distrust and contempt among his neighbours, he will be compelled to deal with them always under a great disadvantage; for his most solemn asseverations in matters of fact will produce on their minds an impression the very reverse of that which he intends; so that he becomes his own adversary whenever he urges his rights or his pretensions. 3. But he who labours under a disadvantage of this sort, will find it a bar to his success, in whatever he undertakes. 4. Therefore, an habitual disregard of truth will, in most cases, impede, or utterly prevent a man's prosperity. This, then, is our conclusion.

CONCRETE,

From concresco, to grow together, or to be formed into a mass. When a quality is spoken of as joined with other qualities, the word expressing it is used in a concrete form; as white paper, equitable conduct; whiteness and equity are abstract terms; that is to say, the qualities are spoken of apart from any particular substance. Or all the properties of a thing are spoken of together, as a whole, and that whole is--the concrete;-opposed to the abstract.

CONSCIOUSNESS.

This word, though used often in an indistinct manner, is employed most properly when taken to represent the mind's act of looking in upon itself, as the subject of all its feelings and various operations. The mind, most commonly, is engaged fully with some sensation, or conception, or emotion, or abstract idea; but sometimes it reflects upon itself as the permanent and identical feeler and actor. The faculty of memory is especially concerned in this notion of consciousness; and when the mind thus, and with the aid of memory, looks inward, it gains the notion of personal identity. It is however plainly an error to suppose that identity consists in this notion of it; so that if a man retained no recollection of yesterday, and did not at all think of self, he would not in fact be the same today that he was yesterday.

CONDITIONAL.

Whatever will not be, or will not happen, or must not be affirmed, unless something else exists, or happens, or is true, that dependent fact or proposition is conditional. "If it be fine to-morrow,

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I shall walk to town:" the event of my walking then is conditional; not absolute.

If virtue is to be tried, men must be placed in circumstances wherein they are tempted to do wrong. That men must be exposed to temptation, is not true, or certain, unless it be true, that virtue is to be tried.

CONSEQUENT.

In a conditional proposition, such as the one advanced above, the second affirmation, which depends upon the first, is the consequent.

CONTINGENCY;

From contingo, to touch upon, or happen. In popular language, whatever event takes place of which we do not discern the cause, why it should have happened in this manner, or at this moment, rather than another, is called a contingent event; or an event without a cause: as for example, the falling of a leaf on a particular spot, or the turning up of a certain number, when dice are thrown.

But any one who reflects must perceive that though, in familiar speech, such expressions are

allowable, there is no philosophical propriety, that is to say, no truth in them.

:

Contingency and chance are words of no positive meaning; but which may yet be conveniently employed when we have to express our absolute ignorance of the cause of an event. The leaf falls on a particular spot in consequence of the combined influence of gravitation, and the movement of the air and if we could know precisely the force and direction of the wind, when the leaf was floating in the air, we might, combining this with the laws of gravitation, predict the spot on which it would alight-and then, we should no longer speak of that event as contingent. The rising of the sun to-morrow is not spoken of as a contingent event, because it is thought of as certainly following from the established order of causes. But the fineness of to-morrow we think contingent, because we are ignorant of the many causes upon the concurrence of which fine weather depends. Yet, if we knew all the laws of the atmosphere, and the actual state of the lower heavens to-day, then the fineness, or the rain and wind of to-morrow, would be spoken of just as we speak of the rising of the sun.

And thus too the future actions of men are thought of as contingent, because the motives of human conduct are far too multifarious, too much hidden, and liable to too many disturbing

influences from without, to be known, or even surmised beforehand. We can go no further in our anticipations of the conduct of men, than to say conditionally—if such and such events take place, it is probable that M. or N. will act in this or that manner. Our notion of contingency and of certainty depends so much upon our knowledge or ignorance of causes, that involuntarily we think an event that is to happen to-morrow, much less contingent than a similar event that is to take place a year hence; although it is evident, both stand precisely upon the same ground, as to the causes whence they are to spring, or by which they are to be governed.

Every event has a cause; in this sense therefore nothing is contingent. But in philosophical language there is another, and a very proper sense of the word contingency, and which is nearly synonymous with the word condition, and is opposed to the word necessity. Mathematical principles are necessary; that is to say, nothing could make them otherwise than they are. It cannot even be imagined that the three angles of a triangle should be equal to less or more than two right angles. The existence and attributes of God are also in the same sense necessary. But the existence of any particular creature, or class of creatures, or the actual conformation or powers of such beings, are