The Foundations of Science #255607

The kernel of Poincaré's power lies in an oracle Sylvester often quoted to me as from Hesiod: The whole is less than its part. He penetrates at once the divine simplicity of the perfectly general case, and thence descends, as from Olympus, to the special concrete earthly particulars. A combination of seemingly extremely simple analytic and geometric concepts gave necessary general conclusions of im mense scope from which sprang a disconcerting wilderness of possible deductions. And so he leaves a noble, fruitful heritage. Says Love: His right is recognized now, and it is not likely that future generations will revise the judgment, to rank among the greatest mathematicians of all time.