clear and satisfactory accounts, who has a just idea of the nature of the subject, he has endeavoured to explain it with all possible precision and simplicity. This part of the work is entirely new, and he hopes, the manner of arrangement will attach a particular value to it. The different forms used by merchants are as various, as the demands of their business; but as all are reducible to the great principle of classing the several transactions under suitable heads, in such a way, that the state of one's property or business may be easily examined and known, this compendium may be a safe guide for a person of discernment to follow in any circumstances. Nothing need be said of the propriety of the brief tracts of practical Mensuration and Gauging, which are annexed to the work. Such knowledge is as important and requisite, as most rules of Arithmetic, and what is inserted, is adapted to common purposes. As the work is now under the author's control, he trusts that in future editions it will be more and more improved with whatever may occur, as conducive to its original design of rendering mercantile calculations easy and familiar. In schools it may be studied in connexion with the popular treatises of mental Arithmetic, or as a sequel to them, as will best suit the views of instructers. Mode of calculating the interest of notes with endorsements, and settlement Rule established by the Courts of Law of Massachusetts for making up judgments on securities for money, which are upon interest, and on which Recapitulation of the same example 99 EXPLANATION OF THE CHARACTERS USED IN THIS WORK. = one =SIGNIFIES equality, or equal to: as 20 shillings pound: that is, 20 shillings are equal to 1 pound. Signifies more, or Addition: as, 6+6=12: that is, 6 added to 6 is equal to 12. Signifies less, or Subtraction: as, 6--2-4: that is, 6 less 2 is equal to 4. × Signifies Multiplication: as, 6X2-12: that is, 6 multiplied by 2 is equal to 12. Signifies Division: as, 6-2-3: that is, 6 divided by 2 is equal to 3. Division is sometimes expressed by placing the numbers like a fraction, the upper figures being the dividend, and the lower the divisor: thus, 59: that is, 54 divided by 6 is equal to 9. :: Proportion: as 3:6:9: 18: that is, as 3 is to 6, so is 9 to 18. √ Prefixed to any number, signifies that the square root of that number is required." A line or vinculum, drawn over several numbers, signifies, that the numbers under it are to be considered jointly: as 8-3-4-1: but without the line, 8-3+4=9. |