[I]t may not be amiss to set down here two Approximations I have formerly hit upon. The one is a Series of Terms for expressing the Root of any Quadr… - Brook Taylor

Considering how few, and how simple the Principles are, upon which the whole Art of <small>PERSPECTIVE</small> depends, and withal how useful, nay how absolutely necessary this Art is to all forts of Designing; I have often wonder'd, that it has still been left in so low a degree of Perfection, as it is found to be, in the Books that have been hitherto wrote upon it.

In order to this, I found it absolutely necessary to consider this Subject entirely anew, as if it had never been treated of before; the Principles of the old Perspective being so narrow, and so confined, that they could be of no use in my Design: And I was forced to invent new Terms of Art, those already in use being so peculiarly adapted to the imperfect Notions that have hitherto been had of this Art, that I could make no use of them in explaining those general Principles I intended to establish.

The Book it self is so short, that I need not detain the Reader any longer in the Preface...