Страница 348 из 483

Nothing could be more complete than the alteration that had taken

place in my feelings since the night of the appearance of the

daemon. I had before regarded my promise with a gloomy despair as

a thing that, with whatever consequences, must be fulfilled; but

I now felt as if a film had been taken from before my eyes and

that I for the first time saw clearly. The idea of renewing my

labours did not for one instant occur to me; the threat I had

heard weighed on my thoughts, but I did not reflect that a

voluntary act of mine could avert it. I had resolved in my own

mind that to create another like the fiend I had first made would

be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness, and I

banished from my mind every thought that could lead to a

different conclusion.