Eaton's Questions on the Principles of Arithmetic.... was designed for teachers as a companion to any textbook on arithmetic. The author's premise is that the way arithmetic was then being taught in the 1860s was too mechanical and dependent on rote learning by memorization. Instead, "pupils should be taught to perform examples by analysis, according to principles he has mastered, ..." The 24 sections each concentrate on a separate topic. For example, the section on Multiplication asks: "What is multiplication? Give an example; What is the name of the number to be multiplied?"
The cover features an illustration of a classroom with a seated teacher and four boys solving arithmetic problems on a blackboard. The back cover contains a list of educators and teachers who recommend this manual. The front and back inside cover pages advertise other books in the series by Eaton, as well as numerous endorsements and reviews. The book is 47 pages in length.
Educator and prolific author James S. Eaton (1816-1865) taught at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He wrote a series of textbooks with the goal of inspiring “a spirit of independent inquiry” among students. His other publications include A Treatise on Arithmetic - Comprising Analysis and Synthesis, and An Intellectual Arithmetic upon the Inductive Method.
The Boston, Massachusetts publishing house of Frederick A. Brown and B.W. Taggard was succeeded by the firm of Brown, Taggard, and Chase in 1860. In 1863, the name was changed to Taggard and Thompson.