COMPOSING.—’Tis true, composing is the nobler part,
But good translation is no easy art.
Roscommon.—On Translated Verse.
COMPOSURE.—The school was done, the bus’ness o’er,
When, tir’d of Greek and Latin lore,
Good Syntax
sought his easy chair,
And sat in calm composure there.
George Combe.—Doctor Syntax, Canto I. Line 1.
CONCLUSION.—But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act III. Scene 3. (The Moor to Iago.)
CONDUCT.—Take heed lest passion sway
Thy judgment to do aught which else free will
Would not admit.
Milton.—Paradise Lost, Book VIII. Line 635.
I argue not
Against Heaven’s hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right
onward.
Milton.—Sonnet XXII.
Were man
But constant, he were perfect.
Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act V. Scene 4. (Proteus.)
And let men so conduct themselves in life,
As to be always strangers to defeat.
Yonge’s Cicero.—A precept of Atreus, Tusculan Disp. Book V. Div. 18.
CONDUCT.—When once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.
Shakespeare.—Measure for Measure, Act IV. Scene 4. (Angelo repentant.)
But by bad courses may be understood,
That their events can never fall out good.
Shakespeare.—King Richard II. Act II. Scene 1. (York to the King.)
The honest heart that’s free frae a’
However fortune kick’d the ba’,
Burns.—Epi. to Davie.
Circles are prais’d, not that abound
In largeness, but th’ exactly round:
So life we praise, that does excel,
Not
in much time, but acting well.
Waller.—Long and Short Life. Epigrams.