Ebook Elements of arithmetic

Imagine a multitude of objects of the same kind assembled together; for example, a company of horsemen. One of the first things that must strike a spectator, although unused to counting, is, that to each man there is a horse. Now, though men and horses are things perfectly unlike, yet, because there is one of the first kind to every one of the second, one man to every horse, a new notion will be formed in the mind of the observer, which we express in words by saying that there is the same number of men as of horses. A savage, who had no other way of counting, might remember this number by taking a pebble for each man. Out of a method as rude as this has sprung our system of calculation, by the steps which are pointed out in the following articles. Suppose that there are two companies of horsemen, and a person wishes to know in which of them is the greater number, and also to be able to recollect how many there are in each.