The Budget of Paradoxes

Abstract

THIS is not the first time the Open Court Co. has deserved grateful thanks for undertaking a reprint of a rare work, although they will probably make no profit out of it. The editor, well known as a writer on the history and teaching of mathematics, has laid down for himself an excellent plan, namely, to preserve the text intact, except where mistakes could be corrected with certainty; to indicate clearly the authorship of every addition or alteration; to add catchlines to break up the text; and to give notes for the information, not only of mathematicians, but of those who treasure the “Budget” as a literary work of art, and who, even when well-read, may be puzzled by the numerous quotations and allusions in which De Morgan delights. To produce an annotated edition of this kind is a very difficult task; it would require another De Morgan to perform it to perfection, and we thank Prof. Smith for what he has done, without dwelling ungraciously upon what he has omitted, or blundered in trying to do.

A Budget of Paradoxes.

A. de Morgan. Second edition, edited by D. E. Smith. Two volumes. Vol. i., pp. viii + 402; vol. ii., pp. 387. (Chicago and London: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1915.) Price 30s. net.