WESTERN CALCULATOR, OR A NEW AND COMPENDIOUS SYSTEM OF PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC; CONTAINING THE ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES AND RULES OF CALCULATION IN ARRANGED, DEFINED, AND ILLUSTRATED, IN A PLAIN AND NATURAL ORDER; ADAPTED TO THE USE OF SCHOOLS, THROUGHOUT THE WESTERN COUNTRY IN EIGHT PARTS. BY J. STOCKTON, A. M. PITTSBURGH: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHNSTON & STOCKTON, STEREOTYPED BY J. HOWE. Entered according to the Congress, in the year 1832, bv JOENSTON & STOCKTON A AS erk's office of the District Court of sliger 3-24-39 38303 PREFACE. AMONG the many systems of Arithmetic now used in our American schools, though each has its individual merit, yet all contain many things which are either entirely useless, or of but little value to most beginners. It is to be regretted also, that in most of these systems, even in those parts which are valuable and important, the authors appear not to have been sufficiently aware of giving a plain and natural arrange. ment and system to the whole. There is not that visible connexion between the parts, which enables the attentive pupil to discover, as he progresses, that he is learning a system, and not a number of separate and unconnected rules. 4 In many things, also, more attention has been given to gratify the inquiries of the proficient, than to furnish plain, but necessary instruction to the beginner. The age, capacity, and progress of the scholar are also overlooked; and a mode of instruction too learned, and too elaborate, is pursued. It is forgotten how difficult even the most simple parts are to a young mind; nor are the instances few, in which even the variety of ways laid down, in which the same question may be solved, leaves the learner perplexed, and swells the size of the work. To remedy, in some measure, these defects, and to furnish our numerous schools, in the western country, with a plain and practical treatise of Arithmetic, compiled and printed among ourselves, thereby saving a heavy annual expense in the purchase of such books, east of the mountains, and likewise the carriage thereof, have been the motives which induced the compiler to undertake this work. In it the following objects have been steadily kept in view: 1st. Plainness and simplicity of style, so that nothing should be introduced above the common capacities of scholars, at the early age in which they are generally put to the study of Arithmetic. 2d. A natural and lucid arrangement of the whole, as a system, in which the connexion and dependence of all the parts may be easily discovered and understood. To accomplish this object, the work is divided into eight parts, following each other, in what appears to the compiler the natural and simple divisions of the science. Each of these parts is again divided into sections, following the same connectec arrangement. In cach of these sections, the rules are expressed in a |