Page:Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.djvu/44

PHILOSOPHY AND FUN OF ALGEBRA ever this should happen, take it quite naturally; and as long as you are too young to understand how it happens, just say to yourself, "This is x, one of the things that I do not know, and perhaps shall know some day if I go on quietly acting in accordance with strict logic, and remembering my own ignorance."

The ancient Hebrews used their imaginations very freely, and sometimes really very logically. And sometimes the free use of the imagination produced sensations in the eyes and ears as if of seeing and hearing. They considered this quite natural, as it really was. Many great mathematicians in modern Europe have had these sensations.

The Hebrews called these sensations by a Hebrew word which is translated by the English word "angel," from the Greek "angelos," a messenger. The Hebrew's were quite right. The sensations are messengers from the Great Unknown. They bring no information about outside facts. No angel tells you how many petals there are in a buttercup; if you want to know that, you 40