286 D.'s Second Rcplij io C. 



least admire his ingenuity ; for so cleverly has he tlravvn his 

 case, th;it any one who reads that alone would be apt to cry 

 out with Demosthenes, " Now indeed do I hear the voice of 

 one that is injured." 



Page 501 of C.'s reply presents us witli another instance of 

 this kind, much too pleasant to pass over in silence. " Ex- 

 periment," says C. in his first attack, p. 419, " has clearly 

 shown that caloric, or the immediate cause of heat, whatever 

 it may be called, cannot be dcstroijed. However, under parti- 

 cular circumsta7iccs, it may become for a time imperceptible, it 

 can again be developed, and so be shown to have continued its 

 existence : if, therefore, heat and motion be identical, motion 

 cannot be destroyed." A plainer allusion than this to tlie dis- 

 appearance and reappearance of heat in tlie changes of state, 

 and a clearer objection to the theory of heat by motion, from 

 its assumed inability to explain such phcenomena, could hardly 

 be expected from this writer. As such no doubt it would have 

 been allowed to pass, and have been ranked amongst C.'s un- 

 answerable objections, had I not unhappily shown that C, 

 before he publislied this, had seen the Number containing 

 Mr. H.'s theory of the changes of state, his mathematical com- 

 putations of the various dependent pha?nomena, &c., and con- 

 sequently that C.'s observations were a gross attempt to mis- 

 I'epresent. Finding however the case a little too clear againsthim, 

 C turns roimd in his reply, and by a long list of unqualified 

 *' I never dids" and "I did nots" boldly denies both object and 

 allusion ; but unfortunately in the close admits, he " intended 

 to show that the indestructibility of caloi'ic," in the changes of 

 state of course, " is a strong argument to prove it cannot be 

 merely motion," As a finale to such a novelty of consistency, 

 C. should have added : " Mallem mori quam nuitare." 



The liberal use C. makes of the polite terms " false," "ab- 

 solutely false," &c. I should have left imnoticed, had he not 

 made such elevated expressions the agents for depriving hig 

 own character of the iniputation of a dishonest tlisputant to 

 fix it on mine. 



That I have held up to ridicule absurdities legitimately 

 drawn from his notions, is true. This however is not my fault, 

 but his. If a man be so weak as to meddle with subjects above 

 his reach, and imprudent enough to publish his crudities, he 

 must expect to be laughed at. As to making " false" quota- 

 tions lor tiie ]iurpose of willul misrepresentation, I have not 

 done it, and this C. well knows. Nor has he, with all the assist- 

 ance of invention, and the wide latitude which the numerous 

 and in some instances nonsensical deviations oi" the printed 

 from the MS. reply have afforded him, been able to make out 



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