He was -- or rather his correspondent was--speaking of mathematics: """ In 1840 I received from my friend M. Plana a letter pressing me strongly to visit Turi

He was -- or rather his correspondent was--speaking of mathematics: """ In 1840 I received from my friend M. Plana a letter pressing me strongly to visit Turin at the then approaching meeting of Italian philosophers. In that letter M. Plana stated that he had inquired anxiously of many of my countrymen about the power and mechanism of the Analytical Engine. He remarked that from all the information he could collect the case seemed to stand thus:— “Hitherto the legislative department of our analysis has been all powerful—the executive all feeble. “Your engine seems to give us the same control over the executive which we have hitherto only possessed over the legislative department.” """ Passages From the Life of a Philosopher (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57532/57532-0.txt https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57532/57532-0.txt)