Some ascribe this to
his natural genius; while
others think that incredible effort and toil
produced these, to all appearances, easy and
unlabored results. No amount of investigation
of yours would succeed in attaining the proof,
and yet, once seen, you immediately believe
you would have discovered it—by so smooth
and so rapid a path he leads you to the
conclusion … Such was Archimedes.
PLUTARCH
“Marcellus,” in The Lives of the
Noble
Grecians and Romans1