ན The Fundamental Principles of this ART. All the Practical Rules of OPERATION. BOO K II. CONTAINING, A great VARIETY of PROBLEMS, In the most important BRANCHES of the MATHEMATICS. Vix quicquam in univerfa Matheft ita difficile aut rduum SCHOOT. Pref. to DES CARTES. THE SECOND EDITIO, LONDON: RADCLIFFE UBSENTÍTORY OXFORD. Printed for J. NOURSE, in the Strand; Bookfeller to His MAJESTY, T HE fubject of the following bock is Algebra, a Science of univerfal use in the Mathematics. Its business and ufe is to folve difficult problems, to find out rules and theorems in any particular branch of science; to discover the properties of fuch quantities as are concerned in any subjet we have a mind to confider. It properly follows these two fundamental branches, Arithmetic and Geometry, but is vastly superior in nature to both, as it can solve questions quite beyond the reach of either, of them. THIS is an art truly fublime, and of an unlimited extent; for if the conditions of a problem be never so complex, and though the quantities concerned are never So much entangled with one another, yet the Algebraist can find means to diffolve and feparate them; or if they be ever fo remote, his art can furnish him with methods to bring them together and compare them. It is true he is often obliged to traverse by many roundabout ways, to get the relation of the quantities concerned; yet by certain rules he can pursue the computation of his problem through all these intricate turnings and windings; and by his skill and fagacity can hunt it through all these labyrinths, till he arrives fafely A 2 at رت |