122 
C H A 
Stretch’d on the lawn, his fecond hope furvey, 
At once the chafer, and at once the prey ! 
Lo, Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart, 
Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart ! Pope, 
CHASM', f. A breach unclofed ; a cleft; 
a gap; an opening.—In all that vifible corporeal world, 
we fee no chafms or gaps. Locke. 
CHASSAIR', or Casair, a town of Africa, in the 
kingdom of Morocco, about fix leagues from Mount At¬ 
las: near it are mines of lead and antimony, which the 
inhabitants carry to Fez to difpole of. 
CHASSELAY', a town of France, in the department 
of the Rhone and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftridt of Camp de Lyon: two leagues north of Lyons. 
CHASSENEU'lL, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of Charente, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftridt of La Rochefoucauld : eleven miles north-eaft of 
La Rochefoucauld. 
CHAS'SENSAL, a river of France, which runs into 
the Ardeche, not far from its fource. 
CHASSERA'DES, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Lozere, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftridt of Villefort: eight miles north of Villefort. 
CHASSIE'RS, a town of France, in the department 
of the Ardeche: ten miles well of Viviers. 
CHAS'SIRON (Tower of), a lighthoufe on the north 
point of the ifland of Oleron, near the coaft of France, 
which has two fires to diftinguifh it from the tower of 
Cordovan. 
CHASTE, adj. [chafe, Fr. cafus, , Lat.] Pure from all 
commerce of fexes; as, a chafe virgin : 
Diana chafe, and Hebe fair. Prior. 
With rcfpedt to language, pure; uncorrupt; not mixed 
with barbarous phrales.—Free from obfcenity.—Among 
words which iignify the fame principal ideas, fome are 
clean and decent, others unclean; fome chafe, others ob- 
feene. Watts. —True to the marriage bed.—Love your 
children; bedifereet; chafe-, keepers at home. Titus. 
CHASTE-TREE, /. inbotany. SeeViTF.x. 
CHASTELET', a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Weftplialia, and the bilhopric of Liege, fituated on the 
louth fide of the Sambre: thirty miles fouth-weft of Bruf- 
fiels, and fifty weft-fouth-weft of Liege. 
CHASTELL AR', a town of Savoy : eight miles and a 
half north-eaft Chambery. 
CHA'STELY, adv. Without incontinence ; purely; 
without contamination.—You fhould not pafs here •, no, 
though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chafely. Shake/. 
CHA'STENESS, / Chaftity; purity. 
To CKA'STEN, <v. a.. [chofier, Fr. cafiigo, Lat.] To 
corredt; to punilh ; to mortify.— Chafen thy fon while 
there is hope, and let not thy foul fpare for his crying. 
P, •O’verbs. 
I follow thee, fafe guide? the path 
Thou lead’d: me ; and to the hand of heav’n fubmit, 
However chaff uing. Milton.. 
To CHASTl'SE, v. a. [ cafiigo , Lat. anciently accented 
on the firft fyllable, now on the la'ft.] To punilh ; to cor¬ 
rect by punifhment; toafffidt for faults.—Seldom is the 
world affrighted or chaffed with figns or prodigies, 
earthquakes or inundations, famines or plagues. Grew. 
To reduce to order, or obedience; toreprefs; toreftrain; 
to awe: 
The gay focial fenfe 
By decency chafis'd. Tbompfon. 
CHA S'TISEMENT, f \chafiment, Fr.] Corredtion; 
punifhment; commonly, though not always, ufed of do- 
meftic or parental punilhment.—He receives a fit of fick- 
nefs as the kind chafifement and difcipline of his heaven¬ 
ly Father, to wean his affedtions from the world. Bentley. 
CHA 
CHASTI'SER, /. The perfon that chaftifes; a punifh- 
er; a corrector. 
CHA'STITY, f. [cafitas, Lat.] Purity of the body.— 
Chaflity is either abftinence or continence: abftinence is 
that of virgins or widows; continence, of married per- 
fons: chalte marriages are honourable 1 and pleafing to 
God. Taylor .—Freedom from obfcenity. Freedom from 
bad mixture of any kind; purity of language, oppofed 
to barbarifms. 
Chaftity is a virtue urdverfally celebrated. There is 
indeed no charm in the female fex that can fupply its 
place. Without it, beauty is unlovely, and rank is con¬ 
temptible ; good breeding degenerates into wantonnefs, 
and wit into impudence. The belt prefervative of female 
honour is female delicacy; modefty is the handmaid of 
virtue, appointed to tend, to drefs, and ferve, her : it is 
as it were a kind of armour, which the fex (liould always 
wear, both to adorn and defend them; and, when that is 
laid afide, they are neither beautiful nor defirable, nor 
fecure againft the wiles of fedudtion. Out of the nume¬ 
rous inftances of eminent chaftity recorded by authors, 
the two following are feledted on account of the leffon 
afforded by the different modes of condudt which they 
exhibit. 
Lucretia was a Roman lady of great beauty and noble 
extradtion ; flie married Collatinus, a relation of Tar- 
quinius Superbus. During the liege of Ardea, which 
lafted much longer than was expedted, the young princes 
palled their time in entertainments and diverfions. One 
day as they were at fupper, at Sextus Tarquin’s the king’s 
eldeft fon, with Collatinus, Lucretia’s hulband, the con- 
verfation turned on the merits of their wives: every one 
gave his own the preference. “What Iignify fo many 
words?” fays Collatinus; “you may in a few hours, if 
you pleafe, be convinced by your own eyes, how much 
my Lucretia excels the reft. We are young: let us 
mount our horles, and go and furprife them. Nothing 
can better decide our dilpute than the ftate we lhall find 
them in at a time when.molt certainly they will not ex¬ 
pert us.” They were a little heated with wine : “ Come 
on, let us go,” they all cried together. They quickly 
galloped to Rome, which was about twenty miles from 
Ardea, where they find the princeffes, wives of the 
young Tarquins, lurrounded with company, and every 
circumftance of the higheft mirth and pleafure. From 
thence they rode to Collatia, where they faw Lucretia 
in a very different fituation. With her maids about her, 
Ihe was at work in the inner part of her houfe, talking 
on the dangers to which her hulband was expofed. The 
victory was adjudged to her unanimoully. She received 
her guefts with all poffible politenefs and civility. Lu¬ 
cretia’s virtue, which fhould have commanded refpedt, 
was the very thing which kindled in the breaft of SextUs 
Tarquin a ffrong and deteftable paflion. Within a few 
days he returned to Collatia ; and, upon the plaufible ex- 
cufe he made for his vilit, he was received with all the po¬ 
litenefs due to a near relation, and the eldeft fon of a king. 
Watching the fitteft opportunity, he declares the paffion 
Ihe had excited at his laft vifit, and employed the molt 
tender intreaties, and all the artifices poflible, to touch 
a woman’s heart; but all to no purpofe. He then en¬ 
deavoured to extort her compliance by the moll: terrible 
threatnings. It was in vain. She ftill perfifted in her 
refolution; nor could Ihe be moved even by the fear of 
death. But when the monfter told her that he would 
firft difpatch her, and then, having murdered a Have, 
would lay him by her fide, after which he would fpread 
a report, that, having caught them in the adt of adultery, 
he had punifhed them as they deferved ; this feemed to 
fhake her refolution. She beiltated, not knowing which 
of thefe dreadful alternatives to take: whether, by con- 
fenting, to difhonour the bed of her hulband, whom file 
tenderly loved; or, by refufing, to die under the odious 
chara&er of having proftitutedher perfon to the lull of a 
a fiave. 
