Page:The Analyst; or, a Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician.djvu/33

Rh of x, or that o is nothing; which econd Suppoition detroys my firt, and is inconitent with it, and therefore with every thing that uppoeth it. I do nevertheles beg leave to retain $$nx^{n-1}$$, which is an Expreion obtained in virtue of my firt Suppoition, which necearily preuppoeth uch Suppoition, and which could not be obtained without it: All which eems a mot inconitent way of arguing, and uch as would not be allowed of in Divinity.

XV. Nothing is plainer than that no just Concluion can be directly drawn from two inconitent Suppoitions. You may indeed uppoe any thing poible: But afterwards you may not uppoe any thing that detroys what you firt uppoed. Or if you do, you mut begin de novo. If therefore you uppoe that the Augments vanih, i. e. that there are no Augments, you are to begin again, and ee what follows from uch Suppoition. But nothing will follow to your purpoe. You cannot by that means ever arrive at your Concluion, or ucceed in, what is called by Rh