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[Page 2]
Advantages of decimal arithmetic
by Confining the whole of monetary arithmetic to one divisor & this the Number ten the most convenient of any that figures can produce. The Facility of Performing every necessary process of accounts will derive advantage scarcely to be appreciated & these advantages will chiefly in use especialy be felt by the less learned parts of society who are more particularly [indecipherable] to the attention of a legislator. Those who are in the Daily habit of settling accounts know very well how to apply this rule to their common currency & always do so by adding half the number of Shillings to the number of Pounds they employ in the form of a decimal number & leaving the odd shilling & the Pence if there are any to a separate Process. The best accomptents however will admit that they will derive considerable facility from a decimal arrangement of coins more especialy when they carry on Processes of account in the mind which in cases of buying & selling in public is often extremely presents advantageous.
The human mind when finishd to the greatest degree of perfection which the plastic hand of nature has thought good to bestow upon mankind does not find it dificult to point out what is best. The average of human minds however is much too imperfect to distinquish easily the point of the most advantageous improvements in truth from a strange perversity in human nature, the adoption of valuable improvement by nations seems to be almost in the inverse rather of their ability.
Decimel arithmetic & the ternary notation have been used by the Romans & the Chinese & the or from time immemorial, from the Arabs we learnd & adopted theirs notations in preference to the Roman mode of Counting but hitherto 3 nations chose have adopted them in their monetary currency the Portugese, the americans & the French.