21 2 BRITAIN FOR THl':^ BRITOJ? 



Tlic Laws of Motion, lor example, although essential and 

 applicable to the vast, complicated economy of the physical 

 luuverse, could not be applied effectually to a drunken man 

 who prefers to lie prone in the gutter rather than maintain 

 his natural e(|uilibrium. In this case they would, therefore, 

 remain — inoperative. 



Xor would your most learned professor bo bold enough to 

 assert that a bird must not, should not, or does not know how 

 to fly, because some " scientists " assert that he flies against all 

 the laws of mechanics. 



The minds of many great thinkers are so impregnated with 

 ligures and symbols, with algebraic signs and scientiflc formulie, 

 that they become utterly subordinate to their influence. 



The " Exact " Sciences evex Fraudulent 



In illustration of this well-known fact, a very amusing, yet 

 liighly instructive article appeared in the Dailij Express of 

 April, 1U08, entitled "The Fraud of Mathematics." The 

 writer * said : — 



"AVhen you meet a mathematician, and find that his miud is 

 utterly subordinate to figures and symbols, that lie explains Nature 

 by numerical values, reduces a sunset to a, h, and ,r, takes no 

 account of human or other susceptibilities, but works out everything 

 by a rigid order of thought— though you know that Nature is 

 never rigid, that no two waves are ever the same — yet, because 

 you are ballied, you may even think you ought to admire the 

 mathematician. 



'• But when somebody who does understand the higher mathe- 

 matics comes over to your side, and roundly declares that they arc a 

 fraud and a delusion, and that algebra ought to be abolished as a 

 mighty hindrance to thought — then you may whoop iu joy and 

 fearlessly shake a fist in a Senior Wrangler's face." 



He then goes on to tell his readers that one of our Scientists, 

 Mr. Frederick Hovendeu, has a ])rofound contempt for what he 

 calls " Educated Ignorance." This is what he says — 



" ' Eighty per cent, of human sufl"ering and misery,' he said to 

 me gravely, ' arises from ignorance, especially from that most terrible 

 form of ignorance — educated ignorance due to false education.' " 



" Here are some of the things that can be done by algebra : 

 Something can be subtracted from nothing ; something can be 

 subtracted from something h^df a time to produce two somethings ; 

 something can be added to something half a time to produce lialf a 



* " The Fraud of Mathematics," Mr. Llarcus Woodford ; Daily Expresn 

 April 0, rJ08. 



