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332 CHASUBLE CHATEAUBRIAND sometimes eloquent and sometimes frivolous, and is valuable as conveying the impressions made by our revolution upon an intelligent foreigner. The most interesting portion is the account of Mr. Jefferson, whose guest he was at Monticello. Only 24 copies were printed, but an English translation was published in London, with maps and engravings (2 vols. 8vo, 1787). His Discours sur lea wantages et les desavan- tages qui resultent pour V Europe de la decou- verte de VAmerique appeared in 1787, and resolved the question, which had been pro- posed by Raynal, in favor of the advantages. It was praised by La Harpe as the best of the works of Chastellux. CHASUBLE (low Lat. casubula, from casula, a hut), the outer vestment worn by Catholic priests in the celebration of mass. It was origi- nally common to both civilians and churchmen, and consisted of a circular piece of cloth with an opening for the head in the centre. Those among the Greeks who have retained it call it very properly planeta, because it can be turned on every side by the wearer. It long retain- ed its circular form hi the British islands, as is evident from the iconographic monuments of the middle ages. At Rome, however, and throughout all the adjoining countries, it soon became modified, on account of its exceeding inconvenience. It was either slit or folded tip beneath the arms of the celebrant ; and finally it has assumed the form, which is now univer- sal in the Latin church, of an oblong piece of silk with a hole in the middle for the head, and falling down to the knees before and behind. It must be of silk, and the color varies with the festivals. CHIT, a genus of warblers (icteria), placed by Baird in the subfamily sylvicolina. The best known species is the yellow-breasted chat (7. tiridis, Bonap.). The bill is shorter, stronger, and more curved than in the typical warblers, in this respect more nearly resembling the vireos and the shrikes. The upper parts are olive-green ; under parts and inside of wings gamboge-yellow for anterior half of body ; rest of under parts white, tinged with brown on the sides ; forehead and sides of head ash ; lores and region below the eyes blackish ; a white stripe from the nostrils over the eye ; patch on lower lid, and stripe from side of lower mandi- ble, white ; bill black. Female like the male, but smaller. Length 7'4 in., tail 3-3, wing 3'25. It is found over the eastern United States to the Missouri, and south to Guatemala. The long-tailed chat (/. longicauda, Lawr.) differs from the above chiefly in having the tail nearly half an inch longer ; it may be only a western variety. They are very noisy birds, jealous of intruders, and apparently scolding in a great variety of notes. The food consists principally of insects. They are most abundant in the mid- dle and southern states, and are peculiar to America. (See STONE CHAT.) CHATEAUBRIAND, Fraafois Angiste, viscount de, a French author and statesman, born at St. Malo in September, 1768, died in Paris, July 4, 1848. He sprung from a noble family which was known in Brittany as far back as the 10th century. He passed his childhood on his pat- rimonial estate of Combourg, and received his education at the colleges of D61e and Rennes. When he was 17 years old he received a com- mission as second lieutenant in the army, and was two years later promoted to a captaincy. About the same time he was presented at court, introduced to the fashionable world, and became acquainted with La Harpe, Fontanes, and other eminent writers. His first produc- tion, an idyllic poem, L 1 amour de la campagne, revealed nothing of the genius which he after- ward manifested. The revolutionary move- ments which agitated Paris induced him to embark for the United States in the spring of 1791, with a view to seeking for the northwest passage. He landed at Baltimore, and repaired immediately to Philadelphia, where he deliver- ed to President Washington a letter of intro- duction from the marquis de La Rouairie. The young traveller dined with the president, who in the course of conversation made allusion to the obstacles his guest was exposed to meet in his intended expedition. "But, sir," said the traveller, "it is less difficult to discover the polar passage than to create a nation, as you have done." Chateaubriand then visited New York, Boston, and Albany, and went among the Indian tribes, living with them, and ex- ploring the country bordering on the great lakes. He afterward travelled through Flori- da, and spent some time among the Natchez. These peregrinations among the savages, the strange beauties of the American continent, the immensity of its rivers, the solitude of its forests, made a powerful impression upon his imagination. Nearly a year had thus been passed when an English newspaper which he found in a log cabin informed him of the flight and arrest of Louis XVL, and he returned to France in order to place himself at the disposal of the king. Finding on his arrival at Paris that by his presence there he could not benefit the royal cause, but endangered his own life, he joined the emigrants at Coblentz. Before leaving France, however, he married Mile. Celeste Delavigne Buisson, an excellent wo- man, who during her long life was his faithful but rather neglected wife. Having enlisted in a company who followed the Prussian army in their invasion of France, he was wounded while skirmishing in the vicinity of Thionville ; at the same time he had a severe attack of smallpox, and was left nearly dead on the road. A charitable person took care of him, and he was carried to Jersey, where he recov- ered his health. In 1793 he went to London, where he lived in an unfurnished garret, with- out fire, sometimes without food, happy when he was able to earn something by giving French lessons or making translations for booksellers. In 1797 he published his Essai historique, po- litique et moral sur les revolutions anciennes et