Authors:

Hence no force, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending downwards.

Elementary Treatise on Mechanics ch. 4 (1819). This is an instance of unintentional rhyme and meter. After the passage's poetical qualities were pointed out to him,Whewell altered it in subsequent editions of the book.
Hence no force, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending downwards.