Perhaps one of the greatest and yet somewhat misunderstood books of all time. Elements is a classical work on geometry, which has become a somewhat neglected lore, and poorly understood.
In the beginning, the Greeks came up with a pair of arts, one to shape the body, and one to shape the mentality. The first, we know as gymnastics, and has become a competitive sport. The second, has fallen to the wayside, neglected through ignorance. Geometry was never meant to be an end to itself, but primarily a set of exercises to tone the mind. That it often does have practical significance is the proverbial icing on the cake. So the purpose of this art is the first lost secret.
The second lost secret, or misunderstanding perhaps, is the nature of the teaching. True, it does teach/encourage deductive reasoning...however it takes more than even deduction to attain victory in this art. What few enough understand is that it takes a pair of assets to trod in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks. The other asset it takes is this: Imagination.
Even if one never uses Euclidean geometry in life, this is still an incredibly worthwhile pursuit for exactly those two qualities. Learning to navigate a geometry essentially IS thinking! Everything has its rules, its principles whereby it is ordered. A building cannot stand without an implicit order in its structure, a diamond cannot be cut, nor a bone broken, or a chemical reaction unfolded, without involving some type of geometry.
In creating a reasonably abstract form of geometry, the Ancients have given us a way to perfect true rationality. Because we changed ourselves, our vision of the universe arose from myth and legend towards wonder and mystery.
The Green Lion Press edition, highly recommended:
https://amzn.to/2WwYRmP
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