#boreham

Joaquim santos and dr olivera rally portugal 86’

Boreham street in Warminster, Wiltshire, England, UK

There is a sense, I suppose, in which twice one are two; a sense in which two and two are four; a sense in which many other propositions of the kind are partly if not wholly true. It is difficult to see how merchants and accountants, and other excellent and well-meaning people, could go back to their desks and counting-houses if their faith in these arithmetical conclusions were seriously shaken.

I hasten to say, therefore, that there is a plane-the plane of ledgers and cashbooks -on which these propositions are approximately sound. But, if you rise from that plane to a loftier one, you will find at once that they are untenable. They simply will not work. Solomon proves it at the city gate. It may be true that half-a-sovereign and half-a-sovereign make a sovereign; it is obviously untrue that a half-a-baby and half-a-baby make a baby. Let the sword do its deadly work; let it cleave this baby into two parts; and half-a-baby plus half-a-baby will represent but the grim and gruesome mockery of a baby. Two halves of a baby make no baby at all.

On this higher plane of human sentiment and experience, the laws of Mathematics collapse completely. When, for example, a man distributes his wealth among his children, he gives to each a part; but when a woman distributes her love among her children, she gives it all to each. I do not believe that any man who has once fallen in love will ever be persuaded that one and one are only two. He looks at her, and he feels that one plus one would be a million. I do not believe that any happy couple into the sweet shelter of whose home a little child has come will ever be convinced that two and one are only three. Life has been enriched a thousandfold by the addition of that one little life to theirs. And I am certain that no pair from whose clinging and protecting arms their treasure has been snatched will find comfort in the assurance that one from three leaves two. In the great crises of life one’s faith in figures breaks down hopelessly.

F.W. Boreham :: Sword of Solomon :: IV