"The systematic exposition of a textbook in mathematics is based on logical continuity and not on historical sequence; but the standard high school course in mathematics fails to mention this fact, and therefore leaves the student under the impression that the historical evolution of number proceeded in the order in which the chapters of the textbook were written. This impression is largely responsible for the widespread opinion that mathematics has no human element. For here, it seems, is a structure that was erected without a scaffold: it simply rose in its frozen majesty, layer by layer! Its structure is faultless because it is founded on pure reason, and its walls are impregnable because they were reared without blunder, error or even hesitancy, for here human intuition had no part! In short the structure of mathematics appears to the layman as erected not by the erring mind of man but by the infallible spirit of God. The history of mathematics reveals the fallacy of such a notion."