A Plea for the Mathematician

Abstract

I.

IT is said of a great party leader and orator in the House of Lords that, when lately requested to make a speech at some religious or charitable meeting, he declined to do so on the ground that he could not speak unless he saw an adversary before him—somebody to attack or reply to. In obedience to a somewhat similar combative instinct, I set to myself the task of considering certain recent utterances of a most distinguished member of this Association, one whom I no less respect for his honesty and public spirit than I admire him for his genius and eloquence, but from whose opinions on a subject which he has not studied I feel constrained to differ. Göthe has said—