i8 73 ] HEGEL AND THE CALCULUS 43 



studied ; and more than this, that men so able as Dr. 

 Stirling should be found imploring great mathematicians 

 to come and read such utter nonsense as naturally results 

 from the attempt. Certainly Hegel s fame is not likely to 

 rise higher the more his notes on the calculus are studied ; 

 for these notes show quite clearly first, substantial 

 ignorance of the subject in hand, bolstered up by some 

 hasty glances at the &quot; literature of the subject &quot; ; secondly, 

 great disingenuousness in criticising Newton, without 

 having ever given his views a careful study ; thirdly, 

 almost incredible confusion of mind, in so far as he seems 

 to have thought that he knew his own meaning when he 

 really had no meaning at all ; and lastly, to add nothing 

 more, such a degree of self-complacent arrogance as led 

 him to fancy the results of his &quot; half-hour &quot; more valuable 

 than the fruit of the whole life of men like Newton. 



This paper has already grown to such a length that it 

 seems better to say nothing of Hegel s remarks on integra 

 tion in the closing pages of his second note on the calculus, 

 or of the third note, in which he treats &quot; some other forms 

 connected with the qualitative determination of quantity.&quot; 

 The subject, in fact, has a purely adventitious interest, 

 and no one will care to linger longer over such a mass 

 of confusion, both as to language and thought, than is 

 absolutely necessary in self-defence. And the preceding 

 pages may perhaps suffice to show that he who would 

 exchange Newton s clear ideas, based on nature s own 

 showings, and alike removed from shallow empiricism and 

 self-conceited dogmatism, for the vague pomposities of a 

 Hegel, exchanges 



