"Give all diligence; add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity."
"What is every year of a wise man's life but a criticism on the past! Those whose life is the shortest live long enough to laugh at one half of it; the boy despises the infant, the man the boy, the sage both, and the Christian all."
"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god!"
Co. The prefix co should be used only when the word to which it is joined begins with a vowel, as in co-eval, co-incident, co-operate, etc. Con is used when the word begins with a consonant, as in con-temporary, con-junction, etc. Co-partner is an exception to the rule.
Commence. The Britons use or misuse this word in a manner peculiar to themselves. They say, for example, "commenced merchant," "commenced actor," "commenced politician," and so on. Dr. Hall tells us that commence has been employed in the sense of "begin to be," "become," "set up as," by first-class writers, for more than two centuries. Careful speakers make small use of commence in any sense; they prefer to use its Saxon equivalent, begin. See, also, [Begin].
Comparison. When only two objects are compared, the comparative and not the superlative degree should be used; thus, "Mary is the older of the two"; "John is the stronger of the two"; "Brown is the richer of the two, and the richest man in the city"; "Which is the more desirable, health or wealth?" "Which is the most desirable, health, wealth, or genius?"
"Of two such lessons, why forget
The nobler and the manlier one?"
Completed. This word is often incorrectly used for finished. That is complete which lacks nothing; that is finished which has had all done to it that was intended. The builder of a house may finish it and yet leave it very incomplete.
Condign. It is safe to say that most of those who use this word do not know its meaning, which is, suitable, deserved, merited, proper. "His endeavors shall not lack condign praise"; i. e., his endeavors shall not lack proper or their merited praise. "A villain condignly punished" is a villain punished according to his deserts. To use condign in the sense of severe is just as incorrect as it would be to use deserved or merited in the sense of severe.
Confirmed Invalid. This phrase is a convenient mode of expressing the idea it conveys, but it is difficult to defend, inasmuch as confirmed means strengthened, established.