360 Mr. BappaGE on the Influence of Signs 
and the series, whose sum we wish to find is then denoted by 
aA+bB+cC+dD+.. 
or by 
aa'+bb+cck+dd+.. 
The assumption of 
A,+A,+A,+.. 
Ay + 4+ A+ Sc 
would have been equally proper, and the result equally clear: 
but had we assumed for the two series 
at+tb+c+d+.. 
Ba Pa 
’ the resulting series 
aA,+bA,+c4,+dAy+.. 
would have been devoid of that symmetry, which forms so pro- 
minent a character in the former cases. ' 
The plan of accenting letters, in order to represent quantities 
which stand in similar relations, adds, when employed with 
discretion, much to the perspicuity of the formulz in which it 
is used; but like many other innovations, whose tendency is 
on the whole decidedly beneficial, an attempt to extend it 
beyond its proper limits, has been productive of inconveniences 
as considerable as those which its introduction was proposed 
to remove. Indices in various positions have been substituted in 
many cases for the system of accentuation, and the admirers of 
this scheme, pursuing it with equal ardor, have not been more 
fortunate in avoiding the confusion, which a multitude of signs, 
diftermg but by the slightest shades, can scarcely fail of producing. 
The taste of the geometer is not less strongly tried by the choice 
of the letters in which he conducts his reasoning, than his skill 
and ingenuity are by the artifices he invents to surmount the 
