Elements of Arithmetic. By M. C. Briot. Translated by J.
Spear, Esq. (with the author's permission). (London : Robert Hardwicke.)— An admirable book ; on the whole very well translated. It WAS a great mistake, we think, to translate chipe by "cipher," which has an en- tirely different meaning in England, even though we are warned of the difference in the translator's preface. An error plus its correction is not, after all, so good as no error at all. But with some slight exception, where we think the translator has been a little too literal to enable the pupil to catch the true meaning easily, the translation is exceedingly well done, and the book itself (the work of a French mathematician so accomplished as to do even the simplest work as no other man could do it) a very great gain to our school literature. With a grasp of principle little short of Mr. de Morgan's "Arithmetic," it combines greater neatness of expression and polish of statement, and will be thought much easier by the pupil.
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