Chapter 31 of 49 · 3760 words · ~19 min read

Part 31

CARYL, JOSEPH (1602-1673), English Nonconformist divine, was born in London in 1602. He graduated at Exeter College, Oxford, and became preacher at Lincoln's Inn. He frequently preached before the Long Parliament, and was a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643. By order of the parliament he attended Charles I. in Holmby House, and in 1650 he was sent with John Owen to accompany Cromwell to Scotland. In 1662 he was ejected from his church of St Magnus near London Bridge, but continued to minister to an Independent congregation in London till his death in March 1673, when John Owen succeeded him. His piety and learning are displayed in his ponderous commentary on Job (12 vols., 4to., 1651-1666; 2nd ed., 2 vols., fol. 1676-1677).

CARYOPHYLLACEAE, a botanical order of dicotyledonous plants, containing about 60 genera with 1300 species, and widely distributed, especially in temperate, alpine and arctic regions. The plants are herbs, sometimes becoming shrubby at the base, with opposite, simple, generally uncut leaves and swollen nodes. The main axis ends in a flower (definite inflorescence), and flower-bearing branches are borne one on each side by which the branching is often continued (known technically as a dichasial cyme). The flowers are regular, with four or five sepals which are free or joined to form a tube in their lower portion, the same number of petals, free and springing from below the ovary, twice as many stamens, inserted with the petals, and a pistil of two to five carpels joined to form an ovary containing a large number of ovules on a central placenta and bearing two to five styles; the ovary is one-celled or incompletely partitioned at the base into three to five cells; honey is secreted at the base of the stamens. The fruit is a capsule containing a large number of small seeds and opening by apical teeth; the seed contains a floury endosperm and a curved embryo.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Stitchwort (_Stellaria Holostea_). 1, Flower cut vertically; 2, seed; 3, same cut vertically; 4, same cut horizontally.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--1, Flowering shoot of Pink (_Dianthus_); 2, horizontal plan of flower; 3, flower in vertical section.]

The order is divided into two well-defined tribes which are distinguished by the character of the flower and the arrangements for ensuring pollination.

Tribe I. _Alsineae_: the sepals are free and the flowers are open, with spreading petals, and the honey which is secreted at the base of the stamens is exposed to the visits of short-tongued insects, such as flies and small bees; the petals are white in colour. It includes several British genera, _Cerastium_ (mouse-ear chickweed), _Stellaria_ (fig. 1) (stitchwort and chickweed), _Arenaria_ (sandwort), _Sagina_ (pearlwort), _Spergula_ (spurrey) and _Spergularia_ (sandwort spurrey).

[Illustration: FIG. 3. a, Pistil of _Cerastium hirsutum_ cut vertically; o, unilocular or monothecal ovary; p, free central placenta; g, ovules; s, styles.

b, The same cut horizontally, and the halves separated so as to show the interior of the cavity of the ovary o, with the free central placenta p, covered with ovules g.]

Tribe II. _Sileneae_: the sepals are joined below to form a narrow tube, in which stand the long claws of the petals and the stamens, partly closing the tube and rendering the honey inaccessible to all but long-tongued insects such as the larger bees and Lepidoptera. The flowers are often red. It includes several British genera:--_Dianthus_ (pink) fig. 2, _Silene_ (catchfly, bladder campion), _Lychnis_ (campion, _L. Flos-Cuculi_ is ragged robin), and _Githago_ or _Agrostemma_ (corn cockle). Several, such as _Lychnis vespertina, Silene nutans_ and others, are night-flowering, opening their flowers and becoming scented in the evening or at night, when they are visited by night-flying moths.

The plants of this order are of little or no economic value, soap-wort, _Saponaria officinalis_, forming a lather in water was formerly officinal. _Dianthus_ (carnation and pink) _Gypsophila, Lychnis_ and others, are garden plants.

CASABIANCA, RAPHAEL, COMTE DE (1738-1825), French general, was descended from a noble Corsican family. In 1769 he took the side of France against Genoa, then mistress of the island. In 1793, having entered the service of the revolutionary government, he was appointed lieutenant-general in Corsica in place of Pascale Paoli, who was outlawed for intrigues with England. For his defence of Calvi against the English he was appointed general of division, and he served in Italy from 1794 to 1798. After the 18th of Brumaire he entered the senate and was made count of the empire in 1806. In 1814 he joined the party of Louis XVIII., rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and in 1819 succeeded again in entering the chamber of peers.

His nephew, LOUIS DE CASABIANCA (1762-1798), entered the French navy, served in the convoy of the French troops sent to aid the revolted American colonies, and took part in various naval actions off the North American coast. He became captain in 1792, represented Corsica in the Convention, and then received command of the _Orient_, which at the battle of the Nile bore the flag of Admiral Brueys. When the latter was killed, Casabianca, though badly wounded, fought the burning ship to the end, and perished with most of the crew. His son, Giacomo Jocante, a boy of ten years of age, refused to leave the ship and died in trying to save his father. This heroic act was the subject of several poems, including the well-known ballad by Mrs. Hemans.

CASABLANCA (_Dar el Baida_, "the white house"), a seaport on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, in 33 deg. 27' N., 7 deg. 46' W. It is a wool and grain port for central Morocco, chiefly for the provinces of Tadla and Shawia. Third in importance of the towns on the Moorish coast, unimpeded by bar or serious rocks, the roadstead is exposed to the north-west winds. There is anchorage for steamers in 5 to 6 fathoms. Vessels were loaded and discharged by lighters from the beach. In May 1907 the construction began of harbour works which afford sheltered accommodation for ships at all states of the tide. The value of the foreign trade of the port for the period 1897-1907 was about L750,000 a year. A railway to Ber Reshid, the first section of a line intended to tap the rich agricultural region of which Casablanca is the port, was opened in September 1908, being the first railway built in Morocco. The population, about 20,000, includes numerous foreign merchants, Franciscan and Protestant missions, and a consular corps. Built by the Portuguese upon the site of the once prosperous town of Anfa, which they had destroyed in 1468, Casablanca was held by them for some time, till trouble with the natives compelled them to abandon it. In August 1907, in consequence of the murder of a number of French and Spanish workmen engaged on the harbour works, the town was bombarded and occupied by the French (see MOROCCO: _History_).

CASALE MONFERRATO, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Alessandria, 21 m. N.N.W. by rail from the town of Alessandria. Pop. (1901) 18,874 (town); 31,370 (commune). It lies in the plain on the right bank of the Po, 377 ft. above sea-level, and is a junction for Mortara, Vercelli. Chivasso and Asti; it is also connected by steam tramways with Alessandria, Vercelli and Montemagno. The fine Lombard Romanesque cathedral, originally founded in 742, was rebuilt in the early 12th century and consecrated in 1106; it suffered from restoration in 1706, but has been brought back to its original form. It contains some good pictures. The church of S. Domenico is a good Renaissance edifice, and there are some fine palaces. The church of S. Ilario is said to occupy the site of a pagan temple, but the name of the ancient town (if any) which occupied this site is not known. About 10 m. distant is the Sacro Monte di Crea, with eighteen chapels on its slopes containing terra-cotta groups of statues, resembling those at Varallo. Casale Monferrato was given by Charlemagne to the church of Vercelli, but obtained its liberty from Frederick I. (Barbarossa). It was sacked by the troops of Vercelli, Alessandria and Milan in 1215, but rebuilt and fortified in 1220. It fell under the power of its marquises in 1292, and became the chief town of a small state. In 1536 it passed to the Gonzagas of Mantua, who fortified it very strongly. It has since been of considerable importance as a fortress: it successfully resisted the Austrians in 1849, and was strengthened in 1852. There is a large Portland cement factory here.

CASAMARI, a Cistercian abbey in the province of Rome, 6 m. E.S.E. of Veroli. It marks the site of Cereatae, the birthplace of Marius, afterwards known, as inscriptions attest, as Cereatae Marianae, having been separated perhaps by the triumvirs, from the territory of Arpinum. We find it under the early empire as an independent community. The abbey is a fine example of Burgundian early-Gothic (1203-1217), paralleled in Italy by Fossanuova alone (which is almost contemporary with it), and is very well preserved.

See C. Enlart, "Origines francaises de l'architecture gothique en Italie" (_Bibliotheque des ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome_, fasc. 66), (Paris, 1894).

CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, GIOVANNI JACOPO (1725-1798), Italian adventurer, was born at Venice in 1725. His father belonged to an ancient and even noble family, but alienated his friends by embracing the dramatic profession early in life. He made a runaway marriage with Zanetta Farusi, the beautiful daughter of a Venetian shoemaker; and Giovanni was their eldest child. When he was but a year old, his parents, taking a journey to London, left him in charge of his grandmother, who, perceiving his precocious and lively intellect, had him educated far above her means. At sixteen he passed his examination and entered the seminary of St Cyprian in Venice, from which he was expelled a short time afterwards for some scandalous and immoral conduct, which would have cost him his liberty, had not his mother managed somehow to procure him a situation in the household of the Cardinal Acquaviva. He made but a short stay, however, in that prelate's establishment, all restraint being irksome to his wayward disposition, and took to travelling. Then began that existence of adventure and intrigue which only ended with his death. He visited Rome, Naples, Corfu and Constantinople. By turns journalist, preacher, abbe, diplomatist, he was nothing very long, except _homme a bonnes fortunes_, which profession he cultivated till the end of his days. In 1755, having returned to Venice, he was denounced as a spy and imprisoned. On the 1st of November 1756 he succeeded in escaping, and made his way to Paris. Here he was made director of the state lotteries, gained much financial reputation and a considerable fortune, and frequented the society of the most notable French men and women of the day. In 1759 he set out again on his travels. He visited in turn the Netherlands, South Germany, Switzerland--where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire,--Savoy, southern France, Florence---whence he was expelled,--and Rome, where the pope gave him the order of the Golden Spur. In 1761 he returned to Paris, and for the next four or five years lived partly here, partly in England, South Germany and Italy. In 1764 he was in Berlin, where he refused the offer of a post made him by Frederick II. He then travelled by way of Riga and St Petersburg to Warsaw, where he was favourably received by King Stanislaus Poniatowski. A scandal, followed by a duel, forced him to flee, and he returned by a devious route to Paris, only to find a _lettre de cachet_ awaiting him, which drove him to seek refuge in Spain. Expelled from Madrid in 1769, he went by way of Aix--where he met Cagliostro--to Italy once more. From 1774, with which year his memoirs close, he was a police spy in the service of the Venetian inquisitors of state; but in 1782, in consequence of a satirical libel on one of his patrician patrons, he had once more to go into exile. In 1785 he was appointed by Count Waldstein, an old Paris acquaintance, his librarian at the chateau of Dux in Bohemia. Here he lived until his death, which probably occurred on the 4th of June 1798.

The main authority for Casanova's life is his _Memoires_ (12 vols., Leipzig, 1826-1838; later ed. in 8 vols., Paris, 1885), which were written at Dux. They are clever, well written and, above all, cynical, and interesting as a trustworthy picture of the morals and manners of the times. Among Casanova's other works may be mentioned _Confutazione della storia del governo Veneto d'Amelot de la Houssaye_ (Amsterdam, 1769), an attempt to ingratiate himself with the Venetian government; and the _Histoire_ of his escape from prison (Leipzig, 1788; reprinted Bordeaux, 1884; Eng. trans, by P. Villars, 1892). Ottmann's _Jacob Casanova_ (Stuttgart, 1900) contains a bibliography.

CASAS GRANDES ("Great Houses"), a small village of Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua, situated on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, about 35 m. S. of Llanos and 150 m. N.W. of the city of Chihuahua. The railway from Ciudad Juarez to Terrazas passes through the town. It is celebrated for the ruins of early aboriginal buildings still extant, about half a mile from its present site. They are built of "sun-dried blocks of mud and gravel, about 22 in. thick, and of irregular length, generally about 3 ft., probably formed and dried _in situ._" The walls are in some places about 5 ft. thick, and they seem to have been plastered both inside and outside. The principal edifice extends 800 ft. from north to south, and 250 ft. east to west; its general outline is rectangular, and it appears to have consisted of three separate piles united by galleries or lines of lower buildings. The exact plan of the whole is obscure, but the apartments evidently varied in size from mere closets to extensive courts. The walls still stand at many of the angles with a height of from 40 to 50 ft., and indicate an original elevation of several storeys, perhaps six or seven. At a distance of about 450 ft. from the main building are the substructions of a smaller edifice, consisting of a series of rooms ranged round a square court, so that there are seven to each side besides a larger apartment at each corner. The age of these buildings is unknown, as they were already in ruins at the time of the Spanish Conquest. The whole district of Casas Grandes is further studded with artificial mounds, from which are excavated from time to time large numbers of stone axes, metates or corn-grinders, and earthern vessels of various kinds. These last have a white or reddish ground, with ornamentation in blue, red, brown or black, and are of much better manufacture than the modern pottery of the country. Similar ruins to those of Casas Grandes exist near the Gila, the Salinas, and the Colorado and it is probable that they are all the erections of one people. Bancroft is disposed to assign them to the Moquis.

See vol. iv. of H.H. Bancroft's _The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America_, of which the principal authorities are the _Noticias del Estado de Chihuahua_ of Escudero, who visited the ruins in 1819; an article in the first volume of the _Album Mexicano_, the author of which was at Casas Grandes in 1842; and the _Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua_ (1854), by John Russell Bartlett, who explored the locality in 1851.

CASAUBON, FLORENCE ESTIENNE MERIC (1599-1671), English classical scholar, son of Isaac Casaubon, was born at Geneva on the 14th of August 1599. At an early age he joined his father in England, and completed his education at Eton and Oxford (B.A. 1618). His defence of his father against the attacks of certain Catholics (_Pietas contra maledicos patrii Nominis el Religionis Hostes_, 1621), secured him the notice and favour of James I., who conferred upon him a prebendal stall in Canterbury cathedral. He also vindicated his father's literary reputation against certain impostors who had published, under his name, a work on _The Origin of Idolatry (Vindicatio Patris adversus Impostores_, 1624). During the Civil War he lived a retired life, and after its conclusion refused to acknowledge the authority of Cromwell, who, notwithstanding, requested him to write an "impartial" history of the events of the period. In spite of the tempting inducements held out, he declined, and also refused the post of inspector of the Swedish universities offered him by Queen Christina. After the Restoration, he was reinstated in his benefice, and devoted the rest of his life to literary work. He died at Canterbury on the 14th of July 1671. Meric Casaubon's reputation was overshadowed by that of his father; but his editions of numerous classical authors, and especially of the _Meditations_ of Marcus Aurelius (also English translation, new ed. by W.H.D. Rouse, 1900), were highly valued. Among his other works may be mentioned: _De Quatuor Linguis Commentatio_ (1650), _Of the Necessity of Reformation_ (1664), _On Credulity and Incredulity in Things natural, civil and divine_ (1668).

CASAUBON, ISAAC (1550-1614), French (naturalized English) classical scholar, was born at Geneva, on the 18th of February 1559, of French refugee parents. On the publication of the edict of January 1562, the family returned to France and settled at Crest in Dauphine, where Arnaud Casaubon, Isaac's father, became minister of a Huguenot congregation. Till he was nineteen, Isaac had no other instruction than what could be given him by his father during the years of civil war. Arnaud was away from home whole years together in the Calvinist camp, or the family were flying to the hills to hide from the fanatical bands of armed Catholics who patrolled the country. Thus it was in a cave in the mountains of Dauphine, after the massacre of St Bartholomew, that Isaac received his first lesson in Greek, the text-book being Isocrates _ad Demonicum_.

At nineteen Isaac was sent to the Academy of Geneva, where he read Greek under Francis Portus, a native of Crete. Portus died in 1581, having recommended Casaubon, then only twenty-two, as his successor. At Geneva he remained as professor of Greek till 1596. Here he married twice, his second wife being Florence, daughter of the scholar-printer, Henri Estienne. Here, without the stimulus of example or encouragement, with few books and no assistance, in a city peopled with religious refugees, and struggling for life against the troops of the Catholic dukes of Savoy, Casaubon made himself a consummate Greek scholar and master of ancient learning. His great wants at Geneva were books and the sympathy of learned associates. He spent all he could save out of his small salary in buying books, and in having copies made of such classics as were not then in print. Henri Estienne, Theodore de Beza (rector of the university and professor of theology), and Jacques Lect (Lectius), were indeed men of superior learning. But Henri, in those last years of his life, was no longer the Estienne of the _Thesaurus_; he was never at home, and would not suffer his son-in-law to enter his library. "He guards his books," writes Casaubon, "as the griffins in India do their gold!" Beza was engrossed by the cares of administration, and retained, at most, an interest for theological reading, while Lect, a lawyer and diplomatist, had left classics for the active business of the council. The sympathy and help which Casaubon's native city could not afford him, he endeavoured to supply by cultivating the acquaintance of the learned of other countries. Geneva, as the metropolis of Calvinism, received a constant succession of visitors. The continental tour of the young Englishman of birth was not complete without a visit to Geneva. It was there that Casaubon made the acquaintance of young Henry Wotton, the poet and diplomatist, who lodged in his house and borrowed his money. Of more consequence to Isaac Casaubon was the acquaintance of Richard Thomson ("Dutch" Thomson), fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; for it was through Thomson that the attention of Joseph Scaliger, settled in 1593 at Leiden, was directed to Casaubon. Scaliger and Casaubon first exchanged letters in 1594. Their intercourse, which was wholly by letter, for they never met, passes through the stages of civility, admiration, esteem, regard and culminates in a tone of the tenderest affection and mutual confidence. Influential French men of letters, the Protestant Jacques Bongars, the Catholic Jacques de Thou, and the Catholic convert Philippe Canaye, sieur du Fresne, aided him by presents of books and encouragement, and endeavoured to get him invited, in some capacity, to France.

This was effected in 1596, in which year Casaubon accepted an invitation to the university of Montpellier, with the title of _conseiller du roi_ and _professeur stipendie aux langues et bonnes lettres_. In Montpellier he never took root. He held the professorship there only three years, with several prolonged absences. The hopes raised by his brilliant reception were disappointed; he was badly treated by the authorities, by whom his salary was only paid very irregularly, and, finally, not at all. He was not, at any time, insensible to the attractions of teaching, and his lectures at Montpellier were followed not only by the students, but by men of mature age and position. But the love of knowledge was gradually growing upon him, and he began to perceive that editing Greek books was an employment more congenial to his peculiar powers than teaching. At Geneva he had first tried his hand on some notes on Diogenes Laertius, on Theocritus and the New Testament, the last undertaken at his father's request. His debut as an editor had been a complete Strabo (1587), of which he was so ashamed afterwards that he apologized for its crudity to Scaliger, calling it "a miscarriage." This was followed by the text of Polyaenus, an _editio princeps_, 1589; a text of Aristotle, 1590; and a few notes contributed to Estienne's editions of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Pliny's _Epistolae_. It is not till we come to his edition of Theophrastus's _Characteres_ (1592), that we have a specimen of that peculiar style of illustrative commentary, at once apposite and profuse, which distinguishes Casaubon among annotators. At the time of his removal to Montpellier he was engaged upon what is the capital work of his life, his edition of, and commentary on, Athenaeus.