When he tells Professor Krempe that he has been studying alchemy, the teacher of natural philosophy tells him, I little expected, in this enlightened and scientific age, to find a disciple of Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. My dear sir, you must begin your studies entirely anew. This, of course, discourages Victor, and though he is saddened to leave his study of immortality and power, he eventually agrees to study modern chemistry. By the end of the chapter, he borrows some books from another professor. Both his professors and his fellow students marvel at how fast he is absorbing the material.
Victor spends two full years doing little else but study particularly the concept of the human body.
Soon he finds it necessary to spend many hours alone at the morgue, studying corpses. After several months of this kind of work, Victor is proud to note that he has found the cause of generation and life. More than this, however, he s even discovered how to create life from inanimate objects. Here, Frankenstein takes great pains to persuade Walton that he is not delusional. But at the same time he admits that his thoughtless enthusiasm for scientific discovery was a tragic mistake.