Excerpt from Principles of Double-Entry Bookkeeping The purpose of this treatise, as its title implies, is to explain the principles which underlie the art of accounting by the double-entry method. It deals with the interpretation rather than the routine of bookkeeping, and limits the discussion to the three essential forms - the journal entry, the ledger account and the balance sheet. It does not propose any change in the routine, but it does propose a decided change in the interpretation of accounts and in the method of reporting results. What I claim for the book is that it solves the problem of placing double-entry bookkeeping upon a rational basis; and to the best of my knowledge and belief it presents the first and only solution of that problem. It is one of the strangest things in the history of the arts and sciences that this great system of accounting, which, by reason of its compactness and convenience, has come into almost universal use, should have attained so high a degree of development on the practical side, while on the theoretical side it is and always has been in a state of utter confusion. As a rule, the study of a useful art has a certain value as mental discipline; the art of accounting is the one exception to the rule. Aside from the so-called occult sciences, there is nothing which so tends to bewilder the mind and to dull the faculty of reason as the study of double-entry bookkeeping in the form in which it is customary to present it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.