CONACHAR. 246 CONCAVE. of liis plan, and is forced, as such, to take part in the historic battle at Perth Ijetween his own clan and the clan Chattan. He is by nature a coward, and runs away rather than face Henry the Smith. He kills himself in despair. CONANICUT. An island of Rhode Island in Xarragausett Bay near its mouth. It is about S miles long by 1 mile wide and contains the town of Jamestown near the centre, and Co- nanicut Park in the northern part (Map: Rhode Island. C 4). It has several hundred inhabi- tants. CO'NANT, Hann.h O'Brien Chaplix (1809- (io). An American biblical scholar. She was born in Danvers, Mass., and in 1830 was married to Thomas .Jefferson Conant (q.v. ). In 1838 she became editor of The Mother's Joiiriiul, and before and afterwards was a contributor to cur- rent literature. An erudite Orientalist, she as- sisted her husband in translations and other literary labors, and produced original works, the chief of which are: The Karnest Man. an excel- lent biography of the missionary .Judson (1855), and a Popular IHstori/ of English Bihle Transla- tion (18.56). CONANT, TU05IAS .Jefferson ( 1802-01 ) . An .merican biblical scholar. He was born at Brandon. Vt.. graduated at Middleburv College (Middlebury. Vt.), in 1823, and was professor of Greek, Latin, and German in Waterville Col- lege (now Colby University), From 1835 to 1850 he was professor of biblical literature and criticism in the Baptist Theological Seminary at Hamilton, N. Y. He translated (1839) Ge- senius's Hebrew Grammar, with the additions of Roediger, a work which became a standard text-book in the United States and England. After holding the professorship of Hebrew and biblical exegesis in the Rochester Theological Seminary from 1851, he settled in Brooklyn, X. Y., in 1857. where he died in 1891. having devoted himself until 1875 to Bible revision for the American Bible J'nion. He published, in 1864, a treatise on the term pawrl^eiv. in the New Testament, which attracted much attention. Dr. Conant was for a number of years one of the American contingent of the Canterbury (Eng- land) Committee on the complete revision of the .uthorized Version of the Bible. His works further include critical editions, with revised ^ersions of The Book of Job (1856) : The Gospel hi, Mattheir (1800): The Book of Genesis ('18G8) : and The Book of Psalms (1872). CONATION (Lat. conatio, attempt, from conuri, to attempt). An endeavor, a striving to attain something. The attempt, e.g. to re- call a name which has slipped from memory is a conation. There is a difference of opinion among psychologists as to whether conation is an ultimate aspect of consciousness or a com- plex of sensation (q.v.) and affection (q.v.l. There are two typical cases of conation — the consciousness accompanying muscular exertion, and the state of active attention. (See Atten- tion.) The similarity of these two experiences has led some psychologists to deny that there is anything more in conation than the strain- sensations following upon muscular contraction pins a pleasantness or unpleasantness. In at- tention there are, further, the sensations or ideas attended-to and those attended-froni. But it is also maintained, on the other hand, that cona- tion is a simple 'attitude' which mind assumes toward its objects, a peculiar 'mode of being conscious.' It is .said to be conunon to desire, yearning, longing, craving, wishing, and willing; indeed, to all consciousnesses which have an in- herent tendency to pass beyond themselves. On this definition conation is a self-determination of consciousness. In desire, e.g. consciousness endeavors to pass from the want of an object to its possession ; or, if an unpleasantly toned idea enters consciousness — say the idea of an embarrassing situation — a conation arises, and consciousness makes a forcible effort to eject the unpleasant idea. These two views are not necessaril.v mutually exclusive, although they arise from two radically different methods of ])sycholog^•. The first analyzes consciousness M'ithout regard to the offices of knowing and willing which mind fulfills — i.e. without refer- ence to the 7elation of mind to the 'outside' Avorld ; the second sets consciousness into rela- lion with its objects, and seeks to discover the behavior' of mind toward the world. Or. in other words, the first scrutinizes the 'feeling of effort' or 'endeavor' in an analytic way, and Ihids only sensations of strain and an .affective quality (see Affection): the second assumes that mind takes positive 'attitudes' toward its objects — that it is not only a sequence of oc- currences, but a self-determining cause, direct- ing its own contents, an agent in nuich the same sense that friction is an agent in the produc- tion of electricity. Consult: Stout, Analytic I'si/cholofi!, (London, 1896) ; Titchener, Outline of Psycholofiji (New York, 1899) : James, Prin- eiltles of Psychology (New York, 1890) ; Experi- mental Psychology (New York, 1901). See De- sniK: Effort; Fatigie; Will. CON'ATY, Thomas .James (1847—). An .merican Roman Catholic prelate. He was born in Ireland, and was edvicatcd at Montreal Col- lege ( 1863-67 ) . College of the Holy Cross ( 1869) ,
- ind Montreal Theological School (1872). After
a )>astorate of seventeen years at the Church of the Sacred Heart, in Worcester, Mass.. he was, in 1897, appointed by Pope Leo XIII. to the rectorate of the Catholic L^niversity. Washing- ton, with the title of domestic prelate to the Pope. In the autumn of 1901 he was raised to the episcopate, with the title of Bishop of Samos in pnrtihu.s, still retaining his position in the imiversity. His publications chiefly comprise liiblical text-books for educational institutions. CON'CAN (Skt. Konkan-a). A territory in The Presidency of Bombay (q.v.). British India (^lap: India. B 5). It is a long strip of country, about 300 miles long by 40 miles broad, between the coast of the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats. Prior to 1818, when it was annexed by I he British, it was a M.ahratta principality. The modern districts of Thana (population, in 1891, 819.000; in 1901. 809.000) and Ratnagiri (popu- lation, in 1891, 1.106.000: in 1901, 1,167,000) are comprised in its area. CON'CA'VE ( Lat. coneavus, hollow, from fo»i-, together + cams, hollow: connected with Gk. nl'ap, kyar, hole, from Kveiv, kyein, to conceive, to contain). A surface is said to be concave when its centre of ciirvature is toward the observer, convex when its centre of curvature is in the op- posite direction to the observer. (See Lens and iliRROR.) In geometry a plane polygon is
