CHA 



CHA 



who wait four each month, preach in the 

 chapel, read the service to the family, 

 and to the King in his private oratory, 

 and say grace in the absence of the 

 clerk of the closet. Besides, there are 

 |t twenty. four chaplains at Whitehall, fel- 

 lows of Oxford or Cambridge, who 

 preach in their turns, and are allowed 

 thirty pounds per annum each. Accord- 

 ing to a statute of Henry VJII. the per- 

 sons vested with a power of retaining 

 chaplains, together with the number 

 Cach is allowed to qualify, is as follows : 

 an archbishop, eight; a duke or bishop, 

 six ; marquis or earl, .five ; viscount, four ; 

 baron, knight of the garter, or lord chan- 

 cellor, three ; a duchess, marchioness, 

 countess, baroness, the treasurer and 

 comptroller of the king's house, clerk of 

 the closet* the king's secretary, dean of 

 the chapel, almoner and master of the 

 rolls, each of them two ; chief justice of 

 the King's Bench, and warden of the 

 Cinque Ports, each one. All these chap- 

 lains may purchase a license or dispensa- 

 tion, and take two benefices with cure of 

 souls. A chaplain must be retained by 

 letters testimonial under hand and seal ; 

 for it is not sufficient that he serve as 

 chaplain in the family. 



CHAPLET, in architecture, a small or- 

 nament, carved into round beads, pearls, 

 oliv*es, and pater-nosters, as is frequently 

 done in baguettes. 



CHAPPE, in heraldry, the dividing 

 an escutcheon by lines drawn from the 

 centre of the upper edge to the angles 

 below into three parts, the sections on 

 the sides being of a different metal or co- 

 lour from the rest. 



CHAPTER, in ecclesiastical policy, a 

 society or community of ecclesiastics be- 

 longing to a cathedral or collegiate church. 



It was in the eighth century that the 

 body of canons began to be called a 

 ch apter. The chapter of the canons of a 

 cathedral were a standing council to the 

 bishop, and, during the vacancy of the 

 see, had the jurisdiction of the diocese. 

 In4he earlier ages, the bishop was head 

 of the chapter; afterwards abbots and 

 other dignitaries, as deans, provosts, 

 treasurers, &c. were preferred to this 

 distinction. The deans and chapters had 

 the privilege of choosing the bishops in 

 England, but Henry VIII. got this power 

 vested in the crown ; and as the same 

 prince expelled the monks from the 

 cathedrals, and placed secular canons in 

 their room, those he thus regulated were 

 called deans and chapters of the new 

 foundation ; such are, Canterbury, Win- 

 chester, Ely, Carlisle, &c. 



CHARA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Monoecia Monandria class and order. 

 Natural order of Inundatae. Naiades, 

 Jussieu. Essential character : male ca- 

 lyx and corolla none ; anther before the 

 germ, underneath. Female, calyx four- 

 leaved ; corolla none ; stigmas five-cleft; 

 seed one. There are four species, of 

 which C. tomentosa, brittle chara, or 

 stone wort, is always flesh-coloured when 

 alive, and when dry it becomes ash-co- 

 loured ; stem twisted, brittle, and gritty 

 in the mouth, like coralline ; low and 

 creeping in marshes where the're is little 

 water. In summer, this plant abounds in 

 oblong berries, growing yellow when 

 ripe, having small black seeds in them. 

 It is an annual, flowering from June to 

 October. 



CHARACTER, in a general sense, de- 

 notes any mark whatever, serving to 

 represent either things or ideas ; thus, 

 letters are characters, types, or marks of 

 certain sounds ; words, of ideas, &c. 



Characters are of infinite advantage in 

 almost all sciences, for conveying in the 

 most concise and expressive manner an 

 author's meaning ; however, such a mul- 

 tiplicity of them, as we find used by dif- 

 ferent nations, must be allowed to be a 

 very considerable obstacle to the im- 

 provement of knowledge ; several au- 

 thors have therefore attempted to esta- 

 blish characters that should be univer- 

 sal, and which each nation might read in 

 their own language ; and, consequently, 

 which should be real, not nominal or ar- 

 bitrary, but expressive of things them- 

 selves; thus, the universal character for 

 a horse would be read by an Englishman 

 horse t by a Frenchman cheval, by the La- 

 tins equus, by the Greeks, STTTTO^, &c. 



The first who made any attempts for 

 an universal character in Europe were, 

 Bishop Wilkins and Dalgarme : Mr. Leib- 

 nitz also turned his thoughts that way ; 

 and Mr. Lodwic, in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, gives a plan of an universal 

 character, which was to contain an enu- 

 meration of all such single sounds as are 

 used in any language. The advantages 

 he proposed to derive from this character 

 were, that people would be enabled to 

 pronounce truly and readily any lan- 

 guage that should be pronounced in their 

 hearing; and lastly, that this character 

 would serve as a standard to perpe- 

 tuate the sounds of every language what- 

 soever. 



CHARACTER is also used, in several of 

 the arts, for a symbol, contrived for 

 the more concise and immediate con- 



