Page:The Whetstone of Witte.djvu/20

 that name of denomination: or els wee must seclude fractions, frō the necessitie of that name: or els thirdly, to auoied contention, cal them nombers contracte improperly.

Scholar. I assente thereto as reason would.

Yet one thyng more I must demaunde of you, why Euclide, and the other learned men, refuse to accompte fractions emongest nombers.

Master. Bicause all nombers doe consiste of a multitude of vnities: and euery proper fraction is lesse then an vnitie, and therefore can not fractions exactly be called nombers: but maie bee called rather fractions of nombers.

Scholar. In deede now that I doe waie the mater more exactly, it appereth that a fractiō is not properly a nomber, but a connexion and conference of nombers, declaryng the partes of an vnitie. For the numerator doeth signifie one nōber, and the denominator an other: The denominator declarynge into how many partes the vnitie is diuided, and the numerator signifiyng that of those partes, not all, but so many onely are to be takē, as the numerator importeth.

Master. Well, then to procede, nombers abstracte are considered in. 3. principall varieties: That is, first without comparison to any other nomber or figure.

And that nomber maie well be called nomber absolute.

Secondarily, some nombers bee vsed onely in relation to other, and therefore ought to bee called nombers relatiue.

Thirdly, many nombers are referred to some figure, that maie rise by multiplicacion of their partes together, and that diuersly. And those nombers therefore maie bee called figuralle nombers.

Scholar. If I conceiue your wordes rightly, this is your meanynge: that when I saie. 10. 25. 100. or 200. &c. these nombers stand absolute from all deno-