le and obedient," and to allow
himself to be led by public authority. This is one rule of wisdom with
regard to religion; and another equally important is to avoid
superstition, which he boldly defines as the belief that God is like a
hard judge who, eager to find fault, narrowly examines our slightest
act, that He is revengeful and hard to appease, and that therefore He
must be flattered and importuned, and won over by pain and sacrifice.
True piety, which is the first of duties, is, on the other hand, the
knowledge of God and of one's self, the latter knowledge being necessary
to the former. It is the abasing of man, the exalting of God,--the
belief that what He sends is all good, and that all the bad is from
ourselves. It leads to spiritual worship; for external ceremony is
merely for our advantage, not for His glory. Charron is thus the founder
of modern secularism. His political views are neither original nor
independent. He pours much hackneyed scorn on the common herd, declares
the sovereign to be the source of law, and asserts that popular freedom
is dangerous.

A summary and defence of the _Sagesse_, written shortly before his
death, appeared in 1606. In 1604 his friend Michel de la Rochemaillet
prefixed to an edition of the _Sagesse_ a Life, which depicts Charron
as a most amiable man of purest character. His complete works, with
this Life, were published in 1635. An excellent abridgment of the
_Sagesse_ is given in Tennemann's _Philosophie_, vol. ix.; an edition
with notes by A. Duval appeared in 1820.

See Liebscher, _Charron u. sein Werk, De la sagesse_ (Leipzig, 1890);
H.T. Buckle, _Introd. to History of Civilization in England_, vol. ii.
19; Abbe Lezat, _De la predication sous Henri IV._ c. vi.; J.M.
Robertson, _Short History of Free Thought_ (London, 1906), vol. ii. p.
19; J. Owen, _Skeptics of the French Renaissance_ (1893); Lecky,
_Rationalism in Europe_ (1865).

CHARRUA, a tribe of South American Indians, wild and warlike, formerly
ranging over Uruguay and part of S. Brazil. They were dark and heavily
built, fought on horses and used the bolas or weighted lasso. They were
always at war with the Spaniards, and Juan Diaz de Solis was killed by
them in 1516. As a tribe they are now almost extinct, but the modern
Gauchos of Uruguay have much Charrua blood in them.

CHART (from Lat. _carta, charta_, a map). A chart is a marine map
intended specially for the use of