"In the gradual development and clearer definition of... conceptions a general rule of thought seems to have unconsciously guided philosophers probably more than in any other department of knowledge. It is the rule of simplicity. How the human mind should have arrived at the old formula of "simplex sigillum veri" [simplicity is the sign of truth] is difficult to understand on any other ground than that of convenience and expediency. The prevailing impression, indeed, which the world of phenomena makes on the mind of an unbiassed observer must be the very reverse of simplicity or unity of law and purpose. That, nevertheless, the knowledge of some simple relations in time, number, and space would enable the human intellect to acquire a considerable insight into the course of events and the order of Nature's processes must have come to philosophers as a kind of revelation, and it is not surprising that it came late in the course of civilisation."
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A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century
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