amily in _Les Deux Champollion_ (Grenoble, 1887).

CHANCE (through the O. Fr. _cheance_, from the Late Lat. _cadentia_,
things happening, from _cadere_, to fall out, happen; cf. "case"), an
accident or event, a phenomenon which has no apparent or discoverable
cause; hence an event which has not been expected, a piece of good or
bad fortune. From the popular idea that anything of which no assignable
cause is known has therefore no cause, chance (Gr. [Greek: tuche]) was
regarded as having a substantial objective existence, being itself the
source of such uncaused phenomena. For the philosophic theories relating
to this subject see ACCIDENTALISM.

"Chance," in the theory of probability, is used in two ways. In the
stricter, or mathematical usage, it is synonymous with probability; i.e.
if a particular event may occur in n ways in an aggregate of p events,
then the "chance" of the particular event occurring is given by the
fraction _n/p_. In the second usage, the "chance" is regarded as the
ratio of the number of ways which a particular event may occur to the
number of ways in which it may not occur; mathematically expressed, this
chance is _n/(p-n)_ (see PROBABILITY). In the English law relating to
gaming and wagering a distinction is drawn between games of chance and
games of skill (see GAMING AND WAGERING).

CHANCEL (through O. Fr. from Lat. plur. _cancelli_, dim. of _cancer_,
grating, lattice, probably connected with an Indo-European root _Kar_-,
to bend; cf. circus, curve, &c.), in the earliest and strictest sense
that part of a church near the altar occupied by the deacons and
sub-deacons assisting the officiating priest, this space having
originally been separated from the rest of the church by _cancelli_ or
lattice work. The word _cancelli_ is used in classical Latin of a
screen, bar or the like, set to mark off an enclosed space in a building
or in an open place. It is thus used of the bar in a court of justice
(Cicero, _Verres_, ii. 3 seq.). It is particularly used of the lattice
or screen in the ancient basilica, which separated the _bema_, or raised
tribunal, from the rest of the building. The use of the name in
ecclesiastical buildings is thus natural, for the altar stood in the
place occupied by the _bema_ in the apse of the basilica. From the
screen the term was early transferred to the space _inter cancellos_,
i.e. the _locus altaris cancellis septus_. This railed-off space is now
generally kno