Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/71

This page needs to be proofread.

OASSEL CASSIANUS 63 Martin's church are the tombs of many of the electors. The city contains the government buildings, the former electoral palace, a theatre, an observatory, and other fine edifices. The Wilhelmshohe. museum, the finest building in Oassel, com- prises collections of pictures and natural his- tory, a cabinet of curiosities, containing a vast collection of watches and clocks from the earliest invented, and a library of about 90,000 volumes. The Friedrichsplatz, with a statue of the elector Frederick I., who was the founder and patron of the principal art collections of Cassel, is one of the most admirable public squares in Europe ; and there are 15 other public squares. The public gardens are charm- ing, especially that of Wilhelmshohe, 3 m. dis- tant, in which the summer palace is situated. Here is the cascade of the Karlsburg, consist- ing of a flight of stone steps extending 900 ft. up a hill on which is a colossal statue of Her- cules. After the battle of Sedan, Napoleon III. was a prisoner at Wilhelmshohe until March 19, 1871. There are manufactures of cotton, silk, and woollen fabrics, leather, hats, carpets, kid gloves, and porcelain ; and the place is the main emporium of the trade of Hesse-Cassel. Two fairs and a wool market are held here Annually. CASSEL, Panlns Stephanns Selig, a German cler- gyman and author, born of Jewish parentage in Glogau, Silesia, Feb. 27, 1827. He was educated in both the Eoman Catholic and Protestant gymnasia of Schweidnitz, completed his studies of history in Berlin under Eanke, became a journalist, and in 1855 a Protestant. Subsequently he was director of the royal li- brary and secretary of the academy at Erfurt, the government giving him the title of pro- fessor. He removed to Berlin in 1859, and served in the Prussian chamber of deputies from 1866 to the end of 1867, when he declined a reflection to become minister of Christ church, which position he continues to hold (1873). His treatises on the history of Erfurt were fol- lowed in 1848 by his Magyarische Alterthumer, And in 1851 by an extensive historical article 159 VOL. IT. 5 on the Jews in Ersch and Gruber's cyclopaedia, and a political disquisition, Von Wanchau bis Olmutz, which attracted much attention. He has written also on various literary subjects; and his more important theological works are Weihnaehten (1862), Die Sucker der Richter und Ruth (1865), Sunam (1869), and Das Evangelium des Sohnes Zebedai (1870). His works for the young have passed through nu- merous editions, and he has also acquired emi- nence as a lecturer on the oecumenical coun- cil and papal history (1869-'70), and on the Franco-German war. CASSIA, the bark of the cinnamomum cassia, an inferior quality of cinnamon which is often mixed with the genuine article. (See CINNA- MON.) Cassia is also a genus of plants of the family leguminosce. Several species of this Cinnamomum cassia. genus furnish the officinal senna. One species native to this country is the source of the drug called American senna. The pod of cassia fistula, and perhaps an allied /species, is em- ployed to some extent as a laxative. CASSIANPS, Johannes, a founder of monastic in- stitutions, believed to have been born about 350, and to have died in Marseilles about 433. Ac- cording to other accounts, he was a native of Greece, born about 360, and died about 448. He went when young to the Holy Land, re- mained some time in Bethlehem, spent many years among the ascetics of Egypt, was or- dained about 403 as deacon by Chrysostom at Constantinople, and sent on a mission to Rome relative to the controversy with the Arians. Soon afterward he founded at Mar- seilles a nunnery and the abbey of Saint Vic- tor, which is said to have contained during his time 5,000 inmates. His De Institutis Casno- biorum and Collationes Patrum Sceticorum con- stitute a code of monastical institutions, which, though strenuously opposed by St. Augustine, acquired great popularity, and was subsequent- ly much admired by Thomas Aquinas, by the recluses of Port Royal, who adopted his regu- lations as the model of their monastic life, and by Arnaud d'Andilly, who embodied the ideas