“A function of π!” we repeated in delight.
“Precisely. Our conception of ultimate matter is reduced to that of an oblate spheroid described by the revolution of an ellipse on its own minor axis!”
“Good heavens!” we said. “Merely that.”
“Nothing else. And in that case any further calculation becomes a mere matter of the extraction of a root.”
“How simple,” we murmured.
“Is it not,” said the Professor. “In fact, I am accustomed, in talking to my class, to give them a very clear idea, by simply taking as our root F—F being any finite constant”
He looked at us sharply. We nodded.
“And raising F to the log of infinity. I find they apprehend it very readily.”
“Do they?” we murmured. Ourselves we felt as if the Log of Infinity carried us to ground higher than what we commonly care to tread on.
“Of course,” said the Professor, “the Log of Infinity is an Unknown.”
“Of course,” we said very gravely. We felt ourselves here in the presence of something that demanded our reverence.
“But still,” continued the Professor almost jauntily, “we can handle the Unknown just as easily as anything else.”
This puzzled us. We kept silent. We
124
