An introduction to mathematics, by A. N. Whitehead.

NATURE OF MATHEMATICS 11
for thought. Let us try to make clear
to ourselves why explanations of the order
of events necessarily tend to become
mathematical.
Consider how all events are interconnected.
When we see the lightning, we listen for the
thunder; when we hear the wind, we look
for the waves on the sea; in the chill autumn,
the leaves fall. Everywhere order reigns, so
that when some circumstances have been
noted we can foresee that others will also be
present. The progress of science consists in
observing these interconnections and in showing with a patient ingenuity that the events
of this evershifting world are but examples of
a few general connections or relations called
laws. To see what is general in what is particular and what is permanent in what is
transitory is the aim of scientific thought. In
the eye of science, the fall of an apple, the
motion of a planet round a sun, and the clinging of the atmosphere to the earth are all
seen as examples of the law of gravity. This
possibility of disentangling the most complex
evanescent circumstances into various examples of permanent laws is the controlling idea
of modern thought.
Now let us think of the sort of laws which
we want in order completely to realize this
scientific ideal. Our knowledge of the particular facts of the world around us is gained