The laws you curb and whip in their rough power
Have uncheck'd theft. All that you meet are THIEVES."
Shakspere.
Subtraction teaches to "take from" or to find the difference of two numbers; having taken too much in, and slept out; to find the difference in sovereigns and shillings between that and sleeping at home according to the "conventional laws of virtuous propriety." (Vide Miss Martineau.)
The figures are to be arranged in subtraction one under the other; that line expressing the highest number, being placed above the line expressing the smaller number. In this arrangement, the upper line is called the subtrahend, and the lower the subtractor; the difference is called the remainder. Our readers, the million, are the subtrahend. The following are subtractors:—
- Corn and sugar monopolists.
- Tax-collector.
- Easter dues, beadle and clerk.
- Poor-rate.
- Christmas-box and Christmas-piece.
- Subscriptions for Chiggered Niggers.
- Parson Smith and his orphans.
- Poor relations.
The Rule of Subtraction is perhaps the most useful in either national, political, or commercial Arithmetic; "Take from" being the universal maxim of mankind from the day that Adam and Eve stole the forbidden fruit. In sacred history we find various exemplifications of the principle: Jacob made use of it when he obtained his brother's birthright and his blessing; David, when he took the wife of Uriah. Profane or classical history abounds with examples. It was the royal and sacerdotal rule, in all climes, countries, and times. Kings have grown thrifty by it, and conquerors invincible. "Take from" is, in short, the motto of the legislators; and rhetoric the soldier's watchword, the prince's condescension, the courtezan's smile, the lawyer's brief, the priest's prayer, and the tradesman's craft. The use of this rule, is to enable us to "do one another," not "as we would be done," without the contravention of the majesty of the law.
"For why—because the good old rule
Suffices us—the simple plan,