Vix quicquam in univerfa Mathefi ita difficile aut arduum SCHOOT. Pref. to DES CARtes. LONDON: Printed for J. NOURSE, in the Strand; MDCCLXIV. 2 THE PREFACE. T HE fubject of the following book is Alge bra, a fcience of univerfal ufe in the Mathematics. Its bufinefs and ufe is to folve difficult problems, to find out rules and theorems in any particular branch of science; to difcover the properties of fuch quantities as are concerned in any fubject we have a mind to confider. It properly follows thefe two fundamental branches, Arithmetic and Geometry, but is vaftly fuperior in nature to both, as it can folve questions quite beyond the reach of ei ther of them. THIS is an art truly fublime, and of an unlimited extent; for if the conditions of a problem be never fo complex, and though the quantities concerned are never · Jo much entangled with one another, yet the Algebraift can find means to diffolve and feparate them; or if they be ever so remote, his art can furnish him with methods to bring them together and compare them. It is true, be is often obliged to traverse by many roundabout ways, to get the relation of the quantities concerned; yet by certain rules be can pursue the computation of his problem through all these intricate turnings and windings; and by his skill and sagacity can hunt it through all thefe labyrinths, till he arrives fafely A 2 |