Disregard of the

How often the mind, hurried by her own Commonplace ardour to distant views, neglects the truths that lie open before her.-Rasselas, ch. iv.

House of Commons

The House of Commons was originally not a privilege of the people, but a check for the crown on the House of Lords.-Life. October 12, 1779.

Communism

There may be community of material possessions, but there can never be community of love or esteem.-Rasselas, ch. xii.

A Boon

One with whom all are at ease; who will Companion hear a jest without criticism, and a narrative without contradiction, who laughs with every wit, and yields to every disputer.-Rambler, No. 72.

A Suitable

A man of sense and education should meet

Companion a suitable companion in a wife. It is a miserable thing when the conversation can only be such. as, whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that.-Life. Maxwell's Collectanea, 1770.

The companion of an evening and the Companionship companion of life, require very different qualifications.-The Rambler, No. 97.

of

The Selfishness It is discovered by a very few experiments, Companionship that no man is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respects, his fondness of himself.-Rambler, No. 104.

Advantages of

There is always this advantage in contendGreat Companying with illustrious adversaries, that the combatant is equally immortalized by conquest or defeat.-Lives of the Poets.

Low Company

Cheynel.

Rags will always make their appearance, in a House where they have a right to do it.-Life. June 19, 1784.

The wretched have no compassion; they Compassion can do good only from strong principles of duty.-Letter to Mrs. Thrale, No. 262.

The equity of Providence has balanced Compensation peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.

-Rasselas. Ch. ii.

Unusual compliments to which there is no Compliments stated and prescriptive answer, embarass the feeble, who know not what to say, and disgust the wise, who, knowing them to be false, suspect them to be hypocritical.-Letter to Mrs. Thrale, No. 3.

Paying The power of pleasing is very often obCompliments structed by the desire.-Rambler, No. 101.

Composition.

Moral

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.-Journal. Aug. 16.

To convince any man against his will is Compulsion hard; but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.-Rambler, No. 93.

The Dangers To make concessions, is to encourage

of

Concessions encroachment.-The False Alarm.

There is nothing more likely to betray a Condescension man into absurdity than condescension, when he seems to suppose his understanding too powerful for his company.-Life, Langton's Collectanea, 1780.

Confession! Why, I don't know but that Confession is a good thing. The Scripture says, "Confess your faults one to another," and the priests confess as well as the laity. Then it must be considered that their absolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance also. You think your sins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone.-Life, October 26, 1769.

Want of

Every man knows some whom he cannot Confidence induce himself to trust, though he has no reason to suspect that they will betray him.-Rambler, No. 160.

Mental A lady seldom listens with attention to any Congruity praise but that of her beauty: a merchant always expects to hear of his influence at the bank, his importance on the exchange, the height of his credit, and the extent of his traffic: and the author will scarcely be pleased without lamentations of the neglect of learning, the conspiracies against genius, and the slow progress of merit.-Rambler, No. 106.

Conjecture as to things useful is good; but Conjecture conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, such as whether men went upon all four, is very idle.-Life.

Conscience

A Good Conscience

Rasselas.

Consciousness

No man yet was ever wicked without secret discontent.-Rambler, No. 76.

No evil is insupportable but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.

Self It is seldom that the great or the wise suspect that they are despised or cheated.Lives of the Poets. Pope.

Contempt is a kind of gangrene, which, if Contempt it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.-Lives of the Poets. Blackmore.

Contradiction

To be contradicted in order to force you to talk is mighty unpleasing. You shine, indeed; but it is by being ground.-Life. April 16, 1779.

If convents should be allowed at all, they Convents should only be retreats for persons unable to serve the public, or who have served it. It is our first duty to serve society; and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls. A youthful passion for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged.-Life, February, 1766.

The happiest conversation is that of which Conversation nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.-Life.

Conversation

A talking blackamoor were better than a white creature who adds nothing to life, and by sitting down before one desperately silent, takes

away the confidence one should have in the company of her chair, if she were once out of it.-Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 100.

Brilliancy

in

There is nothing by which a man exasperConversation ates most people more, than by displaying a superior ability of brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy makes them curse him at their hearts.-Life. March 30, 1783, Collectanea.

Conversation Great lords and great ladies don't like to Interrupted have their mouths stopped.-Life. Boswell's Johnsonian Notes, 1781.

A man who is converted from Protestantism

Conversion to Popery may be sincere; he parts with nothing he is only superadding to what he already had. But a convert from Popery to Protestantism gives up so much of what he has held as sacred as anything that he retains; there is so much laceration of mind in such a conversion, that it can hardly be sincere and lasting.Life. October 26, 1769.

The coquette has companions, indeed, but The Coquette no lovers; for love is respectful, and timorous; and where among all her followers will she find a husband? The Rambler, No. 97.

The purpose for which letters are written Correspondence when no intelligence is communicated, or business transacted, is to preserve in the minds of the absent either love or esteem.-Rambler, No. 152.