Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

AN

INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

ALGEBRA

UPON THE

INDUCTIVE METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

BY WARREN COLBURN,

AUTHOR OF INTELLECTUAL ARITHMETIC AND SEQUEL TO DITTO.

STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
LATE T. H. CARTER AND CO.

Boston:

CUMMINGS, HILLIARD, AND COMPANY.

Printed at Treadwell's Power Press.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-fourth day of June, A. D. 1825, in the forty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, WARREN COLBURN, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit:→→

"An Introduction to Algebra, upon the Inductive Method of Instruction. By Warren Colburn, Author of First Lessons in Arithmetic, &c."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled "An act supplementary to an act, entitled An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.” JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

In order to study this work to advantage, the learner should solve every question in course, and do it algebraically. If he finds a question which he can solve as easily without the aid of algebra as with it, he may be assured, this is what the author expected. If he first solves a question, which involves no difficulty, he will understand perfectly what he is about, and he will thereby be enabled to encounter those which are difficult.

When the learner is directed to turn back and do in a new way, something he has done before, let him not fail to do it, for it will be necessary to his future progress; and it will be much better to trace the new principle in what he has done before, than to have a new example for it.

The author has heard it objected to his arithmetics by some, that they are too easy. Perhaps the same objection will be made to this treatise on algebra. But in both cases, if they are too easy, it is the fault of the subject, and not of the book. For in the First Lessons, there is no explanation; and in the Sequel there is probably less than in any other books, which explain at all. As easy however as they are, the author believes that whoever undertakes to teach them, will find the intellects of his scholars more exercised in studying them, than in studying the most difficult treatise he can put into their hands. When the learner feels, that the subject is above his capacity, he dares not attempt any thing himself, but trusts implicitly to the author; but when he finds it level with his capacity, he readily engages in it. But here there is something more. The learner is required to perform a part himself. He finds a regular part assigned to him, and if the teacher does his duty, the learner must give a great many explanations which he does not find in the book.

1*

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »