Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/164

160 Even such an enlightened and careful historian as Josephus relates that Abraham taught mathematics to the Jews, and instances might be multiplied to show that this idea is prevalent throughout history.

The intimate connection of mathematics with early culture is further apparent in its relation to religion and philosophy. In Egypt mathematics was the peculiar possession of the priesthood, and was guarded by them with the utmost jealousy. When it passed to the Greeks it was made by them a prerequisite for philosophical study, their great philosophers being primarily mathematicians. At the beginning of the christian era mathematics again passed into the keeping of the priesthood, its preservation during the dark ages being due to the care with which it was preserved in catholic monasteries. Even the pope openly gave it the sanction of the church, threatening Galileo with the Inquisition for his heretical astronomical doctrines, and refuting them by issuing a manifesto to the effect that the sun moves around the earth in accordance with the time-honored Ptolemaic system. During the period of the reformation, mathematics was regarded as one of the most powerful weapons of Protestantism, many noted mathematicians of the time devoting all their efforts to proving that Pope Leo X. was the antichrist mentioned in Revelation 13: 18.

The history of mathematics begins in the valley plains of Egypt. On this border line between the tropical and temperate zones, climate and soil were so adapted to the needs of primitive man as to force intellect to its earliest manifestation. As Aristotle expressed it, " When pressing needs are satisfied, man turns to the general and more elevated," and consequently, as Hegel points out, the temperate zone is the true theater of history, since where heat or cold are intense, external pressure is never relieved. As the rigors of climate lessened and man attained a greater mastery over nature, these two factors conspired to force culture out of its primitive seat in the river valleys of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates towards the northwest, its northerly progress being determined by climatic changes, and its westerly course by topographic features. If the course of mathematical development is traced out on a physiographic and isothermal map, it will be clearly apparent not only that it has followed the lines of least resistance topographically, but that it has crossed successive isotherms in its northerly progress with great regularity, due, as has been suggested, to the increasing need of the nervous system, as it becomes more complex, for a more bracing climate.

The three chief geographic features which exhibit fundamental differences are valley, mountain and sea. In the valley plains of China, India, Babylonia and Egypt, the fertility of the soil assured a plentiful subsistence, while the regularity of the seasons, combined with landed values resulting from agriculture, gave rise to a fixed social relationship. In more elevated regions, such as the plateaus of Africa and South