enthusiasm
Walton's "romantic" instincts, he realizes, are affecting his
judgment. His language recalls his earlier self-analysis (Letter 2.2), suggesting that what he
would need in a friend like Victor Frankenstein is exactly the ability to
curb such flights of fancy. In the next paragraph Victor will decide to
perform that function, starting in on the narration of his career as
a corrective and an admonition.
