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I. Introduction

The Born-Infeld variational principle leads to electrodynamics only because we choose this option. Indeed, the Lagrangian does not need any specification of that nature, but is purely a metric-related Lagrangian. Of course, the choice is not quite arbitrary, but guided by our knowledge of Classical Electrodynamics. In this respect we can say that the Born-Infeld equations are universal in the precise sense that, have we had knowledge of some other classical field limit at the historical moment when the theory was created, the final equations would have looked exactly the same. What then, is that classical limit the knowledge of which we need in order to render to Born-Infeld equations their expected universality? Well, we think it was right in front of us from the very moment Analytical Mechanics has been created! What we needed in order to reveal it is the formalism of exterior differential forms, which is at the basis of a special kind of Mechanics having, again, tendencies of universality - the Invariantive Mechanics.

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