Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/330

322 OHAEOST CHARRON and in his hands an oar to direct his boat on her course. The myth of Charon seems to Charon. have been of late invention, for he is not men- tioned by any of the early Greek poets. CHAROST, innand Joseph de Beth one, duke de, a French philanthropist, a descendant of Sully, born at Versailles, July 1, 1728, died in Paris, Oct. 27, 1800. lie devoted himself to the im- provement of agriculture and of the condition of the laboring classes, emancipating the peas- ants on his estates, and promoting their edu- cation. His influence was extensive, and Louis XV. himself acknowledged his services. When France was exposed to invasion during the rev- olution, the duke, although he had little sym- pathy for the new government, contributed a large sum of money for the common defence. Nevertheless he was arrested and his property confiscated, but he escaped the guillotine. CHARRAS, Jean Baptiste Adolphe, a French officer and military writer, born at Pfalzburg, in the department of Meurthe, June 7, 1810, died in Basel, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 1865. He was early imbued with republican principles, took part in the revolution of 1830, and was promoted in 1833 to the rank of lieutenant. Having written a series of able articles in the National on military affairs, which gave um- brage to the government, he was sent to Al- geria, and distinguished himself there on the battle field as well as in the training of native troops and the colonization of the country ; but owing to his unpopularity with Louis Philippe's government, he was only, after much delay, promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the revolution of 1848 he be- came under-secretary of state, and representa- tive for the department of Puy-de-D6me. He was one of tho most zealous members of the national assembly, one of the chief supporters of the republican government, and one of the victims of the coup d'etat of Dec. 2, 1 851. First detained at Ham, he was transported to Belgium in January, 1852. In November, 1854, he was expelled from that country, at the request of Napoleon III., whom Charras had denounced on many occasions, and most effectively in a letter of which 50,000 copies were printed in Belgium alone. He then sought refuge in Hol- land, and subsequently took up his residence in Switzerland. A pamphlet, Leg trow mare- chaiix de ^France (Brussels, 1853), is also at- tributed to him. A remarkable work from his pen, Histoire de lacampagne de 1815, in which he severely criticises the generalship of Napo- leon I., appeared in 1857-'8 (2 vols. ; 6th ed., 1869). His Histoire de la guerre de 1813 en Allemagne, unfinished at his death, appeared at Leipsic in 1866. (II KKIKKK. or (harm-res, Igabelle Agnete de Saint-Hyaeinthe de, a French authoress, born at Utrecht, Holland, about 1740, died near Neuf- chatel, Switzerland, Dec. 27, 1805. She was the daughter of a Dutch baron, and married M. de Charriere, a poor Swiss gentleman who had been her brother's teacher. She pub- lished her first novel, Lettres neuchdteloises, in 1784, and in 1786 appeared her most famous work, Caliste, on lettres ecrites de Lausanne. She visited England and France, and was an intimate friend of Benjamin Constant until the latter transferred his friendship to Mme. de Stael. She was a beautiful and brilliant wo- man ; and Sainte-Beuve alludes in the highest terms to her genius in his Galerie de femmes ceUbres. Owing to the loss of part of her fortune and friends, she spent the latter part of her life in great seclusion. A new edition of her Caliste appeared in 1845, with a notice by Sainte-Beuve, and with the latter's essay on Benjamin Constant et Madame de Charriere. Among her other writings are Lettres de Mistress Henley, a sequel to Benjamin Con- stant's Mari sentimental ; Aglionette et Insi- nuant, a story ; and the plays Uftmigre, Le toi et le vous, L 'Enfant gate, and Comment le nomme- t-on. Under the pseudonyme of Abbe de la Tour she published Les trois femmes, Sir Walter Finch et son fils William, and other works, of which a complete edition appeared in Leip- sic in 1798. Many of her works have been translated into German by her friend Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, and she wrote some of them in that language. CHARRON, Pierre, a French author, born in Paris in 1541, died there, Nov. 16, 1603. He studied law at Orleans and Bourges, and had practised for some years as an attorney when he took holy orders, and soon became noted for his eloquence as a preacher. He filled several ecclesiastical offices in Gascony and Languedoc, was appointed chaplain of Queen Margaret of Navarre, and in 1588 returned to Paris, intending to become a monk, but was rejected on account of his age. Remaining a secular priest, he went to Bordeaux, and there became intimately acquainted with Montaigne. Charron is the author of two books widely different in their tendency and character. His Traite des trois verites (1594) is a defence of religion against atheists, of Christianity against