Mathematical philosophy, a study of fate and freedom; lectures for educated laymen, by Cassius J. Keyser.

804 MATHEMATICAL PHILOSOPHY
before that, however, it was grappled and wrestled with
by two geniuses of the first rank,-Galileo (in The Two
New Sciences) and Pascal (in the Pensées, Havet's edition).
Is the concept, as some non-mathematicians have contended, a mere curiosity? The contention springs out of
the unpardonable academic sin of stupidity.
With the preliminaries in mind, let us turn to the De
Rerum Natura of Lucretius.1 This work of an Italian
poet I have already mentioned, in the lecture on the
notion of group, in connection with what I have there
called the philosophy of the cosmic cycle, or cosmic year.
And I have mentioned it as one of the greatest works,
not of a Roman as such, but of Man. Memorable on
numerous accounts the Romans were. For the construction of palaces, temples, roads, aqueducts and other public
works-with a measureless appalling waste of material
and human energy, owing to pathetic ignorance of science;
for inventions in the art of war, conquest and public
murder; for elaborate, sometimes clever, often crude and
vulgar imitation of Greek letters, eloquence, and art;
for a manifold development of an imperious jurisprudence; for the theory and practice of empire over subjugated peoples; for the unintentional dissemination of
Hellenic culture, which most of them despised, throughout vast portions of the world; for the establishment,by conquest, exploitation and robbery,-of an unrivalled
luxury and sensual magnificence rotting the moral fiber
of both rulers and ruled: on these and similar accounts,
the Romans are indeed memorable forever. But they
1The following discussion is partly embodied in my article "The
Rôle of the Concept of Infinity in the Work of Lucretius" in the Bulletin
of the American Mathematical Society, April, 1918. The article was reprinted in The Classical Weekly, January 27, 1919.