In short, I never yet encountered the mere
mathematician who could be trusted out of equal roots, or one who
did not clandestinely hold it as a point of his faith that x squared
+ px was absolutely and unconditionally equal to q. Say to one of these
gentlemen, by way of experiment, if you please, that you believe
occasions may occur where x squared + px is not altogether equal to q,
and, having made him understand what you mean, get out of his reach as
speedily as convenient, for, beyond doubt, he will endeavor to knock
you down.
I mean to say," continued Dupin, while I merely laughed at his
last observations, "that if the Minister had been no more than a
mathematician, the Prefect would have been under no necessity of
giving me this check. I knew him, however, as both mathematician and
poet, and my measures were adapted to his capacity, with reference
to the circumstances by which he was surrounded. I knew him as a
courtier, too, and as a bold intriguant. Such a man, I considered,
could not fall to be aware of the ordinary policial modes of action.
He could not have failed to anticipate --and events have proved that
he did not fail to anticipate --the waylayings to which he was
subjected. He must have foreseen, I reflected, the secret
investigations of his premises.
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