It was to be expected
that the lectures of the professors would produce a singular effect
upon me, and so they did.
I chose as my courses natural history, physics, and mathematics, but I
was little satisfied. I seldom gained what I expected. Everywhere I
sought for a sound method deriving itself from the fundamental principle
lying at the root of the subject in hand, and afterwards summing up all
details into that unity again; everywhere I sought for recognition of
the quickening interconnection of parts, and for the exposition of the
inner all-pervading reign of law. Only a few lectures made some poor
approach to such methods, but I found nothing of the sort in those which
were most important to me, physics and mathematics. Especially repugnant
to me was the piece-meal patchwork offered to us in geometry, always
separating and dividing, never uniting and consolidating.
I was, however, perfectly fascinated with the mathematical rules of
"combination, permutation, and variation," but unhappily I could not
give much time to their study, which I have regretted ever since.
Otherwise, what I learned from the lectures was too slight for what I
wanted, being, unluckily, altogether foreign to my nature, and more
often a mere getting of rules by heart rather than an unfolding of
principles.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196