The Blip Report for Thursday, May 2nd 2024
Frankenstein - part 5 - Victor's Future by Chance
Part 5 - Victor’s Future by Chance
Victor Frankenstein further tells his story to Robert, recounting a time when he was fifteen, and he witnessed a violent and terrible thunderstorm:
“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 ribbons 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 …”
First, if one thought of the new study of electricity at that time, then one would surely think of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. And so, the way that this new discovery of the science of electricity had ended his infatuation with the ancient alchemists, should not be made to appear as anti-Franklin, but actually should be seen as being pro-Franklin, in that it showed Victor that these alchemists were useless.
A better case could be made that the story of Victor Frankenstein of Geneva should remind us somewhat of the ‘Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva’ by Henri de Saint-Simon where ‘he called for the establishment of a religion of science with Sir Isaac Newton as its patron saint.’ [quote from Zachary Karabell] , and as Saint-Simon would write to his nephew:
“I believe in God. I believe that God created the universe. I believe that God made the universe, subject to the law of gravity.”
Sir Isaac Newton, being an infamous alchemist, literally wrote the book on ‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’, and so, it would appear that Victor was soon to be seen as following in Sir Isaac’s footsteps!!!
But a problem still appeared in Victor’s mind, that instead of using this astonishment at the science of electricity, Victor reacted very differently – with despair!!!
“… but by some fatality the overthrow of these men [i.e. the alchemists] 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.”
Just because some of our closely-held beliefs are overthrown, shouldn’t let us fall into despair, but should motivate us into making further discoveries, to try to learn if or why our beliefs were misguided.
Today, we refer to natural philosophy as ‘science’, because we prefer to think of it as more secure that way. But science isn’t exact, it isn’t so secure. When we study new phenomena, we also have to study how these new phenomena are reacting with our senses.
We shouldn’t just blindly ‘follow the science’! Because ‘science’ is really a method or a theory or a philosophy, that tries to explain how this reaction between phenomena and our senses occurs. And we generally try to follow the ‘natural philosophy’ that could best describe what our sense are reacting to. And if we find a better ‘natural philosophy’ than the one we had been using, well then, we just replace it with the new and improved version. Without despair, but maybe with a reminder that this new one may not be perfect either.
So ‘natural philosophy’ is a more appropriate description of how we try to interpret our observations of the wonders of the universe.
But a despairing Victor rejected not just the alchemists, but he rejected the natural philosophers, and instead he ended up studying mathematics [just like Sir Isaac], because he thought that mathematics would be more secure and wouldn’t change!!!
But that should remind us of all those mathematicians, who when their equations didn’t add up, instead of admitting a possible flaw in their method or theory, instead exclaim that the error was due to some unknown, unseen and mysterious (and invented or made-up) force – like sub-atomic particles or even anti-matter, or UFOs!!!
Victor continued to tell his story, when a few years later his parents sent him to study at university, but where he said his future was determined by chance –
‘Chance – or rather the evil influence, the Angel of Destruction … asserted omnipotent sway over me…’
At the university, he was interviewed by one of his professors, who taught natural philosophy, and Victor told him of the alchemists that he had studied, and the professor replied –
“Have you really spent your time in studying such nonsense? Every minute, every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems and useless names. Good God! In what desert land have you lived, where no one was kind enough to inform you that these fancies which you have so greedily imbibed are a thousand years old and as musty as they are ancient? I little expected, in this enlightened and scientific age, to find a disciple of Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. My dear sir, you must begin your studies entirely anew.”
Victor wasn’t really disappointed to hear this, since when he had earlier rejected natural philosophy, he had decided that these alchemists were useless.
But then he went to a lecture by another professor, who taught modern chemistry, who said that:
“The ancient teachers of this science promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.”
Victor now resolved ‘to return to my ancient studies and to devote myself to a science for which I believed myself to possess a natural talent’ and ‘I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.’
When Victor returned to his ‘ancient studies’ of natural philosophy (that had included the alchemists), he wasn’t so much interested in the understanding of the process of life, as he was in exploring the ‘mystery’ of life, as if life is somehow beyond our understanding, but simply requires a revelation (by chance, no doubt) instead of a determined discovery.
Later, when he visited that professor and told him of his studies of the alchemists, he was told that:
“These were men to whose indefatigable zeal modern philosophers were indebted for most of the foundations of their knowledge. They had left to us, as an easier task, to give new names and arrange in connected classifications the facts which they in a great degree had been the instruments of bringing to light. The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.”
After that, his version of this alchemist-influenced ‘natural philosophy’ became his sole occupation as he looked for a revelation of the ‘mysteries of creation’.