than that, with the deepest conviction of its seriousness of purpose, he should leave it unopened on the shelf.
To all the authors, who are here reviewed, I beg to tender my sincerest apologies, if I shall be found to have transgressed, in any instance, the limits of fair criticism, To Mr. Wilson especially such apology is due—partly because I have criticised his book at great length and with no sparing hand—partly because it may well be deemed an impertinence in one, whose line of study has been chiefly in the lower branches of Mathematics, to dare to pronounce any opinion at all on the work of a Senior Wrangler. Nor should I thus dare, if it entailed my following him up 'yonder mountain height' which he has scaled, but which I can only gaze at from a distance: it is only when he ceases 'to move so near the heavens,' and comes down into the lower regions of Elementary Geometry, which I have been teaching for nearly five-and-twenty years, that I feel sufficiently familiar with the matter in hand to venture to speak.
Let me take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude, first to Mr. Todbunter, for allowing me to quote ad libitum from the very interesting Essay on Elementary Geometry, which is included in his volume entitled 'The Conflict of Studies, and other Essays on subjects connected with Education,' and also to reproduce some of the beautiful diagrams from his edition of Euclid; secondly, to the Editor of the Athenæum, for giving me a similar permission with regard to a review of Mr. Wilson's Geometry, written by the late Professor De Morgan, which appeared in that journal, July 18, 1868.
Ch. Ch. 1879.
