satirical poem, was born in Wor- cestershire 1612, and died 1680. BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, Lord, was born in London, Jan. 22d, 1788. He entered Trinity College, Cam- bridge, in 1805. During his leisure hours he had penned some boyish verses which were published in 1807 under the title of "Hours of Idleness." They were noticed somewhat disdainfully in the Ed- inburgh Review. Stung to the quick by this article, with the au- thorship of which Lord Brougham is charged, the young nobleman retort- ed in a poem, English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers," which showed the world that the abused versicles were but the languid recreations of a man in whose hand, when roused to earnest work, the pen became a weapon of tremendous power. Two years of foreign travel led the poet through those scenes which he de- scribes in "Childe Harold's Pilgrim- age." Poeins and dramas followed, showing wonderful literary fertility, and in 1812 Byron was the acknowl- edged head of the English literary world. In the latter part of his life he gave himself to the cause of Grecian independence, and died April 19, 1824. While displaying an extraordinary power and splen- dor of language, some of Byron's longer poems show a depravity un- redeemed by wit. They have the same effect by the side of his better effusions, that some rank, offensive weed has in a garden of lilies and roses. The poetical fame of Byron was greater in his lifetime than it can ever be again. With as little power as any great poet ever pos- sessed of delineating the character and passions of other men, Byron was not true to nature unless when he drew his materials from within; but much of his poetry, unreal and fantastic as it is in its representa- tions of human life, has the singular charm which belongs to the self- drawn image of a nature nobly en- dowed, but vacillating morally be- tween the extremes of goodness and of evil. Extracts from pp. 42, 58, 60, 64, 124, 236.
CESAR, CA'IUS JU'LIUS, the first Ro- man emperor, whence future em- perors were called Cæsars. He was one of the greatest men that Rome produced; renowned both for his
military exploits and for his ability as a historian. He fell beneath the daggers of conspirators on the ides of March, 43 B. C., and in the 56th year of his age.
CAIRN (the ai like a in care), a heap of stones to mark a grave, &c. CA'IUS (ka'y us).
CALYP'So, in fabulous history, the queen of the island on which Ulysses suffered shipwreck, and where he was detained by her spells. CAM'O-ENS, DOM LUIS, the Portu- guese poet, is supposed to have been born at Lisbon, about the year 1524. The He died in 1579. "Lusiad" is his principal poem; but he left also a great number of sonnets, some of which equal those of Petrarch. Mentioned by Words- worth, p. 122.
CAMPBELL, THOMAS, one of the great- est lyric poets of the age, was born July 27, 1777, at Glasgow, Scotland, where his father was a merchant. Educated at the university of his native town, Campbell removed to Edinburgh, and in 1799 published his "Pleasures of Hope," which lifted him at once into a great repu- tation. In 1802, before he had reached his 26th year, he wrote his "Hohenlinden," and "Lochiel's Warning." This last poem was a great favorite with Sir Walter Scott; and Irving speaks of the two poems
as exquisite gems, sufficient of themselves to establish the author's title to the sacred name of poet." His ballad of "Lord Ullin's Daugh- ter" is an extraordinary specimen of scenic power, or picturing in words. Indeed, his genius shines most conspicuously in his lyrics, which are among the noblest in the language. HisGertrude of Wy- oming is a beautiful but not a great poem. Campbell is one of the most correct and elegant of modern writers of verse. His schol- arship was extensive; and he was prouder of his Greek than of his poetry. For a number of years (1820-1831) he edited the London New Monthly Magazine. No man was more earnest in his sympathy with all that was generous and noble. Early in life he married his cousin, Miss Sinclair; but the death of one son and the madness of another cast a gloom on his ex- istence. The infirmities of charac-
ter which grew partly out of his unhappiness every kind heart will forget in the splendor of his genius and the amiableness of his personal qualities. Few English poems are more widely and repeatedly quoted than his shorter lyrics, and they are not likely to be soon superseded by anything better in the same vein. In the compression, energy, and grace of his poetical diction he has rarely been equaled. Campbell died in 1844, at Boulogne, and his mortal remains lie interred in West- minster Abbey. See pp. 195, 226, 345, 479.
CAP-A-PIE (kap-ä-pē′), from head to foot. (Fr.)
CARTHAGINIAN (-jin'yan), pertaining to ancient Carthage. The Cartha- ginians, being devoted chiefly to commerce, neglected the arts and sciences, and produced no literature that has endured.
CAT'A-PHRACT, a species of heavy defensive armor; a horseman in complete armor.
CAT'ILINE (-line), a Roman patrician, born about B. C. 109, and famous for his conspiracy against the govern- ment of Rome. He was eloquently denounced by Cicero, and, fly- ing from the city, was slain in battle.
CAUSTICITY (-tis'i-ty).
CENTRE or CENTER. The latter form is preferred by Webster. CERVANTES, MIGUEL, the celebrated Spanish novelist, was born 1547, died 1616. His reputation rests chiefly on his "Don Quixote," written to ridicule knight-errantry. CHAGRIN (sha-green' or sha-grin). CHALDEE (kal-de'), relating to Chal- dea, anciently a part of the Baby- lonian empire on the Euphrates. Chaldea was famous for its sages or wise men.
CHALICE (chal'is; but there is au- thority also for kal'is). CHANCEL (chan'sel).
CHANNING, WM. ELLERY, was born at Newport, R. I., 1780. His ma- ternal grandfather, Wm. Ellery, was one of the signers of the Dec- laration of Independence. Chan- ning was educated at Harvard Col- lege; studied for the ministry, and in 1803 accepted a call to take charge of the Unitarian church in Federal Street, Boston. He re- tained the situation till his death,
(Oct. 2, 1842), during which period his reputation as a preacher and an ethical writer was very great. His discourses and essays give him a lofty rank, not only as an eloquent advocate of human rights, but as one of the foremost masters of an English style at once pure, lumi- nous, and forcible. Always fearless in his utterance of unpopular truths, he did not shrink from the discus- sion of the moral duties of the American people in regard to slav- ery; and now, read in the light of subsequent events, his views will be found to be as wise as they are humane. His sympathies went forth to the toiling millions of every grade; to the sailors, the poor work- women, the day-laborers; but he was disposed to look less to changes in external condition than to intel- lectual culture and moral develop- ment, for permanent reforms. The great work of the age he conceived to be "the diffusion of intelligence and enlightened religion through the mass of the people." He was ever anxious to raise the profession of teachers to its rightful position of honor; regarding schools as the fountain-heads of intellectual cul- ture and moral enlightenment. See pp. 76, 118, 238.
CHARADE (shă-rade'), a syllabic enig- ma, so named from its inventor, made upon a word the two syllables of which, when separately taken, are themselves words. See speci- men, p. 345. CHARTA (kar'ta).
CHATHAM, WM. PITT, earl of, was born in Cornwall, England, Nov. 15, 1708. Educated at Oxford he en- tered Parliament in 1736. His fig- ure was tall and manly; his deport- ment dignified and graceful; his countenance singularly expressive. His voice was both full and clear. While his lowest whisper was dis- tinctly heard, his middle tones were sweet, rich, and beautifully varied; and when he elevated his voice to its highest pitch, the House was completely filled with the volume of the sound. All accounts concur in representing the effects of his oratory to have been prodigious. The spirit and vehemence which animated it the appositeness of his invective the grandeur of his ideas, and the heart-stirring nature
of his appeals, are all confessed by the united testimony of his contem- poraries. In 1756 he was at the head of the ministry. In 1757 an attempt, partially successful, was made to drive "the great com- moner," as he was called, from power; but after an interval, he re- turned with greater influence than ever. Finding himself, however, inadequately seconded by his col- legues, he resigned office 1768. In the House of Lords he strenuously urged the abandonment of coercive measures against America; but his warnings were rejected, and in 1776 the colonies declared themselves independent. It was while exhort- ing the lords on the subject of a reconciliation with America, that he fell down in a convulsive fit in the House, April 8, 1778, dying on the 11th of the following month, in the 70th year of his age. The pri- vate life of Chatham was no less amiable and exemplary than his public career was illustrious. As
an orator he stands foremost among English debaters. His second son was the celebrated William Pitt. See speech, p. 113. CHEVALIER (shev-a-leer'). CHILLON (shil-long'). CHIVALRY (Shiv'al-ry).
CHOPS, in nautical usage, the mouth or entrance.
CHRISTENDOM (kris'n-dom), Christian countries collectively. CHRISTIANITY (kris-te-an'i-ty). CICERO, Marcus Tullius, the most eminent of Roman orators, was born B. C. 106. He distinguished him- self not only as a statesman, but as an advocate and writer. His works are numerous. While occupying the office of consul, he denounced the conspiracy of Catiline, and drove the profligate from Rome. For this service the public enthusiasm heap- ed upon Cicero unwonted honors; in the senate and in the forum he was saluted as parens patriæ (the parent of his country). For an ac- count of the death of Cicero, see note, p. 375; speech, p. 456. CIMBRI (sim'bri), a Celtic people who occupied a region, now a part of Denmark. They were defeated in battle by Marius, B. C. 102. CI'MON, an Athenian general, son of Miltiades, distinguished himself against the Persians, 470 B. C. He
displayed his wisdom and patriotism by founding public schools. CLANGOR (klang'gur). CLERK (klerk or klark). COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, distin guished as a poet and philosopher, was the son of a clergyman, and born in Devonshire, England, in 1772. He entered the university at Cambridge, but suddenly left and enlisted in London into a horse regi- ment. Discovered and rescued by his friends, he returned to Cam- bridge, which he subsequently left without a degree. He now associ- ated himself with Southey, and another young poet, Lovel, in a Utopian scheme of founding a Pantisocracy, or republic of pure freedom, in America; but this pro- ject evaporated very harmlessly in the marriages of the poets with three sisters at Bristol. Coleridge's hab- its of mind and of business rendered his publications unprofitable to him- self, and disastrous to his publishers. Opium-eating gradually unhinged the structure of his mind, and he became an exile from his family and his dearest friends, of whom Wordsworth had been one. capital defect seemed to be a want of energetic will. His prose works include dissertations on theology, history, politics, the principles of society. His poetical works consist of odes, ballads, dramas; but most of them exhibit incompleteness of design. His translations from the German of Schiller are very admi- rable. The conspicuous features of his poetry are its exquisite melody of versification, and the fine literary taste by which the diction is chas- tened. His "Hymn to Mont Blanc," in its exultant sublimity, equals the best efforts of Milton. Coleridge was celebrated for his powers of conversation. He died at Highgate, July, 1834. His son, Hartley Cole- ridge inherited his father's infirmi ties, and much of his father's genius. See pp. 274, 434. COLLINS, WILLIAM, the son of a hat- ter, was born in Chichester, Eng- land, 1720. In 1744 he settled in London, but suffered from poverty even beyond the common lot of poets. He published his Odes, and planned gigantic enterprises of au- thorship; but his mode of life, act- ing on latent tendencies to insanity,
nursed the fatal seed that germinat- ed into incurable madness. After a seven years' existence in this state, he died at Chichester in 1756. Dr. Johnson called on him in the midst of his malady, and found him reading the New Testament. "I have but one book," said poor Col- lins, "but it is the best." Collins's poems are not numerous; but they exhibit a fine literary taste, a spir- itual transparency of conception and expression, great refinement of diction, and an unerring ear for rhythmical melody. See pp. 131, 307. COL-OS-SE'UM
or COLISEUM, the amphitheatre of Vespasian at Rome.
COLTER OF COULTER, the fore-iron or cutter of a plow.
COMBAT (kum'bat or kom'bat). COMELY (kum'ly).
COM-MUNE', to converse; also, to re- ceive the communion. COM'MON-PLACE, trite.
COMRADE (kom'rāde or kŭm'rāde). CONFESSOR. The best speakers put the accent on the first syllable; but there is authority for con-fess'or. CONSTRUE (kon'stroo). CON-TEMPLATE, to view. CONTUMELY. Hood (p. 54) puts the accent on the second syllable; but, except where the measure requires it, it should be on the first: kon'tu- me-ly.
CORDON (kor'don or kor'dong), a band worn as a badge; also, a line of military posts. CORSELET (kors'let). CORTES (kor'těz), FERNANDO, the conqueror of Mexico, was born in Spain, 1485; died 1554. COTTLE, JOSEPH, a bookseller of Bristol, England, born 1769, died 1853. He was the author of various poems and of a volume of Reminis- cences of Coleridge and others. See his account of Henderson, p. 444. COUNCILOR or COUNCILLOR. COUNSELOR or COUNSELLOR. COURTEOUS (kurt'e-us or kōrt'yus). COWPER, WM., was born in Hertford- shire, England, in 1731.
only six years old when he lost his mother. More than fifty years after the day on which a sad little face, looking from the nursery window, had seen a dark hearse moving slowly from the door, an old man,
then enjoying a brief lucid interval, bent over a picture, and saw the never-forgotten image of that kind- est earthly friend, from whom he had so long been severed, but whom he was so soon to join in the sor- rowless land. There are no more touching or beautiful lines in Eng- lish poetry than Cowper's Verses to his mother's picture. The cir- cumstance to which his morbid nervousness and melancholy may most of all be traced, is full of warning for the young. The poor, motherless boy of six was sent to a boarding-school, where a senior pupil, whose brutality and coward- ice cannot be too strongly con- demned, led the child a terrible life for two years, crushing down his young spirit with cruel blows and bitter persecution. Cowper's prin- cipal poems, Table Talk, The Task, &c., are mostly of a didactic char- acter; but their lofty strain of religious and moral reflection is mingled with general satire, and interspersed with description. His language, simple, elegant, and ex- pressive, gushes without effort into every avenue of feeling. In 1791 he published a translation of Homer, which we think deserving a higher. reputation than it has yet reached. In 1794, the gloom of madness fell again upon his mind, and only for very brief intervals was there any light, until the ineffable brilliance of a higher life broke on his rap- tured gaze. He died April 25, 1800. See pp. 286, 400.
CORSE (kors or kōrs). CRIMEAN (kri-me'an), pertaining to the Crimea.
CROLY, REV. GEORGE, poet and the- ologian, was born in Dublin, Ire- land, in 1780, and studied for the Church. He is the author of "Tales of the Great St. Bernard," "Sala- thiel, a Novel," " Catiline, a Trag- edy," and several minor poems, marked by dramatic power and great literary skill. His diction is sometimes overwrought in its in- tensity, but never tame or inele- gant. He died 1860. See p. 104. CUR'FEW (from the French couvre- feu, cover fire), a bell anciently rung at eight o'clock in the evening, when people were obliged to ex- tinguish their fires and lights.
smitten with incurable madness, but | CURRAN, JOHN PHILPOT, an Irish
lawyer and patriot, celebrated for his eloquence and wit, was born of humble parents in the neighborhood of Cork, 1750. He became a mem- ber of the Irish house of commons in 1784. His oratorical powers were of the most brilliant descrip- tion, and through them he wielded an immense influence over his coun- trymen. He died in London 1817. See p. 260.
DACTYL'IC, pertaining to a dactyl or poetical foot consisting of three syllables, the first long and the others short, like the joints of a finger; the Greek word daktulos meaning a finger. DANIEL (dan'e-el).
DANTE (dän'te), ALIGHIERI, the sub- limest of the Italian poets, was born at Florence, 1265, and died at Ra- venna, 1321. DAUNT (dänt).
DAVY, SIR HUMPHREY, a celebrated chemist, born in England, 1779, died 1838.
DECATUR, STEPHEN, an American naval officer, distinguished for bravery and skill, was born 1779, and fell in a duel with Commodore Barron, 1820.
DECEASE (-sese not -seze). DECIUS (de'se-us), a consul of ancient Rome, B. C. 340. The night before a great battle, he and his colleague had a vision, announcing that the general of one side and the army of the other were devoted to death. The consuls thereupon agreed that the one whose wing first began to waver should devote himself and the army of the enemy to destruction. This fortune fell to Decius; and as his wing gave way, he rushed among the thickest of the enemy, and was slain, leaving the victory to the Romans." DEFENSE OF DEFENCE. Webster pre- fers 8, because s is used in the de- rivative defensive.
DEMOCRACY. This word is derived from the Greek demos, people, krateo, to govern.
DEMOS THE-NES, the greatest orator
of antiquity, was born at Athens, in Greece, about 380 B. C. In his first attempts to speak before the people, his feeble and stammering voice, his interrupted respiration, his ungraceful gestures, and his ill- arranged periods, brought upon him general ridicule. His failure,
however, only roused his energies; he resolved to correct the deficien- cies of his youth, and overcame them with a zeal and perseverance which have passed into a proverb. He was an active foe to all en- croachments on public freedom, and was consequently maligned by Eschines who favored the aristo- cratic faction. It was to rouse his countrymen against Philip, King of Macedonia, that the most splendid orations of Demosthenes, called his Philippics, were pronounced. He died B. C. 322. "His manner," says Hume, "is rapid harmony exactly adjusted to the sense; it is vehement reasoning without any appearance of art; it is disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, involved in a continued stream of argument; and, of all human productions, the orations of Demosthenes present to us the models which approach the nearest to perfection." See pp. 123, 247, 481.
DESIGN (de-sine' or de-zine'). DEWY (dū'y).
DEXTEROUS or DEXTROUS. Webster prefers the latter form. DICKENS, CHARLES, the most popular English novelist of his day, was born at Portsmouth, England, 1812. Early in life he was placed in an attorney's office; then he be- came a reporter for some of the daily papers of London, and at length began to sketch on paper, under the signature of Boz, the va- ried life he witnessed. His fame dates from the publication of his "Pickwick Papers" in 1837. Then followed "Nicholas Nickleby," a tale crowded with finely drawn por- traits and scenes of modern English life; and "Oliver Twist," in which some of the lowest forms of London life are depicted. A visit to Amer- ica in 1842 supplied material for two new works," American Notes for General Circulation," and "Martin Chuzzlewit." In both his besetting tendency to caricature is prominent. Seizing an odd feature or whimsical trait in a man or woman, he creates from that sin- gle quality a character. Dickens's works all betray haste in the com- position. Commanding large sums by his pen, he is obviously tempted to give little time to that condensa- tion and elaboration which might
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