408 JAMES WATT. 
derful mechanical combinations that we are accustomed to 
admire for the regularity and harmony of their move- 
ments, for the power and delicacy of their effects, would 
be instruments of injury; the legislator ought to pro- 
scribe, them with a just and implacable rigour. 
Conscientious opinions, especially when they are con- 
nected with praiseworthy sentiments of philanthropy, 
have a claim to an attentive examination. I add, that 
on my part this is an imperious duty. I should have 
neglected, indeed, the argument by which the labours of 
our illustrious academician are shown to be most worthy 
of public estimation, if, far from' acceding to the preju- 
dices of certain minds against the improvement of ma- 
chines, I did not point out such works to the attention of 
well-meaning men, as the most powerful, the most direct, 
the most efficacious means of rescuing workmen frona 
cruel sufferings, and calling them to partake of a crowd 
of benefits, which seemed to be regarded as the exclusive 
appanage of riches. 
When we have to select one of two diametrically op- 
posite propositions ; when the one being true, the other 
must be false, and when nothing seems at first sight to be 
able to dictate a rational choice, geometers seize on these 
contrary propositions ; they follow up their details care- 
fully through all their ramifications; they make their 
last logical results rise up: now the ill-stated proposition, 
and that one only, seldom fails to lead, by wire-drawing, 
to some results that a clear intellect could not admit. 
Let us try for a moment the method of examination that 
Euclid often uses, and which is so justly designated by 
the epithet of mode of reducing to absurdity. 
The adversaries of machines would wish to annihilate 
them, or at least to restrain their propagation,—to re- 
op 
