sithe no manne hath yet attempted the like, as far as I canne learne, I truste all suche as bee not exercised in the studie of Geometrye, shall finde greate ease and furtheraunce by this simple, plaine, and easie forme of writinge. And shall perceaue the exacte woorkes of Theon, and others that write on Euclide, a great deale the soner, by this blunte delineacion afore hande to them taughte. For I dare presuppose of them, that thing which I haue sette in my selfe, and haue marked in others, that is to saye, that it is not easie for a man that shall trauaile in a straunge arte, to vnderstand at the beginninge bothe the thing that is taught and also the iuste reason whie it is so. And by experience of teachinge I haue tried it to bee true, for whenne I haue taughte the proposition, as it is imported in meaninge, and annexed the demonstration with all, I didde perceaue that it was a greate trouble and a painefull vexacion of mynde to the learner, to comprehend bothe those thinges at ones. And therfore did I proue firste to make them to vnderstande the sence of the propositions, and then afterward did they conceaue the demonstrations muche soner, when they hadde the sentence of the propositions first ingrafted in their mindes. This thinge caused me in bothe these bookes to omitte the demonstrations, and to vse onlye a plaine forme of declaration, which might best serue for the firste introduction. Whiche example hath beene vsed by other learned menne before nowe, for not only Georgius Ioachimus Rheticus, but also Boetius that wittye clarke did set forth some whole books of Euclide, without any demonstration or any other declaratiõ at al. But & if I shal hereafter perceaue that it maie be a thankefull trauaile to sette foorth the propositions of geometrie with demonstrations, I will not refuse to dooe it, and that with sundry varietees of demonstrations, bothe pleasaunt and profitable also. And then will I in like maner prepare to sette foorth the other bookes, whiche now are lefte vnprinted, by occasion not so muche of the charges in cuttyng of the figures, as for other iuste hynderances, whiche I truste hereafter shall bee remedied. In the meane season if any man muse why I haue sette the Conclusions beefore the Teoremes, seynge many of the Theoremes seeme to include the cause of some of the conclusions, and therfore oughte to haue gone before them, as the cause goeth before the effecte. Here vnto I saie, that although the cause doo go beefore the effect in order of nature, yet in order of teachyng the effect must be fyrst declared, and than the cause therof shewed, for so that men best vnderstãd things First to lerne that such thinges ar to be wrought, and secondarily what thei ar, and what thei do import, and thã thirdly what is the cause therof. An other cause why y^t the theoremes be put after the cõclusions is this, whã I wrote these first cõnclusions (which was .iiiij. yeres passed)