Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Chariot" to "Chatelaine" / Volume 5, Slice 8

Articles in This Slice

The chief authorities are J.C. Ginzrot, Die Wagen and Fahrwerke der Griechen und Römer (1817); C.F. Grashof, Über das Fuhrwerk bei Homer und Hesiod (1846); W. Leaf in Journal of Hellenic Studies , v.; E. Buchholz, Die homerischen Realien (1871-1885); W. Helbig, Das homerische Epos aus den Denkmälern erläutert (1884), and the article “Currus” in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités .
CHARISIUS, FLAVIUS SOSIPATER, Latin grammarian, flourished about the middle of the 4th century A.D. He was probably an African by birth, summoned to Constantinople to take the place of Euanthius, a learned commentator on Terence. The Ars Grammatica of Charisius, in five books, addressed to his son (not a Roman, as the preface shows), has come down to us in a mutilated condition, the beginning of the first, part of the fourth, and the greater part of the fifth book having been lost. The work, which is merely a compilation, is valuable as containing excerpts from the earlier writers on grammar, who are in many cases mentioned by name—Q. Remmius Palaemon, C. Julius Romanus, Cominianus.
The best edition is by H. Keil, Grammatici Latini , i. (1857); see also article by G. Götz in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie , iii. 2 (1899); Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), § 419, I. 2; Fröhde, in Jahr. f. Philol. , 18 Suppl. (1892), 567-672.
CHARITON, of Aphrodisias in Caria, the author of a Greek romance entitled The Loves of Chaereas and Callirrhoë , probably flourished in the 4th century A.D. The action of the story, which is to a certain extent historical, takes place during the time of the Peloponnesian War. Opinions differ as to the merits of the romance, which is an imitation of Xenophon of Ephesus and Heliodorus.
Editions by J.P. D’Orville (1783), G.A. Hirschig (1856) and R. Hercher (1859); there is an (anonymous) English translation (1764); see also E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman (1900).
CHARITY AND CHARITIES. The word “charity,” or love, represents the principle of the good life. It stands for a mood or habit of mind and an endeavour. From it, as a habit of mind, springs the social and personal endeavour which in the widest sense we may call charity. The two correspond. Where the habit of mind has not been gained, the endeavour fluctuates and is relatively purposeless. In so far as it has been gained, the endeavour is founded on an intelligent scrutiny of social conditions and guided by a definite purpose. In the one case it is realized that some social theory must be found by us, if our action is to be right and consistent; in the other case no need of such a theory is felt. This article is based on the assumption that there are principles in charity or charitable work, and that these can be ascertained by a study of the development of social conditions, and their relation to prevalent social aims and religious or philosophic conceptions. It is assumed also that the charity of the religious life, if rightly understood, cannot be inconsistent with that of the social life.