The common sense of the exact sciences. Part of the “International Scientific Series,” Volume LI

London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co, 1885. First edition. With 100 text illustrations. Original blind stamped publisher’s cloth, author and title in gilt on the spine, slightly faded; interior excellent. First edition. An attractive copy, published as part of a series of popularized science-related monographs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Published after the author’s death, this work is divided into chapters on Number, Space, Quantity, Position, and Motion. It was edited and completed by Karl Pearson, an influential English mathematician.

Clifford (1845-1879) was a philosopher and mathematician, best remembered as a popular writer in the field of mathematics and physics. “He played an important part, nevertheless, in introducing the ideas of G. F. B. Riemann and other writers on non-Euclidian geometry to English mathematicians.”.