All This, The Positive And

The Mathematician Who Pursues His Studies Without Clear Views Of This Matter, Must Often Have The Uncomfortable Feeling That His Paper And Pencil Surpass Him In Intelligence.

My Table Is Now Brightly, Now Dimly Lighted. Its Temperature Varies. It May Receive An Ink Stain. One Of Its Legs May Be Broken. It May Be Repaired, Polished, And Replaced Part By Part. But, For Me, It Remains The Table At Which I Daily Write.

I Once Knew An Otherwise Excellent Teacher Who Compelled His Students To Perform All Their Demonstrations With Incorrect Figures, On The Theory That It Was The Logical Connection Of The Concepts, Not The Figure, That Was Essential.

Similarly, Many A Young Man, Hearing For The First Time Of The Refraction Of Stellar Light, Has Thought That Doubt Was Cast On The Whole Of Astronomy, Whereas Nothing Is Required But An Easily Effected And Unimportant Correction To Put Everything Right Again.

The Fact Is, Every Thinker, Every Philosopher, The Moment He Is Forced To Abandon His One-sided Intellectual Occupation By Practical Necessity, Immediately Returns To The General Point Of View Of Mankind.