C H A 



748 



C H A 



Chaplain, where the parish is of great extent. In England, 

 ** -Y ^ these chapels are served by inferior curates provided 

 at the charge of the rector, or other parish priest, 

 and they are accordingly removable at his pleasure ; 

 although in some instances chapels of ease have 

 right, by custom, to a distinct minister, and to sacra- 

 ments and other church privileges, and are endowed 

 with tithes. In Scotland, the minister is, for the 

 most part, of the parishioners own appointment, and 

 is maintained by a salary arising from the seat rents. 

 He has right to sacraments, &c. but has no voice in 

 any of the church courts. 2d, Free chapels, which 

 have been endowed by the sovereign, or by pious and 

 charitable persons, and are therefore called free, be- 

 ing no charge upon the parish, or rather,.perhaps be- 

 cause they are exempt from all ordinary jurisdiction. 

 3d, Chapels belonging to universities, or to particular 

 colleges in universities, which are consecrated, and 

 have right to sacraments, &c. but are not liable to 

 any visitations but that of the founder. 4th, Private 

 or domestic chapels, which are built and maintained 

 by noble and wealthy families for private worship, in 

 or near their own houses. These need not be con- 

 secrated, and may be erected without leave of any 

 , superior, nor are they subject to ordinary jurisdiction. 

 Besides these, there are what are called parochial 

 chapels ; but these differ from parish churches only 

 in name, and seem to be so denominated only because 

 they are generally smaller than most churches, and 

 the inhabitants within the district few. Burying 

 places, also, which have been erected by great fami- 

 lies adjoining to, or within a cathedral or other 

 church, are sometimes denominated chapels, (j. B.) 

 CHAPLAIN, (Capellamts,) one attendant on the 

 household of the king, or other honourable person, 

 to say divine service, which is commonly performed 

 in the family private chapel. Each individual of the 

 royal family may retain any number of chaplains; but 

 by stat. 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13, an archbishop is limit- 

 ed to eight; a duke or a bishop six; marquis or earl 

 Jive ; \iscountfour ; baron, knight of the garter, or 

 lord chancellor, three ; a duchess, marchioness, count- 

 ess, baroness, (being widows,) the treasurer and 

 comptroller of the king's house, the king's secreta- 

 ry, dean of the chapel, almoner, and master of the 

 rolls, each of them two; the chief justice of the 

 king's bench, and warden of the cinque ports, one. 

 And by stat. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 16, every judge of 

 the king's bench and common pleas, the chancellor 

 and chief baron of the exchequer, and the king's at- 

 torney and solicitor general, may each of them have 

 one chaplain attendant on his person. And by 33 

 Hen. VIII. c. 28, the groom of the stole, treasurer 

 of the king's chamber, and chancellor of the duchy 

 of Lancaster, may also retain each one chaplain. Un- 

 der the 21 of Henry, the statute first quoted, the 

 thaplains thereby allowed may purchase a licence or 

 dispensation, and take two benefices with cure of 

 souls ; but thuse allowed by the two last can have 

 one benefice only, on which they may be non-resi- 

 dent. 



In England, the king has commonly forty-eight 

 chaplains in appointment, four for each month of the 

 year, whose duty is to preach in the chapels -royal, 

 and read the service to the family. They have no 

 salary, being commonly well provided otherwise. la 

 Scotland he has six, who have each a salary of .,' 50, 

 and three of these have besides the deanery of the 

 chapel-royal divided among them, which extends 

 their emolument to upwards of 100 each. The 

 sum of their duty is to say prayers at the election of 

 the sixteen representative peers for Scotland, (j. B. ) 



CHAR A. See ASTRONOMY, p. 750. 



CHARA, a genus of plants of the class Monoecia, 

 and order Monandria. See BOTANY, p. 310. 



CHARACTER, (fr6m the Greek wtytrnt, I cut, 

 engrave, or indent,) in the literal and radical sense 

 denotes any thing cut or engraved ; hence any kind 

 of peculiar mark cut, drawn, or any way set or im- 

 pressed upon a substance capable of receiving and re- 

 taining it. From this radical sense the word is now 

 applied to denote, 1st, A mark or figure drawn or 

 formed, for the purpose of denoting or suggesting 

 some particular object or idea otherwise than by di- 

 rect representation. 2d, The peculiar and dis- 

 tinguishing properties belonging to an individual, 

 the marks, as it were, by which that individual is 

 distinguished from all others. 3d, By a natural tran- 

 sition from the last, the persons or agents exhibi- 

 bited in narrative or poetical composition, such 

 agents being necessarily marked by peculiar and dis 

 tinctive qualities. 



I. A mark or figure drawn or formed, for the 

 purpose of denoting or suggesting some particular 

 object or idea otherwise than by direct representation. 



The invention and application of marks to denote 

 and suggest objects of which they are not the direct 

 pictures, has its rise from the well known principle 

 of association ; and the same necessity of mutual 

 communication, which led originally to the formation 

 of oral language, could not fail, at a very early pe- 

 riod, to give rise also to the invention and use of visi- 

 ble figures, for fixing and exhibiting to the eye what 

 oral language was either insufficient to convey, or 

 incapable of permanently retaining. In the forma- 

 tion of such signs, recourse would at first be had to 

 direct and immediate representation, the mark would 

 probably be nothing more than a picture more or 

 less perfect of the object to be denoted. Altera- 

 tions, however, would soon arise ; convenience would 

 introduce abbreviations even in picture marks exhi- 

 biting objects capable of direct delineation ; and ex- 

 perience would as quickly indicate an immense multi- 

 tude of objects necessary to be denoted, but totally un- 

 susceptible of immediate ocular delineation. For the 

 denoting of these, therefore, arbitrary or conventional 

 marks could only be employed ; these marks might 

 be formed at first from some real or supposed analo- 

 gy to the objects of sight, but afterwards might gra- 

 dually assume peculiar and distinctive forms, suggest- 

 ing by association the objects intended to be pointed 

 out. * In this manner, it is nut improbable, most of 



* The following well known story affords a good example of the natural rise and progress of such character marks. A ta- 

 vern-keeper in .Hungary unable to write, kept account of the sums due to him by strokes chalked on his door; to each series 

 f strokes was annexed a figure to denote the customer to whom they applied. The soldier was represented by the figure of 

 a musket, the carpenter by a saw, the smith by a hammer. In a short time for convenience, the musket was reduced to a 

 straight line, the saw to a zig-zag line, the hammer to a cross ; and thus began to be formed a set of characters gradually re- 

 ceding from the original figure The resemblance.at last might be entirely lost sight of, and the figures become mere arbi- 

 trary marks. Such probably was the rise of a great part of the Chinese characters, 



