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50 COM
in the following instance: H After we have practised
good actions awhile, they become easy; and when they
urc casy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and
when they please us, we do them frequently; and hy
frequency of acts, a thing grows into a habit, and
confirmed habit is a second -kind of nature; and so
. far as any thing is natural, so far it is necessary, and
we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it nlany
times when we do not think of it."- Dr. 'l'illotson.
~oflin, s. from HO¢WDS, kophinos, n coffer or coffin. The
chest in which a dead body is usually put for inter­
1nent. Being put into a coffin was by'the ancients
. considered as a mark ofthe highest distinction, though
with· us the poorest people have their coflim. At
this day, in the East, they arc not at all made hSC of.
Joseph II. Emperor of Germany,.in 1781, enacted
a law by which the interment of dead bodies was
prohibited; nay, it was ordered that they should be
buried in bags, amI covered with qnicklime, in order
to promote their pntrefaetion, and prevent the exhalation
of noxious vapours. The regulation met
with so universal and decided an opposition, that the
monarch was speedily indnced to repeaHt.
Comedy, So Sec AEIDO, p. 1.
Comet, s. A heavenly body in the planetary region,
appearing snddenly, and again disappearing; and,
during the time of its appearance; moving in its proper
orbit like a planet. The popular division of comets
into tailcd, bearded, and hairy, rather relates. to the
different circumstances of the same comet, than to the
phenomena ofseveral._ ThuS", ",-hen the comet is westward
onhe sun, and sets after it, the comet is said to
be tailed, hecause·" train of light follows it in the
manner lIf a tail; when the comet is eastward of the
sun, and moves from it, the comet is said to be
bearded, because the light is before it in the manner
of a beard; lastly, when the comet and the sun are
diametrically opposite (the earth between them), the
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