THE NORTH AMERICAN PRACTICAL SCHOOL ARITHMETIC: PARTICULARLY ADAPTED TO THE MERCANTILE, MECHANICAL, AND AGRICULTURAL PREPARED BY THE PRINCIPAL OF THE ASSOCIATE ACADEMY, NEW YORK, A PRACTICAL TEACHER OF TWENTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE REVISED BY DAVID PRICE, AUTHOR OF THE ENGLISH SPELLER, AND ELEMENTARY ENGLISH GRAMMAR, NEW YORK: LEAVITT & ALLEN, 379 BROADWAY. 1858. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY CHARLES HEF HURBER Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. 1 THE author of this work, for many years a teacher in the constant exercise of his profession, has observedperhaps some will think he should rather say, imagined -that, in this age of rapid improvement, there has been less progress made in the science of arithmetic, than in other departments of school literature. It is admitted that, in the exact sciences, so called, there can be no invention, and little discovery, so far as main facts are concerned. But there may be improved arrangements, and happier elucidations. The processes by which results are obtained, may be simplified and explained in terms of easier comprehension, so that the rules and principles of the science, instead of being abstruse and arbitrary, may carry to the mind a pleasurable conviction. The author has attempted, in this work, to secure some improvement in this respect. He has endeavored to explain simply and concisely, to illustrate clearly and fully, and so to arrange his materials, that the pupil, ascending by easy gradations, may reach, without weariness or disgust, the summit of the science of numbers. If he has not succeeded in elucidating the principles and simplifying the mechanical processes of the science, he has accomplished no part of his original design; for he would depre |