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Excerpt from A Geometry for Beginners The formal method of teaching Geometry, as we find it in Euclid X and in the common text-books, whatever may be its merits, is a very bad method for beginners. It makes the study of the subject unnecessarily dry, tedious, and difficult; and it ignores, in most cases, the great law of mental development, that clear perceptions and intuitions must precede the intelligent use of the faculties of comparison and reasoning. The usual consequence is that this method exercises the memory more than the intelligence, and utterly fails to impart any habits of thought that are useful in after-life. In the present work, a method is employed which seems to the author much better suited to promote the natural growth of the mental powers. The method will speak for itself to those who will take the trouble to examine it. A marked feature of it consists in the numerous exercises which are to be worked by the learner. By this kind of work, if the exercises are well chosen and faithfully studied, the inventive faculty is called into play, and the habit of seizing quickly the true relations of things is acquired. And it is just here, - in its power to form this habit of mind. - that the value of the study of Geometry, as a preparation for the varied duties and labors of life, can hardly be over-estimated. Does not the possession or want of this habit constitute, in most instances, the chief intellectual difference between a man who succeeds in the world and a man who does not? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.