[PIKE'S ARITHMETICK is universally acknowledged to be the most complete system ever published in the United States. It is the source, indeed, from which most of the common arithmeticks have been compiled. Several years of laborious study were devoted to the work by its author, and on its first appearance, it obtained a very high reputation. Others have built upon his foundation, and their works have been deservedly popular; but still, in the fulness and correctness of his rules, and the simplicity of their illustration, PIKE STANDS PREEMINENT.] DARTMOUTH UNIVERSITY, 1786. AT the request of Nicolas Pike, Esq. we have inspected his System of Arithmetick, which we cheerfully recommend to the publick, as easy, accurate, and complete. And we apprehend there is no treatise of the kind extant, from which so great utility may arise to Schools. B. WOODWARD, Math. and Phil. Prof. JOHN SMITH, Prof. of the Learned Languages. I do sincerely concur in the preceding recommendation. J. WHEELOCK, President of the University. PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, 1785. WHOEVER may have the perusal of this treatise on Arithmetick may naturally conclude I might have spared myself the trouble of giving it this recommendation, as the work will speak more for itself than the most elaborate recommendation from my pen can speak for it: But as I have always been delighted with the contemplation of mathematical subjects, and at the same time fully sensible of the utility of a work of this nature, I was willing to render every assistance in my power to bring it to the publick view: And should the student read it with the same pleasure with which I perused the sheets before they went to the press, I am persuaded he will not fail of reaping that benefit from it which he may expect, or wish for, to satisfy his curiosity in a subject of this nature. The author, in treating on numbers, has done it with so much perspicuity and singular address, that I am convinced the study thereof will become more a pleasure than a task. The arrangement of the work, and the method by which he leads the tyro into the first principles of numbers, are novelties I have not met with in any book I have seen. Wingate, Hutton, Ward, Hill, and many other authors whose names might be adduced, if necessary, have claimed a considerable share of merit; but when brought into a comparative point of view with this treatise, they are inadequate and defective. This volume contains, besides what is useful and necessary in the commou affairs of life, a great fund for amusement aud entertainment. The Mechanick will find in it much more than he may have occasion for; the Lawyer,Merchant and Mathematician, will find an ample field for the exercise of their genius; and I am well assured it may be read to great advantage, by students of every class. More than this need not be said by me, and to have said less, would be keeping back a tribute justly due to the merit of this work. BENJAMIN WEST, 269 UNIVERSITY IN CAMBRIDGE, 1786. HAVING, by the desire of Nicolas Pike, Esq. inspected the following volume in manuscript, we beg leave to acquaint the publick, that in our opinion it is a work well executed, aud contains a complete system of Arithmetick. The rules are plain, and the demonstrations perspicuous and satisfactory; and we esteem it the best calculated, of any single piece we have met with, to lead youth, by natural and easy gradations, into a methodical and thorough acquaintance with the science of figures Persons of all descriptions may find in it every thing, respecting numbers, necessary to their business; and not only so, but if they have a speculative turn, and mathematical taste, may meet with much for their entertainment at a leisure hour. We heartily recommend it to schools, and to the community at large, and wish that the industry and skill of the Author may be rewarded. for so beneficial a work, by meeting with the general approbation and encouragement of the publick. JOSEPH WILLARD, D. D. President of the University. E. WIGGLESWORTH, S. T. P. Hollis. S. WILLIAMS, LL.D. Math. et Phil. Nat. Prof. Hollis. YALE COLLEGE. 1786. UPON examining Mr. Pike's system of Arithmetick, in manuscript, I find it to be a work of such mathematical ingenuity, that I esteem myself honored in joining with the Rev. President Willard, and other learned gentlemen, in recommending it to the publick as a production of genius, interspersed with originality in this part of learning, and as a book, suitable to be taught in schools: of utility to the merchant, and well adapted even for University instruction. I consider it of such merit as that it will probably gain a very general reception and use throughout the republick of letters. EZRA STILES, President. SCHENECTADY, OCT. 16, 1822. I HAVE for many years been fully acquainted with Pike's System of Arithmetick, and am fully persuaded of its excellence; I do not know of any treatise of more practical utility; the arrangement of its parts is natural, its rules are plain and easily understood and applied, and it contains all that is of any importance to the Mercantile or Scientific Arithmetician. T. MAULEY, S. T. D. Late Professor of Mathematicks, Union College. AMHERST, MASS. FEB. 9, 1822. I HAVE long been acquainted with Pike's Arithmetick, and think it the best of any extant, for those who wish to acquire a thorough knowledge of Arithmetiek as a science and an art. I cheerfully recommend the work to the patronage of the Instructors of youth in Academies and Schools, as combining more excellencies than any other Arithmetick now in use. ZEPH. SWIFT MOORE, President of the Collegiate Institution, at Amherst, Mass. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Benedict, Tutor of Williams College, dated WILLIAMS COLLEGE, JANUARY 2, 1822, "FROM the experience which I have had in instructing youth, I have had occasion to acquaint myself with many, if not most of the Systems of Arithmetick now in use in this country. I can therefore speak with some more confidence than I otherwise should, from having proved their excellencies and defects by actual trial of them. It is most certain that as a complete System on this important part of education, the work under consideration stands pre-eminent. It is impossible that Arithmetick should be so treated of, as not to leave much to be done by the instructor. Still, as I think, Pike's System will enable the teacher to benefit his scholars, to give them sound theoretical and prac tical knowledge in this branch, to induce them to think and reason closely, and increase their power of arithmetical invention, far more than any other within the compass of my knowledge. GEORGE W. BENEDICT. Publisher's Notice. THE SYSTEM OF ARITHMETICK, of which this work is a new and careful abridgment, has been so long an inmate of our academies and higher seminaries of learning, that its merits are familiar to all. Though numerous treatises on the subject have successively appeared, since the work of PIKE was first published,* few have been able to sustain even an ephemeral reputation, excepting such as were built upon the labours of our author, yet simplified in some of the more intricate parts. Excellent as that work is acknowledged to have been, it had its defects; especially in its want of conformity to the federal notation, and of simplicity, and attraction to the scholar, in a few of the rules. An abridgment was some years since published, in which little else was done than to change the notation ;-and for want of that conciseness in the fundamental rules, which some treatises of less real merit possessed, the book was superseded, and has been neglected in this section of the country, even by those who avow their preference for Pike's as a complete system. At the suggestion of several experienced teachers, the Publisher was induced to put to press a NEW ABRIDGMENT of Pike's Arithmetick, embracing all such portions of the original work as should be necessary for the use of common schools, or of private learners; containing also, many new and practical illustrations of the more important rules. For this purpose, several improvements suggested by instructors of schools and academies have been incorporated in the work; and the whole has undergone the patient and careful revision of a gentleman well known to the publick, as a teacher of great merit both in Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy, and who has devoted many years to the instruction of youth of both sexes. * In 1788.-NICOLAS PIKE was a native of Somersworth in New-Hampshire; was born Oct. 6, 1743; graduated at Harvard College, 1766; was employed a great portion of his life in instructing youth, and died at Newburyport, Ms. Dec. 9, 1819. One great object in this abridgment has been to simplify the general rules, by placing before the scholar their constituent parts illustrated by plain and easy examples. In executing the work, nothing superfluous has been added, and nothing omitted that would contribute to perfect its design, and render it serviceable to youth. Those, however, who are in the habit of teaching superficially, with a view of flattering the pupil and the parent with the mistaken idea of extraordinary progress, may probably raise objections against the work, as containing too many things to be committed to memory-that they will burden and confuse the mind of the scholar. Such persons have yet to learn the capacity of the young mind. For, though it may be true, that a mass of complex ideas crowded into the mind of a scholar would embarrass and perplex him—it is equally true, that in proportion to the number of simple propositions impressed upon the memory of a child, will be the progress of his understanding in strength and capacity. In the arrangement of the present work, regard has been paid to the natural dependence of the several parts upon each other. Though in some instances, it differs from the common method, it is believed to be the more correct and useful. Some of the old and obsolete rules of Tare and Trett, &c. have been omitted, and the Duties and Custom-House Allowances of our own country substituted. Several rules, such as Position, Alligation, Permutation, &c. are inserted in this work, more for the purpose of gratifying the curiosity and exercising the mind of the scholar, than for their utility in business. The PRACTICAL parts are those upon which the greatest attention has been and should be bestowed; and it is upon the improvements in these generally, as well as upon the established character of the author, that the publisher rests his belief of the merits of this edition. April 14, 1826. |