CASTOR AND POLLUX, the Dioscuri, the twin sons of Zeus by Leda;
great, the former in horsemanship, and the latter in boxing; famed for
their mutual affection, so that when the former was slain the latter
begged to be allowed to die with him, whereupon it was agreed they should
spend a day in Hades time about; were raised eventually to become stars
in the sky, the Gemini, twin signs in the zodiac, rising and setting
together; this name is also given to the electric phenomenon called
ST. ELMO'S FIRE (q. v.).
CASTREN, MATHIAS ALEXANDER, an eminent philologist, born in Finland,
professor of the Finnish Language and Literature in Helsingfors;
travelled all over Northern Europe and Asia, and left accounts of the
races he visited and their languages; translated the "KALEVALA"
(q. v.) the epic of the Finns; died prematurely, worn out with his
labours (1813-1852).
CASTRES (22), a town in the dep. of Tarn, 46 m. E. of Toulouse; was
a Roman station, and one of the first places in France to embrace
Calvinism.
CASTRO, GUILLEN DE, a Spanish dramatist, author of the play of "The
Cid," which gained him European fame; he began life as a soldier, got
acquainted with Lope de Vega, and took to dramatic composition
(1569-1631).
CASTRO, INEZ DE, a royal heiress of the Spanish throne in the 14th
century, the beloved wife of Don Pedro, heir of the Portuguese throne;
put to death out of jealousy of Spain by the latter's father, but on his
accession dug out of her grave, arrayed in her royal robes, and crowned
along with him, after which she was entombed again, and a magnificent
monument erected over her remains.
CASTRO, JUAN DE, a Portuguese soldier, born at Lisbon, distinguished
for his exploits in behalf of Portugal; made viceroy of the Portuguese
Indies, but died soon after in the arms of Francis Xavier (1500-1548).
CASTRO, VACA DE, a Spaniard, sent out by Charles V. as governor of
Peru, but addressing himself to the welfare of the natives rather than
the enrichment of Spain, was recalled, to pine and die in prison in 1558.
CASTROGIOVANNI (18), a town in a strong position in the heart of
Sicily, 3270 ft. above the sea-level; at one time a centre of the worship
of Ceres, and with a temple to her.
CASTRUCCIO-CASTRACANI, Duke of Lucca, and chief of the Ghibelline
party in that town, the greatest war-captain in Europe in his day; lord
of hundreds of strongholds; wore on a high occasion across his breast a
scroll, inscribed, "He is what God made him," and across his back
another, inscribed, "He shall be what God will make"; _d_. 1328, "crushed
before the moth."
CATACOMBS, originally underground quarries, afterwards used as
burial-places for the dead, found beneath Paris and in the neighbourhood
of Rome, as well as elsewhere; those around Rome, some 40 in number, are
the most famous, as having been used by the early Christians, not merely
for burial but for purposes of worship, and are rich In monuments of art
and memorials of history.
CATALANI, ANGELICA, a celebrated Italian singer and prima donna,
born near Ancona; began her career in Rome with such success that it led
to engagements over all the chief cities of Europe, the enthusiasm which
followed her reaching its climax when she came to England, where, on her
first visit, she stayed eight years; by the failure of an enterprise in
Paris she lost her fortune, but soon repaired it by revisiting the
capitals of Europe; died of cholera in Paris (1779-1840).
CATALONIA (1,900), old prov. of Spain, on the NE.; has a most
fertile soil, which yields a luxuriant vegetation; chief seat of
manufacture in the country, called hence the "Lancashire of Spain"; the
people are specially distinguished from other Spaniards for their
intelligence and energy.
CATAMAR`CA (ISO), NW. prov. of the Argentine Republic; rich in
minerals, especially copper.
CATA`NIA (123), an ancient city at the foot of Etna, to the S., on a
plain called the Granary of Sicily; has been several times devastated by
the eruptions of Etna, particularly in 1169, 1669, and 1693; manufactures
silk, linen, and articles of amber, &c., and exports sulphur, grain, and
fruits.
CATANZA`RO (20), a city in Calabria, 6 m. from the Gulf of
Squillace, with an old castle of Robert Guiscard.
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE, Kant's name for the self-derived moral law,
"universal and binding on every rational will, a commandment of the
autonomous, one and universal reason."
CATEGORIES are either classes under which all our Notions of things
may be grouped, or classes under which all our Thoughts of things may be
grouped; the former called Logical, we owe to Aristotle, and the latter
called Metaphysical, we owe to Kant. The Logical, so derived, that group
our notions, are ten in number: Substance or Being, Quantity, Quality,
Relation, Place, Time, Position, Possession, Action, Passion. The
Metaphysical, so derived, that group our thoughts, are twelve in number:
(1) as regards _quantity_, Totality, Plurality, Unity; (2) as regards
_quality_, Reality, Negation, Limitation; (3) as regards _relation_,
Substance, Accident, Cause and Effect, Action and Reaction; (4) as
regards _modality_, Possibility and Impossibility, Existence and
Nonexistence, Necessity and Contingency. John Stuart Mill resolves the
categories into five, Existence, Co-existence, Succession, Causation, and
Resemblance.
CATESBY, MARK, an English naturalist and traveller, wrote a natural
history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas (1680-1750).
CATESBY, ROBERT, born in Northamptonshire, a Catholic of good birth;
concerned in the famous Gunpowder Plot; shot dead three days after its
discovery by officers sent to arrest him (1573-1605).
CATH`ARI, OR CATHARISTS, i. e. purists or puritans, a sect of
presumably Gnostic derivation, scattered here and there under different
names over the S. and W. of Europe during the Middle Ages, who held the
Manichæan doctrine of the radically sinful nature of the flesh, and the
necessity of mortifying all its desires and affections to attain purity
of soul.
CATHARINE, ST., OF ALEXANDRIA, a virgin who, in 307, suffered
martyrdom after torture on the wheel, which has since borne her name; is
represented in art as in a vision presented to Christ by His Mother as
her sole husband, who gives her a ring. Festival, Nov. 25.
CATHARINE I., wife of Peter the Great and empress of Russia,
daughter of a Livonian peasant; "a little stumpy body, very brown,...
strangely chased about from the bottom to the top of the world,... had
once been a kitchen wench"; married first to a Swedish dragoon, became
afterwards the mistress of Prince Menschikoff, and then of Peter the
Great, who eventually married her; succeeded him as empress, with
Menschikoff as minister; for a time ruled well, but in the end gave
herself up to dissipation, and died (1682-1727).
CATHARINE II. THE GREAT, empress of Russia, born at Stettin,
daughter of Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst; "a most-clever, clear-eyed,
stout-hearted woman"; became the wife of Peter III., a scandalous mortal,
who was dethroned and then murdered, leaving her empress; ruled well for
the country, and though her character was immoral and her reign despotic
and often cruel, her efforts at reform, the patronage she accorded to
literature, science, and philosophy, and her diplomatic successes,
entitle her to a high rank among the sovereigns of Russia; she reigned
from 1763 to 1796, and it was during the course of her reign, and under
the sanction of it, that Europe witnessed the three partitions of Poland
(1729-1796).
CATHARINE DE' MEDICI, daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, wife of Henry
II. of France, and mother of his three successors; on the accession of
her second son, Charles IX.--for the reign of her first, Francis II., was
very brief--acted as regent during his minority; joined heart and soul
with the Catholics in persecuting the Huguenots, and persuaded her son to
issue the order which resulted in the massacre of St. Bartholomew; on his
death, which occurred soon after, she acted as regent during the minority
of her third son, Henry III., and lived to see both herself and him
detested by the whole French people, and this although she was during her
ascendency the patroness of the arts and of literature (1519-1589).
CATHARINE OF ARAGON, fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of
Spain, and wife of Henry VIII., her brother-in-law as widow of Arthur,
from whom, and at whose instance, after 18 years of married life, and
after giving birth to five children, she was divorced on the plea that,
as she had been his brother's wife before, it was not lawful for him to
have her; after her divorce she remained in the country, led an austere
religious life, and died broken-hearted. The refusal of the Pope to
sanction this divorce led to the final rupture of the English Church from
the Church of Rome, and the emancipation of the nation from priestly
tyranny (1483-1536).
CATHARINE OF BRAGANZA, the wife of Charles II. of England, of the
royal house of Portugal; was unpopular in the country as a Catholic and
neglected by her husband, on whose death, however, she returned to
Portugal, and did the duties ably of regent for her brother Don Pedro
(1638-1705).
CATHARINE OF SIENNA, born at Sienna, a sister of the Order of St.
Dominic, and patron saint of the Order; celebrated for her ecstasies and
visions, and the marks which by favour of Christ she bore on her body of
His sufferings on the Cross (1347-1380). Festival, April 30. Besides her,
are other saints of the same name.
CATHARINE OF VALOIS, daughter of Charles VI. of France, and wife of
Henry V. of England, who, on his marriage to her, was declared heir to
the throne of France, with the result that their son was afterwards,
while but an infant, crowned king of both countries; becoming a widow,
she married Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, whereby a grandson of his
succeeded to the English throne as Henry VII., and the first of the
Tudors (1401-1438).
CATHARINE PARR, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. and the daughter of a
Westmoreland knight; was of the Protestant faith and obnoxious to the
Catholic faction, who trumped up a charge against her of heresy and
treason, from which, however, she cleared herself to the satisfaction of
the king, over whom she retained her ascendency till his death; _d_.
1548.
CATHARINE THEOT, a religious fanatic, born in Avranches; gave
herself out as the Mother of God; appeared in Paris in 1794, and declared
Robespierre a second John the Baptist and forerunner of the Word; the
Committee of Public Safety had her arrested and guillotined.
CATHAY, the name given to China by mediæval writers, which it still
bears in Central Asia.
CATHCART, EARL, a British general and diplomatist, born in
Renfrewshire; saw service in America and Flanders; distinguished himself
at the bombardment of Copenhagen; represented England at the court of
Russia and the Congress of Vienna (1755-1843).
CATHCART, SIR GEORGE, a lieutenant-general, son of the preceding;
enlisted in the army; served in the later Napoleonic wars; was present at
Quatre-Bras and Waterloo; was governor of the Cape; brought the Kaffir
war to a successful conclusion; served in the Crimea, and fell at
Inkerman (1794-1854).
CATHEDRAL, the principal church in a diocese, and which contains the
throne of the bishop as his seat of authority; is of a rank corresponding
to the dignity of the bishop; the governing body consists of the dean and
chapter.
CATHELINEAU, JACQUES, a famous leader of the Vendéans in their
revolt against the French Republic on account of a conscription in its
behalf; a peasant by birth; mortally wounded in attacking Nantes; he is
remembered by the peasants of La Vendée as the "Saint of Anjou"
(1759-1793).
CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, the name given to the emancipation in 1829 of
the Roman Catholics of the United Kingdom from disabilities which
precluded their election to office in the State, so that they are
eligible now to any save the Lord Chancellorship of England and offices
representative of royalty.
CATHOLIC EPISTLES, the name, equivalent to encyclical, given to
certain epistles in the New Testament not addressed to any community in
particular, but to several, and given eventually to all not written by
St. Paul.
CATHOLIC MAJESTY, a title given by the Pope to several Spanish
monarchs for their zeal in the defence of the Catholic faith.
CATILINE, or LUCIUS SERGIUS CATILINA, a Roman patrician, an
able man, but unscrupulously ambitious; frustrated in his ambitious
designs, he formed a conspiracy against the State, which was discovered
and exposed by Cicero, a discovery which obliged him to leave the city;
he tried to stir up hostility outside; this too being discovered by
Cicero, an army was sent against him, when an engagement ensued, in
which, fighting desperately, he was slain, 62 B.C.
CATINAT, NICOLAS, a marshal of France, born in Paris; one of the
greatest military captains under Louis XIV.; defeated the Duke of Savoy
twice over, though defeated by Prince Eugene and compelled to retreat;
was an able diplomatist as well as military strategist (1637-1712).
CATLIN, GEORGE, a traveller among the North American Indians, and
author of an illustrated work on their life and manners; spent eight
years among them (1796-1872).
CATO DIONYSIUS, name of a book of maxims in verse, held in high
favour during the Middle Ages; of unknown authorship.
CATO, MARCUS PORTIUS, or CATO MAJOR, surnamed Censor, Priscus,
and Sapiens, born at Tusculum, of a good old family, and trained to
rustic, frugal life; after serving occasionally in the army, removed to
Rome; became in succession censor, ædile, prætor, and consul; served in
the second Punic war, towards the end of it, and subjugated Spain; was a
Roman of the old school; disliked and denounced all innovations, as
censor dealt sharply with them; sent on an embassy to Africa, was so
struck with the increasing power and the threateningly evil ascendency of
Carthage, that on his return he urged its demolition, and in every speech
which he delivered afterwards he ended with the words, _Ceterum censeo
Carthaginem esse delendam_, "But, be that as it may, my opinion is
Carthage must be destroyed" (234-149 B.C.).
CATO, MARCUS PORTIUS, or CATO THE YOUNGER, or UTICENSIS,
great-grandson of the former, and a somewhat pedantic second edition of
him; fortified himself by study of the Stoic philosophy; conceived a
distrust of the public men of the day, Cæsar among the number; preferred
Pompey to him, and sided with him; after Pompey's defeat retired to
Utica, whence his surname, and stabbed himself to death rather than fall
into the hands of Cæsar (95-46 B.C.).
CATO-STREET CONSPIRACY, an insignificant, abortive plot, headed by
one Thistlewood, to assassinate Castlereagh and other ministers of the
crown in 1820; so called from their place of meeting off the Edgeware
Road, London.
CATRAIL, an old Roman earthwork, 50 m. long, passing S. from near
Galashiels, through Selkirk and Roxburgh, or from the Cheviots; it is
known by the name of the "Devil's Dyke."
CATS, JACOB, a Dutch poet and statesman, venerated in Holland as
"Father Cats"; his works are written in a simple, natural style, and
abound in wise maxims; he did service as a statesman; twice visited
England as an envoy, and was knighted by Charles I. (1577-1660).
CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, a group of mountains, of steep ascent, and with
rocky summits, in New York State, W. of the Hudson, none of them
exceeding 4000 feet; celebrated as the scene of Rip Van Winkle's long
slumber; belong to the Appalachians.
CATTEGAT, an arm of the sea, 150 m. in length and 84 of greatest
width, between Sweden and Jutland; a highway into the Baltic, all but
blocked up with islands; is dangerous to shipping on account of the
storms that infest it at times.
CATTERMOLE, GEORGE, artist, born in Norfolk; illustrated Britton's
"English Cathedrals," "Waverley Novels," and the "Historical Annual" by
his brother; painted mostly in water-colour; his subjects chiefly from
English history (1800-1868).
CATTLE PLAGUE, or RINDERPEST, a disease which affects
ruminants, but especially bovine cattle; indigenous to the East, Russia,
Persia, India, and China, and imported into Britain only by contagion of
some kind; the most serious outbreaks were in 1865 and 1872.
CATULLUS, CAIUS VALERIUS, the great Latin lyric poet, born at
Verona, a man of wealth and good standing, being, it would seem, of the
equestrian order; associated with the best wits in Rome; fell in love
with Clodia, a patrician lady, who was the inspiration, both in peace and
war, of many of his effusions, and whom he addresses as Lesbia; the death
of a brother affected him deeply, and was the occasion of the production
of one of the most pathetic elegies ever penned; in the civic strife of
the time he sided with the senate, and opposed Cæsar to the length of
directing against him a coarse lampoon (84-54 B.C.).
CAUCA, a river in Colombia, S. America, which falls into the
Magdalena after a northward course of 600 m.
CAUCASIA, a prov. of Russia, geographically divided into
Cis-Caucasia on the European side, and Trans-Caucasia on the Asiatic side
of the Caucasus, with an area about four times as large as England.
CAUCASIAN RACE, a name adopted by Blumenbach to denote the
Indo-European race, from the fine type of a skull of one of the race
found in Georgia.
CAUCASUS, an enormous mountain range, 750 m. in length, extending
from the Black Sea ESE. to the Caspian, in two parallel chains, with
tablelands between, bounded on the S. by the valley of the Kur, which
separates it from the tableland of Armenia; snow-line higher than that of
the Alps; has fewer and smaller glaciers; has no active volcanoes, though
abundant evidence of volcanic action.
CAUCHON, bishop of Beauvais, infamous for the iniquitous part he
played in the trial and condemnation of Joan of Arc; _d_. 1443.
CAUCHY, AUGUSTIN LOUIS, mathematician, born in Paris; wrote largely
on physical subjects; his "Memoir" on the theory of the waves suggested
the undulatory theory of light; professor of Astronomy at Paris; declined
to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon III., and retired (1789-1857).
CAUCUS, a preliminary private meeting to arrange and agree on some
measure or course to propose at a general meeting of a political party.
CAUDINE FORKS, a narrow mountain gorge in Samnium, in which, during
the second Samnite war, a Roman army was entrapped and caught by the
Samnites, who obliged them to pass under the yoke in token of
subjugation, 321 B.C.
CAUDLE, MRS., an imaginary dame, a conception of Douglas Jerrold,
famous for her "Curtain Lectures" all through the night for 30 years to
her husband Mr. Job Caudle.
CAUL, a membrane covering the head of some children at birth, to
which a magical virtue was at one time ascribed, and which, on that
account, was rated high and sold often at a high price.
CAULAINCOURT, ARMAND DE, a French general and statesman of the
Empire, a faithful supporter of Napoleon, who conferred on him a peerage,
with the title of Duke of Vicenza, of which he was deprived at the
Restoration; represented Napoleon at the Congress of Châtillon
(1772-1827).
CAUS, SALOMON DE, a French engineer, born at Dieppe; discovered the
properties of steam as a motive force towards 1638; claimed by Arago as
the inventor of the steam-engine in consequence.
CAUSALITY, the philosophic name for the nature of the relation
between cause and effect, in regard to which there has been much
diversity of opinion among philosophers.
CAUTERETS, a fashionable watering-place in the dep. of the
Hautes-Pyrénées, 3250 ft. above the sea, with sulphurous springs of very
ancient repute, 25 in number, and of varying temperature.
CAVAIGNAC, LOUIS EUGÈNE, a distinguished French general, born in
Paris; appointed governor of Algeria in 1849, but recalled to be head of
the executive power in Paris same year; appointed dictator, suppressed
the insurrection in June, after the most obstinate and bloody struggle
the streets of Paris had witnessed since the first Revolution; stood
candidate for the Presidency, to which Louis Napoleon was elected; was
arrested after the _coup d'état_, but soon released; never gave in his
adherence to the Empire (1802-1857).
CAVALCASELLE, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, Italian writer on art; joint-author
with J. A. Crowe of works on the "Early Flemish Painters" and the
"History of Painting in Italy"; chief of the art department under the
Minister of Public Instruction in Rome; _b_. 1820.
CAVALIER, JEAN, leader of the CAMISARDS (q. v.), born at
Ribaute, in the dep. of Gard; bred a baker; held his own against
Montreval and Villars; in 1704 concluded peace with the latter on
honourable terms; haughtily received by Louis XIV., passed over to
England; served against France, and died governor of Jersey (1679-1740).
CAVALIERS, the royalist partisans of Charles I. in England in
opposition to the parliamentary party, or the Roundheads, as they were
called.
CAVALLO, a distinguished Italian physicist, born at Naples
(1749-1809).
CAVAN (111), inland county S. of Ulster, Ireland, with a poor soil;
has minerals and mineral springs.
CAVE, EDWARD, a London bookseller, born in Warwickshire; projected
the Gentleman's Magazine, to which Dr. Johnson contributed; was the first
to give Johnson literary work, employing him as parliamentary reporter,
and Johnson was much attached to him; he died with his hand in Johnson's
(1691-1754).
CAVE, WILLIAM, an English divine; author of works on the Fathers of
the Church and on primitive Christianity, of high repute at one time
(1637-1713).
CAVENDISH, the surname of the Devonshire ducal family, traceable
back to the 14th century.
CAVENDISH, GEORGE, the biographer of Wolsey; never left him while he
lived, and never forgot him or the lesson of his life after he was dead;
this appears from the vivid picture he gives of him, though written 30
years after his death (1500-1561).
CAVENDISH, LORD FREDERICK, brother of the ninth Duke of Devonshire,
educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a Liberal; was made
Chief-Secretary for Ireland in 1882, but chancing to walk home one
evening through the Phoenix Park, he fell a victim, stabbed to the heart,
of a conspiracy that was aimed at Mr. Burke, an unpopular subordinate,
who was walking along with him, and came to the same fate. Eight months
after, 20 men were arrested as concerned in the murder, when one of the
20 informed; five of them were hanged; the informer Carey was afterwards
murdered, and his murderer, O'Donnel, hanged (1836-1882).
CAVENDISH, HENRY, natural philosopher and chemist, born at Nice, of
the Devonshire family; devoted his entire life to scientific
investigations; the first to analyse the air of the atmosphere, determine
the mean density of the earth, discover the composition of water, and
ascertain the properties of hydrogen; was an extremely shy, retiring man;
born rich and died rich, leaving over a million sterling (1731-1810).
CAVENDISH, SPENCER COMPTON, ninth Duke of Devonshire, for long known
in public life as Marquis of Hartington; also educated at Trinity
College, and a leader of the Liberal party; served under Gladstone till
he adopted Home Rule for Ireland, but joined Lord Salisbury in the
interest of Union, and one of the leaders of what is called the
Liberal-Unionist party; _b_. 1833.
CAVENDISH, THOMAS, an English navigator, fitted out three vessels to
cruise against the Spaniards; extended his cruise into the Pacific;
succeeded in taking valuable prizes, with which he landed in England,
after circumnavigating the globe; he set out on a second cruise, which
ended in disaster, and he died in the island of Ascension broken-hearted
(1555-1592).
CAVENDISH, WILLIAM, English courtier and cavalier in the reigns of
James I. and Charles I.; joined Charles II. in exile; returned at the
Restoration; was made Duke of Newcastle; wrote on horsemanship
(1592-1676).
CAVENDISH, WILLIAM, first Duke of Devonshire; friend and protector
of Lord William Russell; became a great favourite at court, and was
raised to the dukedom (1640-1707).
CAVIARE, the roe (the immature ovaries) of the common sturgeon and
other kindred fishes, caught chiefly in the Black and Caspian Seas, and
prepared and salted; deemed a great luxury by those who have acquired the
taste for it; largely imported from Astrakhan.
CAVOUR, COUNT CAMILLO BENSO DE, one of the greatest of modern
statesmen, born the younger son of a Piedmontese family at Turin; entered
the army, but was precluded from a military career by his liberal
opinions; retired, and for 16 years laboured as a private gentleman to
improve the social and economic condition of Piedmont; in 1847 he threw
himself into the great movement which resulted in the independence and
unification of Italy; for the next 14 years, as editor of _Il
Risorgimento_, member of the chamber of deputies, holder of various
portfolios in the government, and ultimately as prime minister of the
kingdom of Sardinia, he obtained a constitution and representative
government for his country, improved its fiscal and financial condition,
and raised it to a place of influence in Europe; he co-operated with the
allies in the Crimean war; negotiated with Napoleon III. for the
expulsion of the Austrians from Italy, and so precipitated the successful
war of 1859; he encouraged Garibaldi in the expedition of 1860, which
liberated Sicily and Southern Italy, and saw the parliament of 1861
summoned, and Victor Emmanuel declared king of Italy; but the strain of
his labours broke his health, and he died a few months later (1810-1861).
CAWNPORE (188), a city on the right bank of the Ganges, in the
North-Western Provinces of India, 40 m. SW. of Lucknow, and 628 NW. of
Calcutta; the scene of one of the most fearful atrocities, perpetrated by
Nana Sahib, in the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
CAXTON, WILLIAM, the first English printer, born in Kent, bred a
mercer, settled for a time in Bruges, learned the art of printing there,
where he printed a translation of the "Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troyes," and "The Game and Playe of Chesse"; returning to England, set up
a press in Westminster Abbey, and in 1477 issued "Dictes and Sayings of
the Philosophers," the first book printed in England, which was soon
followed by many others; he was a good linguist, as well as a devoted
workman (1422-1491).
CAYENNE (10), cap. and port of French Guiana, a swampy, unhealthy
place, rank with tropical vegetation; a French penal settlement since
1852.
CAYLA, COUNTESS OF, friend and confidante of Louis XVIII.
(1784-1850).
CAYLEY, ARTHUR, an eminent English mathematician, professor at
Cambridge, and president of the British Association in 1883 (1821-1895).
CAYLEY, CHARLES BAGOT, a linguist, translated Dante into the metre
of the original, with annotations, besides metrical versions of the
"Iliad," the "Prometheus" of Æschylus, the "Canzoniere" of Petrarch, &c.
(1823-1883).
CAYLUS, COUNT, a distinguished archæologist, born in Paris; author
of a "Collection of Antiquities of Egypt, Etruria," &c., with excellent
engravings (1692-1765).
CAYLUS, MARQUISE DE, born in Poitou, related to Mme. de Maintenon;
left piquant souvenirs of the court of Louis XIV. and the house of St.
Cyr (1672-1729).
CAZALÈS, a member of French Constituent Assembly, a dragoon captain,
a fervid, eloquent orator of royalism, who "earned thereby," says
Carlyle, "the shadow of a name" (1758-1805).
CAZOTTE, author of the "Diable Amoureux"; victim as an enemy of the
French Revolution; spared for his daughter's sake for a time, but
guillotined at last; left her a "lock of his old grey hair" (1720-1792).
CEAN-BERMUDEZ, a Spanish writer on art; author of a biographical
dictionary of the principal artists of Spain (1749-1834).
CEARA (35), cap. of the prov. (900) of the name, in N. of Brazil.
CE`BES, a Greek philosopher, disciple and friend of Socrates,
reputed author of the "Pinax" or Tablet, a once popular book on the
secret of life, being an allegorical representation of the temptations
that beset it.
CECIL, ROBERT, EARL OF SALISBURY, succeeded his father, Lord
Burleigh, as first Minister under Elizabeth, and continued in office
under James I., whose friendship he sedulously cultivated before his
accession, and who created him earl (1565-1612). See BURLEIGH,
LORD.
CECILIA, ST., a Roman virgin and martyr, A.D. 230, patron saint of
music, especially church music, and reputed inventor of the organ;
sometimes represented as holding a small organ, with her head turned
heavenwards as if listening to the music of the spheres, and sometimes as
playing on an organ and with a heavenly expression of face. Festival,
Nov. 22.
CECROPS, the mythical first king and civiliser of Attica and founder
of Athens with its citadel, dedicated by him to Athena, whence the name
of the city.
CEDAR RAPIDS (25), a manufacturing town in Iowa, U.S.; a great
railway centre.
CELADON, poetical name for a languid swain, all sighs and longings.
CELÆNO, name of one of the HARPIES (q. v.).
CELEBES (1,000), an island in the centre of the Eastern Archipelago,
third in size, in the shape of a body with four long limbs, traversed by
mountain chains, and the greater part of it a Dutch possession, though it
contains a number of small native states; it yields among its mineral
products gold, copper, tin, &c.; and among its vegetable, tea, coffee,
rice, sugar, pepper, &c.; capital. Macassar.
CÉLESTE, MME., a dancer, born in Paris; made her _début_ in New
York; in great repute in England, and particularly in the States, where
she in her second visit realised £40,000 (1814-1882).
CELESTIAL EMPIRE, China, as ruled over by a dynasty appointed by
Heaven.
CELESTINE, the name of five Popes: C. I., Pope from 422 to 432; C.
II., Pope from 1143 to 1144; C. III., Pope from 1191 to 1198; C. IV.,
Pope for 18 days in 1241; C. V., Pope in 1294, a hermit for 60 years;
nearly 80 when elected against his wish; abdicated in five months;
imprisoned by order of Boniface VIII.; _d_. 1296; canonised 1313.
CELESTINES, an order of monks founded by Celestine V. before he was
elected Pope in 1354; they followed the rule of the Benedictine Order,
and led a contemplative life.
CELLINI, BENVENUTO, a celebrated engraver, sculptor, and goldsmith,
a most versatile and erratic genius, born at Florence; had to leave
Florence for a bloody fray he was involved in, and went to Rome; wrought
as a goldsmith there for 20 years, patronised by the nobles; killed the
Constable de Bourbon at the sack of the city, and for this received
plenary indulgence from the Pope; Francis I. attracted him to his court
and kept him in his service five years, after which he returned to
Florence and executed his famous bronze "Perseus with the Head of
Medusa," which occupied him four years; was a man of a quarrelsome
temper, which involved him in no end of scrapes with sword as well as
tongue; left an autobiography, from its self-dissection of the deepest
interest to all students of human nature (1500-1571).
CELSIUS, a distinguished Swedish astronomer, born at Upsala, and
professor of Astronomy there; inventor of the Centigrade thermometer
(1701-1744).
CELSUS, a celebrated Roman physician of the age of Augustus, and
perhaps later; famed as the author of "De Medicina," a work often
referred to, and valuable as one of the sources of our knowledge of the
medicine of the ancients.
CELSUS, a philosopher of the 2nd century, and notable as the first
assailant on philosophic grounds of the Christian religion, particularly
as regards the power it claims to deliver from the evil that is inherent
in human nature, inseparable from it, and implanted in it not by God, but
some inferior being remote from Him; the book in which he attacked
Christianity is no longer extant, only quotations from it scattered over
the pages of the defence of Origen in reply.
CELTIBE`RI, an ancient Spanish race occupying the centre of the
peninsula, sprung from a blending of the aborigines and the Celts, who
invaded the country; a brave race, divided into four tribes;
distinguished in war both as cavalry and infantry, and whom the Romans
had much trouble in subduing.
CELTS. The W. of Europe was in prehistoric times subjected to two
invasions of Aryan tribes, all of whom are now referred to as Celts. The
earlier invaders were Goidels or Gaels; they conquered the Ivernian and
Iberian peoples of ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland; their successors,
the Brythons or Britons pouring from the E., drove them to the
westernmost borders of these countries, and there compelled them to make
common cause with the surviving Iberians in resistance; in the eastern
parts of the conquered territories they formed the bulk of the
population, in the W. they were in a dominant minority; study of
languages in the British Isles leads to the conclusion that the Irish,
Manx, and Scottish Celts belonged chiefly to the earlier immigration,
while the Welsh and Cornish represent the latter; the true Celtic type is
tall, red or fair, and blue-eyed, while the short, swarthy type, so long
considered Celtic, is now held to represent the original Iberian races.
CENCI, THE, a Roman family celebrated for their crimes and
misfortunes as well as their wealth. FRANCESCO CENCI was twice
married, had had twelve children by his first wife, whom he treated
cruelly; after his second marriage cruelly treated the children of his
first wife, but conceived a criminal passion for the youngest of them, a
beautiful girl named BEATRICE, whom he outraged, upon which, being
unable to bring him to justice, she, along with her stepmother and a
brother, hired two assassins to murder him; the crime was found out, and
all three were beheaded (1599); this is the story on which Shelley
founded his tragedy, but it is now discredited.
CENIS, MONT, one of the Cottian Alps, over which Napoleon
constructed a pass 6884 ft. high in 1802-10, through which a tunnel 7½ m.
long passes from Modane to Bardonnêche, connecting France with Italy; the
construction of this tunnel cost £3,000,000, and Napoleon's pass a tenth
of the sum.
CENSORS, two magistrates of ancient Rome, who held office at first
for five years and then eighteen months, whose duty it was to keep a
register of the citizens, guard the public morals, collect the public
revenue, and superintend the public property.
CEN`TAURS, a savage race living between Pelion and Ossa, in
Thessaly, and conceived of at length by Pindar as half men and half
horses, treated as embodying the relation between the spiritual and the
animal in man and nature, in all of whom the animal prevails over the
spiritual except in Chiron, who therefore figures as the trainer of the
heroes of Greece; in the mythology they figure as the progeny of
Centaurus, son of IXION (q. v.) and the cloud, their mothers
being mares.
CENTRAL AMERICA (3,000), territory of fertile tableland sloping
gradually to both oceans, occupied chiefly by a number of small
republics, lying between Tehuantepec and Panama in N. America; it
includes the republics of Guatemala, Honduras, St. Salvador, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica, and a few adjoining fractions of territory.
CENTRAL INDIA (10,000), includes a group of feudatory States lying
between Rajputana in the N. and Central Provinces in the S.
CENTRAL PROVINCES (12,944), States partly British and partly native,
occupying the N. of the Deccan, and lying between the Nerbudda and the
Godavary.
CEOS, one of the Cyclades, a small island 13 m. by 8 m., yields
fruits; was the birthplace of Simonides and Bacchylides.
CEPHALONIA (80), the largest of the Ionian Islands, 30 m. long, the
ancient Samos; yields grapes and olive oil.
CEPHALUS, king of Thessaly, who having involuntarily killed his wife
Procris, in despair put himself to death with the same weapon.
CERAM` (195), the largest of S. Moluccas; yields sago, which is
chiefly cultivated and largely exported.
CERBERUS, the three-headed or three-throated monster that guarded
the entrance to the nether world of Pluto, could be soothed by music, and
tempted by honey, only Hercules overcame him by sheer strength, dragging
him by neck and crop to the upper world.
CERES, the Latin name for DEMETER (q. v.); also the name of
one of the asteroids, the first discovered, by Piazzi, in 1801.
CERI`GO (14), an Ionian island, the southernmost, the ancient
Cythera; yields wine and fruits.
CERINTHUS, a heresiarch of the first century, whom, according to
tradition, St. John held in special detestation, presumably as denying
the Father and the Son.
CERRO DE PASCO, a town in Peru, 14,200 ft. above the sea-level, with
the richest silver mine in S. America.
CERUTTI, a Jesuit, born at Turin; became a Revolutionary in France;
pronounced the funeral oration at the grave of Mirabeau in 1789.
CERVANTES-SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE, the author of "Don Quixote," born at
Alcalá de Henares; was distinguished in arms before he became
distinguished in letters; fought in the battle of Lepanto like a very
hero, and bore away with him as a "maimed soldier" marks of his share in
the struggle; sent on a risky embassy, was captured by pirates and
remained in their hands five years; was ransomed by his family at a cost
which beggared them, and it was only when his career as a soldier closed
that he took himself to literature; began as a dramatist before he
devoted himself to prose romance; wrote no fewer than 30 dramas; the
first part of the work which has immortalised his name appeared in 1605,
and the second in 1615; it took the world by storm, was translated into
all the languages of Europe, but the fortune which was extended to his
book did not extend to himself, for he died poor, some ten days before
his great contemporary, William Shakespeare; though carelessly written,
"Don Quixote" is one of the few books of all time, and is as fresh to-day
as when it was first written (1547-1616).
CERVIN, MONT, the French name for the Matterhorn, 705 ft., the
summit of the Pennine Alps, between Valais and Piedmont.
CESAREWITCH, the eldest son and heir of the Czar of Russia.
CE`SARI, GIUSEPPE, sometimes called ARPINO, an eminent Italian
painter; painted a series of frescoes in the Conservatorio of the
Capitol, illustrative of events in the history of Rome (1568-1640).
CESAROTTI, an Italian poet, translator of the "Iliad" and "Ossian"
into Italian (1730-1808).
CESTUS, a girdle worn by Greek and Roman women, specially the girdle
of Aphrodité, so emblazoned with symbols of the joys of love that no
susceptible soul could resist the power of it; it was borrowed by Hera to
captivate Zeus.
CETINJE, the capital of Montenegro, in a valley 2000 ft. high;
smallest of capital cities, with a population under 2000.
CETTE (36), a seaport, trading, and manufacturing town, on a tongue
of land between the lagoon of Thau and the Mediterranean, 23 m. SW. of
Montpellier, with a large safe harbourage.
CE`UTA (12), a port opposite Gibraltar belonging to Spain, on the
coast of Morocco, guarded by a fort on one of the Pillars of Hercules,
overlooking it; of importance as a military and convict station.
CÉVENNES, a range of low mountains on the eastern edge of the
central plateau of France, separating the basin of the Rhône from those
of the Loire and Garonne; average height from 3000 to 4000 ft.; the chief
scene of the dragonnades against the Huguenots under Louis XIV.
CEYLON (3,008), a pear-shaped island about the size of Scotland,
separated from India, to which it geographically belongs, and SE. of
which it lies, by Palk Strait, 32 m. broad; comprises a lofty, central
tableland with numerous peaks, the highest Tallagalla, 8000 ft., and a
broad border of well-watered plains. It was an ancient centre of
civilisation; the soil is everywhere fertile; the climate is hot, but
more equitable than on the mainland; the chief products are tea,
cinnamon, and tobacco; the forests yield satin-wood, ebony, &c.; the
cocoa-nut palm abounds; there are extensive deposits of iron, anthracite,
and plumbago; precious stones, sapphires, rubies, amethysts, &c., are in
considerable quantities; the pearl fisheries are a valuable government
monopoly. The chief exports are tea, rice, cotton goods, and coals.
Two-thirds of the people are Singhalese and Buddhists, there are 6000
Europeans. The island is a crown colony, the largest in the British
Empire, administered by a governor with executive and legislative
councils; the capital and chief port is Colombo (127).
CHABAS, FRANÇOIS, a French Egyptologist, born in Briançon; his works
have contributed much to elucidate the history of the invasion and
repulsion of the Hyksos in Egypt (1817-1882).
CHABOT, a member of the National Convention of France, a "disfrocked
Capuchin," adjured "Heaven," amid enthusiasm, "that at least they may
have done with kings"; guillotined (1759-1794).
CHACKTAW INDIANS. See CHOCKTAW.
CHAD, LAKE, a shallow lake in the Sahara, of varied extent,
according as the season is dry or rainy, at its largest covering an area
as large as England, and abounding in hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, &c.,
as well as waterfowl and fish.