Cartes i an ism, Cartes I An

PHILOSOPHY, n. That system of philosophy which owes its origin to Des cartes (1596-1650), who is entitled the father of modern philosophy. He endeavored to constitute philosophy a demonstrable science, founded on the principles of pure rationalism, and was to philosophy in France what Bacon was to it in England. Unable to find any firm ground in any of the prevailing systems, distracted by doubts, mistrusting the evidences of his senses or the conclusions of his understanding, he determined to reconstruct his knowledge, to believe nothing but upon the clearest evidence of reason, and to examine the pre mises of every conclusion. He pushed his scepticism so far that he came to doubt everything but his own existence. It appeared to him that doubts might reasonably be entertained about everything but his own existence; to doubt the existence of that which thinks and doubts, appeared to him to be an absurdity. Setting out, therefore, from his well-known postulatum, Cogito, ergo sum, (I think, therefore I am,) he resolved to admit nothing which could not be deduced from it by a chain of logical reasoning. He did not attempt, as some philosophers have held, to prove his own existence in this way; he merely regarded it as the only thing about which there could not po ibly be any doubt. His next step was to lay down certain rules for the detection of truth. These were: 1. Never to accept anything as true but what is so evidently so, that there can be no reason to doubt it. 2. To divide every question into as many separate questions as po ible, that, each part being more easily conceived, the whole may be more intelligible. 3. To conduct the examination with order, beginning with the most simple, and rising by little and little to the most complex; and 4, to make such exact calculations, and such circumspections as to be certain that nothing e ential has been omitted. Consciousne being the ground of all certainty, everything of which we are clearly and distinctly conscious must be true, and everything which we clearly and distinctly conceive, exists, if the idea of it involves existence. To prove the existence of God was the first application of his method. "This consciousne of mine is finite and imperfect; but infinity and perfection are involved in these ideas, and innate in the mind; therefore, an infinite and perfect being must exist. The fundamental attribute of matter is extension, of mind is thought. The soul, whose nature consists in thought, is simple in its e ence, or, in other words, purely immaterial, but intimately connected with the body." The pineal gland he supposed may be its seat. From the immateriality of the soul he deduced its immortality; but lest he should be obliged to extend the same properties to other animals, he pronounced them to be living machines. The soul is free because it thinks itself so, and in this very freedom consists its liability to error. He made a distinction between the pa ive impre ions and active decisions of the soul. He constituted 3 cla es of ideas: adventitious, or those which we naturally acquire; those which we create; and innate, or those which are born with us. He accounts for the communion existing between soul and body by his doctrine of A istance - the a istance or co-operation of deity. All physical phenomena he endeavored to account for by his celebrated Vortices motion excited by God, the source of all motion. Notwithstanding the many defects of the Cartes i an philosophy, its confusion in some parts and contradictions in others, and a want of conclusivene in many of its inferences, it awakened men to independent thought, and impelled them to investigate the fundamental principles of philosophy. Car'thage. [Gr. Karchēdōn ; Lat. Carthage.] A famous maritime city, long the rival of Rome, with which she waged a lengthened, doubtful, and desperate contest for the empire of the world; situate on the N. shore of Africa, in the immediate neighborhood of Tunis. C. appears, from the best sources of information, to have been principally built along the coast of the peninsula to the N.E. of Tunis, from a little N. of the goletta , or entrance to the lagoon of Tunis to Cape Carthage (Lat. 36° 51′ 30" N., Lon. 10° 26′ 45′′ E.), and then round to Cape Quamart. It was defended on the land side, where it was most penetrable, by a triple line of walls of great height and thickne , flanked by towers that stretched acro the peninsula from the lagoon of Tunis to the sea on the N. The harbor lay to the south of Cape Carthage, and was entered from what is now the Gulf of Tunis. At the time of its greatest splendor, C. must have been one of the richest and finest cities of the ancient world. It consisted of three principal divisions, viz., the Byrsa , or citadel, built on an eminence, the summit of which was occupied by a magnificent temple in honor of Æscu lapius; and it also contained the famous temple of the Phœnician Astarte . The Megara , or town so called, which lay to the W. of the Byrsa, along the triple wall. The Cothon, or port, which consisted of two great basins, one for merchantmen, the other for ships of war. C. also po e ed, among its public buildings, a famous temple in honor of its tutelar deity Mel car thus, or Saturn; a magnificent forum, a circus, and a theatre. The population of this city, in the acmé of its prosperity, has been variously estimated at from 250,000 to 700,000. The early history of C. is involved in the densest obscurity, but the accepted belief is that it was founded by a colony of emigrants from Tyre, at the supposed date of 1259 в. с. Virgil has ascribed the foundation of the city to Queen Dido at a later period. In the zenith of its power C po e ed the greater portion of N. Africa, a large part of Spain, Sardinia, Malta, the Balearic Isles, . The commercial operations of the Cart hag in i ans embraced the whole world as then known. Of the long continued struggle between C. and Rome it would be usele , even if our limits permitted, to say anything. It is a favorite subject of every cla ical reader, and has been ably treated in many modern works; but it is much to be regretted that we have no Cart hag in i an history of this memorable contest, and that we are constrained to Fig . 525. RUINS OF CARTHAGE. noxious and venomous insects. The importance of C. has declined of late years, but it has still a valuable foreign trade, and steam communication with many of the chief ports of the U. States and Europe. The city was founded in 1533, and was long considered as the great bulwark of the Spanish po e ions in South and Central America. Рор . 7,800, Carthage'na, or CART A GENA, (anc. Carthago Nova ,) a fortified city and sea-port of Spain, prov. Murcia, on the Mediterranean, 17 m. W. of Cape Palos, and 32 S.S.E. of Murcia. There is here a fine naval arsenal. The harbor, which is one of the best in the Mediterranean, has deep water throughout; is protected from every wind by the surrounding heights and by an islet at its entrance, and is, like the city itself, strongly fortified. The excellence of the harbor gave rise to the common saying among the Mediterranean sailors, that there are but three good ports-the months of June and July, and the harbor of Carthagena. This has always been the grand rendezvous of the Spanish fleets in the Mediterranean.- Manf . Cables, cordage, and barilla. C. was founded or occupied by the Cart hag in i ans, and taken by the Romans 208 в. с., at which period it was, next to Rome, one of the richest cities in the world. of each bone is absorbed, the gelatine being removed, and an exce of albumen and earthy matter left; on this account the bones of old people are always more brittle than those of youth or mid-age. Cart i lag in'ean, n. (Zool.) One of the cla of the CARTILAGINOUS FISHES, q. v. Cart i lag in if i cation, n. [Lat. cartilago , cartilage, and facere , to make.] The proce of forming cartilage. Cartilaginous, Cart i lag in'eous, ( kär - tv -laj'in- us,) a. (Anat.) Pertaining to, or resembling, a cart i- lage; gristly; consisting of cartilage; as, " Cart i lag in- ous bodies." - Ray . Cartilaginous Fishes, n. pl. ( Zool .) A group of fishes formed by Cuvier, including all fishes that have their skeleton e entially cartilaginous, calcareous mat- ter being present only in small portions. They have no sutures in the cranium, and the gelatinous substance which in other fishes fills the space between the verte- bræ, and only extends from one space to another by means of a small aperture, forms, in a part of this group, a long cord which traverses nearly all the vertebræ with- out materially varying in its diameter. C. F. are di- vided into three orders: Sturiones, or chondropterygi- ans with free gills, as sturgeons; Selachians , or chon- dropterygians with fixed gills, as sharks and skates; Cyclostomes, or suckers , chondropterygians with skeleton very slightly developed, and the body terminated before with a circular or semi-circular lip, as lampreys. depend wholly on the one-sided, and, most probably, prejudiced accounts of the Latin historians, and the Sicilian Greeks. The last struggle of C. was not unworthy of her ancient reputation, and of the great men she had produced. The conduct of the Romans on this occasion was most base and treacherous. But though betrayed on all hands, deceived, without allies, and all but defencele , C. made a brave defence; and all that she had that was brave and really illustrious, fell with her fall. The Romans glutted their vengeance, and Fig . 526. CARTHAGENA, (Spain.) quieted their fears by the total destruction of C. (B.C. Carthage'na, in Ohio , a post-office of Mercer co. 146.) About 30 years afterward, Caius Gracchus, by Cart hag in i an, ( kar - tha - jin'e-an,) n. (Geog.) A naorder of the senate, carried a colony thither, the first tive or inhabitant of Carthage. that was founded beyond the limits of Italy. Julius -a. Pertaining to Carthage; as, Cart hag in i an history. Cæsar, on his return from Africa, settled in C. some of his troops, and a number of colonists gathered from the adjoining country. During the early ages of the Christian æra, C. was regarded as the capital of Africa. In Christian history it is known for its councils, and for the spiritual labors of St. Augustine. In 439 A. D., it was taken by the Vandals under Genseric; it was retaken by Belisarius in 533; and lastly was taken and destroyed by the Saracens in 698. The ruins which are now seen on that coast belong to the Roman C.; there are no remains of the Tyrian city, except the large cisterns and perhaps the ruins of the great aqueduct. Carthage, in Alabama , a post-village of Tuscaloosa co., 18 m. S.S.W. of Tuscaloosa. Carthage, in Illinois , a township and village, cap. of Hancock co., 12 m. from the Mi i ippi River, and 13 n. E. of Keokuk. Carthage, in Indiana, a flourishing post-village of Rush co., on the Blue River, 33 m. E. by S. of Indianapolis. Carthage, in low a, a village of Johnson co., 6 m. E. of Iowa city. Carthage, in Kentucky, a township of Campbell co., on the Ohio River, 24 m. from Cincinnati, Carthage, in Maine, a township of Franklin co., 32 m. N.W. of August a. Carthage, in Mi i ippi, a post-village, cap. of Leak co., 65 m. N.E. of Jackson. Carthage, in Mi ouri , a city, the cap. of Jasper co., on Spring river, 220 m. S. W. of Jefferson city. This place was the scene of a battle, fought July 5, 1861, between a body of U. S. forces under Sigel, and one of Confederates under Gens. Parsons and Rains, in which the Nationals were defeated. Pop . (1897) abt. 9,500. Carthage, in New York , a manuf. town of Wilna township, Jefferson co., on the right bank of Black river, 16 m. E. of Water town. Pop . (1897) abt. 3,000. -A village of Monroe co., on the Gene see River, 2 m. N. of Rochester. Carthage, in N. Carolina, a township, cap. of Moore co., 60 m. S.W. of Raleigh. Carthage, in Ohio, a thriving township of Athens county. -A post-village of Hamilton co., 10 m. N. of Cincinnati. Carthage, in Tenne ee , a flourishing post-village, cap. of Smith co., on the Cumber land River, 50 m. E. of Nashville. Carthage, in Texas, a post-village, cap. of Panola co., 200 m. N. by E. of Galveston. Carthage Landing, in New York, a post-office of Dutche co. Carthagena, or Cart a gena, ( kar'ta - jaina,) a strongly fortified maritime city of S. America, in the U. States of Colombia, and the chief naval arsenal of that repul lic, cap. of prov. of same name, on a sandy peninsula of the Caribbean Sea, connected with the continent by a narrow neck of land: 410 m. N. of Bogotá; Lat. 10° 26′ N., Lon. 75° 34′ W. The port is one of the largest and best on the N. coast of S. America, and the harbor being land-locked, ve els lie in it as if in dock. C. contains a handsome cathedral, churches, convents, . The climate is intensely hot, the city is not seldom made acquainted with yellow fever, and is infested with