excogitation

Truth for him is not to be found at the end of interminable, bed-ridden excogitation.

It is often alleged that the circumstances of modern literature do not permit of that leisure which is necessary to the excogitation of a carefully developed technique or a sound style.

When we are alone we are not always busy; the labour of excogitation is too violent to last long; the ardour of inquiry will sometimes give way to idleness or satiety.

In the excogitation of careful rules and the deft carrying out of those rules no literature can on the whole approach this except Greek.

And the editorial apartment, how spacious, silent, and admirably adapted, in the dignity of its lines and furnishings, for the reception of Cabinet Ministers, and the excogitation of thunderbolts for the chancelleries of Europe!