Although I am almost illiterate mathematically, I grasped very early in life that any one who can count to ten can count upward indefinitely if he is fool enough to do so.

Davies uses self-deprecating humor (“almost illiterate mathematically”) to puncture the prestige of mere numerical facility. The point is not that counting is hard, but that it is trivially repeatable: once you understand the rule, you can extend it without limit. Calling someone “fool enough” to count upward indefinitely satirizes mindless accumulation—of numbers, facts, credentials, money, or achievements—when the activity has no intrinsic end or meaning. The remark aligns with Davies’s frequent skepticism about narrow rationalism and his preference for imagination, judgment, and humane learning over mechanical procedure.