Why does Victor study mathematics?

Victor is preoccupied with the question of how one might communicate with, or even raise, ­the dead. He finds no answer in the works of his Roman idols, and he becomes entirely disillusioned with them when he witnesses a lightning storm. Since the Romans have no satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon, Victor renounces them entirely and devotes himself (at least for the time being) to the study of mathematics. Destiny, however, will return him to the problems of natural philosophy.