But it is common to pass over both the premises and conclusion in silence, and to produce, as an objection, some poetical passage which does not seem easily accounted for upon the principles I endeavor to establish.

This manner of proceeding I should think very improper.

The task would be infinite, if we could establish no principle until we had previously unravelled the complex texture of every image or description to be found in poets and orators.

And though we should never be able to reconcile the effect of such images to our principles, this can never overturn the theory itself, whilst it is founded on certain and indisputable facts.

A theory founded on experiment, and not assumed, is always good for so much as it explains.
Our inability to push it indefinitely is no argument at all against it.
This inability may be owing to our ignorance of some necessary _mediums_; to a want of proper application; to many other causes besides a defect in the principles we employ.