Men who, upon such principles, condemn themselves to labours which they
cannot support, surely deserve to perish in the execution of their own
projects, to be overwhelmed by the burdens which they have laid upon
themselves, and to suffer the disgrace which always attends the
undertakers of impossibilities; and from which the powers of raillery
and ridicule, which they have so successfully displayed on this
occasion, will not be sufficient to defend them.
They have, indeed, sir, with great copiousness of language, and great
fertility of imagination, shown the weakness of supposing this inquiry
impossible; they have proposed a method of performing it, which they
hope will at once confute and irritate their opponents; but all their
raillery and all their arguments have in reality been thrown away upon
an attempt to confute what never was advanced. They have first mistaken
the assertion which they oppose, and then exposed its absurdity; they
have introduced a bugbear, and then attempted to signalize their courage
and their abilities, by showing that it cannot fright them.
The honourable gentleman, sir, who first mentioned to you the
impossibility of this inquiry, spoke only according to the common
acceptation of words, and was far from intending to imply natural and
philosophical impossibility.
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