[f. L. consistent-em: see CONSISTENT, and -ENCY: cf. prec.]
† 1. A settled condition. (Cf. CONSISTENCE 3.)
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. ix. 219. Aristotle … supposeth it [the world] Eternal, and an eternal consistency in the state it now stands.
a. 1705. J. Howe, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xvii. 14. After some appearing discomposure, his spirit returns to a consistency.
2. The condition in which matter coheres so as to ‘stand together’ or retain its form; viscous or firm condition; thickness, stiffness, firmness; = CONSISTENCE 4.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., II. 13. Boile the same … vnto a stifnesse, or consistency (as they terme it).
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Voc., Consistency, thickness or substance, as a jelly.
1751. Labelye, Westm. Br., 49. Earth of a sufficient Consistency to hold Water.
1852. Blackie, Stud. Lang., 36. Sacrifice not the fleshy consistency of an arm or a leg … to the enormous growth of a brain.
b. fig. Firm condition so as to hang well together; solidity; substance.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. lvii. 631. By which time it arrived to a good consistency and establishment.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), IX. 221. By this means … Mithridates established the empire … upon solid foundations and gave it a firm consistency.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 481. A vague rumour … daily acquiring consistency and strength.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., II. III. II. iv. § 4. It … gives to their abstract being consistency and reality.
3. Degree of density, viscosity, etc.: = CONSISTENCE 5.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 393. Before the alum could be brought to its true consistency.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 487. The soft consistency of some of these animals.
1875. Warne’s Model Cookery, 143. Boil … pearl barley … till it becomes the consistency of good cream.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 202. Eruptions of mud, varying considerably in consistency and temperature.
b. fig. Condition, degree, quality.
1664. South, Serm. Wks. 1844, I. 236. His friendship is of a noble make, and a lasting consistency; it resembles marble, and deserves to be written upon it.
1694. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 62. [It] brought their people to that consistency of wealth, that … there are more lenders now than borrowers.
† c. concr. A cohering body of matter of more or less density. Obs. (Cf. CONSISTENCE 4 b.)
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., IV. ii. 297. The more subtil … particles … constituted that Consistency that is called the Air.
1696. J. Edwards, Demonstr. Exist. God, I. 141. They are liquid consistencies or drops condens’d in the earth.
4. The quality, state, or fact of being consistent; agreement, harmony, compatibility (with something, of things, or of one thing with another).
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), III. 313. Whether you are in a good consistency and right understanding between you and the Chief Magistrate, or not.
1691. Case of Exeter Coll., 52. The consistency or inconsistency of a Fellowship and a Benefice.
1720. Wodrow Corr. (1843), II. 518. In a consistency with our principles.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., i. 8. To produce or preserve an appearance of consistency amongst them. Ibid., ii. 9. [It] might induce us perhaps to question the consistency of the two records.
1846. Trench, Mirac., xxxii. (1862), 449. It is in entire consistency with all else which we read.
b. (with a and pl.) An instance of consistency.
1771–2. Batchelor (1773), II. 203. The patriotic consistencies, and pious labours of Brutus Pl—k—t.
1874. trans. Lange’s Comm. Nahum, Introd. 12. An accord of so many consistencies.
5. The quality of being self-consistent; agreement of the parts or elements of a thing with each other.
1787. Bentham, Def. Usury, xi. 111. If consistency were to be found in the common law, compound interest never could have been denied.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 126. He [Plato] never troubles himself about the political consistency of his scheme.
b. esp. as a personal quality: Agreement or harmony of the elements of a person’s life or conduct (e.g., of his profession and practice, of his statements at one time and at another); constant adherence to the same principles of thought or action.
1715. Addison, Free-Holder, No. 3, ¶ 3 (1751), 7. What gives us the greatest Security in the Conduct of so excellent a Prince, is That Consistency of Behaviour, whereby he inflexibly pursues those Measures which appear the most just and equitable.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., i. § 12. The rarest of all human qualities is consistency.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Self-reliance, Wks. (Bohn), I. 24. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
1864. Maine, Anc. Law, iii. (1876), 71. The doubtful virtue of consistency.
† 6. Eccl. The state of being a ‘consistent’; or, the company of ‘consistents’: see CONSISTENT.
1647. Form Ch. Govt., prop. 12. The penitents … of the fourth degree, or οἰ ἐν συατασεῖ, that is, which were in the consistency, were suspended from the Lords Supper.
