BOOK I PART II
which are directly opposite in that particular.
And as this absurdity is very glaring in itself,
so there is no argument founded on it which
is not attended with a new absurdity, and in-
volves not an evident contradiction.
I might give as instances those arguments for
infinite divisibility, which are derived from the
point of contact. I know there is no mathe-
matician, who will not refuse to be judged by
the diagrams he describes upon paper, these
being loose draughts, as he will tell us, and
serving only to convey with greater facility cer-
tain ideas, which are the true foundation of
all our reasoning. This I am satisfyed with,
and am willing to rest the controversy merely
upon these ideas. I desire therefore our mathe-
matician to form, as accurately as possible, the
ideas of a circle and a right line; and I then ask,