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 fi'om 

 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- 



