The Mathematician Who Pursues His Studies Without

Strange As It May Sound, The Power Of Mathematics Rests On Its Evasion Of All Unnecessary Thought And On Its Wonderful Saving Of Mental Operations.

The Presentations And Conceptions Of The Average Man Of The World Are Formed And Dominated, Not By The Full And Pure Desire For Knowledge As An End In Itself, But By The Struggle To Adapt Himself Favourably To The Conditions Of Life.

The Task Which We Have Set Ourselves Is Simply To Show Why And For What Purpose We Hold That Standpoint During Most Of Our Lives, And Why And For What Purpose We Are Provisionally Obliged To Abandon It.

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.

Everyone Is Free To Set Up An Opinion And To Adduce Proofs In Support Of It. Whether, Though, A Scientist Shall Find It Worth His While To Enter Into Serious Investigations Of Opinions So Advanced Is A Question Which His Reason And Instinct Alone Can Decide. If These Things, In The End, Should Turn Out To Be True, I Shall Not Be Ashamed Of Being The Last To Believe Them.