370 Mr. Baspace on the Influence of Signs 
The advantage of selecting in our signs, those which have 
some resemblance to, or which from some circumstance are as- 
sociated in the mind with the thing signified, has scarcely been 
stated with sufficient force: the fatigue, from which such an ar- 
rangement saves the reader, is very advantageous to the more com- 
plete devotion of his attention to the subject examined ; and the 
more complicated the subject, the more numerous the symbols 
and the less their arrangement is susceptible of symmetry, the 
more indispensible will such a system be found. This rule is by 
no means confined to the choice of the letters which represent 
quantity, but is meant to extend, when it is possible, to cases 
where new arbitrary signs are invented to denote operations. 
In the formation of some of the most common algebraic signs, 
this maxim has been attended to ; but although in many individual 
instances it has been admitted, it is still desirable that it should 
be recognised as a general principle. The sign of equality was 
obviously adopted from the circumstance of the same relation 
existing between its two parts, as that which it indicates between 
the two quantities which it separates, and the propriety of this 
selection has confirmed its use, although Girard employed = to 
denote difference, and Descartes used «< to represent equality. In 
the two signs representing greater and less than 
a>b and b<a*, 
the prevalence of the same motive ef choice is equally apparent, 
for it is immediately seen, that these signs are so contrived, that 
the largest end is always placed next to the largest quantity, and 
* That this principle operated in inducing Harriot, who first used these signs, to adopt 
them, I have now very little doubt: I may however, remark, that on my first initiation into 
Algebra, finding some difficulty in remembering their distinction, I formed the association 
above alluded to as a kind of artificial memory, a purpose, which it effectually answered. 
