Excerpt from Bryant and Stratton's Common School Book-Keeping: Embracing Single and Double Entry, Containing Sixteen Complete Sets of Books With Ample Exercises and Illustrations, for Primary Schools and Academics IN getting at the true basis of a science, it is well, if possible, to follow the line of its history, and become familiar with the order and processes of its development. This is especially true of Book-keeping, for although it is purely a branch of mathematics, and as such entitled to the favor and consideration of scientific men, yet at no period of its history has it ranked in the estimation of scholars, with the more complex and abstract sciences. It is lamentably true that men will grow enthusiastic over the solution of a problem in Euclid, or the effect of a combination of move ments upon a chess-board, who are ignorant of the first principles of this the most beautiful and practical of sciences and are con tent to pass through life, receiving and appropriating the reputa tion belonging to men of science and erudition, while they are consciously unable to decide the simplest question in partnership settlements, or to appreciate the theory of debits and credits which lie at the basis of Book-keeping. It is difficult to account for these facts except upon the ground that Book-keeping is too practical a science, and has too much the smell of the Shop. Whatever the reasons Inay be, the fact is that not enough interest has been felt in the subject to trace its history, which, therefore, must be inferred rather than compiled. 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.