Page:Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.djvu/59

 CHAPTER X THE STORY OF A WORKING HYPOTHESIS

an old Hebrew book there is a story of a person named Jacob, which means the Supplanter. If you want to know why, you had better read the story for yourself some day. It is not entirely a pretty story, but it is very instructive. Jacob had a dream in which he saw "angels" coming down a ladder. It would be a very profitable exercise of your imagination to ask yourselves why this particular patriarch saw angels on a ladder, whereas so many other Hebrews saw them in clouds, or flying down on wings, or mixed up with flames and other romantic, pretty, moving things.

Jacob had another dream, and saw an angel who wrestled with him, and apparently left him with sciatica for life; which is not surprising for he had been sleeping out of doors on bare ground, just when he had been wrestling with very serious difficulties caused by his own dishonest tricks. 55