COM 



COM 



varieties, depending upon climate, soil, 

 culture, and similar accidents ; so he con- 

 siders the diversities of the human race to 

 be merely varieties of the same species, 

 produced by natural causes. 



Upon the whole, colour and figure 

 may be styled habits of the body. Like 

 other habits, they are created, not by 

 great and sudden impressions, but by 

 continual and almost imperceptible 

 touches. Of habits, both of mind and 

 body, nations are susceptible as well as 

 individuals. They are transmitted to the 

 offspring, and augmented by inheritance. 

 Long in growing to maturity, national 

 features, like national manners, become 

 fixed only after a succession of ages. 

 They become, however, fixed at last ; and 

 if we can ascertain any effect produced 

 by a given state of weather or of climate, 

 it requires only repetition, during a suffi- 

 cient length of time, to augment and im- 

 press it with a permanent character. The 

 sanguine countenance will, for this rea- 

 son, be perpetual in the highest latitudes 

 of the temperate zone; and we shall for 

 ever find the swarthy, the olive, the taw- 

 ny, and the black, as we descend to the 

 south. 



COMPOSER, in music, a practical mu- 

 sical author; so called, in contradistinc- 

 tion to one who merely speculates in 

 acoustics, and writes on the laws of har- 

 mony and melody, but does not concern 

 himself with their practical application in 

 composition. 



COMPOSITE numbers, are such as can 

 be measured exactly by a number exceed- 

 ing unity : as 6 by 2 or 3, or 10 by 5, &c. 

 so that 4 is the lowest composite num- 

 ber. Composite numbers, between them- 

 selves, are those which have some com- 

 mon measure besides unity ; as 12 and 15, 

 as being both measured by 3. 



COMPOSITE order, in architecture, the 

 richest of the five orders, being a combi- 

 nation of the Ionic capital, with the bell 

 and foliage of the Corinthian. Its cornice 

 has simple modillions or dentils. See 

 ARCHITECTURE. 



COMPOSITION of ideas, an act of the 

 mind, whereby it unites several simple 

 ideas into one concepiion, or complex 

 idea. 



COMPOSITION, in music, the art of dis- 

 posing musical sounds into airs, songs, 

 &c. either in one or more parts, to be 

 sung by a voice, or played on instru- 

 ments. 



COMPOSITION, in oratory, the co- 

 herence and order of the parts of a dis- 

 course. 



To composition belong both the artful 

 joining of the words, whereof the stile 

 is formed, and whereby it is rendered 

 soft and smooth, gentle and flowing, full 

 and sonorous, or the contrary; and the 

 order, which requires things first in na- 

 ture and dignity to be put before those of 

 inferior consideration. 



COMPOSITION, in painting, consists of 

 two parts, invention and disposition ; the 

 first whereof is the choice of the objects 

 which are to enter into the composition 

 of the subject the painter intends to ex- 

 ecute, and is either simply historical or 

 allegorical. The other very much con- 

 tributes to the perfection and value of a 

 piece of painting. 



COMPOSITION, in commerce, a contract be- 

 tweenan insolvent debtor and hiscreditors, 

 whereby the latter accept of a part of the 

 debt in compensation for the whole, and 

 give a general acquittance according- 



ty- 



COMPOSITION, in printing, commonly 



termed composing, the arranging of se- 

 veral types or letters in the composing- 

 stick, in order to form a line ; and of se- 

 veral lines ranged in order in the galley, 

 to make a page ; and of several pages to 

 make a form, 



COMPOSITION of motion, is an assemblage 

 of several directions of motion, resulting 

 from several powers acting in different, 

 though not opposite directions. See 

 MECHANICS. 



COMPOSITION of proportion, is the com- 

 paring the sum of the antecedent and 

 consequent with the consequent, in two 

 equal ratios ; as, suppose, 4 : 8 : : 3 : 6, 

 they say, by composition of proportion 

 12 : 8 :: 9 : 6. 



COMPOST, in husbandry and garden- 

 ing, several sorts of soils or earthy mat- 

 ter mixed together, in order to make a 

 manure for assisting the natural earth in 

 the work of vegetation, by way of 

 amendment or improvement. 



COMPOUND/owe?-,in botany, a flow- 

 er formed of the union of several fructifi- 

 cations, or lesser flowers, ithin a com- 

 mon calyx ; each lesser flower being fur- 

 nished with five stamina, distinct at bot- 

 tom, but united by the anthers into a 

 cylinder, through which passes a style 

 considerably longer than the stamina, and 

 crowned by a stigma or summit, with 

 two divisions that are rolled backwards-. 

 These are the essential characters of a 

 compound flower. Compound flowers, 

 which make up four classes in Tourne- 

 fort's system, are all reduced to the class 

 Syngenesia, which see. See BOTANY. 



