Flatternot: But these political calculations demand a far more excellent mind than is wanted for mathematical calculations. You can value a hundred Eulers for one Colbert and a thousand Colberts for one Montesquieu.
Wisely: But why?
Flatternot: Because in mathematics from one certainty one goes on to another mechanically, so to speak, and the mathematician has before him all the discoveries of his predecessors; he needs to have only patience and ability to use them; but previous discoveries do not lead the politician on the right path. The mathematician reckons with figures, the politician with passions; in a word, the political sense is and ought to be incomparably higher and is much more rarely met with than the mathematical.
Wisely: Oh, how blessed is that land where such a rare political sense sits upon the throne!
Flatternot: And how happy those who are citizens of such a land! (To the Count.) Of what are you thinking, Count?
Count: I do not understand anything of what you both were talking about.
