IMPROVED

SCHOOL BOOKS.

Colburn's First Lessons, or, Intellectual Arithmetic

THE merits of this little work are so well known, and so highly appreciated in Boston and its vicinity, that any recommendation of it is unnecessary, except to those parents and teachers in the country, to whom it has not been introduced. To such it may be interesting and important to be informed, that the system of which this work gives the elementary principles, is founded on this simple maxim; that, children should be instructed in every science, just so fast as they can understand it. In conformity with this principle, the book commences with examples so simple, that they can be perfectly comprehended and performed mentally by children of four or five years of age; having performed these, the scholar will be enabled to answer the more difficult ques tions which follow. He will find, at every stage of his progress, that what he has already done has perfectly prepared him for what is at present required. will encourage him to proceed, and will afford him a satisfaction in his study, which can never be enjoyed while performing the merely mechanical operation of ciphering according to artificial rules.

This

This method entirely supersedes the necessity of any rules, and the book contains none. The scholar learns to reason correctly respecting all combinations of numbers; and if he reasons correctly, he must obtain the desired result. The scholar. who can be made to un

derstand how a sum should be done, needs neither book nor instructer to dictate how it must be done.

This admirable elementary Arithmetic introduces the scholar at once to that simple, practical system, which accords with the natural operations of the human mind. All that is learned in this way is precisely what will be found essential in transacting the ordinary business of life, and it prepares the way, in the best possible manner, for the more abstruse investigations which belong to maturer age. Children of five or six years of age will be able to make considerable progress in the science of numbers by pursuing this simple method of studying it; and it will uniformly be found that this is one of the most useful and interesting sciences upon which their minds can be occupied. By using this work children may be farther advanced at the age of nine or ten, than they can be at the age of fourteen or fifteen by the common method. Those who have used it, and are regarded as competent judges, have uniformly decided that more can be learned from it in one year, than can be acquired in two years from any other treatise ever published in America. Those who regard economy in time and money, cannot fail of holding a work in high estimation which will afford these important advantages.

ment.

Colburn's First Lessons are accompanied with such instructions as to the proper mode of using them, as will relieve parents and teachers from any embarrassThe sale of the work has been so extensive, that the publishers have been enabled so to reduce its price, that it is, at once, the cheapest and the best Arithmetic in the country.

Colburn's Sequel.

THIS work consists of two parts, in the first of which the author has given a great variety of questions, ar

ranged according to the method pursued in the First Lessons; the second part consists of a few questions, with the solution of them, and such copious illustrations of the principles involved in the examples in the first part of the work, that the whole is rendered perfectly intelligible. The two parts are designed to be studied together. The answers to the questions in the first part are given in a Key, which is published separately for the use of instructers. If the scholar find any sum difficult, he must turn to the principles and illustrations, given in the second part, and these will furnish all the assistance that is needed.

The design of this arrangement is to make the scholar understand his subject thoroughly, instead of performing his sums by rule.

The First Lessons contain only examples of numbers so small, that they can be solved without the use of a slate. The Sequel commences with small and simple combinations, and proceeds gradually to the more extensive and varied, and the scholar will rarely have occasion for a principle in arithmetic, which is not fully illustrated in this work.

Colburn's Introduction to Algebra.

THOSE who are competent to decide on the merits of this work, consider it equal, at least, to either of the others composed by the same author.

The publishers cannot desire that it should have a higher commendation. The science of Algebra is so much simplified, that children may proceed with ease and advantage to the study of it, as soon as they have finished the preceding treatises on arithmetic. The same method is pursued in this as in the author's other works; every thing is made plain as he proceeds with his subject.

The uses which are performed by this science, give it a high claim to more general attention. Few of the

more abstract mathematical investigations can be con ducted without it; and a great proportion of those, for which arithmetic is used, would be performed with much greater facility and accuracy by an algebraic process.

The study of Algebra is singularly adapted to discipline the mind, and give it direct and simple modes of reasoning, and it is universally regarded as one of the most pleasing studies in which the mind can be eugaged.

The Author's Preface.

The first object of the author of the following treatise has been to make the transition from arithmetic to algebra as gradual as possible. The book, therefore, commences with practical questions in simple equations, such as the learner might readily solve without the aid of algebra. This requires the explanation of only the signs plus and minus, the mode of expressing multiplication and division, and the sign of equality; together with the use of a letter to express the unknown quantity. These may be understood by any one who has a tolerable knowledge of arithmetic. All of them, except the use of the letter, have been explained in arithmetic. To reduce such an equation, requires only the application of the ordinary rules of arithmetic; and these are applied so simply, that scarcely any one can mistake them, if left entirely to himself. One or two questions are solved first with little explanation in order to give the learner an idea of what is wanted, and he is then left to solve several by himself.

The most simple combinations are given first, then those which are more difficult. The learner is expected to derive most of his knowledge by solving the examples himself; therefore care has been taken to make the explanations as few and as brief as is consistent with giving an idea of what is required.

In order to study this work to advantage, the learner should solve every question in course, and do it algebra

wally. If he finds a question which he can solve as eastly 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.