The Works of Archimedes #222248

After his return to Syracuse he~1ived a life entirely devoted to mathematical research. Incidentally he made himself famous by a variety of ingenious mechanical inventions. These things were however merely the diversions of geometry at play Jr, and be attached no importance to them. In the words of Plutarch, he possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of scientific knowledge that, though these inventions had obtained for him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any written work on such subjects, but, regarding as ignoble and sordid the business of mechanics and every sort of art which is directed to use and profit, he placed his whole ambition in those speculations in whose beauty and subtlety there Is no admixture of the common needs of lifei. In fact he wrote only one such mechanical book, On Sphere-making§, to which allusion will be made later.