It may appear very strange, that a disciple of Albertus Magnus should arise in the eighteenth century; but our family was not scientifical, and I had not attended any of the lectures given at the schools of Geneva. My dreams were therefore undisturbed by reality; and I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life.
– Mary Shelley
Frankenstein, Chapter 1. Victor Frankenstein offers a hint here of his desire to act as God and explore outside the norms of science and knowledge. From 1818 First Edition.