Appendix 373 



bag when she returns from filling her trailing 

 udder. And aU this answers to the number e. 



What a quantity of. abstruse science for a bit 

 of string ! Let us not be surprised. A pellet of 

 shot swinging at the end of a thread, a drop of 

 dew trickling down a straw, a splash of water 

 rippling under the kisses of the air, a mere trifle, 

 after all, requires a titanic scaffolding when we 

 wish to examine it with the eye of calculation. 

 We need the club of Hercules to crush a fly. 



Our methods of mathematical investigation 

 are certainly ingenious ; we cannot too much 

 admire the mighty brains that have invented 

 them ; but how slow and laborious they appear 

 when compared with the smallest actualities ! 

 Will it never be given to us to probe reality in 

 a simpler fashion ? Will our inteUigence be 

 able one day to dispense with the heavy arsenal 

 of formulae ? Why not ? 



Here we have the abracadabric number e 

 reappearing, inscribed on a Spider's thread. 

 Let us examine, on a misty morning, the mesh- 

 work that has been constructed during the 

 night. Owing to their hygrometrical nature, 

 the sticky threads are laden with tiny drops, 



2A2 



