In his foreword, he paraphrases Bacon in urging the public to read the book – “not to contradict and confute… but to weigh and consider”.

In 1733 a pamphlet called The Budget Opened attacked Sir Robert Walpole's tax plans, saying that once revealed they turned out to be "what has been known, confuted and exploded long before".

But science is taught, and science confutes the Hindoo cosmogony.

Well, I do compose then—so you are confuted!

No. The story of stones being thrown at him is destitute of all proof but the guard's own assertion, and is confuted by a hundred eye witnesses.