Borges Apocryphal Quote Is apocryphal the correct word In Royce s The World and the Individual available on Archive org he begins a discussion in the Supplemental Essay as follows let us suppose if you please that a portion of the surface of England is very perfectly levelled and smoothed and is then devoted to the production of our precise map of England That in general then should be found upon the surface of England map constructions which more or less roughly represent the whole of England all this has nothing puzzling about it Any ordinary map of England spread out upon English ground would illustrate in a way such possession by a part of the surface of England of a resemblance to the whole But now suppose that this our resemblance is to be made absolutely exact in the sense previously defined Royce goes on for awhile Borges may have massaged and shortened considerably the quote but the idea is still Royce s it is also discussed in Russell s Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy 151 205 183 66