Hinton - The Fourth Dimension.pdf

SECOND CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF FOUR SPACE 45
“If I begin with saying that ‘I ought not to praise it,’
you will be staggered for a moment. But I cannot say
anything else. To praise it is to praise myself, for the
path your son has broken in upon and the results to which
he has been led are almost exactly the same as my own
reflections, some of which date from thirty to thirty-fire
years ago.
“In fact I am astonished to the uttermost. My intention
was to let nothing be known in my lifetime about
my own work, of which, for the rest, but little is committed
to writing. Most people have but little perception
of the problem, and I have found very few who took any
interest in the views I expressed to them. To be able to
do that one must first of all have had a real live feeling
for what is wanting, and as to that most men are completely
in the dark.
“Still it was my intention to commit everything to
writing in the course of time, so that at least it should
not perish with me.
“I am deeply surprised that this task can be spared
me, and I am most of all pleased in this that it is the son
of my old friend who has in so remarkable a manner
preceded me.”
The impression which we receive from Gauss’s inexplicable
silence towards his old friend is swept away
by this letter. Hence we breathe the clear air of the
mountain tops. Gauss would not have failed to perceive
the vast significance of his thoughts, sure to be all the
greater in their effect on future ages from the want of
comprehension of the present. Yet there is not a word
or a sign in his writing to claim the thought for himself.
He published no single line on the subject. By the
measure of what he thus silently relinquishes, by such a
measure of a world-transforming thought, we can appreciate
his greatness.