AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON ALGEBRA; THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL: IN WHICH THE EXCELLENCIES OF THE DEMONSTRATIVE METHODS OF POINTED OUT AND PARTICULARLY INCULCATED. DESIGNED FOR SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND PRIVATE STUDENTS. BY HORATIO N. ROBINSON, A. M. SECOND EDITION. CINCINNATI: JACOB ERNST, No. 183, MAIN STREET. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1846, BY HORATIO N. ROBINSON. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the State of Ohio. Stereotyped by E. Shepard, redt 1-28-4/7K EL Samuel Alyiander PREFACE. Some apology may appear requisite for offering a new book to the public on the science of algebra-especially as there are several works of acknowledged merit on that subject already before the public, claiming attention. But the intrinsic merits of a book are not alone sufficient to secure its adoption, and render it generally useful. In addition to merit, it must be adapted to the general standard of scientific instruction given in our higher schools; it must conform in a measure to the taste of the nation, and correspond with the general spirit of the age in which it is brought forth. The elaborate and diffusive style of the French, as applied to this science, can never be more than theoretically popular among the English; and the severe, brief, and practical methods of the English are almost intolerable to the French. Yet both nations can boast of men highly pre-eminent in this science, and the high minded of both nations are ready and willing to acknowledge the merits of the other; but the style and spirit of their respective productions are necessarily very different, In this country, our authors and teachers have generally adopted one or the other of these schools, and thus have brought among us difference of opinion, drawn from these different standards of measure for true excellence. Very many of the French methods of treating algebraic science are not to be disregarded or set aside. First principles, theories and demonstrations, are the essence of all true science, and the French are very elaborate in these. Yet no effort of individuale, and no influence of a few institutions of learning, can change the taste of the American people, and make them assimilate to the French, any more than they can make the entire people assume French vivacity, and adopt French manners. 156275 |