Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/703

 CHARPENTIER

633

CHARRON

cathedral of Charlottetown, 15 August, 1860. The episcopate of Bishop Maclntyre covered a period of over thirty years, during which many churches and schools were erected throughout the diocese. He died 30 April, 1891, and was succeeded by the Rt. Rev. James Charles Macdonald, who had been named coad- jutor with right, of succession in the preceding year. Catholicity is flourishing in the Diocese of Char- lottetown. A population of fifty thousand, under the guidance of forty-five priests, worship in fifty- one churches, of which many are neat and elegant structures. Eight convents, wherein fifty nuns of the Congregation of Notre-Dame give instruction to over one thousand pupils, and St. Dunstan's College, with a roster of one hundred and thirty students, tell what is being done for Catholic education, whilst a fully-equipped hospital, under the care of the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, furnishes relief to the sick and suffering.

Casgrain, Les Sulpiciens el les pretres lies Mission* Ktrotoi' r. : en Aeadie (Quebec, 1807); Idem, t 'n<- Secemde Aeadie; 1 n hives

of the Archdioce.se of Quebec; A rehires of the Diocese of < 'horleillc- toicn; Macmillan, Tht Earhi lie Ion/ o,' l/u Catholic Church in Prince Edward Island (Quebec, 1905).

J. C. Macmillan.

Charpentier, Francois-Philippe, a French en- graver, inventor, and mechanician, b. at Blois, 1734; d. there 22 July, 1817. His father was a bookbinder, a poor man who made many sacrifices that his son might, attend the Jesuit College at Blois; but after young Charpentier had studied there a few years he was compelled to leave and work to support himself. He chose to pursue the art of engraving as best suited to his talent and inclination, and entered the atelier of an excellent copperplate engraver in Paris whom he very soon surpassed. Charpentier is celebrated, however, far more for his inventions, which revolu- tionized reproductive art, than for his own work with the burin or in aquatint. His first discovery was that of a purely mechanical process for engraving in aquatint (gravure an lavis) and in colour. Wash- drawings and water-colours were copied with marvel- lous exactitude, sketches by the great masters were reproduced by his machine, and thus otherwise un- known art was placed within the reach of the people. Charpentier made many beautiful and effective plates with his new appliance, and then sold the secret. That admirable engraver and great patron of art. Count Caylus, was one of the first to use the new machine.

Louis XVI gave him the appointment of "Royal Mechanician" (Micanicien du Hoi), and provided a studio for lum in the gardens of the Louvre, where he used the burning-mirror for melting metals without fire. He invented a fire-engine which was very gen- erally adopted and, in 1771, a machine for drilling metals. Another invention for mechanical engrav- ing was one which enabled lace-manufacturers to en- grave in a few ln'iirs elaborate patterns and designs which formerly had required at least six months' work of the burin. Charpentier's device for lighthouse- illumination >o pleased Louis XVI that he offered the inventor a pension and a place as the head of the De-

fiartment of Beacons, asking him to fix the price for lis discovery. Charpentier refused the pension and suggest ed that, the office be given to a younger man, saying that he would "prefer freedom in order to de- vote himself to the development of his ideas". He received a thousand crowns for his discovery.

During the Directoire he made an instrument for boring six gun-barrels at once, and a machine to saw six boards simultaneously. For these the government paid him 24,000 francs and named him director of the Atelier de perfectionnement, estab- lished at the Hotel Montmorency. Charpentier re- ceived many flattering offers from Russia and Eng- land for his labour-saving devices, but refused them all. Pious, generous, simple, credulous, Charpentier

was the dupe of beggars and schemers, many of whom affixed their names to his inventions and made for- tunes thereby. He died as he had lived, in poverty. The chief extant works of his, all prints, are: "Edu- cation of the Virgin ". after Boucher; " Death of Archi- medes", after Ferri; "Shepherdess", after Berchem; "Descent from the Cross", in colour, after Vanloo.

Biographic lenivcrscllc s. v.; Rry.yn, Diet, of Painters and Engravers (London, 1903). LeIGH Ht'NT.

Charron, Pierre, moralist, b. in Paris, 1541; d. there 6 Nov., 1003. He studied law at Bourges, but after several years' practice he embraced the ecclesiastical state. For thirty years he preached with so much success that the bishops vied with one another to engage his services. Queen Margaret of Navarre entertained him as her preacher in ordinary, and King Henry delighted to hear him even before his conversion to the Catholic Faith. In Bordeaux he met the famous Michel de Montaigne. Their acquaint- ance ripened into a close and lasting friendship. Montaigne bequeathed to his friend the right to wear his coat of arms, and Charron in return made the sister of Montaigne heir to his possessions. Charron published three books: " Les trois verites" (Bor- deaux, 1594), "Les discours chrestiens" (Cahors, 1600), and "Sagesse" (Bordeaux, 1601). Whilst, en- gaged in bringing out a second edition of the latter, he died suddenly of apoplexy.

At a period of extraordinary religious agitation the "Trois verites" (Three Truths) proved to be a very opportune and valuable apology. The "Discours chrestiens" were published only a few months before "Sagesse", and, like "Trois verites", they were per- fectly orthodox. But the book which carried ('bar- ren's influence and fame beyond the borders of France and down to our time is his "Sagesse". Its rich ma- terial, which Charron had gathered chiefly from Mon- taigne's conversations and essays, he divides into three parts: the nature of man; the duties of man as man; and the particular duties of the various classes and conditions of men. His standpoint is invariably that of a human philosopher. The sceptic spirit which pervades the whole book allows it to be summed up in a very few words: by his own natural light and strength man is incapable of finding principles of re- ligion and morality sufficiently certain; and, being sure of nothing, it is consequently wise to live as con- veniently and pleasurably as the common usage of the people among whom one lives allows. No attempt is nude anywhere in the body of the book to conceal the baldness of this doctrine.

Had Charron, instead of engraving his easy-going "Je ne scay" as the essence of all his worldly wisdom on the title-page of his "Sagesse" and over the entrance of his house, taken, like Descartes, the time and the trouble of finding a solid basis of moral and religious certainty, he would have shown himself a deeper and more independent philosopher and a worthier moralist. As il is, we need not wonder that the second edition of the " Sagi i ' ' end luntered great

Opposition and was allowed to appear only after some passages had been softened down, and others ex- plained or corrected. .Nor is the fierce onslaught of

Garasse, who called I lharron "athte et l patriarche <J i esprits forts", surprising, especially when, even in our d i\. nearly the same charge is made and ably sup- ported by Ad. Franck in the " Dictionnaire des sciences philosopniques ". These accusations, however, take account neither of the time in which Charron lived, when philosophic uncertainty was not held to imply clearly the rejection of revealed authority; nor of the author's explicit professions thai he intended his "Sagesse" as the best introduction to his "Trois verites" and his "Discours direst iens"; nor of the COD I oil good opinion in which the author was held to the i ud of his life by his many ecclesiastical superiors.