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

218 INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS
formation. The same is true in science. The
genius who has the good fortune to produce
the final idea which transforms a whole
region of thought, does not necessarily excel
all his predecessors who have worked at the
preliminary formation of ideas. In considering the history of science, it is both silly and
ungrateful to confine our admiration with a
gaping wonder to those men who have made
the final advances towards a new epoch.
In the particular instance before us, the
subject had a long history before it assumed its final form at the hands of its
two inventors. There are some traces of its
methods even among the Greek mathematicians, and finally, just before the actual
production of the subject, Fermat (born 1601
A.D., and died 1665 A.D.), a distinguished
French mathematician, had so improved on
previous ideas that the subject was all but
created by him. Fermat, also, may lay
claim to be the joint inventor of coordinate
geometry in company with his contemporary
and countryman, Descartes. It was, in fact,
Descartes from whom the world of science
received the new ideas, but Fermat had certainly arrived at them independently.
We need not, however, stint our admiration either for Newton or for Leibniz. Newton was a mathematician and a student of
physical science, Leibniz was a mathema