It's interesting to compare the lens of 1731 and 2014 and how
  one influences the other; Why has mathematics risen to the top
  in terms of Truth? I believe that it was this very definition,
  which itself is a glance into the minds of not just Nathan
  Bailey but the many people who used this very definition as a
  basis for their understanding of the Universe, by the thousands
  and thousands of people who used it directly, and the many
  dictionaries that followed it, that shaped the course of history
  to follow up through today.

  It's a marvelous definition. "Searching into the fundamental
  nature and frame of the thing; which to that end is as it were
  resolved into parts, or taken all to pieces, and then put
  together again".

  It helps explain the strong marriage of mathematics and physics
  to me through the centuries quite well and how, eventually,
  gained dominance over other forms of truth-seeking. I'm sure the
  point of divergence can be placed elsewhere as well.. but I'm
  enjoying pondering this one. Thoughts?[1]ALGEBRA   For my
  [2]?#?mathematical? [3]?#?friends? I came across a Dictionary
  from 1731 - one of the earliest modern English Dictionaries in
  fact. I was browsing though it and came across this. Thought you
  might get a kick out of it. Nathan Bailey put it together. Not
  the best scanning job but heck, it's a 283 year old book.
  [4]https://archive.org/details/universaletymol00unkngoog is
  where you can find the whole thing if you want to get a peek the
  minds of the educated of 1731 era

References

  Visible links
  1. http://icopiedyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ALGEBRA.png
  2. https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/mathematical?source=feed_text&story_id=734981020208
  3. https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/friends?source=feed_text&story_id=734981020208
  4. https://archive.org/details/universaletymol00unkngoog