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C.

C, THE third letter of the alphabet in most of the European dialects. "In English," says Ben Jonson, "it might well have been spared, for it has no peculiar sound." It has the simple power of k, before a, o, u, and most of the consonants; and the power of s, before e, i, y. The Greeks had no c in their alphabet, and they supplied the use of it in Roman words by K or E, as the Romans often indicated the kappa and sigma, in Greek words, by a c. The earlier Romans also used it in many words which were at a later period written with a g; as, leciones for legiones. This renders it probable that it was originally the Greek gamma, as the form of the letters, in ancient inscriptions, is very similar. The Roman g was invented, according to Plutarch, by Spurius Carvilius. Q and C are often interchanged on monuments; thus we find QVM for CVM, cotidie for quotidie. Its arithmetical significations, and its principal uses in abbreviations, have been explained in the article Abbreviations (q. v.). On medals, it stands for many names of persons, as, Cæsar, Caius, Cassius, &c.; of officers, as, censor, consul; of cities, as, Cuarthago, &c.; also for cives, civitas, colonia, cohors, clypeus, castra, circensis. In the calendars and fasti, it denoted the days in which the comitia might be held. In trials, the opinions of the judges were given by writing on a little cube or die (tessera) the initial C, condemno, A, absolvo, or N L, non liquet. For this reason, Cicero (pro Mil. 6.) calls C, littera tristis, and A, littera salutaris.-C, in music; the name of that note in the natural major mode, to which Guido applied the monosyllable ut, but which has long since been relinquished by the Italians for that of do, as softer and more vocal. C sometimes, in Italian musie, stands for canto, as C 1. canto primo. It stands, likewise, when placed at the clef, for common time, and, with a line run through it perpendicularly, for cut time, or a quicker kind of movement.

CABAL; the infamous English ministry under Charles II (q. v.), which consisted of five men famous for their intriguesClifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, whose initial letters form

this word. (Burnet, Own Times, An. 1672.) Some think the use of the word cabal, to denote an intrigue, or a body of intriguers, is derived from this circumstance. "Never," says Hume (ch. 65), “was there a more dangerous ministry in England, nor one more noted for pernicious counsels. Ashley (more known as the earl of Shaftesbury), bold, ambitious, eloquent, insinuating, subtle, united great industry with a sound judgment of business and of men. Buckingham, with the advantages of a graceful person, high rank, splendid fortune, and a lively wit, but without prudence or principle, sacrificing, in turn, honor to interest, interest to pleasure, and pleasure to caprice, dissipated his fortune, and ruined his health, by his riot and debauchery, and destroyed his character, in public life, by his want of secrecy and constancy. Lauderdale, tyrannical, ambitious, implacable, insolent, yet abject, had a great ascendency over the king. Clifford, daring, impetuous, yet artful, and eloquent, and Arlington, of moderate capacity, without courage or integrity, were, secretly, Catholics. Shaftesbury was at once a deist, and addicted to astrology; Lauderdale a bigoted, and, earlier, a furious Presbyterian."

Cabal; a beverage made in Portugal, by bruising 20 pounds of raisins, and saturating them with white wine during 3 months. The mixture is rich, clear and agreeable.

CABALA, or CABBALA, (i. e. oral tradition), is used by the Jews to denote sometimes the doctrines of the prophets, sometimes the traditions of their ancestors, sometimes, and most commonly, their mystical philosophy. The opinions of scholars respecting the origin of the cabalistic philosophy are very various. The Jews derive the cabalistic mysteries from the most ancient times of their nation, nay, even from Adam himself. But, although a secret doctrine existed among the Hebrews in the earliest ages, this had reference merely to religious worship. The origin of the philosophical cabala is to be sought for in Egypt, and dates from the times of Simeon Schetachides, who conveyed it from Egypt to Palestine. It

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CABALA-CABBAGE.

was first committed to writing in the 2d century, that it might not be lost with the dispersion of the Jewish nation. Later expositors have mingled with it much foreign matter. The cabala is divided into the symbolical and the real. The symbolical portion treats principally of letters, to which it gives mystical significations. The real, which is opposed to the symbolical, and comprehends doctrines, is divided into the theoretical and practical. The aim of the theoretical is to explain the Holy Scriptures according to the secret traditions, and to form therefrom a philosophical system of metaphysics, physics and pneumatology. The practical portion, on the other hand, pretends to teach the art of performing miracles, and that merely by an artificial application of the divine names and sentences in the Sacred Scriptures. After the revival of science, many scholars studied the cabala. The most famous modern cabalists are Henry Morus and Christian Knorr, the last of whom has made a compilation of the most important parts of the cabalistic writings, in two Latin volumes, in 4to. (Respecting the mysteries of the cabala, see Pet. Beer's History of the Doctrines and Opinions of all the Jewish Sects, and of the Cabala, Brünn, 1822, 2 vols.; also Brucker's History of Philosophy, by doctor Enfield, vol. ii. Allen's Modern Judaism, ch. v.; and Buddæi Introductio ad Historiam Philosophic Hebræorum.)

CABANIS, Peter John George, physician, philosopher, and literateur, born at Cognac, 1757, went to Paris in his 14th year, and devoted himself with zeal to the sciences. In his 16th year, he went to Warsaw as secretary of a Polish lord. The proceedings of the stormy diet of 1773 filled him with melancholy and contempt of mankind. He began at Paris a complete translation of the Iliad. In Auteuil, near Paris, he became acquainted with madame Helvetius, and, through her, with Holbach, Franklin and Jefferson, and became the friend of Condillac, Turgot and Thomas. In his Serment d'un Médecin, he formally took leave of the belles-lettres. He professed the principles of the revolution, and was intimately connected with Mirabeau, who made use of his ideas, and obtained from him the work on public education, which Cabanis published himself, in 1791, after the death of Mirabeau. He lived in still closer intimacy with Condorcet. At the time of his death, May 5th, 1808, he was a member of the senate. His Rapports

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du Physique et du Moral de l'Homme (Paris, 1802, 2 vols., improved in 1805), are highly esteemed. His works appeared in Paris, 1824, complete, in 4 vols.

CABARRUS, François, count of, born 1752, at Bayonne, was destined for commerce by his father, who sent him to a commercial friend, Galabert, at Saragossa, whose daughter he married in secret, against the will of both families, in 1772. His father-in-law, however, gave him the charge of a soap manufactory, near Madrid. The nearness of the city enabled him to become acquainted with several learned men and metaphysicians, as Olavides and the count of Campomanes. During the North American war, in which Spain took part against England, and was consequently cut off from her resources in America, C. advised the minister of the finances to make an issue of paper money, payable with interest, of which 10,000,000 piastres were put in circulation with the greatest success. He afterwards established the bank of San Carlos, 1782, and a company to trade with the Philippine islands. After the death of Charles III, in 1788, he fell into disgrace. In 1790, he was arrested; in 1792, released, and made a nobleman; and, in 1797, appointed minister plenipotentiary at the congress of Rastadt. He died in 1810, in the office of minister of finance, to which he had been appointed by Joseph Bonaparte. He had a daughter equally celebrated for beauty and talents.

CABBAGE. The cabbage, including many species of the numerous genus of brassica, is a biennial plant, too well known to need description, and constitutes one of our most valuable classes of vegetables. There are several species of the wild or original stock, from which the garden cabbage has been derived by cultivation. These are natives of various parts of Europe, Africa, &c., and, although very remte in appearance from the full, round head, which our plants present, are scarcely more so than are the kale, cauliflower, brocoli, &c., all of which belong to the cabbage family. In general terms, we may consider this plant as divided into three classes the common headed cabbage of the field and garden; the cauliflower, brocoli, &c., which form their stalks into a loose head; and the kale, colewort, &c., which grow in a natural branching way, without forming any heads at all. Of these, the common cabbage is by far the most valuable, both to man and to the beasts, by whose assistance he is able to make the earth so fer

tile. It is also the most productive; for it is believed that an acre of ground will yield a greater weight of green vegetable matter (and thus be more profitable to the farmer), in the shape of cabbage, than in that of any other vegetable whatever. It is very abundantly produced by clay soils, which are unfit for turnips, and the farmers who cultivate such soils will find it a vegetable worthy of much attention. The cabbage furnishes green fodder for cows and sheep, which is, at least, as good as turnips or carrots, fattening the animals equally fast, and rendering their milk, butter, &c., to the full as sweet; and is far preferable, as it keeps later in the spring, and thus supplies green food when no other can be procured. It is eaten by men in three forms, all of which have their admirers, but which vary much in respect to their wholesomeness and digestibility. These forms are, the sliced raw cabbage, plain boiled cabbage, and salted cabbage or sour-crout, the favorite dish of the whole German nation. In the first form, of raw cabbage, sliced fine, and eaten with vinegar, whether entirely cold, or hot enough merely to wilt the vegetable, it is one of the lightest and most wholesome articles of vegetable food, and, in this shape, will supply a green summer vegetable through the whole of the winter. Its use cannot be too highly recommended. Boiled cabbage, is, on the contrary, one of the worst articles of diet that a weak stomach can be tried with, and is rarely got rid of without a troublesome colicky pain. Sourcrout, or, properly, sauer-kraut, is much eaten by the Germans in the U. States, and they consider it very wholesome, although it is nearly, if not quite, as difficult of digestion as boiled cabbage. It is prepared in the following manner:-Cabbage is sliced up fine, and a layer of it placed in the bottom of a barrel, which is plentifully salted; it is then well bruised with a heavy mall or pestle, or is trodden down by a pair of heavy boots, till the barrel is half filled with the froth that arises from this operation. Successive layers of cabbage and salt are added in this manner, each receiving the same treatment, till the vessel is nearly full. Some cold water is then poured in, and the top of the barrel is pressed down with heavy stones. The contents undergo a brisk fermentation, which continues for a week or two, during which time the brine must be drawn off, and replaced by new, until it remains perfectly clear, when the process is finished. It must be kept

covered with brine, and is thus simply a fermented, or half sour, salted mass of cabbage. The other forms of cabbage, as the cauliflower, &c., supply the epicures of all countries with some of their greatest delicacies, while the hardy kale, which endures all degrees of cold, affords the poor, and the farmers of poor soils, a valuable fodder for cattle of all kinds. CABBALA. (See Cabala.)

CABELLO. (See Porto Cabello.)

CABENDA; a sea-port of Africa, in Cacongo; lon. 12° 30 E.; lat. 5° 40′ S. It is situated on the coast, a little to the north of the river Zaire, and has a safe and easy landing. It is a great emporium for trade in slaves. The situation is so distinguished for beauty and fertility, that it has been called the paradise of the coast.

CABIN; an apartment in a ship for officers and passengers. In large ships, there are several cabins, the principal of which is occupied by the commander. In small vessels, there is only one cabin, which is in the stern. The bed-places in ships are also called cabins, or, more commonly, berths. Berth is used, likewise, for the room where a number of men mess and reside.

CABINET; 1. a small apartment adjoining a larger one; 2. the most retired part of a private dwelling, designed for work, for amusement, or for collections of valuable articles. 3. In the abode of a prince, the cabinet is a room set apart for the ruler's particular use; also, the apartment where he transacts government business, advises with his privy counsellors, and issues his decrees. Hence, in political language, the cabinet is put for the government; as the cabinet of London, of Vienna, of the Tuileries, &c. 4. Finally, a cabinet is any part of a building, or one or more whole buildings, where are preserved valuable collections from the kingdoms of nature or art; as paintings, plants, animals, coins, minerals, and curiosities of every description; and, by metonymy, the name is applied to the collections themselves. A work of art, and sometimes of nature, of uncommon beauty, and fitted from its size to be placed in a cabinet, is called a cabinet-piece. A cabinet painter is one who executes small highly-finished pictures, suitable for cabinets.

CABIRI; sacred priests or deified heroes, venerated by the pagans as the authors of religion and the founders of the human race. The multiplicity of names applied to the same character, the interchange of the names of the deities them

CABIRI-CABOT.

selves with those of their priests, the
oracular law, which enjoined the preser-
vation of ancient barbaric names, and
thus led to a double nomenclature, sacred
and profane, together with the profound
secrecy of the rites, have involved the
subject in great obscurity. Some have
thought that the Eastern mythology and
the Druidism of Western Europe contain
traces of the Cabiri. Herodotus (ii. 51)
says that their worship was brought to
Samothrace by the Pelasgi. Strabo (x..
472) says they are the same as the Cory-
bantes. Others have identified them with
the Titans, the Dii Magni, the Penates,
the Dioscuri, &c. Some say there were
6, 3 male and 3 female, children of Vul-
can and Cabira, daughter of Proteus.
Others make 2, sons of Jupiter or
Bacchus. In Samothrace, 4 were vene-
rated. In Egypt, their temple was never
entered by any but the priests. In Pho-
nicia, Rome (where, according to Pausa-
nias, they had an altar in the circus maxi-
mus), and other countries of Europe and
Asia, traces of their worship are found.
But the mysteries (Cabiria) celebrated at
Samothrace were the most famous. The
mysteries of Isis, Ceres, Mithras, Tropho-
nius, Bacchus, Rhea, Adonis, Osiris, and
all the similar customs of Egypt, Greece,
Hindostan and Britain, seem to be merely
varieties of the Samothracian rites, which
were celebrated in the obscurity of night,
and with the most profound secrecy.
(See Faber on the Mysteries of the Cabiri,
Oxford, 1803, 2 vols. 8vo.; Potter's Gre-
cian Antiquities, ii. c. 20.) After a pre-
vious probation of abstinence, chastity
and silence, the candidates for initiation
were purified by water and blood; they
then offered a sacrifice of a bull or ram,
and were made to drink of two fountains,
called Lethe (oblivion) and Mnemosyne
(memory), to wash away the memory of
their former guilt, and to enable them to
remember the new instructions. They
were then transported into a dark tower
or cavern, where their ears were assailed
by the most appalling sounds, the rushing
of waters, the roar of thunder, dreadful
yells, with occasional gleams of light
flashing through the darkness, and dis-
playing the most horrible phantoms, with
dead body exposed on a bier. Thus
filled with terror, they were suddenly hur-
ried into other scenes; light and cheerful
music succeeded to darkness and the dis-
mal sounds, the dead body revived, and the
temple resounded with rejoicings. The
hidden doctrines and secret rites were
now communicated. Dances and orgies, in

a

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which the mystic phallus or lingam, and the yoni (idotov yvvackeīov), were introduced, closed the ceremony.

CABLE, in architecture; 1. wreathed circular mouldings, resembling a robe; also, the staff which is left in the lower part of the flutings of some examples of the Corinthian and Composite orders.-2. In naval affairs, it is a long, thick rope, formed of 3 strands of hemp, which is employed for confining a vessel to its place by means of an anchor or other fixed body. The long and heavy chains, which have been recently introduced for this purpose, are also called cables. Large vessels have ready for service 3 cables-the sheet cable, the best bower cable, and the small bower cable. They should be at least 100-120 fathoms in length. A best bower cable, of 25 inches in circumference, is formed of 3240 threads. The invention of iron cables is of recent date, and they have supplanted those of hemp in ships of war. They are stronger, less liable to be destroyed on rocks, &c. It is sometimes desirable to cut the cable when of hemp: this contingency is provided for in iron cables by a bolt and shackle at short distances, so that, by striking out the bolt, the cable is easily detached.-Cable's length is used to signify the measure of 120 fathoms, the usual length of a cable.

CABOOSE; the cook-room or kitchen of a ship. In smaller vessels, it is an enclosed fireplace, hearth or stove, for cooking, on the main deck. In a ship of war, the cook-room is called a galley.-Caboose also signifies the box that covers the chimney in a ship.

CABOT, George, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1752, and early manifested distinguished talents. He spent the early part of his life in the employment of a shipmaster. But he did not neglect the improvement of his mind, even amid the restlessness and danger of a seafaring career. Before he was twenty-six years of age, he was chosen to the provincial congress, which met at Concord, with the visionary project of ordaining a maximum of prices, in order that commodities might be cheapened by constraining the owners to sell at reduced and fixed rates; and there he first displayed that intimate acquaintance with the true principles of political economy, for which he was thenceforward preëminent. Before Adam Smith was known in the U. States, and Say and the other continental writers had formed any correct notions on the subject, Mr. Cabot maintained the present enlightened doc

trines, and strenuously contended for the of this permission, the king supplied one entire liberty of domestic and international ship, and the merchants of London and commerce. Mr. Cabot was a prominent Bristol a few smaller ones, and, in 1496, member of the state convention assembled John and Sebastian sailed to the north-west. to deliberate on the adoption of the fed- In July of the same year, they discovered eral constitution, and, soon after that event Newfoundland, and explored it up to lattook place, was elected a senator of the itude 67°. The accounts of this voyage United States, an office which his sense are attended with much obscurity; but it of public duty caused him to accept, al- seems, that, in a subsequent voyage, the though against his inclinations. In that father and son sailed as far as cape Floristation, he enjoyed the unlimited confi- da, and were actually the first who saw dence, not only of the august body of the main land of America. Little, bowwhich he was a member, but also of ever, is known of the proceedings of SeWashington and Hamilton; and to his bastian Cabot for the ensuing 20 years; commercial knowledge and profound but it seems, that, in the reign of Henry views of finance and political economy, VIII, by the patronage of sir Thomas the latter was greatly indebted in the for- Peart, vice-admiral of England, he promation of his financial system. With cured another ship to make discoveries, Fisher Ames, also, Mr. Cabot was long and attempted a southern passage to the linked by ties of the most affectionate East Indies, in which he failed. This friendship. At a recent period, when, in disappointment is supposed to have inthe late war, the exigencies of the country duced him to quit England, and visit seemed to him to require his co-operation, Spain, where he was treated with great he presided over a body of delegates from respect, and appointed pilot-major. An New England, who, in a season of extreme opulent company of Spanish merchants solicitude, attempted to provide means soon after gave him the command of an for averting a dreadful storm of public expedition to the Spice islands, through calamity. Mr. Cabot died at Boston, the newly-discovered straits of Magellan. April 18, 1823, in the 72d year of his age. Accordingly, in 1525, he sailed from CaHe was the delight and veneration of all diz to the Canaries and Cape de Verd who knew him, and his talents seemed islands; and, failing, from the opposition the most extraordinary, his virtues the of his crew, in his view of reaching the most bright, to those who had the happi- Spice islands, he proceeded to the river ness to see him most familiarly. His La Plata, where he discovered St. Salvamind was capacious and elevated. In dor, and erected a fort there. He subsepublic life, he was pure and disinterested, quently reached the great river Paraguay, all his exertions tending to one single and remained on the American coast a object--public good; in private, he was considerable time, with the view of formendeared to his family and his friends by ing an establishment. Being disappointed his kindness, urbanity and benevolence. in the expected aid from Spain, he ultiThe study of political economy and the mately returned home with all his crew, science of government was his favorite but was not very favorably received, owing pursuit. His eloquence, which was oft- to his failure in respect to the Spice islands, ener displayed in private than in public, and his severe treatment of the mutineers was remarkable for its beauty and sim- of his crew. He notwithstanding continplicity. As a Christian, he was sincere and ued in the service of Spain for some years devout; and the manner of his death longer, but at length returned to England suited the exemplary character of his life. towards the latter end of the reign of CABOT, Sebastian, a navigator of great Henry VIII. At the beginning of the eminence and abilities, was born at Bris- reign of Edward VI, he was introduced, tol, about the year 1477. He was the son by the protector Somerset, to the young of John Cabot, a Venetian pilot, who king, who took much pleasure in his conresided at Bristol, and was highly esteemed versation, and settled a pension on him as for his skill in navigation. Sebastian was grand-pilot of England. From this time, early instructed in the mathematical he was consulted on all questions relating knowledge required by a seaman, and, at to trade and navigation; and, in 1552, bethe age of 17, had made several voyages. ing governor of the company of merchant In 1495, John Cabot obtained from Hen- adventurers, he drew up instructions, and ry VII letters patent empowering him procured a license for an expedition to and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian and discover a passage to the East Indies by Sanctius, to discover unknown lands, and the north. These instructions, which are conquer and settle them. In consequence preserved in Hackluyt's collection of

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