with you to contemplate the wonders of God in the firmament, rather than the madness of man on the earth.' POPE. The ways of Providence are fit subjects for meditation; But a very small part of the moments spent in meditation on the past produce any reasonable caution or salutary sorrow." JOHNSON. One muses on the events or circumstances which have been just passing.

We may contemplate and meditate for the future, but never muse. In this case the two former terms have the sense of contriving or purposing: what is contemplated to be done is thought of more indistinctly than when it is meditated to be done: many things are had in contemplation which are never seriously meditated upon; Life is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual, and it begins in contemplation of law as soon as an infant is able to stir in the mother's womb.' BLACKSTONE. Between contemplating and meditating there is oftener a greater distance than between meditating and executing;

Thus plung'd in ills and meditating more,

The people's patience, tried, no longer bore
The raging monster. DRYDEN.

Contemplation may be a temporary action directed to a single object; There is not any property or circumstance of my being that I contemplate with more joy than my immortality.' BERKELEY. Meditating is a permanent and serious action directed to several objects; Meditate till you make some act of piety upon the occasion of what you meditate, either get some new arguments against sin, or some new encouragement to virtue.' TAYLOR. Musing is partial and unimportant meditation is a religious duty, it cannot be neglected without injury to a person's spiritual improvement; musing is a temporary employment of the mind on the ordinary concerns of life, as they happen to excite an interest for the time;

Musing as wont on this and that

Such trifles as I know not what. FRANCIS.

Contemplative and musing, as epithets, have a strong analogy to each other.

Contemplative is a habit of the mind; musing is a particular state of the mind. A person may have a contemplative turn, or be in a musing mood.

TO CONSIDER, REFLECT. Consider, in French considerer, Latin considero, a factative, from consido to sit down, signifies to make to settle in the mind. Reflect, in Latin reflecto, compounded of re and flecto, signifies to turn back or upon itself, after the manner of the mind.

The operation of thought is expressed by these two words, but it varies in the circumstances of the

action.

Consideration is employed for practical purposes; reflection for matters of speculation or moral improve

ment.

Common objects call for consideration; the workings of the mind itself, or objects purely spiritual, occupy reflection. It is necessary to consider what is proper to be done, before we take any step; 'It seems necessary in the choice of persons for greater employments, to consider their bodies as well as their minds, and ages and health as well as their abilities.' TEMPLE. It is consistent with our natures, as rational beings, to reflect on what we are, what we ought to be, and what we shall be; Whoever reflects frequently on the uncertainty of his own duration, will find out that the state of others is not more permanent than his own.' JOHNSON.

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Without consideration we shall naturally commit the most flagrant errors; without reflection we shall never understand our duty to our Maker, our neighbour, and ourselves.

TO CONSIDER, REGARD.

To consider (v. To consider) signifies to take a view of a thing in the mind, which is the result of thought; to regard is literally to look back upon, from the French regarder, that is, re and garder, to keep or watch, which is derived from the old German wahren to see, of which there are still traces in the words bewahren to guard against, warten to wait, and the English to be aware of.

There is more caution or thought in considering; more personal interest in regarding. A man may consider his reputation so as to be deterred from taking a particular step; if he regards his reputation this regard has a general influence on all he does. The king had not, at that time, one person about him of his council, who had the least consideration of his own honour, or friendship for those who sat at the helm of affairs, the duke of Lennox excepted.' CLARENDON.

If much you note him
You offend him, feed and regard him not.
SHAKSPEARE.

made general upon very partial and not enough deliberated considerations. CLARENDON.

Reasons on the contrary may be general, and vary according to the nature of the subject; The reasons assigned in a law of the 36th year of Edward III. for having pleas and judgments in the English tongue, might have been urged for having the laws themselves in that language.' TYRWHITT.

When applied to matters of practice the consideration influences the particular actions of an individual or individuals; no consideration of profit or emolument should induce a person to forfeit his word; 'He was obliged, antecedent to all other considerations, to search an asylum.' DRYDEN.

The reason influences a line of conduct; the reasons which men assign for their conduct are often as absurd as they are false;

I mask the business from the common eye
For sundry weighty reasons. SHAKSPEARE.

In the same manner, when applied to matters of theory, the consideration is that which enters into a man's consideration, or which he offers to the consideration of others; The folly of ascribing temporal punishments to any particular crimes, may appear from several considerations.' ADDISON. The reason is that which flows out of the nature of the thing; 'If it be natural, ought we not rather to conclude that there is some ground or reason for those fears, and that nature hath not planted them in us to no purpose.' TILLOTSON.

TO ARGUE, EVINCE, PROVE.

Το argue, from the Latin arguo, and the Greek acys clear, signifies to make clear; to evince, in Latin evinco, compounded of vinco to prove or make out, and e forth, signifies to bring to light, to make to appear clear; to prove, in French prouver, in Latin probo, from probus good, signifies to make good, or make to appear good.

These terms in general convey the idea of evidence, but with gradations: argue denotes the smallest degree, and prove the highest degree. To argue is to serve as an indication amounting to probability; to evince denotes an indication so clear as to remove doubt; to prove marks an evidence so positive as to produce conviction.

It argues a want of candor in any man to conceal circumstances in his statement which are any ways calculated to affect the subject in question; 'It is not the being singular, but being singular for something, that argues either extraordinary endowments of nature or benevolent intentions to mankind, which draws the admiration and esteem of the world." BERKELEY. The tenor of a person's conversation may evince the refinement of his mind and the purity of his taste; The nature of the soul itself, and particularly its immateriality, has I think been evinced almost to a demonstration.' ADDISON. When we see When we see

men sacrificing their peace of mind and even their integrity of character to ambition, it proves to us how important it is even in early life to check this natural and in some measure laudable, but still insinuating and dangerous passion;

What object, what event the moon beneath,
But argues or endears an after-scene?

To reason proves, or weds it to desire? YOUNG.

ARGUMENT, REASON, PROOF.

Argument from argue (v. To argue), signifies either the thing that argues, or that which is brought forward in arguing: reason, in French raison, Latin ratio, from ratus, participle of reor to think, signifies the thing thought or estimated in the mind by the power of reason; proof, from to prove, signifies the thing that proves.

An argument serves for defence, a reason for justification; a proof for conviction. Arguments are adduced in support of an hypothesis or proposition;

When the arguments press equally on both sides in matters that are indifferent to us, the safest method is to give up ourselves to neither.' ADDISON. Reasons are assigned in matters of belief and practice;

The reasons, with his friend's experience join'd, Encourag'd much, but more disturb'd his mind. DRYDEN. Proofs are collected to ascertain a fact;

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One soul in both, whereof good proof
This day affords. MILTON.

Arguments are either strong or weak; reasons solid or futile; proofs clear and positive, or vague and indefinite. We confute an argument, overpower a reason, and invalidate a proof. Whoever wishes to defend Christianity will be in no want of arguments ; This, before revelation had enlightened the world, was the very best argument for a future state.' ATTERBURY. The believer need never be at a loss to give a reason for the hope that is in him; 'Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things, but there is a natural and eternal reason for that goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness." TILLOTSON. Throughout the whole of Divine Revelation there is no circumstance that is substantiated with such irrefragable proofs as the resurrection of our Saviour;

Are there (still more amazing!) who resist
The rising thought, who smother in its birth
The glorious truth, who struggle to be brutes?
Who fight the proofs of immortality? YOUNG.

CAUSE, REASON, MOTIVE.

Cause is supposed to signify originally the same as case; it means however now, by distinction, the case or thing happening before another as its cause; the reason is the thing that acts on the reason or understanding; the motive, in French motif, from the

Latin motus, participle of moveo to move, is that which brings into action.

Cause respects the order and connexion of things; reason the movements and operations of the mind; motives the movements of the mind and body. Cause is properly the generic; reason and motive are specific: every reason or motive is a cause, but every cause is not a reason or motive.

Cause is said of all inanimate objects; reason and motive of rational agents: whatever happens in the world, happens from some cause mediate or immediate; the primary or first cause of all is God; The wise and learned among the very heathens themselves, have all acknowledged some first cause, whereupon originally the being of all things dependeth, neither have they otherwise spoken of that cause, than as an agent which, knowing what and why it worketh, observeth in working a most exact order or law.' HOOKER. Whatever opinions men hold they ought to be able to assign a substantial reason for them; If we commemorate any mystery of our redemption, or article of our faith, we ought to confirm our belief of it by considering_all those reasons upon which it is built.” NELSON. For whatever men do they ought to have a sufficient motive; Every principle that is a motive to good actions ought to be encouraged.' ADDISON. As the cause gives birth to the effect, so does the reason give birth to the conclusion, and the motive gives birth to the action. Between cause and effect there is a necessary connexion: whatever in the natural world is capable of giving birth to another thing is an adequate cause ;

Cut off the causes, and the effects will cease,

And all the moving madness fall to peace. Dryden. But in the moral world there is not a necessary connexion between reasons and their results, or motives and their actions; the state of the agent's mind is not always such as to be acted upon according to the nature of things; every adequate reason will not be followed by its natural conclusion, for every man will not believe who has reasons to believe, nor yield to the reasons that would lead to a right belief; and every motive will not be accompanied with its corresponding action, for every man will not act who has a motive for acting, nor act in the manner in which his motives ought to dictate: the causes of our diseases often lie as hidden as the reasons of our opinions, and the motives for our actions.

CONCLUSION, INFERENCE, DEDUCTION.

Conclusion, from conclude, and the Latin conclaudo, or con and cludo to shut up, signifies literally the winding up of all arguments and reasoning; inference, from infer, in Latin infero, signifies what is brought in; deduction, from deduct, in Latin deductus and deduco to bring out, signifies the bringing or drawing one thing from another.

A conclusion is full and decisive; an inference is

partial and indecisive: a conclusion leaves the mind in no doubt or hesitation; it puts a stop to all farther reasoning; I only deal by rules of art, Such as are lawful, and judge by Conclusions of astrology. HUDibras. Inferences are special conclusions from particular circumstances; they serve as links in the chain of reasoning; Though it may chance to be right in the conclusion, it is yet unjust and mistaken in the method of inference.' GLANVILLE. Conclusion in the logical sense is the concluding proposition in a syllogism, drawn from the two others, which are called the premises, and may each of them be inferences.

Conclusions are drawn from real facts; inferences are drawn from the appearances of things; deductions only from arguments or assertions. Conclusions are practical; inferences ratiocinative; deductions are

final.

We conclude from a person's conduct or declarations what he intends to do, or leave undone ;

He praises wine, and we conclude from thence He lik'd his glass, on his own evidence. ADDISON. We infer from the appearance of the clouds, or the thickness of the atmosphere, that there will be a heavy fall of rain or snow; You might, from the single people departed, make some useful inferences or guesses how many there are left unmarried." STEELE. We deduce from a combination of facts, inferences, and assertions, that a story is fabricated; There is a consequence which seems very naturally deducible from the foregoing considerations. If the scale of being rises by such a regular progress so high as man, we may by a parity of reason suppose that it still proceeds gradually through those beings which are of a superior nature to him.' ADDISON. Hasty conclusions betray a want of judgement, or firmness of mind contrary inferences are frequently drawn from the same circumstances to serve the purposes of party, and support a favourite position; the deductions in such cases are not unfrequently true when the inferences are false.

BELIEF, CREDIT, TRUST, FAITH.

Belief, from believe, in Saxon gelyfan, geleavan, in German glauben, kilauban, &c. comes, in all possibility, from lief, in German belieben to please, and the Latin libet it pleaseth, signifying the pleasure or assent of the mind. Credit, in French credit, Latin creditus, participle of credo, compounded of cor the heart, and do to give, signifies also giving the heart. Trust is connected with the old word trow, in Saxon treowian, German trauen, old German thravahn, thruven, &c. to hold true, and probably from the Greek appen to have confidence, signifying to depend upon as true. Faith, in Latin fides, from fido to confide, signifies also dependance upon as true.

Belief is the generic term, the others specific; we

believe when we credit and trust, but not always vice versa. Belief rests on no particular person or thing; but credit and trust rest on the authority of one or more individuals. Every thing is the subject of belief which produces one's assent: the events of human life are credited upon the authority of the narrator: the words, promises, or the integrity of individuals are trusted the power of persons and the virtue of things are objects of faith.

Belief and credit are particular actions, or sentiments: trust and faith are permanent dispositions of the mind. Things are entitled to our belief; persons are entitled to our credit: but people repose a trust in others; or have a faith in others.

Our belief or unbelief is not always regulated by our reasoning faculties or the truth of things: we often believe from prejudice and ignorance, things to be true which are very false;

Oh! I've heard him talk

Like the first-born child of love, when every word
Spoke in his eyes, and wept to be believ'd,
And all to ruin me. SOUTHERN.

With the bulk of mankind, assurance goes further than any thing else in obtaining credit: gross falsehoods, pronounced with confidence, will be credited sooner than plain truths told in an unvarnished style;

Oh! I will credit my Scamandra's tears!

Nor think them drops of chance like other women's.

LEE.

There are no disappointments more severe than those which we feel on finding that we have trusted to men of base principles;

Capricious man! To good or ill inconstant.
Too much to fear or trust is equal weakness.

JOHNSON.

of

Ignorant people have commonly a more implicit faith in any nostrum recommended to them by persons their own class, than in the prescriptions of professional men regularly educated;

For faith repos'd on seas and on the flat'ring sky,
Thy naked corpse is doom'd on shores unknown to lie.
DRYDEN.

Belief, trust, and faith, have a religious application, which credit has not. Belief is simply an act of the understanding; trust and faith are active moving principles of the mind in which the heart is concerned. Belief does not extend beyond an assent of the mind to any given proposition; trust and faith are lively sentiments which impel to action. Belief is to trust and faith as cause to effect: there may be belief without either trust or faith; but there can be no trust or faith without belief: we believe that there is a God, who is the creator and preserver of all his creatures; we therefore trust in him for his protection of ourselves: we believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of men; we have therefore faith in his redeeming grace to save us from our sins.

Belief is common to all religions; The EpicuThe Epicureans contented themselves with the denial of a Pro

vidence, asserting at the same time the existence of gods in general: because they would not shock the common belief of mankind.' ADDISON. Trust is peculiar to the believers in Divine revelation; 'What can be a stronger motive to a firm trust and reliance on the mercies of our Maker, than the giving us his Son to suffer for us?' ADDISON. Faith is employed by distinction for the Christian faith; The faith or persuasion of a Divine revelation is a divine faith, not only with respect to the object of it, but likewise in respect of the author of it, which is the Divine Spirit." TILLOTSON. Belief is purely speculative; and trust and faith are operative: the former operates on the mind; the latter on the outward conduct. Trust in God serves to dispel all anxious concern about the future. "Faith," says the Apostle, the Apostle," is dead without works." Theorists substitute belief for faith; enthusiasts mistake passion for faith. True faith must be grounded on a right belief, and accompanied with a right practice.

FAITH, CREED.

Faith (v. Belief) denotes either the principle of trusting, or the thing trusted; creed, from the Latin credo to believe, denotes the thing believed.

These words are synonymous when taken for the thing trusted in or believed; but they differ in this, that faith has always a reference to the principle in the mind; creed only respects the thing which is the object of faith: the former is likewise taken generally and indefinitely; the latter particularly and definitely, signifying a set form or a code of faith; hence we say, to be of the same faith, or to adopt the same creed. The holy martyrs died for the faith, as it is in Christ Jesus; tified and received into the favour of God, by a sincere St. Paul affirms that a sinner is at first jusestablished form of religion will have its peculiar creed. profession of the Christian faith. TILLOTSON. Every The Church of England has adopted that creed which it considers as containing the purest principles of Christian faith; Supposing all the great points of atheism were formed into a kind of creed, I would fain ask whether it would not require an infinitely greater measure of faith than any set of articles which they so violently oppose?' ADDISON.

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CONVICTION, PERSUASION.

Conviction, from convince, denotes either the act of convincing or the state of being convinced; persuasion, which, from the Latin persuadeo, or suadeo, and the Greek us sweet, signifies to make thoroughly agreeable to the taste, expresses likewise the act of persuading, or the state of being persuaded.

What convinces binds; what persuades attracts We convince by arguments; it is the understanding which determines: we are persuaded by entreaties and

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personal influence; it is the imagination, the passions, or the will, which decide. Our conviction respects solely matters of belief or faith; When therefore the Apostle requireth ability to convict hereticks, can we think he judgeth it a thing unlawful, and not rather needful, to use the principal instrument of their conviction, the light of reason.' HOOKER. Our persuasion respects matters of belief or practice; "I should be glad if I could persuade him to write such another critique on any thing of mine, for when he condemns any of my poems, he makes the world have a better opinion of them.' DRYDEN. We are convinced that a thing is true or false; we are persuaded that it is either right or wrong, advantageous or the contrary. A person will have half effected a thing who is convinced that it is in his power to effect it; he will be easily persuaded to do that which favours his own interests.

Conviction respects our most important duties; "Their wisdom is only of this world, to put false colours upon things, to call good evil, and evil good,

against the conviction of their own consciences." SWIFT. Persuasion is frequently applied to matters of indifference; Philoclea's beauty not only persuaded, but so persuaded that all hearts must yield. SIDNEY. The first step to true repentance is a thorough conviction of the enormity of sin. The cure of people's maladies is sometimes promoted to a surprising degree by their persuasion of the efficacy of the remedy.

As conviction is the effect of substantial evidence, it is solid and permanent in its nature; it cannot be so easily changed and deceived: persuasion, depending on our feelings, is influenced by external objects, and exposed to various changes; it may vary both in the degree and in the object. Conviction answers in our minds to positive certainty; persuasion answers to probability.

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The practical truths of Christianity demand our deepest eonviction; When men have settled in themselves a conviction that there is nothing honourable which is not accompanied with innocence; nothing mean but what has guilt in it; riches, pleasures, and honours, will easily lose their charms, if they stand between us and our integrity.' STEELE. Of the speculative truths of Christianity we ought to have a rational persuasion; Let the mind be possessed with the persuasion of immortal happiness annexed to the act, and there will be no want of candidates to struggle for the glorious prerogative.' CUMBERLAND.

The conviction of the truth or falsehood of that which we have been accustomed to condemn or admire cannot be effected without powerful means; but we may be persuaded of the propriety of a thing to-day, which to-morrow we shall regard with indifference. We ought to be convinced of the propriety of avoiding every thing which can interfere with the good order of society; we may be persuaded of the truth of a person's narrative or not, according to the representation made to us; we may be persuaded to pursue any study or lay it aside.

UNBELIEF, INFIDELITY, INCREDULITY.

Unbelief (v. Belief) respects matters in general; infidelity, from fides faithful, is unbelief as respects Divine revelation; incredulity is unbelief in ordinary matters. Unbelief is taken in an indefinite and negative sense; it is the want of belief in any particular thing that may or may not be believed: infidelity is a more active state of mind; it supposes a violent and total rejection of that which ought to be believed: incredulity is also an active state of mind, in which we oppose a belief to matters that may be rejected. Unbelief does not of itself convey any reproachful meaning; it depends upon the thing disbelieved; we may be unbelievers in indifferent as well as the most important matters; but absolutely taken it means one who disbelieves sacred truths; Such an universal acquaintance with things will keep you from an excess of credulity and unbelief; i. e. a readiness to believe gets by heart a catalogue of title-pages and editions ; or deny every thing at first hearing.' WATTS. One and immediately, to become conspicuous, declares that he is an unbeliever." ADDISON. Infidelity is taken in refusing belief; Belief and profession will speak a the worst sense for a blind and senseless perversity in Christian but very faintly, when thy conversation proclaims thee an infidel. SOUTH. Incredulity is often a mark of wisdom, and not unfrequently a mark of the contrary; I am not altogether incredulous that there may be such candles as are made of salamander's wood, being a kind of mineral which whiteneth youth hears all the predictions of the aged with obstinate in the burning and consumeth not.' BACON. • The youth hears all the predictions of the aged with obstinate incredulity.' JOHNSON. The Jews are unbelievers in the mission of our Saviour; the Turks are infidels, inasmuch as they do not believe in the Bible; Deists and Atheists are likewise infidels, inasmuch as they set themselves up against Divine revelation; wellinformed people are always incredulous of stories respecting ghosts and apparitions.

DISBELIEF, UNBELIEF.

Disbelief properly implies the believing that a thing is not, or refusing to believe that it is. Unbelief expresses properly a believing the contrary of what one has believed before: disbelief is qualified as to its nature by the thing disbelieved; The belief or disbelief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing.' TILLOTSON. Our disbelief of the idle tales which are told by beggars, is justified by the frequent detection of their falsehood; The atheist has not found his post tenable, and is therefore retired into deism, and a disbelief of revealed religion only.' ADDISON. Saviour had compassion on Thomas for his unbelief, and gave him such evidences of his identity, as dissipated every doubt; The opposites to faith are unbelief and credulity.' TILLOTSON.

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Our