292 . D.*$ Reply to C.'s Observaliom [April 



take the task, if it be only to satisfy his incredulity, provided C. 

 will show Mr. II. how to succeed. 



Accuracy, it seems to me, should be rigidly adhered to in all 

 discussions. An author should never be made appear to say 

 what he has not. In more tiian one instance, C. has, I think, 

 not been over dehcate in this respect. At present, I shall 

 adduce an example which will serve as a specimen of the rest; 

 and lest there should be any mistake or difficulty in turning to 

 Mr. H.'s opinion, I shall place right against it one or two quota- 

 tions from his first paper. 



Quotations from 



C.'s " Observations on Mr. Mr.Herapath's paper. Annals 

 Herapath's Theory," Annals for April, 1821, p. 279. 

 for Dec. 1821, p. 420. "Therefore it appeared to me 



that the ultimate atoms ought 



to possess two properties in 



direct contrariety , hardness and 



elasticity.''* 



^' But whether the atoms be Schol. Prop. II. p. 285 and 



elastic or hard, having the pro- 286. " Hardness and softness 



perties of elastic bodies which are diametrically opposite pro- 



Mr. HJias attributed to them." perties, 2ind elasticity is nothing 



but an active kind of softness.'' 

 " To argue*** is to abandon the 

 definition of hardness^ and to 

 adopt that of elasticity, which 

 has no connexion whatever 

 with it." 



See also Mr. H.'s Defini- 

 tions, p. 282. 



These quotations exhibit too marked a contrast for comment 

 to increase. It will exercise C.'s ingenuity to identify them ; 

 but it is to be hoped C. has not taken advantage of an anony- 

 mous signature to say what would press too heavily on the credit 

 of a name. 



C. speaks of Sir Isaac Newton, and insinuates to the world 

 that Mr. H. is trying to overturn him. Except in the absolute 

 equality of reciprocal attraction in the planets, which Newton 

 deduced merely from analogy, and of which no proof whatever 

 can be furnished, there is no one pheenomenon in which Mr. 

 Herapath does not perfectly agree with Newton. Indeed Mr. 

 H. is almost the only philosopher of the present day who has not 



♦ Mr. H. has written softness, but immediately before he tells us that "elasticity 

 is nothing but active softness; " and he now, therefore, uses softness instead of elasticity 

 snerely to make the contrast the stronger. 



