Page:The Anatomy of Tobacco.pdf/84

 arguments are absurd and sophistical, and quote in support the words of Devey, who asserts that "we cannot adduce any example in which the force of an analogous argument arises above that of weak probability;" and as to the etymological argument that it is futile, else we might conclude that all "priests" are old men, that the Esquimaux are "nonchalant" quia non calent, that no one can be "insulted" unless his adversary leaps on him, that all "imbeciles" lean on staffs, and lastly that two persons cannot be "rivals" unless they dwell on the banks of the same river.

But to return to the Orthopoetics: they, in reply to the Cœlosphaeric ideas concerning the perfection of the circular form, maintain that a circle itself is but a number of straight lines joined angularly and continuously to one another in such a way as to form a circular figure; and as that which makes to exist must be prior to that which exists, therefore the idea of a straight line is primary, while the idea of a circle is secondary. They