ed suicide," say, He killed
himself, or, He took his life. For married we do not say "committed
matrimony." Unfortunately most of us do say, "got married," which is
almost as bad. For lack of a suitable verb we just sometimes say
committed this or that, as in the instance of bigamy, for the verb to
bigam is a blessing that is still in store for us.

_Compare with_ for _Compare to_. "He had the immodesty to compare
himself with Shakespeare." Nothing necessarily immodest in that.
Comparison with may be for observing a difference; comparison to
affirms a similarity.

_Complected_. Anticipatory past participle of the verb "to complect."
Let us wait for that.

_Conclude_ for _Decide_. "I concluded to go to town." Having concluded
a course of reasoning (implied) I decided to go to town. A decision is
supposed to be made at the conclusion of a course of reasoning, but is
not the conclusion itself. Conversely, the conclusion of a syllogism
is not a decision, but an inference.

_Connection_. "In this connection I should like to say a word or two."
In connection with this matter.

_Conscious_ for _Aware_. "The King was conscious of the conspiracy."
We are conscious of what we feel; aware of what we know.

_Consent_ for _Assent_. "He consented to that opinion." To consent is
to agree to a proposal; to assent is to agree with a proposition.

_Conservative_ for _Moderate_. "A conservative estimate"; "a
conservative forecast"; "a conservative statement," and so on. These
and many other abuses of the word are of recent growth in the
newspapers and "halls of legislation." Having been found to have
several meanings, conservative seems to be thought to mean everything.

_Continually_ and _Continuously_. It seems that these words should
have the same meaning, but in their use by good writers there is a
difference. What is done continually is not done all the time, but
continuous action is without interruption. A loquacious fellow, who
nevertheless finds time to eat and sleep, is continually talking; but
a great river flows continuously.

_Convoy_ for _Escort_. "A man-of-war acted as convoy to the flotilla."
The flotilla is the convoy, the man-of-war the escort.

_Couple_ for _Two_. For two things to be a couple they must be of one
general kind, and their number unimportant to the statement made of
them. It would be weak to say, "He gave me only one, although he took
a couple for himself." Couple expresses indifference to the e