We know the inadequacy of such hand-to-mouth criticism as that of a
monthly reviewer must be upon works demanding so minute an examination
as a dictionary deserves. For ourselves, we should wish to own both
Webster and Worcester, but, if we could possess only one, we should
choose the latter. It is a monument to the industry, judgment, and
accuracy of the author, of which he may well be proud.
_Elements of Mechanics, for the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High
Schools._ By WILLIAM G. PECK, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia
College. New York: A.S. Barnes & Burr. 1859.
Text-books on Mechanics are of three sorts. Many teachers,
school-committees, and parents wish to add a taste of Mechanics to the
smatterings of twenty or thirty different subjects which constitute
"liberal education," as understood in American high schools and
colleges. For this purpose it is of the first importance that the
text-book should be brief, for the time to be devoted to it is very
short; secondly, it must divest the subject of every perplexity and
difficulty, that it may be readily understood by all young persons,
though of small capacity and less application. Such a text-book can
contain nothing beyond the statement, without proof, of the more
important principles, illustrated by familiar examples, and simple
explanations of the commonest phenomena of motion, and of the machines
and mechanical forces used in the arts.
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