HENRI POINCARE
xi
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 immense 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.’’