Abstract
THIS booklet consists of an introduction (pp. 3–10), and the method of treating on geometry (pp. 10–23). We let the writer speak for himself:—“In this small work I have attempted to show the proper way to treat on geometry, and which I conceive was the method of Euclid; for it will be seen that the results are right from the way in which they are arrived at, and that they agree with Euclid's results. It is certain, I think none will deny, that when Euclid composed his ‘Geometry,’ he did every-thing in it under the guidance of reason and knowledge of what the true method consists in; but since he has not expressed or shown those reasons (and it would not have been proper, nor would it have been necessary to have done so in his ‘Geometry’), they therefore appear to have been known but very little to anyone else since his time, as is evident from the expressions and unjust fault-finding made against him in the writings of modern geometers, which greatly betray their own ignorance of the true method. So long as the true method remains unknown, it is not to be wondered at that men should busy themselves in finding faults with Euclid, his work being so complete and perfect as to leave them but little else to do. Not that I would be understood to mean that his works ought to be accepted in blind submission as everything perfect, or that no faults, if there are any in it, ought to be pointed out”; and so on. Ex pede Herculem ! The author's remarks are made sincerely, and for a certain order of mind his explanations are likely to clear up many points in the Definitions. It is to these only that he confines his attention in pp. 10–23, and he gives good reasons why Euclid should have taken them in the order he has taken them. This was his object: write, then, Q.E.D., and Vivat Euclides !
Euclids Method, or the Proper Way to Treat on Geometry.
By A. H. Blunt. (Shepshed: Freeman, 1888.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 38, 363 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/038363b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/038363b0