CHANZY, ANTOINE EUGENE ALFRED (1823 1883), French general, was born at Nouart (Ardennes) on March 18, 1823. The son of a cavalry officer, he was educated at the naval school at Brest, but enlisted in the artillery, and was commis sioned in the Zouaves in 1843. Although he acquired an excellent professional reputation during war service in Algeria and in Lom bardy, he was in bad odour at the War Office on account of sus pected contributions to the press, and at the outbreak of the Franco-German War was refused a brigade command. After the revolution, however, the government of national defence gave him command of the XVI. Corps of the army of the Loire. (For the operations of the Orleans campaign which followed, see FRANCO GERMAN WAR.) After the second battle of Orleans and the sep aration of the two wings of the French army, Chanzy was ap pointed to command that in the west, designated the second army of the Loire. He displayed conspicuous moral courage in the fighting from Beaugency to the Loire, in his retreat to Le Mans, and in retiring to Laval behind the Mayenne. He was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and was elected to the National Assembly. At the beginning of the commune, Chanzy, then at Paris, fell into the hands of the insurgents, by whom he was liberated on giving his parole not to serve against them. A ransom of £40,000 was also paid by the Government for him. In 1872 he became a member of the committee of defence and com mander of the VII. Army Corps, and in 1873 was appointed gov ernor of Algeria, where he re mained for six years. In 1875 he was elected a life senator, in 1878 received the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and in 1879, without his consent, was nomi nated for the presidency of the republic, receiving a third of the total votes. For two years he was ambassador at St. Petersburg (Leningrad). He died suddenly, while commanding the VI. Army Corps at Chalons-sur-Marne, on Jan. 4, 1883, and his remains re ceived a state funeral. He was the author of La Deuxieme Ar mee de la Loire (1872).
See J. M. Villefranche, Historie du General Chanzy (189o) . CHAOS, in the Hesiodic the ogony, the infinite empty space which existed before all things (Theog. 116, 123). It is not, however, a mere vacuum, being filled with clouds and darkness; from it proceed Erebus and Nyx (Night), whose children are Aether (upper air) and Hemera (Day). In the Orphic cosmog ony the origin of all goes back to Chronos, the personification of time, who produces Aether and Chaos. In the Aristophanic parody (Birds, 691) the winged Eros in conjunction with gloomy Chaos brings forth the race of birds. The later Roman conception (Ovid, Metam. i. 7) makes Chaos the original crude, shapeless mass, into which the architect of the world introduces order and harmony, and from which individual forms are created. When contrasted with cosmos (the orderly universe) the word has various meanings :—the space between heaven and earth ; the underworld and its ruler; the immeasurable darkness; the indef inite in space and time. In modern usage "chaos" denotes a state of disorder and confusion.