109

1908 Nov 30
Logic
I.i. 12

expect that they and some generations of students after them
by diligently working at them will enable a still later generation to
find the solutions. There is not a bit of sentimentality about
them. As Pope's saying

The undevout astronomer is mad,

they give a little laugh, well-knowing that the astronomer is the only
man who has no opportunity to note the sublimity of the heavens,
since whenever there "is any seeing," he must be completely
absorbed in making his measures. The spirit in which they
work that posterity may know what they never can is rather like
that of disciplined troups who advance upon the walls of a fort,
with the idea that when the dead are piled high enough those behind
will be able to reach the ramparts. They knew when they took up the