CARNATION CARNIVAL. 



59 



velly is included in the Carnatic. The principal 

 towns are Arcot, Madras, Ongole, Pondicherry, Cud- 

 dalore, Tanjore, Tritchinopoly, Mudura, and Tine- 

 velly. The principal rivers are the Pennar, the Pa- 

 liar, and the Cauvery. 



CARNATION (from the Latin euro, carnis, flesh) 

 signifies, in the fine arts, the colouring of the flesh of 

 the human body. The use of carnation requires 

 very attentive study, and great skill in the artist. It 

 varies with the sex of the individual, with the classes 

 and countries to which the subjects belong, with the 

 passions, the state of the health, &c. The cheeks 

 are, in a healthy subject, of a lively red ; the breast, 

 neck, and upper part of the arms of a soft white ; 

 the belly yellowish. At the extremities, the colour 

 becomes colder, and, at the joints, assumes a violet 

 tint, on account of the transparent appearance of the 

 blood. All these shades require to be softly blended. 

 Two faults in carnation are chiefly to be avoided 

 hardness, the fault of the masters of the fifteenth 

 century, and too great weakness. Guido Reni not 

 unfrequently painted his flesh so that it appeared 

 almost bloodless. The French school has gone fur- 

 thest in this respect. The flesh of the followers of 

 this school often looks like porcelain or wax. Titian 

 is still unrivalled in carnation. 



CARNEADES, an eminent Greek philosopher, 

 founder of the third or new academy, was a native 

 of Cyrene, in Africa, and is supposed to have been 

 born in the third year of the 141st Olympiad. He 

 studied first under Diogenes the Stoic, but subse- 

 quently attended the lectures of Egesinus, who ex- 

 plained the doctrines of Arcesilaus ; and, succeeding 

 his master in the chair of the academy, he restored 

 its reputation by softening the prevailing pyrrhonism, 

 and admitting practical probabilities. The doctrine 

 of Carneades specifically was, that, " as the senses, 

 the understanding, and the imagination frequently 

 deceive us, they cannot be the infallible judges of 

 truth, but that from the impression made by the 

 senses we infer appearances of truth, which, with 

 respect to the conduct of life, are a sufficient guide." 

 He was a strenuous opposer of Chrysippus, and at- 

 tacked, with great vigour, the system of theology of 

 the Stoics. He was an advocate of free-will against 

 the fate of the same sect, and urged just the same 

 difficulties in reconciling divine prescience with the 

 freedom of human actions, as have divided some 

 contending sects of Christianity. One of the most 

 distinguished events of his life was his being joined 

 in an embassy to Rome with Diogenes the Stoic and 

 Critolaus the Peripatetic, in order to gain the miti- 

 gation of a fine levied by the Roman senate on the 

 Athenians. This extraordinary embassy was suc- 

 cessful, and Carneades so captivated the people by 

 his eloquence, that Cato the censor, fearful of its 

 effect on the Roman youth, persuaded the senate to 

 send the philosophers back to their schools without 

 delay. Carneades died in the ninetieth year of his 

 age, continually complaining of the shortness of life, 

 and lamenting that the same nature winch composed 

 the human frame could dissolve it. 



CARNELIAN. See Quartz. 



CARNIOLA ; a duchy in the Austrian dominions. 

 See Austria. 



CARNIVAL. The same views which led men to 

 propitiate the higher invisible powers by gifts, sacri- 

 fices, and purifications, also introduced fasts, absti- 

 nence from pleasure, and penances. By fast is 

 meant an abstinence from the usual means of nour- 

 ishment, in order to mortify the appetites, and 

 thereby to propitiate the Deity. In every nation of 

 importance, customs of this kind are found. Their 

 historical origin is in the religious customs of the 

 East where the priests were originally the physicians 



of the people, and prescribed these fasts as a part of 

 the regimen necessary in this warm region, as well 

 as from religious views. Fasts are observed to this 

 day in the East. The religions of the Persians and 

 the Hindoos, those of Mohammed and Moses, and of 

 the worshippers of the Lama, insist much on fasts. 

 Few traces of them are found in the religion of the 

 ancient people of the North. The earliest Christians 

 tasted on the vigils (q. v.). The fasts on \hejejunia 

 quatuor tempestatum, which continued for three days 

 every quarter of the year, were penances, as was 

 that of the period of forty days (before Easter, or 

 rather before Good Friday, Quadrigesima), which 

 was called, by way of excellence, the fast, and which 

 commemorated the forty days' fast of Jesus in the 

 wilderness. With regard to the origin of fasts, opin- 

 ions differ. The most common is, that Telesphorus, 

 bishop of Rome, in the middle of the second century, 

 first instituted the forty days' fast as a rule of the 

 church. By pope Gregory the Great, about 600, 

 Ash-Wednesday was made the beginning of the fast, 

 and the day before was called fast-eve, because hi 

 the night of this day, at twelve o'clock, the fast be- 

 gan. This fast was preceded by a feast of three 

 days, very obnoxious to the strict zealots. " Chris- 

 tians," it is said, " on these days, deliver themselves 

 up to voluntary madness, put on masks, exchange 

 sexes, clothe themselves like spectres, give them- 

 selves up to Bacchus and Venus, and consider all 

 pleasure allowable." This is the origin of the pre- 

 sent carnival, or Faschings, as it is called in the 

 south of Germany, and which continues, in that 

 country, from Twelfth-day to Ash-Wednesday. The 

 name carnival is derived from the Latin words came 

 and vale (according to Ducange, from the Latin de- 

 nomination of the feast in the middle ages, came 

 levamen), because at that time people took leave of 

 flesh. Previously to the commencement of their 

 long abstinence, men devoted themselves to enjoy- 

 ment, particularly during the three last days of the 

 carnival. The carnival is nothing but the Saturnalia 

 of the Christian Romans, who could not forget their 

 pagan festivals. At least it greatly resembles the 

 Saturnalia, which were celebrated, annually, in 

 December, with all kinds of mirth, pleasure, and 

 freedom, in honour of Saturn, and the golden age 

 when he governed the world, and to preserve tne 

 remembrance of the liberty and equality of man in 

 the youth of the wdrld. In Rome, the carnival 

 brought to view, in a lively manner, the old Satur- 

 nalia in a new form. During the last days of the 

 carnival, and particularly during the day which pre- 

 ceded the long fast, mummeries, plays, tricks, and 

 freedom of 'every kind, abounded. From Italy, the 

 modern Saturnalia passed to the other Christian 

 countries of Europe. In the amusements of this 

 period the dramatic poetry of Germany had its origin, 

 after the cities had attained a flourishing condition. 

 Its first traces appeared in the thirteenth century. 

 The mummeries of the carnival produced the idea of 

 adopting some character, and carrying it through. 

 To please the multitude, and make the laugh more 

 certain, the manners of common life were caricatured. 

 These exhibitions afterwards became more cultivated 

 and developed. " On fas^eve," says Flogel, in his 

 History of Comic Literature, vol. iv. p. 292, "per- 

 sons in disguise sometimes went from one house to 

 another, to make sport with then- friends and ac- 

 quaintances. A merry society of this kind formed a 

 plan to represent some scene in their disguises, and 

 hold a regular conversation atoneof these mummeries. 

 The unknown players received praises,entertainments, 

 or presents. Encouraged by this success, the company 

 grew stronger, their fables and speeches became 

 longer by degrees, until they attainnd to regular re- 



