106 



That is neither more nor less than what it does prove. The 

 author enunciates certain properties of a hyperbola, and 

 then most wisely concludes that if the planet should move 

 in such a curve, its orbit would be a hyperbola ! With a 

 similar logic he proves that if it moved in a parabola its 

 orbit would be a parabola ! Then if it revolved in an ellipse 

 its orbit would be an ellipse! Lastly, if it revolved in a 

 circle its orbit would be a circle ! And hence, since the 

 planet can not revolve in a circle and never would return if 

 it revolved in a hyperbola or parabola, the orbit must be 

 elliptical. 



If any one thinks we have done injustice to the writer's 

 argument in the above statement, we beg him to study it for 

 himself in the part of the w r ork to which we have referred. 

 We suggest only that the author's reasoning revolves in 

 one of his own curves, and might be employed with great 

 effect to prove that when a man says that which has neither 

 meaning nor sense, he talks nonsense. 



Take as another specimen of clear and definite deduction, 

 the paragraph commencing near the bottom of p. 184, in 

 which the author attempts to propound the eternal princi- 

 ples of crystalization. " But in the converse activities of 

 the antagonist and diremptive forces, it is plain that there 

 must be occasions for their mutual action and reaction in 

 directly transverse directions. The diremptive forces may 

 stand between and balance two antagonist forces that press 

 together, and this in a transverse direction at right angles 

 or at any oblique angle, and such composition of forces 

 must make a nucleus that in process shall build up around it 

 a cube or rhombohedron ; and if balancing diremptive 

 forces gradually and regularly diminish as the combination 

 goes on, it will necessitate the cutting off of the solid angles 

 of the before-mentioned geometrical solids and make them 

 to become right angled or rhomboidal octahedrons. Thus 

 may any variety of regular geometrical solids be built up 

 by accordant forces in composition, that shall work towards 



