Invited lecture in a series of Foundation Lectures at the University of Adelaide in 1984 and published in Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, Summer 1985. Everything that I wrote that was published in Australian Feminist Studies — of which I was the founding editor 1985-2005 — was peer-reviewed. Taylor & Francis, publishers of Australian Feminist Studies since 1996, have granted permission for some of that material to appear here.

From the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me — a light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated, I was surprised that among so many men of genius who had directed their enquiries towards that same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret … Some miracle may have produced it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable. After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.

The astonishment which I had first experienced on this discovery soon gave place to delight and rapture … What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp.