43S 



CONVEX CONVULSION 



otis ; elegant, without being affected, polite with- 

 out being insipid, and jocose, without being equivo 

 nil. It deals not in di>sertations or epigrams; con- 

 forms to the demands of good la>te, wiiliout lu-iii^ 

 bound by rule ; unites wit and reason, satire and 

 compliment, willioul departing from Uie rules of a 

 pure morality, and allows all to speak on subjects 

 which they understand. Each one expresses his 

 opinion, and supports it in as few words as possible ; 

 and no one attacks that of another with warmth, or 

 upholds liis own with obstinacy. All impart infor- 

 mation, and all are entertained." 



The ini.ldle of the last century, when the most po- 

 lite and refilled circles collected around ladies of po- 

 Ii>lieil minds and graceful manners, such as L'Es- 

 pinasse, Uu Deffand and Geoffrin (q. v.), (to the ,ast 

 of whom we are indebted for an excellent treatise on 

 roiiversation,) may be justly regarded us the flourish- 

 ing period of refined society in France. Though the 

 art of conversation can be learned very imperfectly 

 from books, yet these sourses of information are not 

 to be despised. We would, therefore, refer our read- 

 ers to Delille's poeui entitled La Conversation ; ma- 

 dame Vannoz's Conseils d une Femme, sur les Moyens 

 de plaire dans la Conversation; and Cliazet's LSArt 

 de causer. Diderot and madame de Stael have given 

 us at once rules and examples for delightful conver- 

 sation. We will, therefore, willingly take the 

 French as our masters in this art, believing in the old 

 maxim gue les Francois seulement savent converser 

 et gue les autres nations ne savent gue disserter et dis- 

 cuter. The Encyclopedic Moderns contains the fol- 

 lowing passage, which we insert as containing some 

 truth in the midst of its extravagance : Les Alle- 

 viunds ne causent pas, Us argumentent : la conversa- 

 tion iles /(aliens est une pantomime melee d'exclama- 

 tions. Chez les Anglais, ce qu'on nomine conversa- 

 tion est un silence syncope par dts monosyllabes et in- 

 terrompu de quart d'/ieure en quart d'Aeure par le 

 bruit de I'eau qui s'echappe de I'urne d the. We must 

 observe, that the British have no word precisely 

 corresponding to causer. It might be as difficult to 

 find a word in any other language corresponding to 

 prosing. Goldoni, in his comedy called the Coffee- 

 House, has characterized the different nations of Eu- 

 rope by the nature of their conversations. It is sur- 

 prising that the Western nations have never been 

 sensible how important it is to instruct children in 

 the art of agreeable narration. A large part of their 

 time in schools is spent in acquiring facility in writ- 

 ten composition ; and yet, have we not occasion to 

 relate a hundred times where we have occasion to 

 write once ? If we look around us, how few persons 

 do we see who know how to relate, properly, any 

 thing of length ! Among the Asiatics, the art of 

 relating is in high estimation, and properly taught. 

 We ought to imitate them in this respect. 



CONVEX (from the Latin convexus, vaulted, 

 arched) ; rising in a circular form ; the contrary to 

 concave. Thus the inside of a watch-glass is concave, 

 the outer surface convex. The mathematician de- 

 fines a curved line convex on the side on which the 

 point of intersection of two tangents falls, and con- 

 cave on the opposite side. Convexity and concavity 

 are of particular importance in catoprics and dioptrics, 

 as applied to mirrors and lenses. 



CONVEYANCE, in law, is the transfer of the ti- 

 tle to lands or hereditaments. There are different 

 kinds of conveyance at common law ; as by feoffment 

 and livery (making a deed of the land in fee, and 

 putting the grantee into possession) ; by lease and 

 release (granting a term of years, or other limited 

 right of possession of the land, and then relinquish- 

 ing the remainder to the lessee, after he has taken 

 possession) ; by grant, which was first used in regard 



to incorporeal hereditaments (such as the right of 

 i-etviving a certain perpetual rent, or appointing a 

 clergyman to a particular church), where no livery 

 of seizin and actual possession could lie siiven, but 

 was subsequently applied to corporeal hereditaments ; 

 or, finally, by bargain and sale, which is, in fact a 

 species of grant. (See Bargain and Sale.) Such 

 were the modes of conveyance by the common law 

 but the introduction of uses and trusts made a gnat 

 revolution in the modes of conveyance in England. 

 The feoffment to uses was first introduced, whereby 

 the fee of the land was granted to one person, for 

 the use or benefit of another. The statute of 21 

 Henry VIII., was passed to prevent this species 

 of conveyance, by enacting, that, where it \\;is 

 made, the fee should pass to the person for whose, 

 benefit the grant was made, that the effect should be 

 the same as if the conveyance had been made to him 

 directly. To evade this statute, trusts were invent- 

 ed, whereby the land was conveyed to one, for the 

 use of another, in trust for a third ; and the courts, 

 favouring this evasion of the statute, held that, in 

 such case, the fee would pass to the second, to be 

 held for the use anil benefit of the third ; thus ef. 

 fecting, by the intervention of another party to the 

 conveyance, what the statute was intended to pre- 

 vent. This contrivance has rendered the system of 

 conveyancing very intricate and complicated in Eng- 

 land. It is more simple and direct in the United 

 States of America, following, substantially, the trans- 

 fer by bargain and sale. 



CONVOCATION ; an assembly of the clergy of 

 England, by their representatives, to consult on ec- 

 clesiastical matters. It is held during the session of 

 parliament, and consists of an upper and a lower 

 house. In the upper sit the bishops, and in the low- 

 er the inferior clergy, who are represented by their 

 proctors, consisting of all the deans and archdeacons, 

 of one proctor for every chapter, and two for the 

 clergy of every diocese ; in all, 143 divines. The 

 convocation is summoned by the king's writ, direct- 

 ed to the archbishop of each province, requiring him 

 to summon all bishops, deans, archdeacons, &c. The 

 power of the convocation is limited by a statute of 

 Henry VIII. They are not to make any canons or 

 ecclesiastical laws without the king's license ; nor, 

 when permitted to make any, can they put them in 

 execution but under several restrictions. They have 

 the examining and censuring; of all heretical and schis- 

 matical books and persons, &c. ; but there lies an ap- 

 peal to the king in chancery, or to his delegates. The 

 clergy in convocation, and their servants, have the 

 same privileges as members of parliament. In 1665, 

 the convocation gave up the privilege of taxing them- 

 selves to the house of commons, in consideration of 

 being allowed to vote at the elections of members 

 for that house. 



CONVOY (from the French convoyer, to accom- 

 pany), in naval language, signifies a fleet of mer- 

 chantment, bound on a voyage to some particular 

 port or general rendezvous, under the protection of 

 a ship or ships of war. It also means the ship or 

 ships appointed to conduct and defend them on their 

 passage thither. In military language, it is used for 

 escort, (q. v.) 



Convoy, or brake, is a crooked lever, applied to the 

 surface of the wheels of carriages, so as to retard 

 their motion by its friction 



CONVULSION (Latin, convnlsio ; from convello, 

 to pull together) ; a diseased action of muscular 

 fibres, known by violent and involuntary contractions 

 of the muscular parts, with alternative relaxations. 

 Convulsions are universal or partial, and have ob- 

 tained different names, according to the parts affeci- 

 ed, or the symptoms ; as the risus sardoniciu. when the 



