lege of wearing the green turban. Yellow is in | sawn off; they are then held in the flame of a wood China the imperial color, as green is in Turkey.-fire; this is called roasting, by which they become The most beautiful of all colors in the judgment of nearly as soft as leather. While in that state they most nations, is red. The Russians, when they are slit open on one side, and pressed in a machine would describe a beautiful girl, say she is red: red between two iron plates; they are then plunged and beautiful, being with them synonymous terms. into a trough of water, from which they come out In Mexico and Peru, red was held in very high es- hard and flat; they are then sawn into lengths, actimation. The most magnificent present which the cording to the size wanted. The process used for emperor Montezuma could devise for Cortez, was making ivory combs is nearly the same as that ala necklace of lobsters, which naturally have that ready described, except that the ivory is first sawed rich colour. The only demand made upon the into thin slices. The best ivory comes from the Spaniards by the king of Sumatra, on their first island of Ceylon, and Achen, in the East Indies; landing in his country, and presenting him with as it possesses the property of never turning yellow, many samples of the commerce and industry of it is consequently much dearer than any other kind. Europe, was some corals and scarlet colored stuffs; Tortoise-shell combs are much esteemed; and and he promised to give them, in return, all the there are methods of staining horn, so as to imitate spiceries and merchandise of India, for which they it, of which the following is one: the horn to be might have occasion. There is no such thing as dyed is first to be pressed into a flat form, and then carrying on trade to any advantage with the Ne-done over with a paste, made of two parts of quickgroes, the Tartars, and the East-Indians, but lime and one of litharge, brought into a proper conthrough the medium of red cloths. It is with red sistence with soap-ley. This paste must be put that nature heightens the most brilliant parts of the over all the parts of the horn, except such as are most beautiful flowers; and she invests most of the proper to be left transparent, to give it a nearer refeathered race in India, with a plumage of this col- semblance to tortoise-shell. The horn must remain or some have their heads covered with it; others in this state till the paste be quite dry, when it is to have a breast-plate of it, a necklace, a capuchin, a be brushed off. It requires taste and judgment so sholder-knot. to dispose the paste, as to form a variety of transparent parts, of different magnitudes and figures, to look like nature. Some parts should also be semi-transparent, which may be effected by mixing whiting with a part of the paste. By this means spots of a reddish brown will be produced, so as greatly to increase the beauty of the work. Horn thus dyed is manufactured into combs, and these are frequently sold for real tortoise-shell. COLURES. In astronomy and geography, two great circles supposed to intersect each other at right angles in the poles of the world, and to pass through the solstitial and equinoctial points of the ecliptic. That which passes through the two equinoctial points is called the equinoctial colure, and determines the equinoxes; and the other which passes through the poles of the ecliptic is called the solstitial colure, because it determines the solstices. COMBINATION, in Chymistry. The intimate union of the particles of different substances, so as to form a new compound; in Mathematics, the alterations or variations in all possible ways of quantities, letters, sounds, and the like; thus, two square pieces, each divided diagonally into two colors, may be arranged and combined sixty-four ways. COMEDY. A dramatic piece, which gives a view of common and private life, with the design of exhibiting virtue to advantage; of ridiculing the follies, and lashing the vices of mankind; and of "painting the manners living, as they rise." Comedy is distinguished from farce; as the former represents nature as she is; the other distorts and overcharges her. They both paint from the life, but with different views; the one, to make nature known; the other, to make her ridiculous. COMBUSTION. It is difficult to give a good COMETS. Comets are planetary bodies movdefinition of combustion. It is a collection of phe-ing in very elliptical orbits, sometimes approaching nomena, which certain bodies exhibit, when heated so near the sun as to be within the orbit of Mercuwith access of air; the principal of which are, the ry; and, at other times, receding so far from it, as continuance or augmentation of heat, agitation, or to be greatly beyond the known boundary of the intestine motion, the emission of light, flame, and solar system. They appear in every region of the a total change of the matter burned. heavens, and move in every possible direction. Comets are distinguished by a lucid train or tail, issuing from that side which is turned away from the sun. The train is so transparent that the fixed stars may be seen through it; and sometimes it extends to an immense distance in the heavens. The farther it reaches, the broader it seems to become, and at times it is divided into rays. COMB making, Combs are not only made for the purpose of cleansing the hair, but for ornament: they are sometimes set with brilliant stones, pearls, and even diamonds; some again are studded with cut steel; these are of different shapes, and are used to fasten up the hair when ladies dress without caps. Combs may, of course, be had of all prices, from the value of a few pence to almost any sum. They are generally made of the horns of bullocks or of elephants, and sea-horses teeth, and some are made of tortoise-shell and ivory, others of box or holly-wood. The horns of bullocks are thus prepared for this manufactory: the tips are In a clear sky, the solid body of a comet often reflects a splendid light. If viewed through a telescope it appears full of spots and inequalities. Sir Isaac Newton supposed that the tail of a comet was caused by a thin vapor, which was raised in consequence of the intense heat it received from the sun. Comets were formerly considered as supernatural agents, sent by the Almighty, as omens of plagues, famines, pestilences, and other scourges of mankind, for their sins. The comet of 1456 was viewed with feelings of horror. Its long train spread consternation over all Europe, already terrified at the success of the Turkish arms, which had just destroyed the great empire. Pope Callixtus, on this occasion, ordered a prayer, in which the comet and the Turks were included in the same anathema. Modern discoveries in astronomy have proved that all such fears were groundless; that comets are governed by laws similar to those which govern the planets. No doubt the all-wise Creator of the universe formed these bodies for benevolent purposes, although most of these purposes must be unknown to us, or deduced only by reasoning from analogy. The word, in the plural, has been also used to denote a kind of history, or memoirs of certain transactions, wherein the author had a considerable hand: such are the Commentaries of Cæsar. COMMERCE. The great spring of commerce is mutual want of the necessary articles of life, or the supposition of want, with respect to luxuries and superfluities. This principle has the same operation, whether the farmer immediately sells his corn to the manufacturer, or whether the disposal of manufactures be more circuitous. The farmer, for instance, may not be in want of cloth, and therefore will not give corn to the weaver. In such a case, the weaver sends his cloth to a foreign market, where it is exchanged for the wine of Portugal, or the tea of China, which, when imported, the farmer readily purchases. The machine of commerce may appear vast and complicated, its movements may be many, and its operations circuitous; but the main spring, necessity, either real or imaginary, is invariably the same. It is not to be presumed that he would hurl worlds at random through the immensity of space, or permit any portion of his works to be affected injuriously by fortuitous circumstances. Religion glories in the test of reason, of knowledge, and of Commerce is the source of wealth to the mertrue wisdom; it is everywhere connected with, and chant; but its advantages are far from being conelucidated by them. From philosophy we may fined to himself. It supplies the wants of one learn that the more his works are contemplated, country by importing the articles of another, and the more he must be adored; and the more evinced gives a value to superfluities, which they could not his government and superintendence over every otherwise possess. It increases the revenue of the portion of his works. Tycho Brahe, a Danish state, and thus contributes to its general opulence astronomer, was the first who restored comets to and grandeur. No commercial country is long their true rank in the creation, by assigning them exposed to the evils of its own barrenness or their situation in the solar system. necessities; and the riches of one place are soon The number of comets belonging to the solar made the common stock of all others. Commerce system is unknown. More than five hundred since is the bond of general society, which unites the the Christian era have been observed. The orbits most distant nations by a reciprocal intercourse of of ninety-six comets, up to the year 1808, have been good offices. By extending the sphere of activity calculated; but of all these, the periodical returns through various parts of the earth, by satisfying the of three only are known, with any degree of cer- real and multiplying the imaginary wants of mantainty. One of these returns at intervals of seventy-kind, and by quickening their thirst for enjoyments, five years; one, at intervals of one hundred and twenty-nine years; and the other, at intervals of five hundred and seventy-five years. Of these, that which appeared in 1680 is the most remarkable. Sir Isaac Newton calculated the heat of this comet, when nearest the sun, to be two thousand times greater than that of red hot iron. He also calculated that its heat must be retained a very long time. Supposing it to have been as large as our earth, and that it had the property of cooling one hundred times faster than red hot iron, he states that it would take the comet five hundred years to lose the heat it had acquired from the sun. As comets have but a feeble action on other bodies, it is concluded that they contain but a small quantity of matter. This may be illustrated by the comet of 1454, which is said to have eclipsed the moon, so that it must have been very near the earth. Yet it produced no sensible effect on the earth's motions. The comets of 1472 and 1760, also came very near the earth; yet their attractions produced no sensible effect on the earth's motions. Also the comet of 1770, came very near the satellites of Jupiter, but produced no derangement in the system. COMMENTARY, or COMMENT. In literature, an illustration of the difficult or obscure passages of an author. it becomes the most lively and most general principle which actuates the world. Under its attractive and beneficent influence the whole world becomes one city, and all nations one family. The influence, likewise, which it produces upon the manners of mankind, renders it a more interesting subject of investigation. A regular intercourse subsisting between different nations contributes to cure the mind of many absurd and hurtful prejudices. Trade, carried on between persons of different sects and religions, has a tendency to lessen the opposition of opinion, which was formerly the cause of hatred and hostility. It promotes benevolence of disposition, inasmuch as it extends the connexions and intercourse of society, and increases the love of peace and order, without which its operations cannot be carried on. The merchant, engaged in honorable traffic, is the friend of mankind, and is occupied in a constant exercise of good offices for the benefit of his necessitous fellow creatures. Commerce will be found to have had no small influence in calming the minds of the nations of the earth into a state of repose and complacency. The sudden revolutions, heroic manners, and extraordinary events of ancient times, resulted from that ferocity of temper, unsocial spirit, and inequality of ranks, which commerce tends to annihilate. Iron is now a material article of traffic, which was formerly employed only as an instrument of | tions of lords and vassals. But at present, the destruction. The states of Europe are brought various ranks of society are connected by closer nearly upon a level by this intercourse; a spirit of ties, and entertain greater cordiality and esteem for general emulation is excited; and it is justly re- each other, as their intercourse is more frequent, marked, that those who possess the most extensive and the superior refinements of society have quicktrade, command the source of opulence and power. ened the sense of mutual want and mutual depenThrough the bounty of nature, most nations have dence. some superfluity to exchange for the productions of others; and the expectation of gaining advantages, which they cannot otherwise secure, turns their ingenuity, labors, and enterprises into many different channels. Hence the arts of necessity and elegance are diligently cultivated, invention is roused to find new materials for foreign consumption, a competition arises between rival manufacturers and artists, and commerce employs and unites the families of the earth, from the frozen regions of Russia to the burning sands of Africa ;from the isles of Britain to the populous and vast dominions of China. From this intercourse results an effect, which is peculiarly advantageous to the less polished and civilized nations. By the frequent communications, which are necessary for the purpose of bartering commodities with the cultivated European, they are made acquainted with useful arts and improvements, and are taught the value of science and the blessings of Christianity. Thus, by degrees, the great disparity between man and man is destroyed, useful knowledge finds its level, and the inhabitants of the different quarters of the world arrive at the equality of power, which awes ambitious nations into due respect and reverence for the general rights of mankind. In Britain and the United States of America, commerce has acquired a degree of rank and dignity, elsewhere unknown. Many of those engaged in it have done and continue to do it honor, by the excellence of their education and the liberality of their minds. Of those who do credit to the relations of domestic life, of those who are distinguished in the senate, for public spirit and useful knowledge, of those who, at the call of distress, come forward with the most prompt and liberal assistance; who is more conspicuous than the successful and intelligent merchant? their Attention to this subject will open a view of the intimate connexion subsisting between the landlord and the trading interests. They can never be considered as clashing and distinct, without a manifest injury to both, and an ignorance of their respective effects and operations. How far each has contributed to improve the other, is evident from considering the comparative value of land at a period antecedent to the late flourishing state of commerce. The fee simple of estates is at least four times as valuable at present as it was two centuries ago. This, among many others that might be adduced, is a decided proof that country gentlemen are in reality as much interested in the prosperity of trade as even the merchants themFrom commerce we likewise derive a more selves. In short, agriculture and commerce have enlarged knowledge of the terraqueous globe and the same direct influence in promoting national its inhabitants. We become correctly acquainted abundance and prosperity. These effects they with the animals, vegetables, and minerals of every certainly will produce, so long as the government soil and climate, and the natural history of all of a country imposes no heavy burden upon countries, no longer debased by exaggeration and exertions; but encouraging the enterprising spirit fable, acquires the value of precision and truth. of individuals, who embark large fortunes, in vaWe enlarge our acquaintance with mankind, are rious concerns, promotes the interest of both mer enabled to estimate their different manners, remark chants and cultivators of land at the same time, and how modes of life and habits of thinking are varied, maintains it in such due proportions, that the according to their different situations, and how the advancement of the one does not tend to the passions and dispositions are modified. The Lap-depression of the other. A concern of such maglander, like his climate, is dull, gloomy, and cold; the Asiatic, under the influence of an ardent sun, is fiery, sensual, and vindictive. Thus are we enabled, as we become more acquainted with the general faculties and powers of man, to complete our theories as to his true nature and constitution; and as we see him under every variation of climate and government, we can form a comparative estimate of his disposition, manners, and civil policy, founded upon the sure basis of fact and experience. Among people of the same country, likewise, commercial intercourse gradually introduces a spirit of order and good government, and is highly favorable to the liberty and security of individuals. Its beneficial effects have been no less visible in conciliating the affections of the natives of the same country to each other. During the prevalence of the feudal system, our ancestors lived in a state of suspicion, servile dependence, and war; and knew scarcely any distinctions, except those which subsisted between the different professions of the church and army, or the more servile rela nitude as commerce, involving such a variety of spread like the wasting flames of a conflagration, | form of prayer prescribed by the church of England involve every quarter of the globe in alarm and to be used in all churches and chapels at stated danger, and expose the lives and property of the periods. The book of common prayer used by unoffending natives, to the attacks of unprovoked episcopalians in the United States is so altered enemies. Some of the articles imported from from the English copy as to adapt it to the local foreign countries, are such as make it doubtful | circumstances of the church. whether they ought to be encouraged. The rum of the West Indies, which is the fruit of the toil and sufferings of some slaves, as well as the bribe given to Africa for the purchase of others, is too often used, when brought to the place of its destination, as the means of intoxication. A sagacious writer has remarked, that in observing the advances of commerce "in its first stages, we shall find that it supplies mutual necessities, prevents mutual wants, extends mutual knowledge, eradicates mutual prejudice, and spreads mutual humanity. In its middle and more advanced period, it provides conveniences, increases numbers, coins money, gives birth to arts and sciences, creates equal laws, diffuses general plenty, and general happiness. If we view it in its third and highest stage, we shall see it change its nature and effects. It brings in superfluity and vast wealth, begets avarice, gross luxury, or effeminate refinement among the higher ranks, together with general loss of principle." COMMONS, in England. In a general sense, the whole people, as distinguished from the nobility; in a particular sense, the knights and burgesses who represent the Commons in parliament, whence the house in which they sit is called the House of Commons. COMMONWEALTH. That form of government in which the administration of public affairs is common or open to all with few or no exceptions. It is distinguished from monarchy or aristocracy. be thought a person of real goodness and integrity, whose constant and favorite companions are the abandoned and licentious. Nor is it likely he will long retain his virtue, any more than his credit; for vice is contagious, and evil communications corrupt good manners. COMPANION. One with whom a man generally converses. As the human mind cannot always be on the stretch, nor the hands always employed in labor, recreation becomes both agreeable and necessary. Of all recreations, that of the company of a few chosen companions must be allowed to be the most manly, and most improving. But, as in those hours of recreation we are most in danger That nation will be both opulent and formidable, of being misled, being generally at such seasons which conveys its own manufactures, or commo- more off our guard than usual, the greatest care dities of its own procuring, to foreign ports in its should be taken in making choice of our associates; own vessels. For thus are secured all the branch- for according to that choice of them, both our es of industry to the inhabitants, which can spring character and disposition will receive a tincture; from any article of their trade, as it gives employ- as waters passing through minerals partake of their ment to the manufacturer and the sailor, with all nature and efficacy. This is a truth so universally their numerous train of dependent artisans, and received, that it has become a proverb, that “a man ensures to them, of course, every profit and advan-is known by his company." So that he will never tage which their occupations can in any degree produce. This tends to the full establishment of navigation, and opens a wide and boundless ocean to its exertions. The Dutch were formerly the principal carriers for all the nations of Europe. This employment alone raised them to their late condition of wealth and prosperity. Such employment cannot, however, in itself, be regarded as a permanent basis of power, and it is less profitable than either the domestic or foreign trade of consumption. It is also very precarious, because, in proportion as other nations improve the advantages afforded by the convenience of their own harbors, and increase the quantity of their own productions, they will convey their own goods in their own ships. That species of commerce, which makes money flow most copiously, keeps public and private credit high, which gives to the merchant a reasonable profit, and to the laborer and artisan a comfortable subsistence in return for their industry; which increases the value and rent of land, and produces a considerable revenue to the state, must always be esteemed the most valuable; since these COMPASS, the Mariner's or Nautical. are the only indubitable marks by which the period of about five hundred years is now elapsed, advantage of any public or private trade can be since an admirable property of a natural production demonstrated. And it may be proper to observe, was either discovered by, or introduced amongst, that the same criteria, which assist us in judging the nations of Europe. To the simple application by what kinds of trade we gain or lose, will like- of this remarkable property, mankind is indebted wise direct us what treaties of commerce are bene-principally for the discovery of a new continent ficial or the contrary. In order to escape these dangers, let those with whom you associate, be persons of good principle and good conduct; whose minds are well informed, and whose hearts are well inclined; whose habits are regular, and whose pleasures are temperate; and who have the ambition to merit and obtain, and discretion to secure and preserve, a fair and respectable name in the world. With such companions as these, you will neither get discredit, nor degenerate into extravagance or excess; your very hours of amusement will contribute to improvement; your good resolutions and habits will be strengthened; and you will become an useful member of society, and obtain the approbation of all the worthy and the wise. A nearly equal to the old one, for an extensive commerce between the most distant nations, and for an COMMON-PRAYER. The liturgy, or public accurate knowledge of the shape and size of the world we inhabit. The magnet or loadstone is the natural production, and its directive property forms the active part of that wonderful guide, the mariner's compass, or as it is more commonly called, simply the compass, probably from its moving in a circle, or from its compassing the whole horizon. COMPLEXION. The color of the skin, varying according to climate. The Europeans, when they settle in New Spain or the West India islands, soon lose their whiteness, and become of a brownish yellow. The Europeans who reside long in the East Indies, become of the same cream colored complexion. The Spaniards, who have inhabited America under the torrid zone for any considerable time, have become as dark colored as the native Indians of Virginia. The descendants of the Portuguese, who settled at Senegal in Africa, in the year 1400, and of those who settled at Mitambo, and on the coasts of Congo, have the African color and woolly heads. The Jews who descended from one stock, and whose religion has prevented their marrying with other people, have varied in complexion according to climate. In Britain and Germany, they are white; in France and Turkey, they are brown; in Spain and Portugal, their color is swarthy; in Syria and Chaldea, the olive color prevails; in Arabia and Egypt, they are of a tawney or copper color: and Tudela, a Jew, relates that his countrymen in Abyssinia had acquired the dark complexion of the original natives. COMPOSING. That branch of the art of printing which consists in arranging the types or letters in such an order, as to fit them for the press. This the compositor performs, by gathering a letter at a time into his composing stick, which when full he empties into a frame called a galley. Of the several lines arranged in order in the galley he makes a page, and of several pages he makes a form. COMPOST. In husbandry and gardening, several sorts of soils or earthy matter mixed together, in order to make a manure for assisting the natural earth in the work of vegetation, by way of amendment or improvement. acted upon by two forces, that given it by yourself, which represents the force of projection, and that of the string which confines it to your hand. If during its motion the string were suddenly to break, the ball would fly off in a straight line; being released from confinement to the fixed point, it would be acted on but by one force, and motion produced by one force is always in a right line. The force which confines a body to a centre round which it moves, is called the centripetal force; and that force which impels a body to fly from the centre, is called the centrifugal force. In circular motion these two forces constantly balance each other, otherwise the revolving body would either approach the centre, or recede from it, according as the one or the other prevailed. If any cause should destroy the centripetal force, the centrifugal force would alone impel the body, and it would fly off in a right line in the direction in which it was moving, at the instant of its release. When a stone, whirled round in a sling, gets loose, it flies off in a right line, called a tangent, because it touches the circumfer ence of the circle in which the stone was revolving. It is by the laws of circular motion that the moon and all the planets revolve in their orbits. The moon, for instance, has a constant tendency to the earth, by the attraction of gravitation, and it has also a tendency to proceed in a right line, by that projectile force impressed upon it by the Creator; now, by the joint action of these two forces it describes a circular motion. If the projectile force were to cease, the moon must fall to the earth; and if the force of gravity were to cease acting upon the moon, it would fly off into infinite space. When you throw a ball in a horizontal or oblique direction, it describes a curve line in falling, and is acted upon by three forces; the force of projection, which you communicated to it; the resistance of the air, which diminishes its velocity, without changing its direction; and the force of gravity, which finally brings it to the ground. The curve line which the ball describes is called in geometry a parabola. COMPULSION. In Law, constitutes a species of defect of will, and it denotes such a constraint upon the will, by which a man is urged to do that COMPOUND MOTION. If a body be struck which his judgment disapproves; and which, it is to by two equal forces in opposite directions, it will be presumed, his will (if left to itself) would reject. not move at all; but if the forces, instead of acting As punishments are only inflicted for the abuse of on the body in opposition, strike it in two directions that free will, which God has given to man, it is inclined to each other, it will follow the direction highly just and equitable that a man should be of neither of the forces, but will move in a line excused for those acts, which are done through between them. There are many instances in unavoidable force and compulsion. Of this nature nature, of motion produced by several powers acting at the same time. If a ship at sea sail before the wind directly east, and a current set from the north, it will be driven in a direction between the south and east. A ball fired from a cannon is acted upon by two forces, the one is that occasioned by the powder, the other is the force of gravity. Circular motion is the result of two forces on a body, by one of which it is projected forward in a right line, whilst by the other it is confined to a fixed point. When you whirl a ball, for instance, which is fastened to your hand with a string, the ball moves in a circular direction; because it is is the obligation of civil subjection, whereby the inferior is constrained by the superior to act in a manner contrary to what his own reason and inclination would suggest, as when a legislator establishes iniquity by a law and commands the subject to do an act contrary to religion or sound morality. The sheriff, who burnt Latimer and Ridley, in the days of queen Mary, was not liable to punishment from Elizabeth, in the succeeding reign, for executing so horrid an office. COMPUTATION. In a general sense, the manner of estimating time, weights, measures, moneys, or quantities of any kind. The word is |