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 XX. Notices respecting New Books. 



The Amateur's Perspective ; being an attempt to present the Theory in 

 the simplest form ; and so to methodize and arrange the subject, as 

 to render the Practice famiHarhj intelligible to the uninitiated, in a 

 few hours of study. By Richard Davenport, Esq. London, 1828 ; 

 4to. pp. 84. Fourteen Lithographs. 



THE following extracts from the Preface to this excellent work, 

 with the table of Contents subjoined, will convey a better idea of 

 its nature and utility than any account of it which we could draw up. 



" It cannot but be a matter of surprise, that in a confined branch 

 or department of geometry, there should be much variety of system ; 

 that the teaching of Pekspectivk, which is purely geometrical, 

 should not, long ago, have been reduced to a concise and generally 

 adopted method, and that systems and treatises should have succeeded 

 each other lor centuries, and books on the subject should still be 

 multiplying. 



" The Author of the present treatise must therefore apologize for 

 adding another to the heap ; and his apology is this : viz. that hav- 

 ing looked into most that have been mentioned to him, both of old 

 and modern treatises, including three Encyclopaedias, he has not 

 found one that combines all the requisites he deems essential. Some 

 he has found (to himself at least) absolutely unintelligible. Some, 

 involving most unnecessary intricacies. Some, omitting links in the 

 chain of progressive instruction, leaving the scholar in difficulties 

 which can be remedied only by reference to other treatises, or by re- 

 quiring the assistance of masters; and in general, the rules and 

 problems given without the rationale of the system, or demonstra- 

 tion of the correctness of the solutions, for want of which they appear 

 to the scholar as so many arbitrary rules, which frighten him at the 

 outset by their apparent perplexity, and escape from his memory 

 afterwards." 



" In the following, it will be found that the Author has made an 

 attempt to simplify the theory, and show how the visible lines di- 

 rected to be drawn within the picture, do represent the imaginary 

 lines defined in the system. This part maybe studied by those who 

 find it interesting. It will certainly facilitate their knowledge of the 

 practical part, enabling them not only more readily to comprehend 

 and remember the rules, but to apply them universally. Those who 

 would save themselves the trouble of studying the theory, and wish 

 only for a present rule to perform a present operation in practice, 

 may omit it ; and it is hoped that they will find what they want in its 

 proper place in the practical part of the work." 



" Some persons object to the study of Perspective, thinking that 

 it confines genius, gives a stiffness of execution, and tends to pro- 

 duce such pictures only, as, if mathematically correct, are yet un- 

 pleasing and uninteresting. 



" It is passible that persons, of whose education it has formed a 

 part, may have been so long accustomed to straight lines, that their 

 eye requires them, and their hands habitually form them ; but such 



effect 



