Page:Carroll - Euclid and His Modern Rivals.djvu/102

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

ACT II.

Scene IV.


Treatment of Parallels by equidistances.


Cuthbertson.

'Thou art so near, and yet so far.'
Modern Song.


Nie. I now lay before you 'Euclidian Geometry,' by Francis Cuthbertson, M.A., late Fellow of C. C. C, Cambridge; Head Mathematical Master of the City of London School; published in 1874.

Min. It will not be necessary to discuss with you all the innovations of Mr. Cuthbertson's book. The questions of the separation of Problems and Theorems, the use of superposition, and the omission of the diagonals in Book II, are general questions which I have considered by themselves. The only points, which you and I need consider, are the methods adopted in treating Right Lines, Angles, and Parallels, wherever those methods differ from Euclid's.

The first subject, then, is the Right Line. How do you define and test it?