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CANTICLES. 157 CANTON. of man and woman in all its different stages of development. This would be a most plausible theory were it not for the incidental dialogue, the references to King Solomon and the Shula- niite, and the light thrown upon wedding customs in Sj'ria by the observations of Sehefer and Wetz- stein. A wholly satisfactory hypothesis must recog- nize the element of truth in each of these theo- ries. There is. indeed, in Canticles a use of metaphor amounting at times to allegory. He who thinks that by gardens, fountains, trees, fruits, and wine these objects in nature are al- ways meant, will not understand the songs. There is frequently an umnistakable douhle entendre. The love of the King and of the Shulamite is unquestionably of the same character. Yet there are beyond a question rustic lovers in the poem. However great the distance between Can- ticles and the Cireek and Hindu drama, these country folk playing king and queen, bodyguard and harem in the wedding-week, seem to present a song-play that may be at the same time a reflection of Greek influence in the Decapolis and the abortive attempt at creating a native drama. But there is no movement of the action, no plot, no unity. As already Richard Simon (1G2S) and after him Herder recognized, the songs are clear- ly of different provenience. They do not all describe the love of a married couple. There are curious survivals shimmering through the poem of earlier forms of domestic life, polyandry, poly- gamy, promiscuity, and of sexual aberrations such as the hasiitm Florentinum, pointed out by J. D. Michaelis in his Or. und Exeg. Bibliothek (1774), page 169 ff. It is now generally acknowledged that Solo- mon cannot have been the author of Canticles. The language itself, with its Xeo-Hebraisms, Ara- maisms, and Persian and Greek loan-words, indi- cates with sufficient clearness that the book is one of the latest in the Hebrew canon. Graetz regarded the author as dependent upon Theoc- ritus (Third Century B.C.). CheTie also thinks of the reign of one of the earlier Ptolemies. Siegfried is willing to go into the Second Cen- tury. Winckler has suggested that the book was Mritten by a Jew in Damascus in the period of the Xabataean kings. There is indeed much that points to the trans-.Jordanic region, and particu- larly to the Decapolis. It is of no small sig- nificance that it is among the Greek lyric poets of the Decapolis that we find the first impas- sioned expression of a sense of beauty in nature. The reign of Aretas III. or Aretas IV. (c. 85- 03 B.C.) is, perhaps, the most probable date. To- gether with a strong emphasis upon the divine rights of passion, the supreme value of pure attachment between man and woman, it is the keen sense of beauty in nature that will always give to Canticles a distinguished place in ancient Hebrew literature. Consult: Herder. Dos Lied der Lirdcr (Berlin, 187.5); Ewald. Dichler des alien llundes (Gottingen, 1839) : Delitzsch, llohcslied und Kohclelh (Leipzig. 187.5) : Eenan, he ciintir/ue des cnntiiiuei^ (Paris, 18(;0) : Sieg- fried, Predigcr und JJohesUed (Leipzig. 1808) ; Che i.- and Black, Encyclopwdia ISiblica (Leip- zig," 1899). CANTILEVER (probably Lat. quanta libra, of what weight, from r/iinntn, abl. fem. sing, of quant us, how much + libra, weight. The word may possibly be derived from Eng. cant, angle, and lever). The part of a beam or girder which projects bracketwise beyond the point of support, as the brackets supporting a balcony or the pro- jecting girders which carry a sidewalk outside of the trus.ses of a bridge. In bridges, a canti- lever is a girder or truss anchored to a shore abutment and resting on a second outshore pier or tower beyond which it projects. Two such cantilevers extending out from the opposite shores of a stream and united by a truss constitute a cantilever bridge. For examples of such struc- tures, see Bridge. CANTIRE, kiin'tlr', or KINTYRE. A pen- insula in Argyleshire, Scotland. 43 miles long, with an average width of GV:> miles (Jlap: Scot- land, 4). It extends north and south between Arran Isle and the Atlantic, and is united at the north end with the mainland by the isthmus of Tarbet, a mile broad, across which the cutting of a canal is contemplated. The southwest point, the ]Iull of Kintyre, Ptolemy's Epidium Pro- montorium, is crowned by a lighthouse 297 feet above sea-level, visible 24 miles. Consult White, Arch(FoIogiral Sketches in Scotland {Kintyre) (London, 1873). CANTON' (Chinese Kwang-chow-fu, or Sheng- sheng). One of the chief commercial cities of China, capital of the Province of Kwangtung and residence of the' viceroy for the two provinces of Kwangtung and Kwang-si. It is situated on the Chu-Kiang or Pearl River, about 70 miles from the sea, in latitude 23° 7' 10" N., and longitude 113° 14' 30" E. The climate i.' moderate and not unhealthful for Europeans. Canton consists of the city proper, inclosed by a wall, and the suburbs extending along both sides of the river. There is also a large population living in boats on the river. The city proper is about 6 miles in circumference and is encircled by a brick wall laid on granite and sandstone foimdations, and measuring about 20 feet in thickness and from 25 to 40 feet in height. An inner wall divides the inclosed city into the new and the old city. The streets are long, narrow, and clean in comparison with the streets in most of the Chinese cities. The houses are mostly low, very few above two stories in height, and built of brick, stone, or wood. The pagodas . are numerous and extensive ; one of them, situated on the island of Honam on the opposite shore of the river, covering an area of seven acres. There is also a Mohammedan mosque. Among other interesting buildings are the Examination Hall, the arsenal, and the mint. There are a Gothic cathedral erected by the French mission ; a hospital, foimded in 1835 by the American mission; and an ancient fotmdling asylum. Canton is one of the principal seats of the Chinese silk industry: it also produces cotton goods, embroideries, paper, and some porcelain and metal ware. Owing to its advantageous posi- tion. Canton very early attracted the attention of foreign merchants. The Arabs are believed to have traded there as early as the Ninth Cen- tury. The first attempt by European Powers to open commercial relations with Canton was made in 1517, when a Portuguese mission was sent to Peking with such an object in view. The Dutch began to trade with the city later in the century, but were soon superseded by the Mritish, who, after several unsuccessful attempts, estab-