In most mathematical accounts of arithmetical operations we find the error of endeavouring to give at once a definition which shall be applicable to rationals, or even to real numbers, without dwelling at sufficient length upon the theory of integers. For the present, integers alone will occupy us. The definition of integers, given in the preceding chapter, obviously does not admit of extension to fractions; and in fact the absolute difference between integers and fractions, even between integers and fractions whose denominator is unity, cannot possibly be too strongly emphasized. What rational fractions are, and what real numbers are, I shall endeavour to explain at a later stage; positive and negative numbers also are at present excluded. The integers with which we are now concerned are not positive, but signless. And so the addition and multiplication to be defined in this chapter are only applicable to integers; but they have the merit of being equally applicable to finite and infinite integers. Indeed, for the present, I shall rigidly exclude all propositions which involve either the finitude or the infinity of the numbers considered.(§ 112 ¶ 1)