CHASLES

chasles, victor euphemien philarete (1798-1873), french critic and man of letters, was born at mainvilliers (eure et loir) on the 8th of october 1798. his father, pierre jacques michel chasles (1754-1826), was a member of the convention, and was one of those who voted the death of louis xvi. he brought up his son according to the principles of rousseau's _emile_, and the boy, after a regime of outdoor life, followed by some years' classical study, was apprenticed to a printer, so that he might make acquaintance with manual labour. his master was involved in one of the plots of 1815, and philarete suffered two months' imprisonment. on his release he was sent to london, where he worked for the printer valpy on editions of classical authors. he wrote articles for the english reviews, and on his return to france did much to popularize the study of english authors. he was also one of the earliest to draw attention in france to scandinavian and russian literature. he contributed to the _revue des deux mondes_, until he had a violent quarrel, terminating in a lawsuit, with francois buloz, who won his case. he became librarian of the bibliotheque mazarine, and from 1841 was professor of comparative literature at the college de france. during his active life he produced some fifty volumes of literary history and criticism, and of social history, much of which is extremely valuable. he died at venice on the 18th of july 1873. his son, emile chasles (b. 1827), was a philologist of some reputation. among his best critical works is _dix-huitieme siecle en angleterre_ ... (1846), one of a series of 20 vols. of _etudes de litterature comparee_ (1846-1875), which he called later _trente ans de critique_. an account of his strenuous boyhood is given in his _maison de mon pere_. his _memoires_ (1876-1877) did not fulfil the expectations based on his brilliant talk. chasse (from the fr., in full _chasse-cafe_, or "coffee-chaser"), a draught of spirit or liqueur, taken with or after coffee, &c. chasse (fr. for "chased"), a gliding step in dancing, so called since one foot is brought up behind or chases the other. the _chasse croise_ is a double variety of the step.