C O M 
d'.ike ; every body afked, which is he ? The man without 
the hat very compofedly anfwered, I am he, Clarendon. 
COMPO'SEDNESS,/. Sedatenefs; calmnefs; tran¬ 
quillity.—He that will think to any purpofe, mult have 
fixednefs and compofednefs of. humour,.as well as fmartnefs 
of parts. Norris. 
COMPO'SER,/ An author; a writer.—If the thoughts 
•of fuch authors have nothing in them, they at leaft do no 
harm, and fhew an honed indudry, and a good intention 
in the compofer. Addifon. —He that adapts the mufic to 
words; he that forms a tune.—The compofer has fo ex- 
prefied my fenfe, where I intended to move the padions, 
that he feems to have been the poet as well as the compofer. 
Dry den. 
COM'POSITE, adj. [compofitus, Lat.] Mixed; made 
up of many parts; not Ample.—-The compofite order in 
architecture is the lad of the five orders of columns; fo 
named, becaufe its capital is compofed out of thole of the 
other orders; and it is alfo called the Roman and Italic 
order. See Architecture, vol. ii. p. 70. 
COMTOSITE NUMBER,/. A number compounded 
of, or made up by, the multiplication of two other num¬ 
bers, greater than 1, or which can be meafured by fome 
other number greater than 1. As 12, which is compofed, 
or compounded of 2 and 6, or 3 and 4, viz. by multiply¬ 
ing together 2 and 6, or 3 and 4, both products making 
the fame number 12 ; which therefore is a compofite num¬ 
ber. Compofites are oppoled to prime numbers, or primes, 
which cannot be exaftly meafured by any other number, 
and cannot be produced by multiplying together two 
other faftors. Compofite numbers between themfelves are 
the fame with commenfurable numbers, or fuch as have 
a common meafure or faCtor; as 15 and 12, which have 
the common term 3. 
COMPOSITION,/ [compofitio, Lat.] The aft of form¬ 
ing an integral of various difiimilar parts.—In the time of 
the Yncas reign of Peru, no compofition was allowed by the 
laws to be ufed in point of medicine, but only fimples 
proper to each difeafe. Temple. —The aft of bringing lim- 
ple ideas into complication: oppofed to analyfis, or the 
leparation of complex notions.—The inveftigation of dif¬ 
ficult things, by the method of analyfis, ought ever to 
precede the method of compofition. Newton. —A mafs form¬ 
ed by mingling different ingredients.—Heat and vivacity, 
in age, is an excellent compofition for bufinefs. Bacon. 
Jove mix’d up all, and his bed clay employ’d, 
Then call’d the happy compofition Floyd. Swift. 
The date of being compounded; union; conjunction; 
combination.—Contemplate things fird in their own fim¬ 
ple natures, and afterwards view them in compofition with 
other things. Watts. —The arrangement of various figures 
in a pifture.—The difpofition in a picture is an afi’embling 
of many parts ; is alfo called the compofition, by which is 
meant the didribution and orderly placing of things, both 
in general and in particular. Dryden. —Written work.— 
That divine prayer has always been looked upon as a com- 
fofition fit to have proceeded from the wifed of men. Ad¬ 
difon. —Adjudment; regulation.—A preacher, in the in¬ 
vention of matter, election of words, compofition of gef- 
ture, look, pronunciation, motion, ufeth all thefe facul¬ 
ties at once. Ben Jonfon. —Compaft; agreement; terms 
on which differences are fettled.—All public regiment, 
of what kind foever, feemeth evidently to have arifen 
from deliberate advice, confultation, and compofition be¬ 
tween men, judging it convenient and behoveful. Hooker. 
Their courage droops, and, hopelefs now', they widi 
For compofition with th’ unconquer’d fifli. Waller. 
The aft of difeharging a debt by paj'ing part; the fum 
paid. Confidency ; congruity : 
There is no compofition in thefe news, 
That gives them credit.-- 
—Indeed they are difproportion’d. Sbakefpeare. 
[In grammar.] The joining of two vvords together, or 
i > 
COM 90 3 
the prefixing a particle to another word, to augment, di- 
mi nidi, or change its fignification. 
COMPOS!'FION, in law, an agreement or contraft. 
between a parfon, patron, and ordinary, See. for money 
or other thing in lieu of tithes. Land may be exempted 
from the payment of tithes, where compofitions have been 
made : and real compofitions for tithes are to be made by 
the concurrent confent of the parfon, patron and ordi¬ 
nary. Real compofitions are diftinguiflied from perfonaL 
contrafts; for a compofition called a perfonal contraft is 
only an agreement between the parfon and theparifhiqners, 
to pay fo much indead of tithes; and though fuch agree¬ 
ment is confirmed by the ordinary, yet (if the parfon is 
not a party) that doth not make it a real compofition, be¬ 
caufe he ought to be a party to the deed of compofition, 
March's Rep. 87. A real compofition is, when an agreement 
is made between the owner of the lands and the parfon 
or vicar, with the confent of the ordinary and the patron, 
that fuch lands fhall for the future bedilcharged from the 
payment of tythes, by reafon of fome land, or other real 
recompenfe, given to the parfon. Blackfione. But com¬ 
pofitions for tithes made by the confent of the parfon, pa¬ 
tron, and ordinary, by virtue of fiat. 13 Eliz. c. 10, Iliad 
not bind the fuccedor, unlefs made for twenty-one years 
or three lives, as in cafe of leafes of ecclefiadical corpora¬ 
tions, See. Compofitions W'ere at firit for a valuable confi- 
deration, fo that though, in procefs of time, upon the 
increafe of the value [of the lands, fuch compofitions do 
not amount to the value of the tithes, yet cuttom pre¬ 
vails, and from hence arifes what we call a modus dea - 
tnandi. Hob. 29. See the article Tythe. 
COMPOSE TION, in literature, the art of forming and 
arranging fentiments, and clothing them with language 
fuitable to the nature of the fubjeCt or difeourfe. See the 
articles Language, Oratory, History, Sec. 
COMPOSITION, in logic, a method of reafoning, 
whereby we proceed from fome general felf-evident truth 
to other particular and Angular ones. In difpofing and 
putting together our thoughts, there are two ways of 
proceeding equally within our choice : for w’e may fb 
fuppofe the truths, relating to any part of knowledge, 
as they prefented themfelves to the mind in the manner of 
inveftigation ; carrying on 'the feries of proofs in a reverie 
order, till they at lad terminate in fird principles : or, be¬ 
ginning with thefe principles, we may take the contrary 
w’ay; and from them deduce, by a direft train of reafon¬ 
ing, all the leveral propofitions we want to eltablidi. 
This diverfity in the manner of arranging our thoughts 
gives rife to the twofold divifion of method edablifhed 
among logicians ; the one called analytic method, or the 
method of reflation, inafmuch as it traces things back 
to their fource, and refolves knowledge into its fird and 
original principles. This ltands in contradidinftion to 
the fynthetic method : for here we proceed by gathering 
together the feveral fcattered parts of knowledge, and 
combining them into one fydem, in fuch a manner as 
that the underdanding is enabled ,diltinftly to follow 
truth through all the did’erent dages of gradation. 
COMPOSITION, mechanical, of Forces. See the ar¬ 
ticle Mechanics. 
COMPOSITION, in mufic. See the article Music. 
COMPOSITION of Proportion, is when, of four 
.proportionals, the fum of the fird and fecond is to the 
2d, as the fum of-the third and fourth is to the 4th : 
as if it be a : b : : c : d, 
then by compofition a + b : b \ : c+d : d. 
Or, in numbers, if 2 : 4 : : 9 : 18, 
then by compofition 6 : 4 : : 27 : 18. 
COMPOSITION of Ratios, is the adding of ratios 
together: which is performed by multiplying together 
their correfponding terms, viz. the antecedents together, 
and the confequents together, for the antecedent and 
confequent of the compounded ratio; like as the addi¬ 
tion of logarithms is the fame thing as the multiplica¬ 
tion of their correfponding numbers. Or, if the terms 
