ECONOMY OF LABOUR IN MATHEMATICS 217 



suggested above might be looked upon as such stock-taking, 

 enabling workers to see where they stand, what gaps require 

 filling, what rubbish should be removed. When such stock- 

 takings are centuries apart (as in science) it will readily be 

 understood how much waste obscures the view, and how 

 much new material is required. But the question arises, who 

 shall we get to fill up these gaps ? 



It is a necessary but not a sufficient condition that some 

 remuneration should be paid, because even a mathematician 

 cannot live on imaginaries, and it should be obvious that 

 such men as are required cannot be obtained by purchase at 

 a moment's notice. It is necessary for them to prepare them- 

 selves by a long course of study and contemplation from their 

 youth up. 



Now youth is naturally ambitious : the best of them intel- 

 lectually are desirous not of great wealth, but of success and 

 glory ; they are desirous of outstripping the efforts of their 

 contemporaries. 



The consciousness of power, and the conviction of successful 

 exertion, may exist undiminished by the neglect or the ingrati- 

 tude of their own country, and the knowledge that distant 

 posterity may repair the ingratitude of the present may sus- 

 tain them. Philosophic old age may cease to be moved either 

 by praise or blame, but great rulers and great generals know 

 full well the power of immediate recognition of success as 

 incentives to valour, and that man is a fool and not a states- 

 man who hesitates (in the fields of science) to use such incite- 

 ment to human action for the benefit of his country and of 

 mankind. 



