In his essay on mathematics published by The Pennsylvania Gazette dated October 30, 1735, Benjamin Franklin writes:

“Mathematical demonstrations are a logic of as much or more use, than that commonly learned at schools, serving to a just formation of the mind, enlarging its capacity, and strengthening it so as to render the same capable of exact reasoning, and discerning truth from falsehood in all occurrences, even subjects not mathematical. For which reason, it is said, the Egyptians, Persians, and Lacedæmonians seldom elected any new kings, but such as had some knowledge in the mathematics, imagining those, who had not, men of imperfect judgments, and unfit to rule and govern.”

[pic source wfltd:  Ruins of palace of 6th c. BCE Iranian king Darius the Great at Susa in Iran... for educational purposes only]