Elements of Algebra

EULER. xix Euler, of which we here offer a Translation; and if he has any taste for the beauties of method, and of what is properly called composition, we venture to promise him the highest satisfaction and pleasure. The subject is so aptly divided, the order is so luminous, the connected parts seem so truly to grow one out of the other, and are disposed altogether in a manner so suitable to their relative importance, and so conducive to their mutual illustration, that, when added to the precision, as well as clearness with which every thing is explained, and the judicious selection of examples, we do not hesitate to consider it, next to Euclid's Geometry, the most perfect model of elementary writing, of which the scientific world is in possession. When our reader shall have studied so much of these volumes as to relish their admirable style, he will be the better qualified to reflect on the circumstances under which they were composed. They were drawn up soon after our author was deprived of sight, and were dictated to his servant, who had originally been a tailor's apprentice; and, without being distinguished for more than ordinary parts, was completely ignorant of mathematics. But Euler, blind as he was, had a mind to teach his amanuensis, as he went on with the subject. Perhaps, he undertook this task by way of exercise, with the view of conforming the operation of his faculties to the change, which the loss of sight had produced. Whatever was the b 2