l5l< Notices respecting New Booh, 



of which (radial projection) presents difficulties of a much higher 

 order than those of orthographic projection; and Mr. Pierce's 

 treatment by no means smooths down its asperities. Of course a 

 reader who has worked conscientiously through the first part, has 

 gone through a sort of preliminary discipline for the second ; but 

 even such a reader would find it, at the outset, very hard to master 

 the first four pages and Plate I. to which they refer — a difficulty 

 which is seriously increased by an unfortunate misprint at a critical 

 point (line 18, p. 60), and another in the lettering of Plate I. It 

 might perhaps be said that the author undertakes to treat the 

 matter as a question of geometry, and therefore addresses himself 

 to competent readers ; and this, of course, justifies a severe treat- 

 ment of the subject, but not unnecessary abstruseness. It is said 

 that when Brook Taylor's treatise 'On the Principles of Linear 

 Perspective ' was published, it was criticised by a most competent 

 judge as being abstruse to all and unintelligible to artists, for whom 

 it was specially written. Brook Taylor's book is easy reading com- 

 pared with this part of Mr. Pierce's ; still, it ma} r be freely allowed 

 that a student who masters the present work will know the prin- 

 ciples of the subject, and their application to several important 

 and to some very difficult questions. 



The plates, which form just half of the volume, are well done, 

 and are as a rule intelligible to any one who takes proper pains to 

 make them out. They are called on the titlepage " 85 Plates of 

 Original Drawings ; " which, we suppose, means that they are 

 copies of drawings actually made by Mr. Pierce ; of course many 

 are substantially the same as what may be found in other works, 

 e. g. in Mr. Bradley's ' Elements of Practical Geometry,' a work to 

 which our author refers in his preface. 



That descriptive geometry is a subject of great importance in 

 the constructive arts is much more commonly recognized than it 

 was a few years ago ; and works of merit exist on the subject in 

 English, particularly Mr. Bradley's, mentioned above ; but their 

 number is not large, and the present is likely to be of great value 

 to the student. It contains, in a convenient form and moderate 

 compass, what all who take up the subject ought to know, and as 

 much as most students would wish to learn*. We do not doubt 

 that a second edition will be called for ere long ; and in that case 

 Mr. Pierce would greatly increase its value by suggesting exercises 

 for the student to work out. To some extent this want has been 

 anticipated by a very good but unpretending little volume by 

 Messrs. Edgar and Pritchard, ' Note-book on Descriptive Geo- 

 metry.' However, it is much better for a student to have in a 

 single text-book all he requires ; and the want could be easily sup- 

 plied. As it is he finds in the plates a complete solution to every 

 question in the book, and is never thrown on his own resources. 

 There are a few misprints in the book which will doubtless dis- 



*• Mr. Pierce proposes to show in a future work the application of the 

 subject to the several arts of construction. 



