"Is it not truly wonderful, that, in the constitution of the universe, time and space should every where be so happily combined, that notwithstanding the infinity of wheels and springs which mutually depend on each other, and which are all necessary to the play of the machine, the visible order of nature should, nevertheless, every where preserve the same air of simplicity aud uniformity." (Johann H Lambert, "The System of the World", 1800)
"Space and time: these man proposes to measure. The one circumscribes his momentary existence, the other accompanies his successive stages in life. These two dimensions are tied together through a necessary relationship, namely, motion. When motion is constant and uniform, space is known by time and time is measured by space. Man has nothing within him that is constant and uniform; continually modified every instant, he is changing, irregular. and hardly durable enough to be a measure of duration." (Sophie Germain, cca. 1809)
"In science, reason is the guide; in poetry, taste. The object of the one is truth, which is uniform and indivisible; the object of the other is beauty, which is multiform and varied." (Charles C Colton,"Lacon", 1820)
"Problems relative to the uniform propagation, or to the varied movements of heat in the interior of solids, are reduced […] to problems of pure analysis, and the progress of this part of physics will depend in consequence upon the advance which may be made in the art of analysis. The differential equations […] contain the chief results of the theory; they express, in the most general and concise manner, the necessary relations of numerical analysis to a very extensive class of phenomena; and they connect forever with mathematical science one of the most important branches of natural philosophy." (Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier, "The Analytical Theory of Heat", 1822)
"Heat can evidently be a cause of motion only by virtue of the changes of volume or of form which it produces in bodies. These changes are not caused by uniform temperature but rather by alternations of heat and cold." (Nicolas L S Carnot, "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat and on Machines Fitted to Develop Power", 1824)
"Instead of seeking to attain consistency and uniformity of system, as some modern writers have attempted, by banishing this thought of time from the higher Algebra, I seek to attain the same object, by systematically introducing it into the lower or earlier parts of the science." (William R Hamilton, "Theory of Conjugate Functions, or Algebraic Couples; with a Preliminary and Elementary Essay on Algebra as the Science of Pure Time", Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1837)
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