Notices respecthig New Boohs. 527 



been several sijeculations made in the composition of works of an 

 elementary class, under the hope of the publisher's or author's influ- 

 ence with the Educational Board being able to get them enforced by 

 an " Order in Council," upon all the echools that receive aid from the 

 Parliamentary Fund. If our general education is to be thus con- 

 trolled, and class-books are to be forced upon the public, it surely 

 becomes important that the books selected for that purpose should 

 be such as judicious and scientific men can aj^prove ; and not sucli as 

 are alone recommended by their price, or by the influence of their 

 authors with the subordinate functionaries of the Government. We 

 hope that it will be rendered imperative upon the Educational Board 

 to appoint a commission of competent jjersons to decide upon the 

 works that shall be used in these schools ; if, indeed, any such books 

 shall be forced upon the public by such authority, — a step the wis- 

 dom of which we strongly question. In sporting phrase, the two 

 works at the head of this review are the present " favourites," and 

 " betting upon them is nearly equal." It is not, then, for any in- 

 trinsic merit they possess that we notice them at all ; for in this re- 

 spect they would be classed with the thousand-and-one abortions 

 that annually issue from the British press in this soi-cUsant " educated 

 age," and they might therefore be allowed to sink into oblivion with 

 the mass to which they belong. 



But when it is contemplated to give to one or other of these works 

 a peculiar patent (the patent of ?l forced sale), it becomes necessary 

 to analyse them with some degree of care ; and under the conviction 

 that the Government would commit a grave mistake and a great 

 wrong by such an adoption of them, we feel ourselves bound to draw 

 the attention of our readers to the character of the works, in order 

 to enlist their cooperation in the prevention of a design fraught with 

 so much real injury to the fundamental principles of science in this 

 country. 



Mr. Bell tells us that his " Treatise on Geometry consists of the 

 usual s'lK elementary books," &c. ; and states, further on, that their 

 " basis is Euclid's Elements of Geometry, as given in the improved 

 editions of Simson and Playfair." He also tells us that " there 

 are several improvements in this edition of the six books ;" that 

 " many additional and useful definitions have been added, A\hich tend 

 to improve the language of geometry in respect to conciseness and 

 precision ;" that " several propositions have been inserted, as being 

 valuable on account of their practical utility ;" and that " numerous 

 scholia have been added, explanatory of the utility or connection of 

 some of the propositions." 



Did the execution correspond to the professions of the autlior, this 

 would be no ordinary book. The numberless logical blunders com- 

 mitted by those who, year after year, and age after age, have under- 

 taken the " improvement" of Euclid's Elements, would operate as a 

 warning to men of sound geometrical knowledge, not to be too rash 

 in identifying every change with an improvement. We are bold to 

 say that every change which Mr. Bell's temerity has led iiim to 

 \no\yoHQ , \^ a. deterioration of the "Elements," and a perversion of 



