CHAMPOLLION
CHARMA
CHAMPOLLION, Jean Francois,
French Egyptologist. B. Dec. 23, 1790. Ed. Grenoble. Champollion learned Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit, and in 1808 he began to seek the key of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. In 1809 he became pro fessor of history at Grenoble, and in 1814 published his first great work, L Egypte soils les Pharaons. In 1822 he announced his ability to read the hieroglyphics and entered the front rank of Egyptologists. He was received into the Academy of Inscriptions, and was appointed professor at the College de France. His biographer, Hartleben, reproduces a very Eationalistic manuscript which he wrote about 1810, and says that "it is undeniable that a change had taken place in Champollion s religious views" (Champollion, i, 144). His letters (edited by Hartleben) prove this, but his public expressions were dis creet, in the interest of the new science. D. Mar. 4, 1832.
CHANTREY, Sir Francis Legatt,
M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., sculptor. B. Apr. 7, 1781. Ed. Norton village school. The son of a carpenter, Chantrey was appren ticed to a carver at Sheffield, and he studied painting and sculpture. After 1804 he devoted himself entirely to sculpture, and became one of the most distinguished of English sculptors. He entered the Royal Academy in 1818, was knighted in 1835, and received several honorary degrees. Chantrey was a warm friend of Home Tooke, and under his influence he, his biographer Holland says, abandoned all "Christian and religious feeling" (Memorials of Sir F. Chantrey, pp. 349-52); but his letters contain Theistic phrases. He was a man of high character and ideals, and at his death he left the reversionary interest on his large fortune to the Royal Academy, thus founding the Chantrey Bequest. D. Nov. 25, 1841.
CHAPMAN, John, M.D., publisher. B. 1822. Chapman emigrated to Australia, where he set up in business, then returned 157
to Europe (1844) and studied medicine at
Paris and London. From medicine he
passed to publishing, and soon came into
intimate association with the brilliant
mid-Victorian Rationalists. In 1851 he
became proprietor and editor, with George
Eliot as sub-editor, of the Westminster
Review, which rendered immense service
to Rationalism. Chapman edited it until
his death. He graduated in medicine at
Edinburgh in 1857 and practised for a
time. In 1874 he retired to live in Paris.
D. Nov. 25, 1894.
CHAPTAL, Jean Antoine Claude, Count de Chanteloup, French chemist and statesman. B. June 4, 1756. Self- educated in medicine, he became a physician and then a teacher of chemistry at Mont- pellier. During the Revolution he was charged with the provision of powder, and rendered great service. In 1798 he was admitted to the Institut, in 1799 to the State Council, and in 1800 he became Minister of the Interior. His services, as Minister, to education, industry, science, agriculture, etc., were inestimable. In 1805 he entered the Senate; in 1811 he received his title. He retired with Napoleon, but Louis XVIII recalled him to the House of Peers. His great-grand son, the Viscount A. Chaptal, edited his Souvenirs sur Napoleon (1893), and says that he " had no religion " (p. 124), though he believed in " a sort of Providence." D. July 30, 1832.
CHARBONNEL, Victor, L.esL., writer. Ed. (for the Catholic priesthood) at the Seminary of Saint Sulpice. Charbonnel left the priesthood and the Church in 1897, and has since been one of the outstanding leaders and propagandists of Rationalism in France. He founded La Baison in 1901, and became co-editor of L Action in 1902.
CHARMA, Antoine, French philo sophical writer. B. Jan. 15, 1801. Ed. Ecole Normale, Paris. He was expelled from the university for the expression of 158
