Notices respecting New Books. 535 



of the mode, to use Mr. Bell's expression, of " solving problems of 

 loci and porisms?" He indeed puts down thirteen loci, either theo- 

 rems or problems, as "Exercises," and three porisms; all clearly 

 taken from Leslie's Geometrical Analysis : but not a single example 

 of the method, or a single hint for the student's guidance, is vouch- 

 safed. And this is Messrs. Chambers's " Geometry for the People '. 

 This book is one of the candidates for being adopted by the Educa- 

 tional Committee of the Privy Council ! ! 



We had almost forgotten the rival work, Mr. Tate's ; and, for- 

 tunately, it will require much less space to give it all the notice it de- 

 serves. He makes no parade of " improving Euclid's Elements like 

 Mr. Bell, nor does he flourish about analysis and synthesis, or plane 

 loci and porisms. His preface is candour itself; and there is no possi- 

 bility of supposing him to be apparently aiming at one thing, and 

 really aiming at another. He simply, with a passing compHment, 

 consigns Euclid to oblivion, and " to persons who are already mathe- 

 maticians " (Pref. p. vii.) : and he supplies a substitute founded on the 

 principles of " common sense," " graphic interest," " tracing the 

 origin of our ideas in geometry," the use of instruments, the evidence 

 of sight and touch, and an endless amount of that kind of jargon 

 which old ladies call " twaddle." As to the " artificial verbiage of 

 a technical logic," and the " tedious verbiage of a rigorous denaon- 

 stration," they are left for the amusement of those who have nothmg 

 better to do than to become " mathematicians," and " who can enter 

 into its metaphysical subtleties." 



Mr. Tate seems to understand the constitution and practice ot de- 

 partmental boards, in respect to books, very clearly. He knows full 

 well that the influence of a preface is wonderful upon the people who 

 usually sit at those boards; and, indeed, that the book itself is 

 scarcely ever looked into for the verification of the professions made 

 in the preface. Now Mr. Tate's English composition is very far 

 above mediocrity ; and his prefaces are in general very elaborately 

 and ably written. The present, however, is not the best of them 

 that we have seen ; but there was this difficulty in the way. He 

 had a delicate part to play in persuading our hypothetical Board, 

 that though Euclid's Elements possessed every other perfection that 

 could be named, yet the all-important one of being adapted to the 

 requirements of the Board was wanting in Euclid, and completely 

 fulfilled in Tate. Euclid is enshrouded in his own clouds of great- 

 ness and vastness of conception, such that every-day people cannot 

 read him : but Tate shines with his own bright, steady, familiar 

 light, so that " he who runs may read," and he who reads cannot tail 

 to understand 1 Mr. Tate is modesty personified— modesty denuded 

 of all conventional investiture. However, let him speak for himself 

 with respect to Euclid. 



« However, it must be conceded, that whatever may be its excellences 

 as a book of reference to the mathematician, its defects, as an initiatory 

 system of geometry, are too apparent to admit of even an apology. A great 

 book is, in muny respects, a great evil ; the very elements constituting its 

 greatness,— its refinement and comprehensiveness,— tend to throw over it 



