect that you one's remark that if you were in San ill-humor one glance from justine could dissipate it for the same reason that ariosto gives concerning the beauty of angelica she looked so frank hearted and happy my unconcerned us to give her an education superior to that which she had at first intended this benefit was truly repaid justine was the most grateful little creature in the world i do not mean that she made any professions i never heard one pass her lips but you could see by her eyes that she almost adored her protectress although her disposition was gay and in many respects and considerate yet she paid the greatest attention to every gesture of my aunt she thought her the model of all excellence and endeavoured to imitate her phraseology and manners so that even now she often reminds me of her when my dearest aunt died everyone was too much occupied in their own grief to notice poor Justine who had attended her during her illness with the most anxious affection poor Justine was very ill but other trials were reserved for her one by one her brothers and sisters died and her mother with the exception of her neglected daughter was left childless the conscience of the woman was troubled she began to think that the deaths of her favourites was a judgment from heaven to chastise her partiality she was a Roman Catholic and I believe her confessor confirmed the idea which she had conceived accordingly a few months after your departure for Ingolstadt Justine was called home by her repentant mother poor girl she wept when she quitted our house she was much altered since the death of my aunt grief had given softness and a winning mildness to her manners which had before been remarkable for vivacity nor was her residence at her mother's house of a nature to restore her gaiety the poor woman was very Vasily ating in her penton's she sometimes begged Justine to forgive her unkindness but much oftener accused her of having caused the deaths of her brothers and sister perpetual fretting at length through Madame Moritz into a decline which at first increased her irritability but she is now at peace forever she died on the first approached of cold weather at the beginning of this last winter Justine has returned to us and I assure you I love her tenderly she is very clever and gentle and extremely pretty as I mentioned before her mien and her expressions continually reminded me about my dear aunt I must say also a few words to you my dear cousin of little darling William I wish you could see him he is very tall of his age with sweet laughing blue eyes dark eyelashes and curling hair when he smiles two little dimples appear on each cheek which are rosy with health he has already had one or two little wives but Louisa Biron is his favorite a pretty little girl of five years of age now dear Victor I dare say you wish to be indulged in a little gossip concerning the good people of Geneva the pretty miss mansfield was already received the congratulatory visits on her approaching marriage with a young englishman john melbourne Esquire her ugly sister manon married em do Villard the rich banker last autumn your favourite schoolfellow Louis Manoir has suffered several misfortunes as the departure of Clerval from Geneva but he has already recovered his spirits and has reported to be on the point of marrying a very lively pretty Frenchwoman Madame Tavernier she is a widow and much older than men wore but she is very much admired and a favourite with everybody I have written myself into better spirits dear cousin but my anxiety returns upon me as I conclude write dearest Victor one line one word will be a blessing to us ten thousand thanks to Henry for his kindness his affection and his many letters we are sincerely grateful ed you and my cousin take care of yourself and I entreat you right Elizabeth lavenza Geneva March 18th 17 dear dear Elizabeth I exclaimed when I had read her letter I will write instantly and relieve them from the anxiety they must feel I wrote and this exertion greatly fatigued me but my convalescence had commenced and proceeded regularly and another fortnight I was able to leave my chamber one of the first duties on my recovery was to introduce Clerval to the several professors of the University in doing this I underwent a kind of rough usage I'll befitting the wounds when that my mind had sustained ever since the fatal night the end of my Labor's and the beginning of my misfortunes I had conceived a violent antipathy even to the name of natural philosophy when I was otherwise quite restored to health the sight of a chemical instrument would renew all the agony of my nervous symptoms Henry saw this and had removed all my apparatus from my view he had also changed my apartment for he perceived that I had acquired a dislike for the room which had previously been my laboratory but these cares of Clerval will made of no avail when I visited the professor's M Waldman inflicted torture when he praised with kindness and warmth that astonishing progress I had made in the sciences he soon perceived that I disliked the subject but not guessing the real cause he attributed my feelings to modesty and changed the subject from my improvement to the science itself with a desire as I evidently saw of drawing me out what could I do he meant to please and he tormented me I felt as if he had placed carefully one by one in my view those instruments which were to be afterwards used and me to a slow and cruel death I write under his words yet dared not exhibit the pain I felt Clerval whose eyes and feelings were always quick in discerning the sensations of others decline the subject alleging and excuse his total ignorance and the conversation took a more general term I thanked my friend from my heart and I did not speak I saw plainly that he was surprised but he never attempted to draw my secret from me and although I loved him with a mixture of affection and reverence that knew no bounds yet I could never persuade myself to confide in him that event which so often present to my recollection but which I feared the detail to another would only impress more deeply mmm krump was not equally docile and in my condition at that time of almost insupportable sensitiveness his harsh but blunt encomiums gave me even more pain than the benevolent approbation of M Waldman done the fellow cried he why M Clerval I assure you he has outstripped us all a stair if you please but it is nevertheless true a youngster who but a few years ago believed in Cornelius Agrippa as firmly as in the gospel has now set himself at the head of the University and if he is not soon pulled down we shall all be out of the countenance a a continued he observing my face expressive of suffering M Frankenstein is modest and excellent quality in a young man young men should be diffident of themselves you know and Clerval I was myself when young but that wears out in a very short time M Crump had now commenced an eulogy on himself which happily turned the conversation from a subject that was so annoying to me Clerval had never sympathized in my taste for natural science and his literary pursuits differed wholly from those which had occupied me he came to the university with the design of making himself complete master of the Oriental languages as thus he should open a field for the plan of life he had marked out for himself resolved to pursue no inglorious career he turned his eyes toward the east as a forwarding scope for his spirit of enterprise the Persian Arabic and Sanskrit languages engaged his attention and I was easily induced to enter on the same studies idleness had ever been irksome to me and now that I wish to fly from reflection and hated my formal former studies I felt great relief in being the fellow pupil with my friend and found not only instruction but consolation in the works of the Orientalists I did not like him attempt a critical knowledge of their dialects for I did not contemplate making any other use of them than temporary amusement I read merely to understand their meaning and they well repaid my Labour's their melancholy is soothing and their joy is elevating to agree I never experienced in studying the authors of any other country when you read their writings life appears to consist in a warm Sun and a garden of roses in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy and the fire that consumes your own heart how different from the manly and heroical poetry of Greece and Rome summer passed away in these occupations and my return to Geneva was fixed for the latter end of autumn but being delayed by several accidents winter and snow arrived the rows were deemed impassable and my journey was until the ensuing spring I felt this delay very bitterly for I longed to see my native town and my deal of beloved friends my return had only been delayed so long from an unwillingness to leave Clerval in a strange place before he had become acquainted with any of its inhabitants the winter however was spent cheerfully and although the spring was uncommon lelee when it came its beauty compensated for its dilatory nests the month of May had already commenced and I expected the letter daily which was to fix the date of my departure when Henry proposed a pedestrian tour in the environs of Ingolstadt that I might bid a personal farewell to the country I had so long inhabited aya seated with pleasure to this proposition I was fond of exercise and Clerval had always been my favorite companion in the rambles of this nature that I had taken among the scenes of my native country we passed a fortnight in these perambulations my health and spirits had long been restored and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed the natural incidents of our progress and the conversation of my friend sunny had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow-creatures and rendered me unsocial but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart he again taught me to love the aspect of nature and the cheerful faces of children excellent friend how sincerely did you love me and endeavour to elevate my mind until it was on a level with your own a selfish pursuit had cramped and narrow me until your gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses I became the same happy creature who a few years ago loved and beloved by all had no sorrow or care when happy inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on me the most delightful sensations a serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy the present season was indeed divine the flowers of spring bloomed in the hedges wet while those of summer were already in bud I was undisturbed by thoughts which during the preceding year had pressed upon me notwithstanding my endeavours to throw them off with an invincible burden Henry rejoiced in my gaiety and sincerely sympathized in my feelings he exerted himself to amuse me while he expressed the sensations that filled his soul the resources of his and on this occasion were truly astonishing his conversation was full of imagination and very often an imitation of the Persian and Arabic writers he invented tales of wonderful fancy and passion at other times he repeated my favorite poems or drew me out into arguments which he supported with great ingenuity we returned to our College on a Sunday afternoon the peasants were dancing and everyone we met appeared gay and happy my own spirits were high and I bounded along with feelings of unbridled joy and hilarity end of chapter 6 please click the link below to continue on to chapter 7 this has been a TLC recording thank you for listening and please be sure to subscribe