Note 49 — Chapter II · THE MEANING OF NUMBERS
Charles Francis Atkinson translation
Poincaré in his Science et Méthode (Ch. III), searchingly analyses the “becoming” of one of his own mathematical discoveries. Each decisive stage in it bears “les mêmes caractères de brièveté, de soudainetésoudaineté et de certitude absolue” and in most cases this “certitude” was such that he merely registered the discovery and put off its working-out to any convenient season.—Tr.