PRACTICAL TREATISE ON ARITHMETIC, WHEREIN EVERY PRINCIPLE TAUGHT IS EXPLAINED IN A SIMPLE CONTAINING NUMEROUS QUESTIONS, AND COMBINING THE USEFUL PROPERTIES OF FORMER WORKS, BEING A COMPLETE SYSTEM. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A DESCRIPTION OF BOOK-KEEPING, WITH EXAMPLES FOR PRACTICE. BY GEORGE LEONARD, JR. BOSTON: GEORGE W. LIGHT, 1 CORNHILL NEW YORK:-126 Fulton Street. 1839. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1839, by GEORGE LEONARD, Jr., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachu setts. PREFACE. 37 THE manner of teaching arithmetic was formerly very different from that employed at the present time. A number of arbitrary precepts or rules were stated, according to which the scholar performed the examples, remaining in entire ignorance of the propriety of his operations. Such rules are never remembered; no person regards them, but solves the questions that occur in business, by means of principles suggested by common sense. There seems to be an obvious improvement, then, in late works, where the scholar, in learning the science, is taught to apply those principles on which he must depend in practice. This treatise combines the advantages of both systems. It commences in a very simple manner, so as to be completely understood by a person of moderate capacity, having no previous knowledge of the subject. Advancing onward, the questions are so arranged that the scholar is led by imperceptible degrees to discover new principles. The reasons for every rule and operation are rendered obvious, and when explanations are necessary, great care has been taken to render them very lucid and concise. The subjects are arranged and discussed in a more natural order than that usually adopted: for instance, even in the late improved arithmetics, Fractions are partially described in Division; Federal Money follows immediately after Division, so that many of the principles of Decimal Fractions are employed before they can well be explained or understood; |