between propositions which are nearly allied, e.g. as converses. I cannot but think that the formality and deliberation of Euclid's exposition, involving a certain amount of repetition of stereotyped phrases or steps, combined with the necessity of translating the Greek word for word wherever they occur, would be a very effective way of impressing the technique and the whole content on the mind of the learner. A last consideration is this. I remember well (it was in the days long ago when most people were under the impression that Books VII-X of Euclid were lost in Greek) the thrill of pleasure I felt when I first took up the Greek text of Euclid, then not too easy to get hold of, for there was no Teubner text as there is now, and one had to look in College libraries for copies, which in any case were not too convenient to handle. I cannot but think that at all events the studious boys in the higher Forms of schools who have already got a fair grasp of Greek and know the amount of geometry corresponding to the first book of Euclid would be really interested to see the actual language in which the old Alexandrian taught the youth and pupils of maturer age in his own day, and so to put themselves in the place of their fellow-students of twenty-two centuries ago. It is in the confident belief that there will be many senior boys at school and students at the Universities, to say nothing of students of riper years, who will in this way come to read Euclid with more zest and more profit that I offer them this little book. It is desirable to add a word with regard to the notes. I am convinced that there is no subject which, if properly presented, is better calculated than the fundamentals of geometry to make the schoolboy (or the grown man) think. This is the object of the notes; and, if it is attained, it is worth while, whatever the schoolboy's after career may be. T. L. H. 5. xi. 19 |