TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

Critical Remarks on the Editions of Euclid.

"Mr. Potts, by the publication of his Edition of Euclid, with its most valuable notes and problems, and the solutions and commentaries, has recalled the attention of Englishmen to the subject:-first in his own and the Sister Universities, then in the public schools, and finally, in most Scholastic Establishments in the Country.-His Euclid is one of our own text books in the Royal Military Academy, and we find its arrangements and additions exceedingly conducive to the acquisition of a thorough understanding of the subject by the Gentlemen Cadets."-T. S. Davies, Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. (1848.)

"The Edition of the Elements of Euclid which Mr. Potts has published, is confessedly the best which has yet appeared."-John Phillips Higman, M.A., F.R.S., late Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. (1848.)

"I am well acquainted with Mr. Potts' Editions of Euclid, and I have the greatest pleasure in certifying that I consider them superior to any I have ever seen, and so much so, that I have invariably recommended them to Students in Geometry."-Peter Mason, M.A., Head Master of the Perse Grammar School. (1848.)

"Mr. Potts has lately published an edition of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, which he has illustrated with a collection of Examples. I consider that he has performed his task with great care and judgment, and that the work seems to bid fair to possess a larger share of popular favour than any edition of Euclid yet published.”—R. Buston, B.D., Fellow and Tutor of Emmanuel College. (1848.)

"I gladly embrace this opportunity of expressing the very high opinion I entertain of the merits of Mr. Potts' edition of the Elements of Euclid.”—J. P. Birkett, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Jesus College. (1848.)

"I consider Mr. Potts' edition of Euclid to be a most valuable addition to our Cambridge Mathematical literature, and especially to the department of Geometry; and look to it as a great help towards keeping up, and indeed reviving, the true spirit and feeling for Geometry, which of late years had been too much neglected among us."W. Williamson, B.D., Fellow and Tutor of Clare College. (1848.)

"I believe there is a general opinion in this University that the Principles of Euclid and Elementary Geometry cannot possibly be presented to the mind of a commencing student in a better form, nor be accompanied by a more judicious selection of problems, with hints for their solution, than occurs in the pages of Mr. Potts' publications. By combining symmetry of arrangement with simplicity of language, and by restoring the Syllogism to its plain and simple form, so as to make an introduction to Geometry serve at the same time as an exercise in logic (an advantage which has been quite lost sight of in many of the abbreviated editions with which this University had previously been deluged), I consider that Mr. Potts has done good service to the cause of education."-J. Power, M.A., Fellow of Clare College, and University Librarian. (1848.)

"Mr. Potts has maintained the text of Simson, and secured the very spirit of Euclid's Geometry, by means which are simply mechanical. It consists in printing the syllogism in a separate paragraph, and the members of it in separate subdivisions, each, for the most part, occupying a single line. The divisions of a proposition are therefore seen at once without requiring an instant's thought. Were this the only advantage of Mr. Potts' Edition, the great convenience which it affords in tuition would give it a claim to become the Geometrical text-book of England. This, however, is not its only merit."Philosophical Magazine, January, 1848.

"The plan of this work is excellent."-
"-Spectator.

"If we may judge from the solutions we have sketched of a few of them [the Geometrical Exercises], we should be led to consider them admirably adapted to improve the taste as well as the skill of the Student. As a series of judicious exercises, indeed, we do not think there exists one at all comparable to it in our language-viewed either in reference to the student or teacher."-Mechanics' Magazine, No. 1175.

"The Hints' are not to be understood as propositions worked out at length, in the manner of Bland's Problems, or like those worthless things called 'Keys,' as generally 'forged and filed,'-mere books for the dull and the lazy. In some cases references only are made to the Propositions on which a solution depends; in others, we have a step or two of the process indicated; in one case the analysis is briefly given to find the construction or demonstration; in another case the reverse of this. Occasionally, though seldom, the entire process is given as a model; but most commonly, just so much is suggested as will enable a student of average ability to complete the whole solution-in short, just so much (and no more) assistance is afforded as would, and must be, afforded by a tutor to his pupil. Mr Potts appears to us to have hit the 'golden mean' of Geometrical tutorship."-Mechanics' Magazine, No 1270.

"We can most conscientiously recommend it [The School Edition] to our own younger readers, as the best edition of the best book on Geometry with which we are acquainted."-Mechanics' Magazine, No. 1227.