not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire of them. If it cannot remove the disquietudes arising from a man's mind, body, or fortune, it makes him easy under them.--Addison.

CONTENTMENT ITS EFFECTS.--There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter.-Cowley.

CONTENTMENT, ITS FOUNTAIN.--The fountain of content must spring up in the mind; and he, who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.-Johnson.

CONTENTMENT MUST BE WITHIN.-Alas! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness.-Sterne.

CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BIBLE.-The Bible, like the world, has its paradoxes and contradictions, which, after all, are but parts of the same truth: just such contradictions as centrifugal and centripetal forces in philosophy-both needful to the completeness of truth, and to roll the planets in their orbits; or like midnight and noon-day, each the opposite of the other, and yet each, in its place a reality and a blessing, and essential to the continuance and progress of summer and winter, seed-time and harvest.-T. Edwards.

CONTRARIETIES OF THE BIBLE.--The origin of all the contrarieties in Scripture is found in a Deity humbled to the death of the cross; a Messiah, by means of death, triumphing over death; the union in Jesus Christ of two natures; his two advents and the two states of human nature.—Pascal.

CONTRAST.-It is a very poor, though common, pretence to merit, to make it appear by the faults of other men: a mean wit or beauty may pass in a room, where the rest of the company are allowed to have none; it is something to sparkle among diamonds; but to shine among pebbles is neither credit nor value worth the pretending.-Sir W. Temple.

CONTROVERSY.-All controversies that can never end, had better perhaps never begin. The best is to take words as they are most commonly spoke and meant, like coin, as it most currently passes, without raising scruples upon the weight of the alloy, unless the cheat or the defect be gross and evident.-Sir W. Temple.

CONTROVERSY ABOUT PROPERTY.-What you leave at your death, let it be without controversy, else the lawyers will be your heirs.-F. Osborn, to his son.

CONTROVERSY, HOW ENDED. Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then rigidly adhere to their definitions.-Edwards.

CONTROVERSY, PROFITABLE.-There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies, his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds more firmly established. If then it be profitable for him to read, why should it not at least be tolerable and free for his adversary to write? In logic they teach, that contraries laid together more evidently appear: it follows, then, that all controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the more true: which must needs conduce much to the general confirmation of unimplicit truth-Milton.

CONVERSATION.-In conversation, we should talk, not to

please ourselves, but to gratify or instruct others. This would make us consider whether what we are about to say, will be worth hearing: whether there be wit or sense in it; and whether it is adapted to the time, the place, and the company.

CONVERSATION.-In conversation, humor is more than wit, easiness more than knowledge; few desire to learn, or think they need it; all desire to be pleased, or, if not, to be easy. Sir W. Temple.

CONVERSATION. The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next, good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit.

CONVERSATION, A good rule for.-One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish we had rather left unsaid; nor can there anything be well more contrary to the ends for which people meet together, than to part unsatisfied with each other or themselves.--Swift.

CONVERSATION, A good rule for.— -To make others' wit appear more than one's own, is a good rule in conversation; a necessary one, to let others take notice of your wit, and never do it yourself.-Sir W. Temple.

CONVERSATION AND POLITENESS.-Great talents for conversation should be attended with great politeness. He who eclipses others, owes them great civilities; and whatever a mistaken vanity may tell us, it is better to please in conver

sation than to shine in it.

CONVERSATION IN COMPANY.-One would think that the larger the company is in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started into discourse; but instead of this, we find that conversation is never

so much straitened and confined, as in numerous assemblies.Addison.

CONVERSATION IN COMPANY.-In company it is a very great fault to be more forward in setting one's self off, and talking to show one's parts, than to learn the worth, and to be truly acquainted with the abilities of other men. He that makes it his business not to know, but to be known, is like a foolish tradesman, who makes all the haste he can to sell off his old stock, but takes no thought of laying in any new.Charron.

CONVERSATION, ITS CHARM.-Conversation derives its greatest charm, not from the multitude of ideas, but from their application.

CONVERSATION, PRIVATE.-In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest; for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.-Addison.

CONVERSATION SHOULD BE CHEERFUL. -That part of life, which we ordinarily understand by the word conversation, is an indulgence to the sociable part of our make; and should incline us to bring our proportion of good will or good humor among the friends we meet with, and not to trouble them with relations which must of necessity oblige them to a real or feigned affliction. Cares, distresses, diseases, uneasinesses, and dislikes of our own, are by no means to be obtruded upon our friends. If we would consider how little of this vicissitude of motion and rest, which we call life, is spent with satisfaction, we should be more tender of our friends, than to bring them little sorrows which do not belong to them. There is no real life but cheerful life; therefore valetudinarians should be sworn, before they enter into company, not to say a word of themselves until the meeting breaks up-Spectator.

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CONVERSATION SHOULD NOT DWELL ON PERSONAL ILLS.It is a wonderful thing that so many, and they not reckoned absurd, shall entertain those with whom they converse by giving them the history of their pains and aches; and imagine such narrations their quota of the conversation. This is of all other the meanest help to discourse, and a man must not think at all, or think himself very insignificant when he finds an account of his headache answered by another's asking what news in the last mail.-Steele.

CONVIVIALITY.-There are few tables where convivial talents will not pass in payment, especially where the host wants brains, or the guest has money.-Zimmerman.

CORRUPTION. Corrupt influence is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which loads us. more than millions of debt; which takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.-Burke.

COSMETICS.-There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit; and there is no true beauty without the signatures of these graces in the very countenance.-Ray on the Creation.

COUNSEL.-There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and a flatterer.— Lord Bacon.

COUNSEL AND CONVERSATION.-Counsel and conversation are a second education, that improves all the virtue, and corrects all the vice of the former, and of nature itself.— Clarendon.

COUNTRY AND CITY.-The corruptions of the country are