cos 
price, the town is compelled to ufc brackifh water. The 
Iioufes in Coflir are built of clay, and the number of 
fettled inhabitants rather fmall, though the Grangers 
who are continually palling and repairing augment them 
prodigioully. 
The roads about Coflir have fomething in them very 
remarkable. The rough and lofty rocks of granite and 
porphyry with which they are on all fides environed, 
have a magnificent and terrific appearance ; and the pafs 
or road between them being almoft level throughout, 
gives the idea of iminenfe labour in cutting it. All thefe 
circumftances concur in teftifying the importance Coflir 
mull once have had as a port. At certain dilhmees on 
the highefi rocks is obfervable a fucceflion of fmall 
ftruChires, formed with uncemented Hones, and which, 
by the marks of fire within them, feem to have ferved 
as fignals. Thefe are numerous, but they are too rude 
to enable the obferver to fix any time for their ereCtion. 
The red granite is in vail quantities, and the chain of 
rocks confiding of that fubltance appears to extend itlelf 
in a north and fouth direction. Huge rocks of porphyry, 
both red and green, are diftinguifhable ; as are many rich 
veins of alaballer. The verde antico, which Bruce de- 
feribes, is here in great plenty. In fliort, this neighbour¬ 
hood unfolds a treafure of marbles that ailoniihes the 
beholder, and demonllrates, that on any future occalion 
the quarries may be again wrought, and modern architec¬ 
ture made to equal that of the bell ages of Greece or Rome 
as to richnefs of materials and durability of ornament. 
COS'SIS,/. [hi c, Gr.] A worm that bleeds in wood ; 
whence it is applied to little tubercles in the face like 
the head of a worm. 
COSS'LIN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Up¬ 
per Saxony, and duchy of Pomerania, fituated on the 
river Nifebeck, about a league from the Baltic; ceded 
to the elector of Brandenburg in 1648 ; the feat of a 
court of jultice for Farther Pomerania : twenty-eight 
miles nortli-north-wed of New Stettin, and lixty-eight 
north-eaft of Stargard. Lat. 54. 9. N. Ion. 33. 53. E. 
Ferro. 
COS'SONEY, a town of Swiflerland, in the canton of 
Bern, built in 442, and formerly a large town, but now 
much reduced : eight miles north-weft of Nion. 
COST,y: [kojl. Dut. As this word is found in the re- 
moteft Teutonic dialefts, even in the Illandic, it is not 
probably derived to us from the Latin coujlo ; though it 
it is not unlikely that the French coujler comes from the 
Latin.] The price of any thing ; fumptuoufnefs; luxury: 
Let foreign princes vainly boaft 
The rude effeCls of pride and cojl 
Of vafter fabrics, to which they 
Contribute nothing but the pay. Waller. 
Charge ; expence.—Have we eaten at all of the king’s 
cojl? or hath he given us any gift ? 2 Samuel, xix. 42. 
He whofe tale is beft, and pleafes moft, 
Should win his fupper at our common cojl. Dryden. 
Lofs ; fine ; detriment.—What they had fondly wilhed, 
proved afterwards to their cojls over true. Knolles. 
To COST, v. n. pret. cojl ; part, cojl ; \_couJlcr, Fr. ] To 
be bought for; to be had at a price.—The dagger and 
poifon are always in readinefs ; but to bring the action 
to extremity, and then recover all, will require the art 
•fa writer, and cojl him many a pang. Dryden. 
COST,/. [ cojla , Lat.] A rib : 
Has a nimble tail 
Made like an auger, with which tail die wriggles 
JBetwixt the co/lsoi a Ihip, and finks it ftraight. Ben Jonfon. 
COS'TA (Chriftopher da), a celebrated botanift of 
fhe fixteenth century, born in Africa, of a Portuguefe 
father, and went into Alia to perfeCl himfelf in the know¬ 
ledge of fimples, where he w as taken prifoner, but found 
means to efcape, and, after feveral voyages, praClifed 
at Bourgos. He wrote, 1. A Treatife on Indian 
COS Q03 
Drugs and Medicines. 2. His Voyages to the Indies. 3. 
A Book in Praife of Women ; and other works. 
COS'TA RICA, or the Rich Coast, a province of 
North America, in Mexico, fo called from its rich mines 
of gold and diver, thofe of Tinligal being preferred by 
the Spaniards to the mines of Potofi ; but, in other re- 
ipeCls, it is mountainous and barren. It is fituated in 
the audience of Guatirnala, in New Spain, bounded by 
the province of Veragua on the fouth-eaft, and that of 
Nicaragua on the north-eaft. It reaches from the North 
to the South Sea, about ninety leagues from ealt to weft, 
and is fifty where broadeft, from north to fouth. It has 
much the lame productions as its neighbouring provinces ; 
and in fome places the foil is good, and produces cocoa. 
On the North Sea it has two convenient bays, the moft 
wefterly called St. Jerome’s, and that near the frontiers 
of~ Veragua, called Caribaco ; and on the South Sea it 
has feveral bays, capes, and convenient places for an¬ 
chorage. Chief town Nicoya. * 
COS'TAL, adj. \_cujla, Lat. a rib.] Belonging to the 
ribs. In botany, the ribs of leaves, with' the nerves and 
fibres, are called their cojlee .—Hereby are excluded ali ce¬ 
taceous and cartilaginous fifties; many peCtinal, whofe 
ribs are rectilineal; and many cojlal, which have their 
ribs embowed. Brown. 
COSTAN'ZO (Angelo di), lord of Cantalupo, born 
in 1307, at Naples, publiftted the hiftorv of that city in 
Italian, folio, 1682, at Aquila, after fifty-three years of 
perfevering invedigation. This frill edition, fcarce even 
in Italy, reaches from 125010 1489; that is, from the 
death of Frederic II. to the war of Milan under Ferdi¬ 
nand I. Coftanzo enlivened by the culture of Latin 
poetry, the drynefs of hiftory. He fucceeded both in 
the one and the other. He improved the art of writing 
fonnets by graces of his own invention. His Italian poe¬ 
try was collected at Venice in 1752, 121110. He died 
about the year 1590, at an advanced age. 
COS'TARD,yi [from cojler, a head. ] Ahead.—Take 
him over the cojlard with the belt of thy fword. Shake. 
Jpcare .—An apple round and bulky like the head.—Many 
country vicars are driven to drifts ; and if our greedy pa. 
trons hold us to fuen conditions, they will make us turn 
cojlard mongers, grafiers, or fell ale. Burton. 
COS'TARD (George), an Englifli fcholar, diftirt- 
guiihed for oriental and ailronomical learning, born in 
1710, and admitted about 1726 of Wadham college, Ox¬ 
ford ; where lie became fellow and tutor, and where he 
feems to have lpent the greateft part of his life, though 
the fellows of Wadham college hold their fellowfliips 
only for a limited number of years. June 1764, he ob¬ 
tained the vicarage at Twickenham, in Middlefex, by 
the favour of lord chancellor Northington. January 
17S2, he died; and his books, oriental manuferipts, and 
philofophical inftruments, made a confiderable auction. 
He was the author of fifteen productions, as they are 
enumerated in Nichols’s Anecdotes of Bowyer : they are 
chiefly upon adrononrical fubjeCts, but among them are 
fome obfervations tending to illuftrate the book of Job, 
1747, Svo. 
COS'TE (Peter), a native of Uzez, fled to England 
on account of religion, and died at Paris in 1747, at an 
advanced age, leaving behind him feveral works. The 
chief of them are, 1. Tranllations into French of Locke’s 
Eflay on Human Underftanding, Amfterdam, 1736, 4m. 
and Trevoux, 4V0IS. 121110, of Newton’s Optics, qto. 
and of the Reafonablencfs of Chriftianity, by Locke, 1 
vols. Svo. 2. An edition of Montaigne’s Eflays, 3 vols. 
4to. and to vols. 121110. with Remarks and Annotations. 
3. An edition of Fontaine’s Fables, 121110. with curfory 
notes at the bottom of the pages. He ventured to add a 
fable of his own, which ferved to prove that it was far 
more eafy to comment on Fontaine than to imitate him. 
4. The Defence of la Bruyere, againft the Carthufian 
d’Argone, concealed under the name of Vigneul Mar- 
ville : a verbofe.performance, which has been very inju- 
diciouily 
