1102. Mathematics has a triple end. It should furnish an
instrument for the study of nature. Furthermore it has a
philosophic end, and, I venture to say, an end esthetic. It
ought to incite the philosopher to search into the notions of
number, space, and time; and, above all, adepts find in mathe-
matics delights analogous to those that painting and music give.
They admire the delicate harmony of number and of forms; they
are amazed when a new discovery discloses for them an- un-
locked for perspective; and the joy they thus experience, has
it not the esthetic character although the senses take no part in
it? Only the privileged few are called to enjoy it fully, it is
true; but is it not the same with all the noblest arts? Hence I
do not hesitate to say that mathematics deserves to be culti-
vated for its own sake, and that the theories not admitting of
application to physics deserve to be studied as well as others.

POINCARE, HENRI.

The Relation of Analysis and Mathematical
Physics; Bulletin American Mathematical
Society, Vol. 4 (1899), p. 248.




181

Source: Memorabilia mathematica; or, The philomath's quotation-book - Moritz, Robert Édouard, 1868-1940