"It would, of course, be a easier task for me to transfer Euclid's fifth book into these pages. I could find little to remark upon in it, as the ancient Geometer has displayed so much sagacity and penetration in this, the most elaborate of all his writings, that he has left to moderns little or no room for improvement: it must be studied just as it is (in Simson's restoration), or else be superseded in instruction by a treatise of equal generality, but greater simplicity. You will understand, therefore, that I do not displace fifth Euclid's book because of its imperfections, or because of its inadequacy to completely its objects; but solely because of its great difficulty to a beginner."