Although the calculus concepts from 1910 may still be relevant, quotes like these make the book outputting -- "The preliminary terror, which chokes off most fifth-form boys from even attempting to learn how to calculate..." Ugh!
"may still be relevant" -> they're still relevant and you should probably known or inform yourself on this sort of thing before opining.
Besides that, there is an awful lot of literature that you must be unable of reading if you find any reference to historical norms of past times to be offputting, which is incredibly dangerous. What do you think would have happened to human progress if muslim or renaissance christian scholars felt like you about the texts from classical antiquity that they learnt so much from?
Really? That's kind of interesting. I find the language completely charming. With this quote it could be because "fifth-form" has no resonance at all with me outside of the text, or maybe I vaguely recall some novel of Fitzgerald's, or maybe Salinger. I dunno. To each her (or his) own.
