"The object of the edition now offered to the public, is not so much to give to the writings of Euclid the form which they originally had, as that which may at present render them most useful. One of the alterations made with this view, respects the Doctrine of Proportion, the method of treating which, as it is laid down in the fifth of Euclid, has great advantages, accompanied with considerable defects; of which, however, it must be observed, that the advantages are essential, and the defects only accidental. To explain the nature of the former, requires a more minute examination than is suited to this place, and must, therefore, be reserved for the Notes; but, in the mean time, it may be remarked, that no definition, except that of Euclid, has ever been given, from which the properties of proportionals can be deduced by reasonings, which, at the same time that they are perfectly rigorous, are also simple and direct. As to the defects, the prolixness and obscurity, that have so often been complained of in the fifth Book, they seem to arise chiefly from the nature of the language employed, which being no other than that of ordinary discourse, cannot express, without much tediousness and circumlocution, the relations of mathematical quantities, when taken in their utmost generality, and when no assistance can be received from diagrams. As it is plain, that the concise language of Algebra is directly calculated to remedy this inconvenience, I have endeavoured to introduce it here, in a very simple form however, and without changing the nature of the reasoning, or departing in any thing from the rigour of geometrical demonstration. By this means, the steps of the reasoning which were before far separated, are brought near to one another, and the force of the whole is so clearly and directly perceived, that I am persuaded no more difficulty will be found in understanding the propositions of the fifth Book, than those of any other of the Elements."