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great the distinction might be between knights in point of rank and wealth, custom established a species of equality among all of the same order, which may be said to subsist among gentlemen of the present day. They formed, all over Europe, a common corporation, as it were, possessing certain rights, and owing each other certain mutual duties and forbearances. They were united, not by the ties of country, but by those of feudal obedience, which attached every knight to the banner of his liege lord, from whom he held his fee; but little or rather no dishonor attached to knights who were under no such feudal tie, if they chose their own chieftain wherever they thought fit: they were free adventurers, whose erder was a passport in every service; and in the actual conflict, the hostility of knights was moderated by usage. Thus, it was dishonorable in any knight to take a knight's life if disarmed, and not set him free when a prisoner on receiving a fitting ransom. With regard to the point of honor, which forms the most important feature in the usages of chivalry, the principal objects were religious belief; fealty to the feudal superior; devotion to some one selected lady; and, finally, the general character for honor and courtesy which it was incumbent on a knight to maintain; for although his imaginary duties, as a knight errant, to avenge wrong and succor the oppressed on every occasion, were not of course very strictly put in practice, yet his vow to perform those duties attached to his character a certain degree of sacredness which it was necessary to maintain. Chivalrous honor was chiefly supported in two ways: first, by the single combat or duel, whether on account of serious provocation or by way of trial of strength; secondly, by the performance of vows, often of the most frivolous and extravagant nature. These latter were generally undertaken for the honor of the ladies. The commencement of extravagances, however, was rather a sign of the decline of the true spirit of chivalry. It decayed with the progress of mercenary armies and the decline of feudal institutions through the 15th century; in the 16th, it was little more than a lively recollection of past ages, which knights such as Bayard, and sovereigns such as Francis I. and Henry VIII. strove to revive; and finally, it became extinguished amid religious discords, leaving as its only relic the code of honor, which is still considered as governing the conduct of the gentleman.

CHLA'MYS, in antiquity, a military habit worn over the tunica. It belonged to the patricians, and was the same in the time of war, that the toga was in the time of peace. It was a light cloak, or rather scarf, the ends of which were fastened on the shoulder by a clasp or buckle. It hung with two long points as far as the thigh, and was richly ornamented with purple and gold. When the fibula was unclasped the chlamys hung on the

left arm, as with Hermes, or served as a kind of shield, as Poseidon, on the old coins, protects his arm with the chlamys. It is fastened on the right shoulder, in the statues of Theseus and the heroic Ephebes, in a wrestling attitude, covering the breast and enveloping the left arm, which is somewhat raised. The figures of Heracles and Hermes, are quite covered by the chlamys, even below the body, whence the Hermes pillar tapers; the right hand lies on the breast under the chlamys, and the left arm, covered to the wrist, hangs by the side; in the centre of the breast depends a lion's claw at the opening of the scarf. In the Hermes' statues, the chlamys, when fastened on the right shoulder, forms a triangle from the neck.

CHOIR, in architecture, the part of a church in which the choristers sing divine service. In former times it was raised separate from the altar, with a pulpit on each side, in which the epistles and gospels were sung, as is still the case in several churches on the continent.

It

was separated from the nave in the time of Constantine. In nunneries, the choir is a large apartment, separated by a grate from the body of the church, where the nuns chant the service. This term is used also in music to signify a band of singers in different parts.

CHORAGIC MONUMENTS, the small monuments to which we apply this term originated in the time of Pericles, who built an Odeon at Athens for musical contests, not of single persons, but of choruses. The richest and most respectable man was chosen from the ten Athenian tribes, as choragus, to make the necessary arrangements, in return for which distinction he had to de

fray the expenses. If his chorus were victorious, he had also the right of placing upon a monument erected at his own cost, the tripod, which was given as the prize. The rich citizens whose chorus conquered in these contests displayed great splendor in their monuments, which were so numerous that at Athens there was a street formed entirely of them called the "Street of the Tripods."

CHORD, in music, the union of two or more sounds uttered at the same time, forming an entire harmony; as a third, fifth, and eighth.

CHOREG RAPHY, the art of representing dancing by signs, as singing is by

notes.

CHORE'US, in ancient poetry, a foot of two syllables; the first long, and the second short; the trochee.

CHORIAM'BUS, in ancient poetry, a foot compounded of a trochee and an iambus.

CHOROG'RAPHY, the art of delineating or describing some particular country or province: it differs from geography as a description of a particular country differs from that of the whole earth; and from topography as the description of a country from that of a town or district.

CHO'RUS, in ancient dramatic poetry, one or more persons present on the stage during the representation, uttering an occasional commentary on the piece, preparing the audience for events that are to follow, or explaining circumstances

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CHREMATISTICS, the science of wealth; a name given by Continental writers to the science of political economy, or rather to what in their view constitutes a portion of the science. They consider political economy as a term more properly applicable to the whole range of subjects which comprise the material welfare of states and citizens, and chrematistics as merely a branch of it.

CHRESTOM'ATHY, according to the etymology, that which it is useful to learn. The Greeks frequently formed commonplace books by collecting the various passages to which, in the course of reading, they had affixed the mark X (xpnoros, useful.) Hence books of extracts chosen with a view to utility have received this name.

CHRISM, or CHRIS'OM, in the Romish and Greek churches, an unction or anointing of children, which was formerly practised as soon as they were born.

CHRISTENDOM, a word sometimes employed in such a sense as to comprehend all nations in which Christianity prevails: more commonly, all. realms governed under Christian sovereigns and institutions. Thus European Turkey, although three fourths of its inhabitants are Christians, is not in ordinary lan|guage included within the term Christendom.

CHRISTENING, a term particularly applied to infant baptism, denoting the ceremony of admitting a person into the communion of the Christian church by means of baptism, or sprinking with water.

CHRISTIANITY, the religion of Jesus Christ. From the period when the disciples "were called Christians first in Antioch" down to the present day, the main doctrines of the gospel, and the great moral principles which it reveals and confirms, have been preserved without interruption in the church. But notwithstanding this substantial unity, it cannot be denied that the character of the religion has been very materially colored throughout all its history by the

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circumstances and genius of different nations and ages. The foundation of a Christian's faith and practice, his ultimate, and, in truth, only appeal, must be to the facts, the doctrines, and the precepts of the Scriptures, especially to those of the New Testament.

CHRIST MAS, the festival observed in the Christian church on the 25th of December, in commemoration of our Saviour's nativity; and celebrated in the church of England by a particular service set apart for that holy day.

CHRISTOPHER, ST. We frequently meet with this saint in old woodcuts; he is represented as a giant, his staff being the stem of a large tree, and he is carrying the infant Jesus on his shoulders across a river. This was a favorite subject with the artists of the middle ages, and the saint is placed in the side entrances of German churches as the symbol of the transition from heathenism to Christianity. The incidents in the life of this saint chosen for illustration by painters, consist of the passage of the river, the conversion of the heathen at Samos, and his martyrdom.

CHROMATIC, in music, an epithet descriptive of that which proceeds by several consecutive semitones.

CHROME GREEN, a beautiful darkgreen pigment, prepared from the oxide of chromium. Different shades of this pigment are used in porcelain and in oilpainting. Mixed with Prussian blue and chrome yellow it is called green cin

nabar.

CHROME RED, the pigment known at present by this name is not prepared from chrome, but is a beautiful preparation of red lead. The name chrome red was given to it by speculators, in order to secure a good sale and a high price. Red lead is an oxide of lead, while chrome red is a chromate of lead, which is a durable pigment, and admissible in oil-painting.

CHRONICLES, the

range of their information, according to
the succession of years.
name of two
books in the canon scripture. They con-
sist of an abridgment of sacred history
from its commencement down to the re-
turn of the Jews from the Babylonish
captivity, and are called by the Septua-
gint rapateiropeva, (lit. things omitted,)
because they contain many supplemental
relations omitted in the other historical
books. It has been generally supposed
that the Chronicles were compiled by
Ezra, though circumstances are not want-
ing to diminish the probability of this
conjecture. Eichhorn gives as his rea-
sons for attributing them to Ezra their
similarity in point of style, idiom, and
orthography to the books of Kings and
Ezra; while the opponents of this view
base their opinion on the discrepancies
that occur throughout Chronicles and
Kings, in regard to facts, dates, numbers,
names, and genealogies.

CHRONOGRAM, an inscription in which a certain date or epoch is expressed by numeral letters.

CHRONOL'OGY, the science which determines the dates of events, and the civil distinctions of time. The divisions of time are either natural or artificial; the natural divisions of time are the year, month, week, day, and hour, deduced from the motions of the heavenly bodies, and suited to the purposes of civil life: the artificial divisions of time are the cycle or period, the epoch, and the æra or epoch, which have been framed for the purposes of history. In order to ascertain and register the intervals of time between different events, two things must necessarily be assumed: 1st, an epoch or fixed point in time to which all events, whether preceding or succeeding may be referred; and 2d, a measure or definite portion of time, by which the intervals between the fixed epoch and other events may be estimated. Of these the first is entirely arbitrary, and the second arbitrary to a certain extent; for though certain periods are marked out by the recurrence of natural phenomena, yet a choice of these phenomena must be made. It is on account of the arbitrary nature of these two elements, on which all chronological reckoning depends, that so much confusion and uncertainty exist respectCHRONICLE, in literature, an his- ing the dates of historical events. The torical register of events in the order of diversity of epochs which have been astime. Most of the historians of the mid-sumed as the origin of chronological dle ages were chroniclers who set down reckoning, is a natural consequence of the events which happened within the

CHROME YELLOW, the most poisonous of the chrome pigments, and to be entirely rejected in oil-painting: it is not durable. When mixed with white led it turns to a dirty gray. By itself, and as a water-color pigment, it is less objectionable.

CHRON IC, an epithet for inveterate diseases, or those of long duration.

the manner in which science and civili

zation have spread over the world. In the early ages the different communities or tribes into which mankind were divided began to date their years each from some event remarkable only in reference to its own individual history, but of which other tribes were either ignorant, or regarded with indifference. Hence not only different nations, but almost every individual historian or compiler of annals, adopted an epoch of his own. Events of local or temporary interest were also constantly occurring in every community which would appear of greater importance than those which were long past, and constantly be adopted as new historical dates. The foundation of a monarchy or a city, or the accession of a king, were events of this class; and accordingly are epochs of frequent occurrence in the ancient annals. Religion also came in to increase the confusion caused by political changes. Soon after the introduction of Christianity, the various sects began to establish eras, commencing with events connected with the appearance of Christ; but no regard was given to uniformity. In like manner. the Mohammedans employ dates having reference to the origin of their faith. All these circumstances have conspired to render it a task of extreme difficulty for modern historians to ascertain the order of the political occurrences of ancient times. But it is not merely the number of chronological epochs and the various origins of eras that have caused the perplexity; the measure by which long intervals were compared varied in different countries, and in different ages, an i hence arises another source of confusion in arranging the order of time. In the scripture history, the lapse of time is frequently estimated by generations or reigns of kings. Some of the historians of early Greece reckoned by the succession of the priestesses of Juno; others by that of the ephori of Sparta; and others again by the archons of Athens. Even when the length of the solar year, began to be used as the measure of time, uniformity was not obtained. The length of the solar year is a fixed element in nature, and liable to no variation. But neither the commencement or termination of the year is marked by any conspicuous sign. Its precise length can only be ascertained by a long-continued series of astronomical observations. Rude nations were therefore unacquainted with it; and even when it had become known with considerable accuracy, it was still

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necessary to form a civil year, and adapt it to the seasons, the solar year not being composed of an exact number of days. Most nations had recourse to intercalations for this purpose. For these reasons, and numerous others that might easily be adduced, it is very seldom that the precise interval between the events mentioned in ancient history and modern dates can be determined with any degree of certainty, and great discrepancies exist among the computations of different chro nologers.

CHRYSELEPHANTINE,

religious images of gold and ivory. These, the earliest images of the gods in Greece, were of wood, gilt, or inlaid with ivory, whence were derived acrolites, the heads, arms, and feet of which were of marble, the body still of wood, inlaid with ivory, or quite covered with gold. From this arose the chryselephantine statues, of which the foundation was of wood, covered with ivory or gold, with drapery and hair of thin plates of gold, chased; and the rest of the exterior was of ivory, worked in a pattern by the scraper and file, with the help of isinglass. The ivory portion of these works belongs to sculpture, and the gold part to toreutic art; they were long in favor as temple statues, as marble and brass were used for common purposes.

CHRYS OCOLLA, (Gr. gold green.; The Greek term for a green pigment prepared from copper, (green verditer) and one of the most beautiful ancient greens, Armenian green; it was obtained by grinding varieties of malachite and green carbonate of copper, also by decomposing the blue vitriol of Cyprus, (sulphate of copper) as a secondary form of dissolved copper ore. This pigment is identical in color with our different shades of mountain green; the best was brought from Armenia; a second kind was found near copper mines in Macedonia; the third, and most valuable, was brought from Spain. Chrysocolla, called by ancient painters pea or grass green, was valued in proportion as its color approached to the color of a seed beginning to sprout.

CHURCH, in religious affairs, is a word which is used in several senses: 1. The collective body of persons professing one and the same religion; or that religion itself: thus, we say, the Church of Christ. 2. Any particular congregation of Christians associating together, as the Church of Antioch. 3. A particular sect of Christians, as the Greek

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CHURCH ARCHITECTURE.

(8 hottesbrook Church. England.) p. 82.

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