Maech 11, 1904.1 



SCIENCE. 



409 



examination worthy of all praise, where in 

 part othei's questioned him ad aperturam, 

 and in part, as opportunity served, I let 

 him carry out some proofs in mechanics 

 by the integral calculus, such as variable 

 motion, the tautochronism of the cycloid, 

 and the like. Nothing more could be 

 wished. The simplicity, clearness, quick- 

 ness and ease were enrapturing even for 

 strangers. He has a quick and compre- 

 hensive head, and often flashes of genius, 

 which many paths at once with a glance 

 find and penetrate. He loves pure deep 

 theories and astronomy. He is handsome 

 and rather strongly built, and appears 

 restful, except that he plays with other 

 children very willingly and with fire. His 

 character is, as far as one can judge, firm 

 and noble. I have destined him as a sacri- 

 fice to mathematics. He also has conse- 

 crated himself thereto." 



His mother, nee Zsuzsanna Benko Arkosi, 

 Avonderfully beautiful, fascinating, of ex- 

 traordinary mental capacity, but always 

 nervous, so idolized this only child that 

 when in his fifteenth year he was to be 

 sent to Vienna to the K. K. Ingenieur- 

 Akademie, she said it seemed he shoiild go, 

 but his going would drive her distracted. 

 And so it did. 



Appointed 'sous-lieutenant,' and sent to 

 Temesvar, he wrote thence to his father a 

 letter in Magyar, which I had the good 

 fortune to see at Maros-Vasarhely : 



My Dear and Good Father: 



I have so much to write about my new inven- 

 tions that it is impossible for the moment to enter 

 into great details, so I write yo\i only on one 

 fourth of a sheet. I await your answer to my 

 letter of two sheets; and perhaps I would not 

 have written you before receiving it if I had not 

 wished to address to you the letter I am writing 

 to the Baroness, which letter I pray you to send 

 her. 



First of all I reply to you in regard to the 

 binomial. 



******** 



Now to something else, so far as space permits. 



I intend to write, as soon as I have put it into 

 order, and when possible to publish, a work on 

 parallels. 



At this moment it is not yet finished, but the 

 way which I have followed promises me with cer- 

 tainty the attainment of the goal, if it in general 

 is attainable. 



It is not yet attained, but I have discovered such 

 magnificent things that I am myself astonished at 

 them. It would be damage eternal if they were 

 lost. When you see them, my father, you yourself 

 will acknowledge it. 



Now I can not say more, only so much: that 

 from nothing I have created another wholly new 

 ivorld. 



All that I have hitherto sent you compares to 

 this only as a house of cards to a castle. 



P. S.— I dare to judge absolutely and with con- 

 viction of these works of my spirit before you, my 

 father; I do not fear from you any false interpre- 

 tation (that certainly I would not merit), which 

 signifies that, in certain regards, I consider you 

 as a second self. 



Nor was the young Magyar deceived. 

 The early flashings of his genius culmin- 

 ated here in a piercing search-light pene- 

 trating and dissolving the enchanted walls 

 in which Euclid had for two thousand 

 years held captive the human mind. 



The potential new universe, whose crea- 

 tion this letter announces, afterward set 

 forth with master strokes in his 'Science 

 Absolute of Space,' contains the old as 

 nothing more than a special case of the 

 new. 



Already all the experts of the mathe- 

 matical world are his disciples. 



17- SOLVING THE UNIVERSB. 



Henceforth the non-Euclidean geometry 

 must be reckoned with in all culture, in all 

 scientific thinking. It shows that the rid- 

 dle of the universe is an indeterminate 

 equation capable of entirely different sets 

 of solutions. It shows that our universe 

 is largely man-made, and must be often 

 remade to be solved. 



In Science for November 20, 1903, page 

 643, W. S. Franklin, under a heading for. 



