8

6

clear ideas about all things mathematical
that are today common to all
real masters in mathematics, were just
beginning to sprout, just making their appearance
above the ground. That book of Boole's
may well be compared to the De Revolutionibus
of Copernicus. You know that the system of
Copernicus, until Keppler came, met with
considerable dissent on the part of those
astronomers who were entirely neutral on
the Biblical question. The reason was that
although it contained one immense simplification
which ought to have caused its
acceptance, and would have done
so if all astronomers had been reasoners