ANTECEDENT

, of a ratio, denotes the first of the two terms of the ratio, or that term which is compared with the other. Thus, if the ratio be 2 to 3. or a to b; then 2 or a is the antecedent.

ANTECEDENTAL Method, is a branch of general geometrical proportion, or universal comparison, and is derived from an examination of the Antecedents of ratios, having given consequents, and a given standard of comparison, in the various degrees of augmentation and diminution, which they undergo by composition and decomposition. This is a method invented by Mr. James Glenie, and published by him in 1793; a method which he says he always used instead of the fluxional and differential methods, and which is totally unconnected with the ideas of motion and time. See the author's treatise above-mentioned, and also his Doctrine of Universal Comparison, or General Proportion, 1789, upon which it is founded.