Chapter XVIII: Act 1899: are other codes of law designed for incorporation in special (4)

The main principles of the Comtian system are derived from the _Positive Polity_ and from two other works,--the _Positivist Catechism: a Summary Exposition of the Universal Religion, in Twelve Dialogues between a Woman and a Priest of Humanity_; and, second, _The Subjective Synthesis_ (1856), which is the first and only volume of a work upon mathematics announced at the end of the _Positive Philosophy_. The system for which the _Positive Philosophy_ is alleged to have been the scientific preparation contains a Polity and a Religion; a complete arrangement of life in all its aspects, giving a wider sphere to Intellect, Energy and Feeling than could be found in any of the previous organic types,--Greek, Roman or Catholic-feudal. Comte's immense superiority over such prae-Revolutionary utopians as the Abbe Saint Pierre, no less than over the group of post-revolutionary Utopians, is especially visible in this firm grasp of the cardinal truth that the improvement of the social organism can only be effected by a moral development, and never by any changes in mere political mechanism, or any violences in the way of an artificial redistribution of wealth. A moral transformation must precede any real advance. The aim, both in public and private life, is to secure to the utmost possible extent the victory of the social feeling over self-love, or Altruism over Egoism.[1] This is the key to the regeneration of social existence, as it is the key to that unity of individual life which makes all our energies converge freely and without wasteful friction towards a common end. What are the instruments for securing the preponderance of Altruism? Clearly they must work from the strongest element in human nature, and this element is Feeling or the Heart. Under the Catholic system the supremacy of Feeling was abused, and the Intellect was made its slave. Then followed a revolt of Intellect against Sentiment. The business of the new system will be to bring back the Intellect into a condition, not of slavery, but of willing ministry to the Feelings. The subordination never was, and never will be, effected except by means of a religion, and a religion, to be final, must include a harmonious synthesis of all our conceptions of the external order of the universe. The characteristic basis of a religion is the existence of a Power without us, so superior to ourselves as to command the complete submission of our whole life. This basis is to be found in the Positive stage, in Humanity, past, present and to come, conceived as the Great Being.

"A deeper study of the great universal order reveals to us at length
the ruling power within it of the true Great Being, whose destiny it
is to bring that order continually to perfection by constantly
conforming to its laws, and which thus best represents to us that
system as a whole. This undeniable Providence, the supreme dispenser
of our destinies, becomes in the natural course the common centre of
our affections, our thoughts, and our actions. Although this Great
Being evidently exceeds the utmost strength of any, even of any
collective, human force, its necessary constitution and its peculiar
function endow it with the truest sympathy towards all its servants.
The least amongst us can and ought constantly to aspire to maintain
and even to improve this Being. This natural object of all our
activity, both public and private, determines the true general
character of the rest of our existence, whether in feeling or in
thought; which must be devoted to love, and to know, in order rightly
to serve, our Providence, by a wise use of all the means which it
furnishes to us. Reciprocally this continued service, whilst
strengthening our true unity, renders us at once both happier and
better."

Remarks on the religion.

The exaltation of Humanity into the throne occupied by the Supreme Being under monotheistic systems made all the rest of Comte's construction easy enough. Utility remains the test of every institution, impulse, act; his fabric becomes substantially an arch of utilitarian propositions, with an artificial Great Being inserted at the top to keep them in their place. The Comtist system is utilitarianism crowned by a fantastic decoration. Translated into the plainest English, the position is as follows: "Society can only be regenerated by the greater subordination of politics to morals, by the moralization of capital, by the renovation of the family, by a higher conception of marriage and so on. These ends can only be reached by a heartier development of the sympathetic instincts. The sympathetic instincts can only be developed by the Religion of Humanity." Looking at the problem in this way, even a moralist who does not expect theology to be the instrument of social revival, might still ask whether the sympathetic instincts will not necessarily be already developed to their highest point, before people will be persuaded to accept the religion, which is at the bottom hardly more than sympathy under a more imposing name. However that may be, the whole battle--into which we shall not enter--as to the legitimateness of Comtism as a religion turns upon this erection of Humanity into a Being. The various hypotheses, dogmas, proposals, as to the family, to capital, &c., are merely propositions measurable by considerations of utility and a balance of expediencies. Many of these proposals are of the highest interest, and many of them are actually available; but there does not seem to be one of them of an available kind, which could not equally well be approached from other sides, and even incorporated in some radically antagonistic system. Adoption, for example, as a practice for improving the happiness of families and the welfare of society, is capable of being weighed, and can in truth only be weighed, by utilitarian considerations, and has been commended by men to whom the Comtist religion is naught. The singularity of Comte's construction, and the test by which it must be tried, is the transfer of the worship and discipline of Catholicism to a system in which "the conception of God is superseded" by the abstract idea of Humanity, conceived as a kind of Personality.

And when all is said, the invention does not help us. We have still to settle what _is_ for the good of Humanity, and we can only do that in the old-fashioned way. There is no guidance in the conception. No effective unity can follow from it, because you can only find out the right and wrong of a given course by summing up the advantages and disadvantages, and striking a balance, and there is nothing in the Religion of Humanity to force two men to find the balance on the same side. The Comtists are no better off than other utilitarians in judging policy, events, conduct.

The worship and discipline.

The particularities of the worship, its minute and truly ingenious re-adaptations of sacraments, prayers, reverent signs, down even to the invocation of a New Trinity, need not detain us. They are said, though it is not easy to believe, to have been elaborated by way of Utopia. If so, no Utopia has ever yet been presented in a style so little calculated to stir the imagination, to warm the feelings, to soothe the insurgency of the reason. It is a mistake to present a great body of hypotheses--if Comte meant them for hypotheses--in the most dogmatic and peremptory form to which language can lend itself. And there is no more extraordinary thing in the history of opinion than the perversity with which Comte has succeeded in clothing a philosophic doctrine, so intrinsically conciliatory as his, in a shape that excites so little sympathy and gives so much provocation. An enemy defined Comtism as Catholicism _minus_ Christianity, to which an able champion retorted by calling it Catholicism _plus_ Science. Comte's Utopia has pleased the followers of the Catholic, just as little as those of the scientific, spirit.

The priesthood.

The elaborate and minute systematization of life, proper to the religion of Humanity, is to be directed by a priesthood. The priests are to possess neither wealth nor material power; they are not to command, but to counsel; their authority is to rest on persuasion, not on force. When religion has become positive, and society industrial, then the influence of the church upon the state becomes really free and independent, which was not the case in the middle ages. The power of the priesthood rests upon special knowledge of man and nature; but to this intellectual eminence must also be added moral power and a certain greatness of character, without which force of intellect and completeness of attainment will not receive the confidence they ought to inspire. The functions of the priesthood are of this kind:--To exercise a systematic direction over education; to hold a consultative influence over all the important acts of actual life, public and private; to arbitrate in cases of practical conflict; to preach sermons recalling those principles of generality and universal harmony which our special activities dispose us to ignore; to order the due classification of society; to perform the various ceremonies appointed by the founder of the religion. The authority of the priesthood is to rest wholly on voluntary adhesion, and there is to be perfect freedom of speech and discussion. This provision hardly consists with Comte's congratulations to the tsar Nicholas on the "wise vigilance" with which he kept watch over the importation of Western books.

Women.

From his earliest manhood Comte had been powerfully impressed by the necessity of elevating the condition of women. (See remarkable passage in his letters to M. Valat, pp. 84-87.) His friendship with Madame de Vaux had deepened the impression, and in the reconstructed society women are to play a highly important part. They are to be carefully excluded from public action, but they are to do many more important things than things political. To fit them for their functions, they are to be raised above material cares, and they are to be thoroughly educated. The family, which is so important an element of the Comtist scheme of things, exists to carry the influence of woman over man to the highest point of cultivation. Through affection she purifies the activity of man. "Superior in power of affection, more able to keep both the intellectual and the active powers in continual subordination to feeling, women are formed as the natural intermediaries between Humanity and man. The Great Being confides specially to them its moral Providence, maintaining through them the direct and constant cultivation of universal affection, in the midst of all the distractions of thought or action, which are for ever withdrawing men from its influence.... Beside the uniform influence of every woman on every man, to attach him to Humanity, such is the importance and the difficulty of this ministry that each of us should be placed under the special guidance of one of these angels, to answer for him, as it were, to the Great Being. This moral guardianship may assume three types,--the mother, the wife and the daughter; each having several modifications, as shown in the concluding volume. Together they form the three simple modes of solidarity, or unity with contemporaries,--obedience, union and protection--as well as the three degrees of continuity between ages, by uniting us with the past, the present and the future. In accordance with my theory of the brain, each corresponds with one of our three altruistic instincts--veneration, attachment and benevolence."

Conclusion.

How the positive method of observation and verification of real facts has landed us in this, and much else of the same kind, is extremely hard to guess. Seriously to examine an encyclopaedic system, that touches life, society and knowledge at every point, is evidently beyond the compass of such an article as this. There is in every chapter a whole group of speculative suggestions, each of which would need a long chapter to itself to elaborate or to discuss. There is at least one biological speculation of astounding audacity, that could be examined in nothing less than a treatise. Perhaps we have said enough to show that after performing a great and real service to thought Comte almost sacrificed his claims to gratitude by the invention of a system that, as such, and independently of detached suggestions, is markedly retrograde. But the world will take what is available in Comte, while forgetting that in his work which is as irrational in one way as Hegel is in another.

See also the article POSITIVISM.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_Works, Editions and Translations: Cours de philosophie
positive_ (6 vols., Paris, 1830-1842; 2nd ed. with preface by E.
Littre, Paris, 1864; 5th ed., 1893-1894; Eng. trans. Harriet
Martineau, 2 vols., London, 1853; 3 vols. London and New York, 1896);
_Discours sur l'esprit positif_ (Paris, 1844; Eng. trans. with
explanation E. S. Beesley, 1905); _Ordre et progres_ (ib. 1848);
_Discours sur l'ensemble de positivisme_ (1848, Eng. trans. J. H.
Bridges, London, 1852); _Systeme de politique positive, ou Traite de
sociologie_ (4 vols., Paris, 1852-1854; ed. 1898; Eng. trans. with
analysis and explanatory summary by Bridges, F. Harrison, E. S.
Beesley and others, 1875-1879); _Catechisme positiviste_ (Paris, 1852;
3rd ed., 1890; Eng. trans. R. Congreve, Lond. 1858, 3rd ed., 1891);
_Appel aux Conservateurs_ (Paris, 1855 and 1898); _Synthese
subjective_ (1856 and 1878); _Essai de philos. mathematique_ (Paris,
1878); P. Descours and H. Gordon Jones, _Fundamental Principles of
Positive Philos._ (trans. 1905), with biog. preface by E. S. Beesley.
The Letters of Comte have been published as follows:--the letters to
M. Valat and J. S. Mill, in _La Critique philosophique_ (1877);
correspondence with Mde. de Vaux (ib., 1884); _Correspondance inedite
d'Aug. Comte_ (1903 foll.); _Lettres inedites de J. S. Mill a Aug.
Comte publ. avec les responses de Comte_ (1899).

_Criticism._--J. S. Mill, _Auguste Comte and Positivism_; J. H.
Bridges' reply to Mill, _The Unity of Comte's Life and Doctrines_
(1866); Herbert Spencer's essay on the _Genesis of Science_ and
pamphlet on _The Classification of the Sciences_; Huxley's "Scientific
Aspects of Positivism," in his _Lay Sermons_; R. Congreve, _Essays
Political, Social and Religious_ (1874); J. Fiske, _Outlines of Cosmic
Philosophy_ (1874); G. H. Lewes, _History of Philosophy_, vol. ii.;
Edward Caird, _The Social Philosophy and Religion of Comte_ (Glasgow,
1885); Hermann Gruber, _Aug. Comte der Begrunder des Positivismus.
Sein Leben und seine Lehre_ (Freiburg, 1889) and _Der Positivismus vom
Tode Aug. Comtes bis auf unsere Tage, 1857-1891_ (Freib. 1891); L.
Levy-Bruhl, _La Philosophie d'Aug. Comte_ (Paris, 1900); H. D. Hutton,
_Comte's Theory of Man's Future_ (1877), _Comte, the Man and the
Founder_ (1891), _Comte's Life and Work_ (1892); E. de Roberty, _Aug.
Comte et Herbert Spencer_ (Paris, 1894); J. Watson, _Comte, Mill and
Spencer. An outline of Philos._ (1895 and 1899); Millet, _La
Souverainete d'apres Aug. Comte_ (1905); L. de Montesquieu Fezensac,
_Le Systeme politique d'Aug. Comte_ (1907); G. Dumas, _Psychologie de
deux Messies positivistes_ (1905). (J. Mo.; X.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] For Comte's place in the history of ethical theory see ETHICS.

COMUS (from [Greek: komos], revel, or a company of revellers), in the later mythology of the Greeks, the god of festive mirth. In classic mythology the personification does not exist; but Comus appears in the [Greek: Eikones], or _Descriptions of Pictures_, of Philostratus, a writer of the 3rd century A.D. as a winged youth, slumbering in a standing attitude, his legs crossed, his countenance flushed with wine, his head--which is sunk upon his breast--crowned with dewy flowers, his left hand feebly grasping a hunting spear, his right an inverted torch. Ben Jonson introduces Comus, in his masque entitled _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_ (1619), as the portly jovial patron of good cheer, "First father of sauce and deviser of jelly." In the _Comus, sive Phagesiposia Cimmeria; Somnium_ (1608, and at Oxford, 1634), a moral allegory by a Dutch author, Hendrik van der Putten, or Erycius Puteanus, the conception is more nearly akin to Milton's, and Comus is a being whose enticements are more disguised and delicate than those of Jonson's deity. But Milton's Comus is a creation of his own. His story is one

"Which never yet was heard in tale or song
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower."

Born from the loves of Bacchus and Circe, he is "much like his father, but his mother more"--a sorcerer, like her, who gives to travellers a magic draught that changes their human face into the "brutal form of some wild beast," and, hiding from them their own foul disfigurement, makes them forget all the pure ties of life, "to roll with pleasure in a sensual sty."

COMYN, JOHN (d. c. 1300), Scottish baron, was a son of John Comyn (d. 1274), justiciar of Galloway, who was a nephew of the constable of Scotland, Alexander Comyn, earl of Buchan (d. 1289), and of the powerful and wealthy Walter Comyn, earl of Mentieth (d. 1258). With his uncle the earl of Buchan, the elder Comyn took a prominent part in the affairs of Scotland during the latter part of the 13th century, and he had interests and estates in England as well as in his native land. He fought for Henry III. at Northampton and at Lewes, and was afterwards imprisoned for a short time in London. The younger Comyn, who had inherited the lordship of Badenoch from his great-uncle the earl of Mentieth, was appointed one of the guardians of Scotland in 1286, and shared in the negotiations between Edward I. and the Scots in 1289 and 1290. When Margaret, the Maid of Norway, died in 1290, Comyn was one of the claimants for the Scottish throne, but he did not press his candidature, and like the other Comyns urged the claim of John de Baliol. After supporting Baliol in his rising against Edward I., Comyn submitted to the English king in 1296; he was sent to reside in England, but returned to Scotland shortly before his death.

Comyn's son, JOHN COMYN (d. 1306), called the "red Comyn," is more famous. Like his father he assisted Baliol in his rising against Edward I., and he was for some time a hostage in England. Having been made guardian of Scotland after the battle of Falkirk in 1298 he led the resistance to the English king for about five years, and then early in 1304 made an honourable surrender. Comyn is chiefly known for his memorable quarrel with Robert the Bruce. The origin of the dispute is uncertain. Doubtless the two regarded each other as rivals; Comyn may have refused to join in the insurrection planned by Bruce. At all events the pair met at Dumfries in January 1306; during a heated altercation charges of treachery were made, and Comyn was stabbed to death either by Bruce or by his followers.

Another member of the Comyn family who took an active part in Scottish affairs during these troubled times is JOHN COMYN, earl of Buchan (d. c. 1313). This earl, a son of Earl Alexander, was constable of Scotland, and was first an ally and then an enemy of Robert the Bruce.

CONACRE (a corruption of corn-acre), in Ireland, a system of letting land, mostly in small patches, and usually for the growth of potatoes as a kind of return instead of wages. It is now practically obsolete.

CONANT, THOMAS JEFFERSON (1802-1891), American Biblical scholar, was born at Brandon, Vermont, on the 13th of December 1802. Graduating at Middlebury College in 1823, he became tutor in the Columbian University (now George Washington University) from 1825 to 1827, professor of Greek, Latin and German at Waterville College (now Colby College) from 1827 to 1833, professor of biblical literature and criticism in Hamilton (New York) Theological Institute from 1835 to 1851, and professor of Hebrew and of Biblical exegesis in Rochester Theological Seminary from 1851 to 1857. From 1857 to 1875 he was employed by the American Bible Union on the revision of the New Testament (1871). He married in 1830 Hannah O'Brien Chaplin (1809-1865), who was herself the author of _The Earnest Man_, a biography of Adoniram Judson (1855), and of _The History of the English Bible_ (1859), besides being her husband's able assistant in his Hebrew studies. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on the 30th of April 1891. Conant was the foremost Hebrew scholar of his time in America. His treatise, _The Meaning and Use of "Baptizein" Philologically and Historically Investigated_ (1860), an "appendix to the revised version of the Gospel by Matthew," is a valuable summary of the evidence for Baptist doctrine. He translated and edited Gesenius's _Hebrew Grammar_ (1839; 1877), and published revised versions with notes of _Job_ (1856), _Genesis_ (1868), _Psalms_ (1871), _Proverbs_ (1872), _Isaiah_ i.-xiii. 22 (1874), and _Historical Books of the Old Testament, Joshua to II. Kings_ (1884).

CONATION (from Lat. _conari_, to attempt, strive), a psychological term, originally chosen by Sir William Hamilton (_Lectures on Metaphysics_, pp. 127 foll.), used generally of an attitude of mind involving a tendency to take _action_, e.g. when one decides to remove an object which is causing a painful sensation, or to try to interrupt an unpleasant train of thought. This use of the word tends to lay emphasis on the mind as self-determined in relation to external objects. Another less common use of the word is to describe the pleasant or painful sensations which accompany muscular activity; the _conative_ phenomena, thus regarded, are psychic changes brought about by external causes.

The chief difficulty in connexion with Conation is that of distinguishing it from Feeling, a term of very vague significance both in technical and in common usage. Thus the German psychologist F. Brentano holds that no real distinction can be made. He argues that the mental process from sorrow or dissatisfaction, through hope for a change and courage to act, up to the voluntary determination which issues in action, is a single homogeneous whole (_Psychologie_, pp. 308-309). The mere fact, however, that the series is continuous is no ground for not distinguishing its parts; if it were so, it would be impossible to distinguish by separate names the various colours in the solar spectrum, or indeed perception from conception. A more material objection, moreover, is that, in point of fact, the feeling of pleasure or pain roused by a given stimulus is specifically different from, and indeed may not be followed by, the determination to modify or remove it. Pleasure and pain, i.e. hedonic sensation _per se_, are essentially distinct from appetition and aversion; the pleasures of hearing music or enjoying sunshine are not in general accompanied by any volitional activity. It is true that painful sensations are generally accompanied by definite aversion or a tendency to take action, but the cases of positive pleasure are amply sufficient to support a distinction. Therefore, though in ordinary language such phrases as "feeling aversion" are quite legitimate, accurate psychology compels us to confine "feeling" to states of consciousness in which no conative activity is present, i.e. to the psychic phenomena of pleasure or pain considered in and by themselves. The study of such phenomena is specifically described as Hedonics (Gr. [Greek: hedone], pleasure) or Algedonics (Gr. [Greek: algedon], pain); the latter term was coined by H. R. Marshall (in _Pain, Pleasure and Aesthetics_, 1894), but has not been generally used.

The problem of conation is closely related to that of Attention (q.v.), which indeed, regarded as active consciousness, implies conation (G. T. Ladd, _Psychology_, 1894, p. 213). Thus, whenever the mind deliberately focusses itself upon a particular object, there is implied a psychic effort (for the relation between Attention and Conation, see G. F. Stout, _Analytic Psychology_, book i. chap. vi.). All conscious action, and in a less degree even unconscious or reflex action, implies attention; when the mind "attends" to any given external object, the organ through the medium of which information regarding that object is conveyed to the mind is set in motion. (See PSYCHOLOGY.)

CONCA, SEBASTIANO (1679-1764), Italian painter of the Florentine school, was born at Gaeta, and studied at Naples under Francesco Solimena. In 1706, along with his brother Giovanni, who acted as his assistant, he settled at Rome, where for several years he worked in chalk only, to improve his drawing. He was patronized by the Cardinal Ottoboni, who introduced him to Clement XI.; and a Jeremiah painted in the church of St John Lateran was rewarded by the pope with knighthood and by the cardinal with a diamond cross. His fame grew quickly, and he received the patronage of most of the crowned heads of Europe. He painted till near the day of his death, and left behind him an immense number of pictures, mostly of a brilliant and showy kind, which are distributed among the churches of Italy. Of these the Probatica, or Pool of Siloam, in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, at Siena, is considered the finest.

CONCARNEAU, a fishing port of western France in the department of Finistere, 14 m. by road S.E. of Quimper. Pop. (1906) 7887. The town occupies a picturesque situation on an inlet opening into the Bay of La Foret. The old portion stands on an island, and is surrounded by ramparts, parts of which are believed to date from the 14th century. It is an important centre of the sardine, mackerel and lobster fisheries. Sardine-preserving, boat-building and the manufacture of sardine-boxes are carried on.

CONCEPCION, a province of southern Chile, lying between the provinces of Maule and Nuble on the N. and Bio-Bio on the S., and extending from the Pacific to the Argentine boundary. Its outline is very irregular, the Itata river forming its northern boundary, and the Bio-Bio and one of its tributaries a part of its southern boundary. Area (estimated) 3252 sq. m.; pop. (1895) 188,190. Concepcion is the most important province of southern Chile because of its advantageous commercial position, fertility and productive industries. Its coast is indented by two large well-sheltered bays, Talcahuano and Arauco, the former having the ports of Talcahuano, Penco and El Tome, and the latter Coronel and Lota. Its railway communications are good, and the Bio-Bio, which crosses its S.W. corner, has 100 m. of navigable channel. The province produces wheat and manufactures flour for export; its wines are reputed the best in Chile, cattle are bred in large numbers, wool is produced, and considerable timber is shipped. Near the coast are extensive deposits of coal, which is shipped from Lota and Coronel, the former being the site of the most productive coal-mine in South America. The climate is mild and the rainfall is abundant. Large copper-smelting and glass works have been established at Lota because of its coal resources. The valley of the Itata is largely devoted to vine cultivation, and the port of this district, El Tome, is noted for its wine vaults and trade. It also possesses a small woollen factory. The principal towns are on the coast and had in 1895 the following populations: Talcahuano, 10,431; Lota, 9797 (largely operatives in the mines and smelting works); Coronel, 4575; and El Tome, 3977.

CONCEPCION, a city of southern Chile, capital of a province and department of the same name, on the right bank of the Bio-Bio river, 7 m. above its mouth, and 355 m. S.S.W. of Santiago by rail. Pop. (1895) 39,837; (1902, estimated) 49,351. It is the commercial centre of a rich agricultural region, but because of obstructions at the mouth of the Bio-Bio its trade passes in great part through the port of Talcahuano, 8 m. distant by rail. The small port of Penco, situated on the same bay and 10 m. distant by rail, also receives a part of the trade because of official restrictions at Talcahuano. Concepcion is one of the southern termini of the Chilean central railway, by which it is connected with Santiago to the N., with Valdivia and Puerto Montt to the S., and with the port of Talcahuano. Another line extends southward through the Chilean coal-producing districts to Curanilhue, crossing the Bio-Bio by a steel viaduct 6000 ft. long on 62 skeleton piers; and a short line of 10 m. runs northward to Penco. The Bio-Bio is navigable above the city for 100 m. and considerable traffic comes through this channel. The districts tributary to Concepcion produce wheat, wine, wool, cattle, coal and timber, and among the industrial establishments of the city are flour mills, furniture and carriage factories, distilleries and breweries. The city is built on a level plain but little above the sea-level, and is laid out in regular squares with broad streets. It is an episcopal see with a cathedral and several fine churches, and is the seat of a court of appeal. The city was founded by Pedro de Valdivia in 1550, and received the singular title of "La Concepcion del Nuevo Extremo." It was located on the bay of Talcahuano where the town of Penco now stands, about 9 m. from its present site, but was destroyed by earthquakes in 1570, 1730 and 1751, and was then (1755) removed to the margin of the Bio-Bio. In 1835 it was again laid in ruins, a graphic description of which is given by Charles Darwin in _The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle_. The city was twice burned by the Araucanians during their long struggle against the Spanish colonists.

CONCEPCION, or VILLA CONCEPCION, the principal town and a river port of northern Paraguay, on the Paraguay river, 138 m. (234 m. by river) N. of Asuncion, and about 345 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1895, estimate) 10,000, largely Indians and mestizos. It is an important commercial centre, and a port of call for the river steamers trading with the Brazilian town of Corumba, Matto Grosso. It is the principal point for the exportation of Paraguay tea, or "yerba mate" (_Ilex paraguayensis_). The town has a street railway and telephone service, a national college, a public school, a market, and some important commercial establishments. The neighbouring country is sparsely settled and produces little except forest products. Across the river, in the Paraguayan Chaco, is an English missionary station, whose territory extends inland among the Indians for many miles.

CONCEPT[1] (Lat. _conceptus_, a thought, from _concipere_, to take together, combine in thought; Ger. _Begriff_), in philosophy, a term applied to a general idea derived from and considered apart from the particulars observed by the senses. The mental process by which this idea is obtained is called abstraction (q.v.). By the comparison, for instance, of a number of boats, the mind abstracts a certain common quality or qualities in virtue of which the mind affirms the general idea of "boat." Thus the connotation of the term "boat," being the sum of those qualities in respect of which all boats are regarded as alike, whatever their individual peculiarities may be, is described as a "concept." The psychic process by which a concept is affirmed is called "Conception," a term which is often loosely used in a concrete sense for "Concept" itself. It is also used even more loosely as synonymous in the widest sense with "idea," "notion." Strictly, however, it is contrasted with "perception," and implies the mental reconstruction and combination of sense-given data. Thus when one carries one's thoughts back to a series of events, one constructs a psychic whole made up of parts which take definite shape and character by their mutual interrelations. This process is called _conceptual synthesis_, the possibility of which is a _sine qua non_ for the exchange of information by speech and writing. It should be noticed that this (very common) psychological interpretation of "conception" differs from the metaphysical or general philosophical definition given above, in so far as it includes mental presentations in which the universal is not specifically distinguished from the particulars. Some psychologists prefer to restrict the term to the narrower use which excludes all mental states in which particulars are cognized, even though the universal be present also.

In biology conception is the coalescence of the male and female generative elements, producing pregnancy.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The word "conceit" in its various senses ("idea," "plan," "fancy,"
"imagination," and, by modern extension, an overweening sense of one's
own value) is likewise derived ultimately from the Latin _concipere_.
It appears to have been formed directly from the English derivative
"conceive" on the analogy of "deceit" from "deceive." According to the
_New English Dictionary_ there is no intermediate form in Old French.

CONCEPTUALISM (from "Concept"), in philosophy, a term applied by modern writers to a scholastic theory of the nature of universals, to distinguish it from the two extremes of Nominalism and Realism. The scholastic philosophers took up the old Greek problem as to the nature of true reality--whether the general idea or the particular object is more truly real. Between Realism which asserts that the _genus_ is more real than the _species_, and that particulars have no reality, and Nominalism according to which _genus_ and _species_ are merely names (_nomina, flatus vocis_), Conceptualism takes a mean position. The conceptualist holds that universals have a real existence, but only in the mind, as the concepts which unite the individual things: e.g. there is in the mind a general notion or idea of boats, by reference to which the mind can decide whether a given object is, or is not, a boat. On the one hand "boat" is something more than a mere sound with a purely arbitrary conventional significance; on the other it has, apart from particular things to which it applies, no reality; its reality is purely abstract or conceptual. This theory was enunciated by Abelard in opposition to Roscellinus (nominalist) and William of Champeaux (realist). He held that it is only by becoming a predicate that the class-notion or general term acquires reality. Thus similarity (_conformitas_) is observed to exist between a number of objects in respect of a particular quality or qualities. This quality becomes real as a mental concept when it is predicated of all the objects possessing it ("quod de pluribus natum est praedicari"). Hence Abelard's theory is alternatively known as Sermonism (_sermo_, "predicate"). His statement of this position oscillates markedly, inclining sometimes towards the nominalist, sometimes towards the realist statement, using the arguments of the one against the other. Hence he is described by some as a realist, by others as a nominalist. When he comes to explain that objective similarity in things which is represented by the class-concept or general term, he adopts the theological Platonic view that the ideas which are the archetypes of the qualities exist in the mind of God. They are, therefore, _ante rem, in re_ and _post rem_, or, as Avicenna stated it, _universalia ante multiplicitatem, in multiplicitate, post multiplicitatem_. (See LOGIC, METAPHYSICS.)

CONCERT (through the French from Lat. CON-, with, and _certare_, to strive), a term meaning, in general, co-operation, agreement or union; the more specific usages being, in music, for a public performance by instrumentalists, vocalists or both combined, and in diplomacy, for an understanding or agreement for common action between two or more states, whether defined by treaty or not. The term "Concert of Europe" has been commonly applied, since the congress of Vienna (1814-1815), to the European powers consulting or acting together in questions of common interest. (See ALLIANCE and EUROPE: _HISTORY_.)

CONCERTINA, or MELODION (Fr. _concertina_, Ger. _Ziehharmonica_ or _Bandoneon_), a wind instrument of the seraphine family with free reeds, forming a link in the evolution of the harmonium from the mouth organ, intermediate links being the cheng and the accordion. The concertina consists of two hexagonal or rectangular keyboards connected by a long expansible bellows of many folds similar to that of the accordion. The keyboards are furnished with rows of knobs, which, on being pressed down by the fingers, open valves admitting the air compressed by the bellows to the free reeds, which are thus set in vibration. These free reeds consist of narrow tongues of brass riveted by one end to the inside surface of the keyboard, and having their free ends slightly bent, some outwards, some inwards, the former actuated by suction when the bellows are expanded, the latter by compression. The pitch of the note depends upon the length and thickness of the reeds, reduction of the length tending to sharpen the pitch of the note, while reduction of the thickness lowers it. The bellows being unprovided with a valve can only draw in and emit the air through the reed valves. In order to produce the sound, the concertina is held horizontally between the hands, the bellows being by turns compressed and expanded. The English concertina, invented and patented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829, the year of the reputed invention of the accordion (q.v.), is constructed with a double action, the same note being produced on compressing and expanding the bellows, whereas in the German concertina or accordion two different notes are given out. Concertinas are made in complete families--treble, tenor, bass and double bass, having a combined total range of nearly seven octaves. The compass is as follows:--

The timbre of the concertina is penetrating but soft, and capable of the most delicate gradations of tone. This quality is due to a law of acoustics governing the vibration of free reeds by means of which _fortes_ and _pianos_ are obtained by varying the pressure of the wind, as is also the case with the double reed or the single or beating reed, while the pressure of the reed with the lips combined with greater pressure of wind produces the harmonic overtones which are not given out by free reeds. The English concertina possesses one peculiarity which renders it unsuitable for playing with instruments tuned according to the law of equal temperament, such as the pianoforte, harmonium or melodion, i.e. it has enharmonic intervals between G# and A# and between D[flat] and E[flat]. The German concertina is not constructed according to this system; its compass extends down to C or even B[flat], but it is not provided with double action. It is possible on the English concertina to play diatonic and chromatic passages or arpeggios in legato or staccato style with rapidity, shakes single and double in thirds; it is also possible to play in parts as on the pianoforte or organ and to produce very rich chords. Concertos were written for concertina with orchestra by Molique and Regondi, a sonata with piano by Molique, while Tschaikowsky scored in his second orchestral suite for four accordions.

The aeola, constructed by the representatives of the original firm of Wheatstone, is a still more artistically developed concertina, having among other improvements steel reeds instead of brass, which increase the purity and delicacy of the timbre.

See also ACCORDION; CHENG; HARMONIUM; Free-Reed Vibrator. (K. S.)

CONCERTO (Lat. _concertus_, from _certare_, to strive, also confused with _concentus_), in music, a term which appears as early as the beginning of the 17th century, at first as a title of no very definite meaning, but which early acquired a sense justified by its etymology and became applied chiefly to compositions in which unequal instrumental or vocal forces are brought into opposition.

Although by Bach's time the concerto as a polyphonic instrumental form was thoroughly established, the term frequently appears in the autograph title-pages of his church cantatas, even when the cantata contains no instrumental prelude. Indeed, so entirely does the actual concerto form, as Bach understands it, depend upon the opposition of masses of tone unequal in volume with a compensating inequality in power of commanding attention, that Bach is able to rewrite an instrumental movement as a chorus without the least incongruity of style. A splendid example of this is the first chorus of a university festival cantata, _Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten_, the very title of which ("united contest of turn-about strings") is a perfect definition of the earlier form of _concerto grosso_, in which the chief mass of the orchestra was opposed, not to a mere solo instrument, but to a small group called the _concertino_, or else the whole work was for a large orchestral mass in which tutti passages alternate with passages in which the whole orchestra is dispersed in every possible kind of grouping. But the special significance of this particular chorus is that it is arranged from the second movement of the first Brandenburg concerto; and that while the orchestral material is unaltered except for transposition of key, enlargement of force and substitution of trumpets and drums for the original horns, the whole chorus part has been evolved from the solo part for a kit violin (_violino piccolo_). This admirably illustrates Bach's grasp of the true idea of a concerto, namely, that whatever the relations may be between the forces in respect of volume or sound, the whole treatment of the form must depend upon the healthy relation of function between that force which commands more and that which commands less attention. _Ceteris paribus_ the individual, suitably placed, will command more attention than the crowd, whether in real life, drama or instrumental music. And in music the human voice, with human words, will thrust any orchestral force into the background, the moment it can make itself heard at all. Hence it is not surprising that the earlier concerto forms should show the closest affinity (not only in general aesthetic principle, but in many technical details) with the form of the vocal aria, as matured by Alessandro Scarlatti. And the treatment of the orchestra is, _mutatis mutandis_, exactly the same in both. The orchestra is entrusted with a highly pregnant and short summary of the main contents of the movement, and the solo, or the groups corresponding thereto, will either take up this material or first introduce new themes to be combined with it, and, in short, enter into relations with the orchestra very like those between the actors and the chorus in Greek drama. If the aria before Mozart may be regarded as a single large melody expanded by the device of the ritornello so as to give full expression to the power of a singer against an instrumental accompaniment, so the polyphonic concerto form may be regarded as an expansion of the aria form to a scale worthy of the larger and purely instrumental forces employed, and so rendered capable of absorbing large polyphonic and other types of structure incompatible with the lyric idea of the aria. The _da capo_ form, by which the aria had attained its full dimensions through the addition of a second strain in foreign keys followed by the original strain _da capo_, was absorbed by the polyphonic concerto on an enormous scale, both in first movements and finales (see Bach's Klavier concerto in E, Violin concerto in E, first movement), while for slow movements the _ground bass_ (see VARIATIONS), diversified by changes of key (Klavier concerto in D minor), the more melodic types of binary form, sometimes with the repeats ornamentally varied or inverted (Concerto for 3 klaviers in D minor, Concerto for klavier, flute and violin in A minor), and in finales the _rondo_ form (Violin concerto in E major, Klavier concerto in F minor) and the binary form (3rd Brandenburg concerto) may be found.

When conceptions of musical form changed and the modern sonata style arose, the peculiar conditions of the concerto gave rise to problems the difficulty of which only the highest classical intellects could appreciate or solve. The number and contrast of the themes necessary to work out a first movement of a sonata are far too great to be contained within the single musical sentence of Bach's and Handel's ritornello, even when it is as long as the thirty bars of Bach's Italian concerto (a work in which every essential of the polyphonic concerto is reproduced on the harpsichord by means of the contrasts between its full register on the lower of its two keyboards and its solo stops on both). Bach's sons had taken shrewd steps in forming the new style; and Mozart, as a boy, modelled himself closely on Johann Christian Bach, and by the time he was twenty was able to write concerto ritornellos that gave the orchestra admirable opportunity for asserting its character and resource in the statement in charmingly epigrammatic style of some five or six sharply contrasted themes, afterwards to be worked out with additions by the solo with the orchestra's co-operation and intervention. As the scale of the works increases the problem becomes very difficult, because the alternation between solo and tutti easily produces a sectional type of structure incompatible with the high degree of organization required in first movements; yet frequent alternation is evidently necessary, as the orchestral solo is audible only above a very subdued orchestral accompaniment, and it would be highly inartistic to use the orchestra for no other purpose. Hence in the classical concerto the ritornello is never abandoned, in spite of the enormous dimensions to which the sonata style expanded it. And though from the time of Mendelssohn onwards most composers have seemed to regard it as a conventional impediment easily abandoned, it may be doubted whether any modern concerto, except the four magnificent examples of Brahms, and Dr Joachim's Hungarian concerto, possesses first movements in which the orchestra seems to enjoy breathing space. And certainly in the classical concerto the entry of the solo instrument, after the long opening tutti, is always dramatic in direct proportion to its delay. The great danger in handling so long an orchestral prelude is that the work may for some minutes be indistinguishable from a symphony and thus the entry of the solo may be unexpected without being inevitable. This is especially the case if the composer has treated his opening tutti like the exposition of a sonata movement, and made a deliberate transition from his first group of themes to a second group in a complementary key, even if the transition is only temporary, as in Beethoven's C minor concerto. Mozart keeps his whole tutti in the tonic, relieved only by his mastery of sudden subsidiary modulation; and so perfect is his marshalling of his resources that in his hands a tutti a hundred bars long passes by with the effect of a splendid pageant, of which the meaning is evidently about to be revealed by the solo. After the C minor concerto, Beethoven grasped the true function of the opening tutti and enlarged it to his new purposes. With an interesting experiment of Mozart's before him, he, in his G major concerto, _Op. 53_, allowed the solo player to state the opening theme, making the orchestra enter _pianissimo_ in a foreign key, a wonderful incident which has led to the absurd statement that he "abolished the opening tutti," and that Mendelssohn in so doing has "followed his example." In this concerto he also gave considerable variety of key to the opening tutti by the use of an important theme which executes a considerable series of modulations, an entirely different thing from a deliberate modulation from material in one key to material in another. His fifth and last pianoforte concerto, in E flat, commonly called the "Emperor," begins with a rhapsodical introduction of extreme brilliance for the solo player, followed by a tutti of unusual length which is confined to the tonic major and minor with a strictness explained by the gorgeous modulations with which the solo subsequently treats the second subject. In this concerto Beethoven also dispenses with the only really conventional feature of the form, namely, the _cadenza_, a custom elaborated from the operatic aria, in which the singer was allowed to extemporize a flourish on a pause near the end. A similar pause was made in the final ritornello of a concerto, and the soloist was supposed to extemporize what should be equivalent to a symphonic coda, with results which could not but be deplorable unless the player (or cadenza writer) were either the composer himself, or capable of entering into his intentions, like Joachim, who has written the finest extant cadenza of classical violin concertos.

Brahms's first concerto in D minor, _Op. 15_, was the result of an immense amount of work, and, though on a mass of material originally intended for a symphony, was nevertheless so perfectly assimilated into the true concerto form that in his next essay, the violin concerto, _Op. 77_, he had no more to learn, and was free to make true innovations. He succeeds in presenting the contrasts even of remote keys so immediately that they are serviceable in the opening tutti and give the form a wider range in definitely functional key than any other instrumental music. Thus in the opening tutti of the D minor concerto the second subject is announced in B flat minor. In the B flat pianoforte concerto, _Op. 83_, it appears in D minor, and in the double concerto, _Op. 102_, for violin and violoncello in A minor it appears in F major. In none of these cases is it in the key in which the solo develops it, and it is reached with a directness sharply contrasted with the symphonic deliberation with which it is approached in the solo. In the violin concerto, _Op. 77_, Brahms develops a counterplot in the opposition between solo and orchestra, inasmuch as after the solo has worked out its second subject the orchestra bursts in, not with the opening ritornello, but with its own version of the material with which the solo originally entered. In other words we have now not only the development by the solo of material stated by the orchestra but also a counter-development by the orchestra of material stated by the solo. This concerto is, on the other hand, remarkable as being the last in which a blank space is left for a cadenza, Brahms having in his friend Joachim a kindred spirit worthy of such trust. In the pianoforte concerto in B flat, and in the double concerto,[1] _Op. 102_, the idea of an introductory statement in which the solo takes part before the opening tutti is carried out on a large scale, and in the double concerto both first and second subjects are thus suggested. It is unnecessary to speak of the other movements of concerto form, as the sectional structure that so easily results from the opposition between solo and orchestra is not of great disadvantage to slow movements and finales, which accordingly do not show important differences from the ordinary types of symphonic and chamber music. The scherzo, on the other hand, is normally of too small a range of contrast for successful adaptation to concerto form, and the solitary great example of its use is the second movement of Brahms's B flat pianoforte concerto.

Nothing is more easy to handle with inartistic or pseudo-classic effectiveness than the opposition between a brilliant solo player and an orchestra; and, as the inevitable tendency of even the most artistic concerto has been to exhaust the resources of the solo instrument in the increased difficulty of making a proper contrast between solo and orchestra, so the technical difficulty of concertos has steadily increased until even in classical times it was so great that the orthodox definition of a concerto is that it is "an instrumental composition designed to show the skill of an executant, and one which is almost invariably accompanied by orchestra." This idea is in flat violation of the whole history and aesthetics of the form, which can never be understood by means of a study of averages. In art the average is always false, and the individual organization of the greatest classical works is the only sound basis for generalizations, historic or aesthetic. (D. F. T.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Double and triple concertos are concertos with two or three solo
players. A concerto for several solo players is called a concertante.

CONCH (Lat. _concha_, Gr. [Greek: konche]), a shell, particularly one of a mollusc; hence the term "conchology," the science which deals with such shells, more used formerly when molluscs were studied and classified according to the shell formation; the word is chiefly now used for the collection of shells (see MOLLUSCA, and such articles as GASTROPODA, MALACOSTRACA, &c.). Large spiral conchs have been from early times used as a form of trumpet, emitting a very loud sound. They are used in the West Indies and the South Sea Islands. The Tritons of ancient mythology are represented as blowing such "wreathed horns." In anatomy, the term _concha_ or "conch" is used of the external ear, or of the hollowed central part leading to the meatus; and, in architecture, it is sometimes given to the half dome over the semicircular apse of the basilica. In late Roman work at Baalbek and Palmyra and in Renaissance buildings shells are frequently carved in the heads of circular niches. A low class of the negro or other inhabitants of the Bahamas and the Florida Keys are sometimes called "Conches" or "Conks" from the shell-fish which form their staple food.

CONCHOID (Gr. [Greek: konche], shell, and [Greek: eidos], form), a plane curve invented by the Greek mathematician Nicomedes, who devised a mechanical construction for it and applied it to the problem of the duplication of the cube, the construction of two mean proportionals between two given quantities, and possibly to the trisection of an angle as in the 8th lemma of Archimedes. Proclus grants Nicomedes the credit of this last application, but it is disputed by Pappus, who claims that his own discovery was original. The conchoid has been employed by later mathematicians, notably Sir Isaac Newton, in the construction of various cubic curves.