THIS VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO LEONARD HORNER, Esq. F.R. SS. L. & E. FOUNDER AND SECRETARY OF THE EDINBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS, BY HIS OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, GEORGE LEES. PREFACE. THE object of the present publication, is to supply the students of the Edinburgh School of Arts, and those of similar Institutions, with a condensed yet comprehensive course of Mathematics. It will be readily acknowledged, by those who know any thing of Mathematical Science, that it, of all subjects whatever, can least be taught in the form of lecture. There is through the whole such a concatenation of dependent truths, that unless the Student secure these firmly as he proceeds, he will soon find himself in the same hopeless predicament, as if endeavouring to ascend an eminence by means of a ladder divested of steps. Nor would we insinuate from this, that the study of Mathematics is difficult; on the contrary, we believe that none is more easy or better fitted for a rational mind. From a few axioms or intuitive truths, which are no sooner enunciated than believed, the Mathematician raises the most superb structure, from which he can contemplate, as with a telescope, the beauties of the scientific landscape. Treasures which lay hid before, are gradually opening to his view, and pressing themselves upon his acceptance. It is not with Mathematics, as with the other sciences, where one theory gives place to another, which, in like manner, vanishes at the appearance of a third still more plausible; its principles remain the same, because, from their very nature, they are imperishable. It is intended to publish a Second Volume, containing Plane Trigonometry, Mensuration of Heights, Distances, Surfaces, and Solids, the most useful propositions of Conic Sections, the application of Algebra to Geometry, and Fluxions, or the Differential and Integral Calculus. To this will be added, as an Appendix, the principles of the more abstruse parts of Mechanical Philosophy, embracing more particularly Statics and Dynamics. EDINBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS, |