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But words are things; and a small drop of ink

Falling, like dew, upon thought, produces

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

Byron.

Constant thought will overflow in words unconsciously.

Byron.

The great Lagrange specifies among the many advantages of algebraic notation that it expresses truths more general than those which were at first contemplated, so that by availing ourselves of such extensions we may develop a multitude of new truths from formulæ founded on limited truths. A glance at the history of science will show this. For example, when Kepler conceived the happy idea of infinitely great and infinitely small quantities (an idea at which common sense must have shaken its head pityingly), he devised an instrument which in expert hands may be made to reach conclusions for an infinite series of approximations without the infinite labor of going successively through these. Again, when Napier invented logarithms, even he had no suspicion of the value of this instrument. He calculated the tables merely to facilitate arithmetical computation, little dreaming that he was at the same time constructing a scale whereon to measure the density of the strata of the atmosphere, the height of the mountains, the areas of innumerable curves, and the relation of stimuli to sensations.

Lewes’s Problems of Life and Mind.