I Wish To God These Calculations Had

The First Steps In The Path Of Discovery, And The First Approximate Measures, Are Those Which Add Most To The Existing Knowledge Of Mankind.

In Turning From The Smaller Instruments In Frequent Use To The Larger And More Important Machines, The Economy Arising From The Increase Of Velocity Becomes More Striking.

On Two Occasions I Have Been Asked, 'pray, Mr. Babbage, If You Put Into The Machine Wrong Figures, Will The Right Answers Come Out?' I Am Not Able Rightly To Apprehend The Kind Of Confusion Of Ideas That Could Provoke Such A Question.

The Proportion Between The Velocity With Which Men Or Animals Move, And The Weights They Carry, Is A Matter Of Considerable Importance, Particularly In Military Affairs.

Science In England Is Not A Profession: Its Cultivators Are Scarcely Recognised Even As A Class. Our Language Itself Contains No Single Term By Which Their Occupation Can Be Expressed. We Borrow A Foreign Word [savant] From Another Country Whose High Ambition It Is To Advance Science, And Whose Deeper Policy, In Accord With More Generous Feelings, Gives To The Intellectual Labourer Reward And Honour, In Return For Services Which Crown The Nation With Imperishable Renown, And Ultimately Enrich The Human Race.