I shall confine myself to one observation on Euclid's genius, and on the
immense influence which it exerted on after generations. It seems to
me, speaking under correction, that it exerted this, because it was so
complete a type of the general tendency of the Greek mind, deductive,
rather than inductive; of unrivalled subtlety in obtaining results from
principles, and results again from them ad infinitum: deficient in that
sturdy moral patience which is required for the examination of facts,
and which has made Britain at once a land of practical craftsmen, and of
earnest scientific discoverers.
Volatile, restless, "always children longing for something new," as the
Egyptian priest said of them, they were too ready to believe that they
had attained laws, and then, tired with their toy, throw away those
hastily assumed laws, and wander off in search of others. Gifted,
beyond all the sons of men, with the most exquisite perception of form,
both physical and metaphysical, they could become geometers and
logicians as they became sculptors and artists; beyond that they could
hardly rise. The were conscious of their power to build; and it made
them ashamed to dig.
Four men only among them seem, as far as I can judge, to have had a
great inductive power: Socrates and Plato in Metaphysics; Archimedes
and Hipparchus in Physics.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50