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He looked at it and said , “ Ah , Cornelius Agrippa ! My dear Victor , do not waste your time on this . It is all rubbish . ” But he did not explain why . So I read Agrippa and other old writers like him . I dreamed of finding the elixir of life , a magic drink that stops people from dying . When I was fifteen , I watched a great storm . Lightning hit an old oak tree near our house . When the light disappeared , the tree was gone . Only a black , broken stump was left . A visitor explained electricity to us , and suddenly my old writers seemed foolish to me . When I was seventeen , my parents decided to send me to the university of Ingolstadt , in Germany . But before I left , a great sorrow came to our family . Elizabeth caught scarlet fever , a dangerous illness . My mother nursed her day and night , and Elizabeth got better . But my mother caught the fever herself . On her deathbed she took our hands and put them together . “ My children , ” she said , “ my happiest hope was to see you married one day . Now this hope will comfort your father . Elizabeth , my love , you must take my place with the little ones . ” She died calmly , and our home was full of grief . A few weeks later I left for Ingolstadt . Henry wanted to come with me , but his father needed him in the business . Elizabeth and Henry said goodbye to me with tears in their eyes . III . Victor’s Story : The Secret of Life In Ingolstadt I first visited Professor Krempe , a teacher of natural science . He was a short man with a rough voice and an ugly face . When he heard about the old books I had read , he was shocked . “ Have you really spent your time on this nonsense ? ” he said . “ These writers are hundreds of years old , and their ideas are all wrong . You must begin your studies again from the start . ” He gave me a list of new books . A few days later I went to a lecture by Professor Waldman , a teacher of chemistry . He was about fifty , with a kind face and a very sweet voice . At the end of his lecture , he said something that I never forgot . “ The old masters promised impossible things , ” he said , “ and they did nothing . Modern scientists promise very little . But they have done real miracles . They know how the blood moves round our bodies . They know what the air we breathe is made of . They can even command the thunder of the sky . ” That night I could not sleep . A voice inside me said , “ I will do more , far more . I will explore unknown powers , and I will show the world the deepest secrets of creation . ” I visited Professor Waldman the next day , and he became a true friend . For two years I worked hard at chemistry and natural science . I did not go home once in all that time .
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