For the enemy left at home a despised captive has burst all the chains of the equations, and broken forth from the prisons of the tables."
"I have done some mathematics, including the first six and the eleventh and twelfth books of Euclid; and algebra as far as simple equations.
But our man of "letters" quit cyphering the new way, and returned to plain figures long before reaching equations; and so he could not become our professor.
Then he got out note-book and algebra and lost himself in quadratic equations, while the hours slipped by, and the stars dimmed, and the gray of dawn flooded against his window.
"Mr. Jimmy, my company is nearly out of sight--if you can get along this way through simple and quadratic equations by our meeting, your chance will not be so bad--good morning, sir."