The coupling of "enthusiasm" and "ardent" in this paragraph seems to indicate an intention
on Mary Shelley's part to underscore how associated are the two and how problematic
they may be in that association. The two notions have already been mentioned in proximity
in the previous letter (I:L1:2) and (I:L1:3). They will once again be linked in contiguous
paragraphs by Victor Frankenstein, when he recounts the frenzied rush of discovery
that accompanied his search for the secret of life (I:3:6 and I:3:8).