The Nuttall encyclopædia (part 5 of 10)
FELIX, CLAUDIUS, a Roman procurator of Judæa in the time of Claudius and Nero; is referred to in Acts xxiii. and xxiv. as having examined the Apostle Paul and listened to his doctrines; was vicious in his habits, and formed an adulterous union with Drusilla, said by Tacitus to have been the granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra; was recalled in A.D. 62.
FELIX HOLT, a novel of George Eliot's, written in 1866.
FELL, JOHN, a celebrated English divine; Royalist in sympathy, he continued throughout the Puritan ascendency loyal to the English Church, and on the Restoration became Dean of Christ Church and a royal chaplain; was a good man and a charitable, and a patron of learning; in 1676 was raised to the bishopric of Oxford; was the object of the well-known epigram, "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, The reason why I cannot tell" (1625-1686).
FELLAH, the name applied contemptuously by the Turks to the agricultural labourer of Egypt; the Fellahin (pl. of Fellah) comprise about three-fourths of the population; they are of good physique, and capable of much toil, but are, despite their intelligence and sobriety, lazy and immoral; girls marry at the age of 12, and the children grow up amidst the squalor of their mud-built villages; their food is of the poorest, and scarcely ever includes meat; tobacco is their only luxury; their condition has improved under British rule.
FELLOWS, SIR CHARLES, archæologist, born at Nottingham; early developed a passion for travel; explored the Xanthus Valley in Asia Minor, and discovered the ruins of the cities Teos and Xanthus, the ancient capital of Lycia (1838); returned to the exploration of Lycia in 1839 and again in 1841, discovering the ruins of 13 other ancient cities; accounts of these explorations and discoveries are fully given in his various published journals and essays; was knighted in 1845 (1799-1861).
FELLOWSHIP, a collegiate term for a status in many universities which entitles the holder (a Fellow) to a share in their revenues, and in some cases to certain privileges as regards apartments and meals in the college, as also to a certain share in the government; formerly Fellowships were usually life appointments, but are now generally for a prescribed number of years, or are held during a term of special research; the old restrictions of celibacy and religious conformity have been relaxed.
FELO-DE-SE, in English law the crime which a man at the age of discretion and of a sound mind commits when he takes away his life.
FELONY, "a crime which involves a total forfeiture of lands or goods or both, to which capital or other punishment may be superadded, according to the degree of guilt."
FELTON, CORNELIUS CONWAY, American scholar, born at West Newbury, Massachusetts; graduated at Harvard in 1827, and became professor of Greek there, rising to the Presidency of the same college in 1860; edited Greek classics, and made translations from the German; most important work is "Greece, Ancient and Modern," in 2 vols. (1807-1862).
FELTON, JOHN, the Irish assassin of the Duke of Buckingham in 1628.
FEMMES SAVANTES, a comedy in five acts by Molière, and one of his best, appeared in 1672.
FENELLA, a fairy-like attendant of the Countess of Derby, deaf and dumb, in Scott's "Peveril of the Peak," a character suggested by Goethe's Mignon in "Wilhelm Meister."
FÉNÉLON, FRANÇOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE, a famous French prelate and writer, born in the Château de Fénélon, in the prov. of Périgord; at the age of 15 came to Paris, and, having already displayed a remarkable gift for preaching, entered the Plessis College, and four years later joined the Seminary of St. Sulpice, where he took holy orders in 1675; his directorship of a seminary for female converts to Catholicism brought him into prominence, and gave occasion to his well-known treatise "De l'Éducation des Filles"; in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he conducted a mission for the conversion of the Huguenots of Saintonge and Poitou, and four years later Louis XIV. appointed him tutor to his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, an appointment which led to his writing his "Fables," "Dialogues of the Dead," and "History of the Ancient Philosophers"; in 1694 he became abbé of St. Valery, and in the following year archbishop of Cambrai; soon after this ensued his celebrated controversy with BOSSUET (q. v.) regarding the doctrines of QUIETISM (q. v.), a dispute which brought him into disfavour with the king and provoked the Pope's condemnation of his "Explication des Maximes des Saints sur la Vie intérieure"; the surreptitious publication of his most famous work "Télémache," the MS. of which was stolen by his servant, accentuated the king's disfavour, who regarded it as a veiled attack on his court, and led to an order confining the author to his own diocese; the rest of his life was spent in the service of his people, to whom he endeared himself by his benevolence and the sweet piety of his nature; his works are extensive, and deal with subjects historical and literary, as well as philosophical and theological (1651-1715).
FENIANS, an Irish political organisation having for its object the overthrow of English rule in Ireland and the establishment of a republic there. The movement was initiated in the United States soon after the great famine in Ireland of 1846-47, which, together with the harsh exactions of the landlords, compelled many Irishmen to emigrate from their island with a deeply-rooted sense of injustice and hatred of the English. The Fenians organised themselves so far on the model of a republic, having a senate at the head, with a virtual president called the "head-centre," and various "circles" established in many parts of the U.S. They collected funds and engaged in military drill, and sent agents to Ireland and England. An invasion of Canada in 1866 and a rising at home in 1867 proved abortive, as also the attack on Clerkenwell Prison in the same year. Another attempt on Canada in 1871 and the formation of the Skirmishing Fund for the use of the Dynamitards and the institution of the Clan-na-Gael leading to the "Invincibles," and the Phoenix Park murders (1882) are later manifestations of this movement. The Home Rule and Land League movements practically superseded the Fenian. The name is taken from an ancient military organisation called the Fionna Eirinn, said to have been instituted in Ireland in 300 B.C.
FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC, V. of Castile, II. of Aragon and Sicily, and III. of Naples, born at Sos, in Aragon, married Isabella of Castile in 1849, a step by which these ancient kingdoms were united under one sovereign power; their joint reign is one of the most glorious in the annals of Spanish history, and in their hands Spain quickly took rank amongst the chief European powers; in 1492 Columbus discovered America, and the same year saw the Jews expelled from Spain and the Moorish power crushed by the fall of Granada. In 1500-1 Ferdinand joined the French in his conquest of Naples, and three years later managed to secure the kingdom to himself, while by the conquest of Navarre in 1512 the entire Spanish peninsula came under his sway. He was a shrewd and adroit ruler, whose undoubted abilities, both as administrator and general, were, however, somewhat marred by an unscrupulous cunning, which found a characteristic expression in the institution of the notorious Inquisition, which in 1480 was started by him, and became a powerful engine for political as well as religious persecution for long years after (1452-1516).
FERDINAND I., emperor of Germany (1556-64), born at Alcalá, in Spain, son of Philip I., married Anna, a Bohemian princess, in 1521; was elected king of the Romans (1531), added Bohemia and Hungary to his domains (1503-1564).
FERDINAND II., emperor of Germany (1619-37), grandson of the preceding and son of Charles, younger brother of Maximilian II., born at Grätz; his detestation of the Protestants, early instilled into him by his mother and the Jesuits, under whom he was educated, was the ruling passion of his life, and involved the empire in constant warfare during his reign; an attempt on the part of Bohemia, restless under religious and political grievances, to break away from his rule, brought about the Thirty Years' War; by ruthless persecutions he re-established Catholicism in Bohemia, and reduced the country to subjection; but the war spread into Hungary and Germany, where Ferdinand was opposed by a confederacy of the Protestant States of Lower Saxony and Denmark, and in which the Protestant cause was in the end successfully sustained by the Swedish hero, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (q. v.), who had opposed to him the imperial generals TILLY and WALLENSTEIN (q. v.); his reign is regarded as one of disaster, bloodshed, and desolation to his empire, and his connivance at the assassination of Wallenstein will be forever remembered to his discredit (1578-1637).
FERDINAND III., emperor of Germany (1637-57), son of the preceding, born at Grätz; more tolerant in his views, would gladly have brought the war to a close, but found himself compelled to face the Swedes reinforced by the French; in 1648 the desolating struggle was terminated by the Peace of Westphalia; the rest of his reign passed in tranquillity (1608-1657).
FERDINAND I., king of the Two Sicilies, third son of Charles III. of Spain, succeeded his father on the Neapolitan throne (1759), married Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria-Theresa; joined the Allies in the struggle against Napoleon, and in 1806 was driven from his throne by the French, but was reinstated at the Congress of Vienna; in 1816 he constituted his two States (Sicily and Naples) into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and in the last four years of his reign ruled, with the aid of Austria, as a despot, and having broken a pledge to his people, was compelled ere his return to grant a popular constitution (1751-1825).
FERDINAND II., king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding and son of Francis I.; after the death of his first wife, a daughter of Victor Emmanuel I., he married the Austrian princess Maria-Theresa, and fell under the influence of Austria during the rest of his reign; in 1848 he was compelled to grant constitutional rights to his people, but was distrusted, and an insurrection broke out in Sicily; with merciless severity he crushed the revolt, and by his savage bombardment of the cities won him the epithet "Bomba"; a reign of terror ensued, and in 1851 Europe was startled by the revelations of cruel injustice contained in Mr. Gladstone's famous Neapolitan letters (1810-1859).
FERDINAND III., Grand-duke of Tuscany and Archduke of Austria, born at Florence; succeeded to the government of Tuscany in 1790; introduced many wise measures of reform, which brought peace and prosperity to his State; reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in 1793, but two years later entered into friendly relations with France, and in 1797, in order to save his States being merged in the Cisalpine Republic, undertook to make payment of an annual subsidy; later he formed an alliance with Austria, and was by Napoleon driven from his possessions, which were, however, restored to him in 1814 by the Peace of Paris (1769-1824).
FERDINAND VII. OF SPAIN, son of Charles IV. of Spain; too weak to steer his way through the intrigues of the court, he appealed to Napoleon in 1807 to support the king, his father, and himself; but his letter was discovered, and his accomplices exiled; the following year the French entered Spain, and Charles abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand; but soon after, under Napoleon's influence, the crown was surrendered to the French, and Joseph Bonaparte became king; in 1813 Ferdinand was reinstated, but found himself immediately met by a demand of his people for a more liberal representative government; the remaining years of his reign were spent in an internecine struggle against these claims, in which he had French support under Louis XVIII. (1784-1833).
FERDUSI. See FIRDAUSI.
FERETRUM, the shrine containing the sacred effigies and relics of a saint.
FERGUS, the name of three Scottish kings: F. I., d. 356; F. II., king from 411 to 427; and F. III., king from 764 to 767.
FERGUSON, ADAM, a Scotch philosopher and historian, born at Logierait, Perthshire; after passing through the universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, he in 1745 was appointed Gaelic chaplain to the Black Watch Highland Regiment, and was present at the battle of Fontenoy; in 1757 he became keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh; two years later professor of Natural Philosophy, and subsequently of Moral Philosophy in the university there; during his professorship he, as secretary, was attached to the commission sent out by Lord North to bring about a friendly settlement of the dispute pending between England and the North American colonies; resigning his chair in 1785 he retired to Neidpath Castle, to engage in farming at Hallyards, an estate in the same neighbourhood; died at St. Andrews; his best-known works are "Institutes of Moral Philosophy," "History of the Roman Republic," and "Principles of Moral and Political Science" (1723-1816).
FERGUSON, JAMES, a popular writer on astronomy and mechanics, born at Rothiemay, Banff, son of a labourer; his interest in astronomy was first aroused by his observation of the stars while acting as a "herd laddie," and much of his time among the hills was spent in the construction of mechanical contrivances; compelled by circumstances to betake himself to various occupations, pattern-drawing, clock-mending, copying prints, and portrait sketching, he still in his leisure hours pursued those early studies, and coming to London in 1743 (after a residence of some years in Edinburgh), began lecturing on his favourite subjects; a pension of £50 was granted him out of the privy purse, and in 1763 he was elected an F.R.S.; besides publishing lectures on mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, &c., he wrote several works on astronomy, chiefly popular expositions of the methods and principles of Sir Isaac Newton (1710-1776).
FERGUSON, PATRICK, soldier and inventor of the breech-loading gun, born at Pitfour, Aberdeenshire; served in the English army in Germany and Tobago; brought out his new rifle in 1766, which was tried with success in the American War of Independence; rose to be a major, and fell at the battle of King's Mountains, in South Carolina (1744-1780).
FERGUSON, ROBERT, a notorious plotter, who took part in Monmouth's invasion in 1685 and was prominent in the various plots against Charles II. and James II., but after the Revolution turned Jacobite; published a history of the Revolution in 1706; died in poverty (about 1637-1714).
FERGUSSON, JAMES, a writer on the history and art of architecture, born at Ayr; went to India as an indigo-planter, but afterwards gave himself up to the study of the rock-temples; published various works, and in his later years interested himself in the fortifications of the United Kingdom; his "History of Architecture," in 4 vols., is a standard work (1808-1886).
FERGUSSON, ROBERT, a Scottish poet, born in Edinburgh; after a university course at St. Andrews he obtained a post in the office of the commissionary-clerk of Edinburgh; his first poems appeared in Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, and brought him a popularity which proved his ruin; some years of unrestrained dissipation ended in religious melancholia, which finally settled down into an incurable insanity; his poems, collected in 1773, have abundant energy, wit, and fluency, but lack the passion and tenderness of those of Burns; he was, however, held in high honour by Burns, who regarded him as "his elder brother in the Muses." "In his death," says Mr. Henley, "at four-and-twenty, a great loss was inflicted to Scottish literature; he had intelligence and an eye, a right touch of humour, the gifts of invention and observation and style, together with a true feeling for country and city alike ... Burns, who learned much from him, was an enthusiast in his regard for him, bared his head and shed tears over 'the green mound and the scattered gowans,' under which he found his exemplar lying in Canongate Churchyard, and got leave from the managers to put up a headstone at his own cost there" (1750-1774). See Mr. Henley's "Life of Burns" in the Centenary Burns, published by the Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jack.
FERGUSSON, SIR W., surgeon, born at Prestonpans; graduated at Edinburgh; was elected to the chair of Surgery in King's College, London, and in 1866 was made a baronet; was serjeant-surgeon to the Queen, and president of the Royal College of Surgeons; Fergusson was a bold and skilful surgeon; is the author, amongst other treatises, of a "System of Practical Surgery," besides being the inventor of many surgical instruments (1808-1877).
FERISHTAH, a Persian historian, born at Astrabad, on the Black Sea; went at an early age, accompanied by his father, to India, where his life was spent in the service, first of Murtaza Nizam Shah, in Ahmednagar, and afterwards at the court of the prince of Bijapur; his famous history of the Mohammedan power in India, finished in 1609, and the writing of which occupied him for 20 years, is still a standard work, and has been translated into English (about 1570-1611).
FERMANAGH (74), an Irish county in the SW. corner of Ulster, of a hilly surface, especially in the W.; is well wooded, and produces indifferent crops of oats, flax, and potatoes; some coal and iron, and quantities of limestone, are found in it; the Upper and Lower Loughs Erne form a waterway through its centre; chief town, Enniskillen.
FERMAT, PIERRE DE, a French mathematician, born near Montauban; made important discoveries in the properties of numbers, and with his friend Pascal invented a calculus of probabilities; was held in high esteem by Hallam, who ranks him next to Descartes (1601-1665).
FERNANDEZ, JUAN, a Spanish navigator, discovered the island off the coast of Chile that bears his name; d. in 1576.
FERNANDO PO (25), a mountainous island, with an abrupt and rocky coast, in the Bight of Biafra, W. Africa; the volcano, Mount Clarence (9300 ft.), rises in the N.; is covered with luxuriant vegetation, and yields maize and yams, some coffee, and palm-oil and wine; is inhabited by the Bubis, a Bantu tribe; is the chief of the Spanish Guinea Isles.
FEROZEPORE (50), the chief town of the district of the same name in the Punjab, India, a few miles S. of the Sutlej; is strongly fortified, and contains a large arsenal; the present town was laid out by Lord Lawrence. F. DISTRICT (887), lies along the S. bank of the Sutlej; came into the possession of the British in 1835; cereals, cotton, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated.
FERRAR, NICHOLAS, a religious enthusiast in the reign of Charles I.; was elected a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1610; afterwards devoted himself to medicine and travelled on the Continent; subsequently joined his father in business in London, and entered Parliament in 1624; but a year later retired to the country, and at Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, founded, with some of his near relations, a religious community, known as the "Arminian Nunnery," some account of which is given in Shorthouse's "John Inglesant"; it was broken up by the Puritans in 1647; he was the intimate friend of George Herbert; this community consisted of some "fourscore persons, devoted to a kind of Protestant monasticism; they followed celibacy and merely religious duties, employed themselves in binding prayer-books, &c., in alms-giving and what charitable work was possible to them in their desert retreat, kept up, night and day, a continual repetition of the English liturgy, never allowing at any hour the sacred fire to go out" (1592-1637).
FERRAR, ROBERT, an English prelate, born at Halifax, was prior of the monastery of St. Oswald's, embraced the Reformation, and was made Bishop of St. David's by Edward VI.; suffered martyrdom under Mary in 1555.
FERRARA, a broadsword bearing the name of Andrea Ferrara, one of an Italian family famous in the 16th and 17th centuries for the quality of their swords.
FERRARA (31), a fortified and walled Italian city, capital of the province of the name, situated on a low and marshy plain between the dividing branches of the Po, 30 m. from the Adriatic; it has many fine ecclesiastical buildings and a university founded in 1264, with a library of 100,000 vols., but now a mere handful of students; a fine old Gothic castle, the residence of the Estes (q. v.), still stands; it was the birthplace of Savonarola, and the sometime dwelling-place of Tasso and Ariosto; once populous and prosperous, it has now fallen into decay.
FERRARI, GAUDENZIO, Italian painter and sculptor, born at Valduggia, in Piedmont; studied at Rome under Raphael; many of his paintings and frescoes are to be found in the Lombard galleries, and principally in Milan; his work is characterised by bold and accurate drawing, inventiveness, and strong colouring, but it somewhat lacks the softer qualities of his art (1484-1550).
FERRARI, PAOLO, Italian dramatist, born at Modena; produced his first play at the age of 25; his numerous works, chiefly comedies, and all marked by a fresh and piquant style, are the finest product of the modern Italian drama; in 1860 he was appointed professor of History at Modena and afterwards at Milan; his dramatic works have been published in 14 vols. (1822-1889).
FERRIER, DAVID, a distinguished medical scientist, born at Woodside, Aberdeen; graduated in arts there; studied at Heidelberg, and coming to Edinburgh graduated in medicine with high distinction in 1868; in 1872 became professor of Forensic Medicine at King's College, London, and afterwards physician to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic; his most notable work has been done in connection with the brain, and his many experiments on the brains of living animals have resulted in much valuable information, embodied in his various writings; is editor and co-founder of the periodical Brain; b. 1843.
FERRIER, JAMES FREDERICK, a metaphysician of singular ability and originality, born at Edinburgh; after graduating at Oxford was called to the Scotch bar in 1832; but under the influence of Sir W. Hamilton, metaphysics became his dominant interest, and he found an outlet for his views in the pages of Blackwood by a paper on "Consciousness," which attracted the attention of Emerson; in 1842 was appointed professor of History in Edinburgh University, and three years later of Moral Philosophy in St. Andrews; published the "Institutes of Metaphysics," a lucid exposition of the Berkleian philosophy, and "Lectures on Greek Philosophy," and edited the works of his uncle and father-in-law, Christopher North; "he belongs," says Dr. Stirling, "to an era of thought that was inaugurated by Thomas Carlyle" (1808-1864).
FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTON, a Scottish novelist, aunt of the preceding, born in Edinburgh, where her life was chiefly spent, her father being Clerk in the Court of Session, and a colleague of Sir Walter Scott; her novels, "Marriage," "The Inheritance," and "Destiny," &c., are rich in humour and faithful in their pictures of Scottish life and character; Scott held her in high esteem, and kept up a warm friendship with her till his death (1782-1854).
FERROL (26), a strongly fortified seaport in Galicia, Spain, 10 m. NE. of Coruña, on a narrow inlet of the sea which forms a splendid harbourage, narrow at the entrance and capacious within, and defended by two forts; it possesses one of the largest Spanish naval arsenals; manufactures linen and cotton, and exports corn, brandy, and sardines.
FERRY, JULES FRANÇOIS CAMILLE, a distinguished French statesman, born at Saint Dié, in the Vosges; called to the Paris bar in 1854, he speedily plunged into the politics of the time, and offered uncompromising opposition to the party of Louis Napoleon; as a member of the Corps Législatif he opposed the war with Prussia, but as central mayor of Paris rendered signal service during the siege by the Germans; during his tenure of office as Minister of Public Instruction in 1879 was instrumental in bringing about the expulsion of the Jesuits; as Prime Minister in 1880 and again in 1883-85 he inaugurated a spirited colonial policy, which involved France in war in Madagascar, and brought about his own downfall (1832-1893).
FESCH, JOSEPH, an eminent French ecclesiastic, born at Ajaccio, the half-brother of Napoleon's mother; was educated for the Church, but, on the outbreak of the Revolution, joined the revolutionaries as a storekeeper; co-operated with his illustrious nephew in restoring Catholicism in France, and became in 1802 archbishop of Lyons, and a cardinal in 1803; as ambassador at Rome in 1804 he won the Pope's favour, and brought about a more friendly understanding between him and Napoleon; later he lost favour with the emperor, and retired to Lyons, whence in 1814 he fled to Rome, there to end his life; was a lover of art, and left a magnificent collection of pictures (1763-1839).
FESTUS, the name of a poem by Philip James Bailey (q. v.), first published in 1839, but extended to three times its length since, a poem that on its first production produced no small sensation.
FESTUS, SEXTUS POMPEIUS, a Latin grammarian of probably the 3rd century; noted for an epitome of a great work by Verrius Flaccus on the meaning and derivation of Latin words, which, although only a portion of it exists, is regarded as an invaluable document, and is preserved at Naples.
FETICHISM, the worship of a fetich, an object superstitiously invested with divine or demonic power, and as such regarded with awe and worshipped.
FEUDALISM, or the Feudal system, that system which prevailed in Europe during the Middle Ages and in England from the Norman Conquest, by which vassals held their lands from the lord-superior on condition of military service when required, for "the extreme unction day" of which see CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION," VOL. I. BK. 4.
FEUERBACH, LUDWIG ANDREAS, German philosopher, son of the succeeding, born at Landshut; studied theology at Hiedelberg, but coming under the influence of Hegel went to Berlin and devoted himself to philosophy; after failing in an attempt to support himself by lecturing in Erlangen, he was fortunate in his marriage, and upon his wife's means lived a retired and studious life at Bruckberg; in his philosophy, which is a degeneracy and finally total departure from Hegel, he declines to find a higher sanction for morality than man's own conception of right and wrong as based on a doctrine of Hedonism (q. v.); his chief work, on the nature of Christianity, which was translated into English by George Eliot, is extravagant in its departure from orthodox lines of thought; his influence has been trifling outside his own country; he began with Hegel, but "descended at last from Hegel's logical idea to naked sense," and what guidance for life might be involved in it (1804-1872).
FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM VON, a highly distinguished criminal jurist, born at Jena, where he studied philosophy and law; at 23 came into prominence by a vigorous criticism of Hobbes's theory on civil power; and soon afterwards, in lectures on criminal jurisprudence he set forth his famous theory, that in administering justice judges should be strictly limited in their decisions by the penal code; this new doctrine gave rise to a party called "Rigorists," who supported his theory; he held professorships in Jena and in Kiel, and in 1804 was appointed to an official post in Münich; in 1814 he became president of the Court of Appeal at Anspach; his chief work was the framing of a penal code for Bavaria, which became a model for several other countries (1775-1833).
FEUILLANS, a reformed brotherhood of Cistercian monks, founded in 1577 by Jean de la Barrière, abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Feuillans, in Languedoc. The movement thus organised was a protest against the laxity which had crept into the Church, and probably received some stimulus from the Reformation, which was then in progress. The Feuillans settled in a convent in the Rue St. Honoré, Paris, which in after years became the meeting-place of a revolutionary club, which took the name of Feuillans; founded in 1790 by Lafayette, La Rochefoucauld, &c., and which consisted of members of the respectable property classes, whose views were more moderate than those of the Jacobins. They could not hold out against the flood of revolutionary violence, and on March 28, 1791, a mob burst into their place of meeting and dispersed them.
FÉUILLET, OCTAVE, a celebrated French novelist, born at Saint-Lò, in La Manche; started his literary career as one of Dumas' assistants, but made his first independent success in the Revue des Deux Mondes by a series of tales, romances, &c., begun in 1848; in 1862 he was elected a member of the Academy, and later became librarian to Louis Napoleon; his novels, of which "Le Roman d'un Jeune Homme Pauvre" and "Sibylle" are the most noted, are graceful in style, and reveal considerable dramatic force, but often lapse into sentimentality, and too often treat of indelicate subjects, although in no spirit of coarseness (1812-1890).
FEZ (150), the largest city in Morocco, of which it is the second capital; is surrounded by walls and prettily situated in the valley of the Sebu, a stream which flows through its centre and falls into the Atlantic 100 m. to the E. It has been for many centuries one of the most important of the sacred cities of the Moslem; has many fine mosques, the Sultan's palace, and an important university; is yet a busy commercial centre, although signs of decay appear all over the city, and carries on an active caravan trade with Central Africa.
FEZZAN (50), a Turkish province lying to the S. of Tripoli, to which it is politically united; in character partakes of the desert region to which it belongs, being almost wholly composed of barren sandy plateaux, with here and there an oasis in the low valleys, where some attempt at cultivation is made. The people, who belong to the Berber stock, are Mohammedans, honest, but lazy and immoral. Murzuk (6) is the chief town.
FIARS, an expression in Scotch law given to the prices of grain which are determined, by the respective sheriffs in the various counties assisted by juries. The Court for "striking the fiars" is held towards the end of February in accordance with Acts of Sederunt of the Court of Session. The prices fixed are used in the settling of contracts where no prices have been determined upon, e. g. in fixing stipends of ministers of the Church of Scotland, and are found useful in other ways.
FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB, a celebrated German philosopher, born in Upper Lusatia; a man of an intensely thoughtful and noble nature; studied theology at Jena, and afterwards philosophy; became a disciple of Kant, and paid homage to him personally at Königsberg; was appointed professor of Philosophy at Jena, where he enthusiastically taught, or rather preached, a system which broke away from Kant, which goes under the name of "Transcendental Idealism," and which he published in his "Wissenschaftslehre" and his "System der Sittenlehre"; obliged to resign his chair at Jena on a charge of atheism, he removed to Berlin, where he rose into favour by his famous "Address to the Germans" against the tyranny of Napoleon, and after a professorate in Erlangen he became head of the New University, and had for colleagues such men as Wolff, Humboldt, Scheiermacher, and Neander; he fell a victim to the War of Independence which followed, dying of fever caught through his wife and her nursing of patients in the hospitals, which were crowded with the wounded; besides his more esoterico-philosophical works, he was the author of four of a popular cast, which are worthy of all regard, on "The Destiny of Man," "The Nature of the Scholar," "The Characteristics of the Present Age," and "The Way to the Blessed Life"; "so robust an intellect, a soul so calm," says Carlyle, "so lofty, massive, and immovable, has not mingled in philosophic discussion since the time of Luther ... the cold, colossal, adamantine spirit, standing erect and clear, like a Cato Major among degenerate men; fit to have been the teacher of the Stoa, and to have discoursed of Beauty and Virtue in the groves of Academe" (1762-1814).
FICHTELGEBIRGE, a mountain chain in North-East Bavaria, so called from its having once been covered with pines, Fichtel meaning a pine. In its valleys rise the Elbe, Rhine, and Danube; considerable quantities of iron, copper, and lead are found, which give rise to a smelting industry, while mother-of-pearl is obtained from the streams. The climate is cold and damp, but the district has of late become a favourite resort of tourists.
FICINO, MARSILIO, an eminent Italian Platonist, born at Florence; in 1463 became president of a Platonic school, founded by Cosmo de' Medici, where he spent many years spreading and instilling the doctrines of Plato, and, indeed, ancient philosophy generally; entered the Church in 1473, and under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici was appointed to the canonry of Florence Cathedral; his religious beliefs were a strange blend of Platonism and Christianity, but were the foundation of a pure life, while his interest in classical studies helped considerably to further the Renaissance (1433-1499).
FICK, AUGUST, a German philologist, born at Petershagan; spent his life chiefly at Göttingen, where he first studied philology under Benfey; became a teacher in the Gymnasium, and eventually in 1876 professor of Comparative Philology in the university; in 1887 accepted a professorship in Breslau, but retired four years later; author of a variety of learned works on philology; b. 1833.
FIDELIO, a celebrated opera by Beethoven, and his only one.
FI`DES, the Roman goddess of fidelity, or steadfast adherence to promises and engagements. Numa built a shrine for her worship and instituted a festival in her honour; in later times a temple containing a statue of her dressed in white adjoined the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitol at Rome.
FIELD, CYRUS WEST, brother of the following, born at Stockbridge, Massachusetts; was first a successful paper manufacturer, but turning his attention to submarine telegraphy was instrumental in establishing cable communication between England and America, and founded the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1856; on the successful laying of the 1866 cable, since which time communication between the Old and New Worlds has never been interrupted, he was awarded a gold medal and the thanks of the nation; afterwards interested himself in developing the overhead railway in New York (1819-1892).
FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY, an eminent American Jurist, born in Haddam, Connecticut; for 57 years a prominent member of the New York bar, during which time he brought about judiciary reforms, and drew up, under Government directions, political, civil, and penal codes; interested himself in international law, and laboured to bring about an international agreement whereby disputes might be settled by arbitration and war done away with; was President of the London Peace Congress in 1890 (1805-1894).
FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, a plain near Guisnes, where Henry VIII. had an interview with Francis I.; was so called from the magnificence displayed on the occasion on the part of both sovereigns and their retinue.
FIELDING, COPLEY, an eminent English water-colour painter; became secretary and treasurer and finally president of the Society of Water-Colour Painters (1787-1855).
FIELDING, HENRY, a famous novelist, who has been styled by Scott "the father of the English novel," born at Sharpham Park, Glastonbury, son of General Edmund Fielding and a cousin of LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU (q. v.); was educated at Eton and at Leyden, where he graduated in 1728; led for some years a dissipated life in London, and achieved some celebrity by the production of a series of comedies and farces, now deservedly sunk into oblivion; in 1735 he married Miss Charlotte Cradock, and after a brief experiment as a theatre lessee studied law at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar; literature was, however, his main pursuit, and in 1742 he came to the front with "Joseph Andrews," a burlesque on Richardson's "Pamela," in which his powers as a novelist first showed themselves; in 1743 followed three volumes of "Miscellanies," including "Jonathan Wild"; after his wife's death he turned again to law, but in 1745 we find him once more engaged in literature as editor of the True Patriot and afterwards of the Jacobite's Journal; "Tom Jones," his masterpiece, appeared in 1749, and three years later "Amelia"; journalism and his duties as a justice of the peace occupied him till 1754, when ill-health forced him abroad to Lisbon, where he died and was buried. Fielding is a master of a fluent, virile, and attractive style; his stories move with an easy and natural vigour, and are brimful of humour and kindly satire, while his characters in their lifelike humanness, with all their foibles and frailties, are a marked contrast to the buckram and conventional figures of his contemporary Richardson; something of the laxity of his times, however, finds its way into his pages, and renders them not always palatable reading to present-day readers (1707-1754).
FIESCHI, COUNT, a Genoese of illustrious family who conspired against Andrea Doria, but whose plot was frustrated on the eve of its fulfilment by his falling into the sea and being drowned as he stept full-armed from one of his ships into another (1523-1547).
FIESCHI, JOSEPH MARCO, a Corsican conspirator; served under Murat and in Russia in 1812; obtained a government post in 1830, and in consequence of his discharge from this five years later he, by means of an infernal machine, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Louis Philippe, for which, along with his accomplices, he was tried and executed (1790-1836).
FIESOLE, a small town, 3 m. from Florence, where the wealthy Florentines have villas, and near which Fra Angelico lived as a monk.
FIFE (190), a maritime county in the E. of Scotland, which juts out into the German Ocean and is washed by the Firths of Tay and Forth on its N. and S. shores respectively, thus forming a small peninsula; has for the most part a broken and hilly surface, extensively cultivated however, while the "How of Fife," watered by the Eden, is a fertile valley, richly wooded; and valuable coal deposits are worked in the S. and W.; its long coast-line is studded with picturesque towns, many of them of ancient date, a circumstance which led James VI. to describe the county as "a beggar's mantle fringed with gold"; it is associated with much that is memorable in Scottish history.
FIFTH-MONARCHY MEN, a set of fanatics of extreme levelling tendencies, who, towards the close of the Protectorate, maintained that Jesus Christ was about to reappear on the earth to establish a fifth monarchy that would swallow up and forcibly suppress all that was left of the four preceding--the Assyrian, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman; their standard exhibited the lion of the tribe of Judah couchant, with the motto, "Who will rouse him up?" some of them conspired to murder the Protector, but were detected and imprisoned till after his death.
FIGARO, a name given by the French dramatist Beaumarchais to a cunning and intriguing barber who figures in his "Barbier de Seville" and his "Mariage de Figaro," and who has since become the type of all such characters. The name has been adopted by various journals in England and in France.
FIGARO, MARIAGE DE, a play by Beaumarchais, "issued on the stage in Paris 1784, ran its hundred nights; a lean and barren thing; succeeded, as it flattered a pruriency of the time and spoke what all were feeling and longing to speak."
FIGUIER, LOUIS, a popular writer on scientific subjects, born at Montpellier, where he became professor of Pharmacy in 1846, and subsequently in Paris; his voluminous writings have done much to popularise science, and they comprise a volume on alchemy and one in defence of immortality; many of these have been received with favour in England (1819-1894).
FIJI (125), a group of islands in the S. Pacific Ocean, known also as the Viti Islands; they lie between 15°-22° S. lat. and 176° E.-178° W. long., and are a dependency of Britain; sighted by Tasman in 1643, though first discovered, properly speaking, by Cook in 1773, came first into prominence in 1858, when the sovereignty was offered to England and declined, but in 1874 were taken over and made a crown colony; they number over 200 islands, of which Viti Leon and Vanua Leon are by far the largest; Suva is the capital; sugar, cotton, vanilla, tea, and coffee are cultivated, besides fruit.
FILDES, S. LUKE, artist, born in Lancashire; made his mark first as a designer of woodcuts; contributed to various magazines and illustrated books, notably Dickens's "Edwin Drood"; his most noted pictures are "Applicants for a Casual Ward," "The Widower," and "The Doctor"; he was made an R.A. in 1887; b. 1844.
FILIBUSTER, a name given to buccaneers who infested the Spanish-American coasts or those of the West Indies, but more specially used to designate the followers of Lopez in his Cuban expedition in 1851, and those of Walker in his Nicaraguan in 1855; a name now given to any lawless adventurers who attempt to take forcible possession of a foreign country.
FILIGREE, a name given to a species of goldsmith's ornamental work fashioned out of fine metallic (usually gold or silver) wire into lace-like patterns; the art is of ancient date, and was skilfully practised by the Etruscans and Egyptians, as well as in Central Asia and India.
FILIOQUE CONTROVERSY, a controversy which ended in the disruption of the Western from the Eastern Church on the question whether the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son or from the Father only, the Western maintaining the former and the Eastern the latter.
FILLAN, ST., a name borne by two Scottish saints: (1) the son of a Munster prince, lived in the 8th century, was first abbot of the monastery on the Holy Loch in Argyll, and afterwards laboured at Strathfillan, Perthshire; some of his relics are to be seen in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum; (2) or Faolan, known as "the leper," had his church at the end of Loch Earn, Perthshire; a healing well and chair are associated with his name.
FILLMORE, President of the United States from 1850 to 1853.
FINALITY JOHN, Lord John Russell, from his complacently pronouncing the Reform Bill of 1832 a final measure.
FINCH, HENEAGE, first Earl of Nottingham and Lord Chancellor of England, born in Kent, studied at Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1645; at the Restoration he was appointed Solicitor-General, and took an active part in prosecuting the regicides; in 1670 he became Attorney-General, and in 1675 Lord-Chancellor; he presided as Lord-High Steward at the trial of Stafford in 1680, and pronounced judgment in a speech of great eloquence (1621-1682).
FINDLATER, ANDREW, encyclopedist, born near Aberdour, in Aberdeenshire, of humble parentage; graduated at Aberdeen, and became a schoolmaster at Tillydesk, and afterwards held the post of head-master of Gordon's Hospital in Aberdeen; in 1853 joined the staff of Messrs. W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh, and became eventually editor of the first edition of their encyclopedia (1861-1868); amongst other work done for the Messrs. Chambers were various manuals on astronomy, geography, &c.; was a man of wide and accurate scholarship (1810-1877).
FINGAL or FIONN, the great hero of Gaelic mythology, represented by OSSIAN (q. v.) to have ruled over the kingdom of Morven, which may be said to have been then co-extensive with Argyllshire and the West Highlands; in ballad literature he is represented as belonging also to Ireland.
FINGAL'S CAVE, a remarkable cave of basaltic formation on the coast of the ISLE OF STAFFA (q. v.); entrance to the cave is effected in boats through a natural archway 42 ft. wide and 66 ft. high, and the water fills the floor of this great hall to a distance of 227 ft.
FINISTERRE or FINISTÈRE (727), the most westerly department of France, washed on the N. by the English Channel, and on the S. and W. by the Atlantic; has a rugged and broken coast-line, but inland presents a picturesque appearance with tree-clad hills and fertile valleys; the climate is damp, and there is a good deal of marshy land; mines of silver, lead, &c., are wrought, and quarries of marble and granite; fishing is largely engaged in; and the manufacture of linen, canvas, pottery, &c., are important industries, while large quantities of grain are raised.
FINLAND (2,431), a grand-duchy forming the NW. corner of Russia; was ceded by the Swedes in 1809, but still retains an independent administration. The coast-line is deeply indented, and fringed with small islands; the interior, chiefly elevated plateau, consists largely of forest land, and is well furnished with lakes, many of which are united by canals, one 36 m. connecting Lake Saima with the Gulf of Finland. Various cereals (barley, oats, &c.) are grown, and there is a varied and valuable fauna; fishing is an extensive industry, and no less than 80 kinds of fish are found in the rivers, lakes, and coast waters. The country is divided into eight counties, and is governed by a Senate and Diet, the reigning Russian emperor holding rank as grand-duke; education is highly advanced; Swedish and Finnish are the two languages of the country, Russian being practically unknown. There is an excellent Saga literature, and the beginnings of a modern literature. The Finns came under the dominion of the Swedes in the 12th and 13th centuries, and were by them Christianised.
FINLAY, GEORGE, a distinguished historian, horn at Faversham, Kent, but of Scotch parents; received a university training at Glasgow and Göttingen, and in 1822 went to Greece, where he met Byron and fought in the War of Independence; henceforth Greece became his home, and there, after an unavailing effort to promote agriculture, he betook himself to a studious life and to writing the history of his adopted country; his valuable history, published in various parts, traces the national life of Greece from 146 B.C. to A.D. 1864 (1799-1875).
FINMARK (29), a province of Norway, lying in the extreme N., with a rocky and indented coast and a barren and mountainous interior; fishing is the main industry of the inhabitants, who are chiefly Lapps.
FINNS, the native inhabitants of Finland, and originally of the districts in Sweden and Norway as well, are of the Mongolian type, and were settled in Europe before the arrival of the Slavic and Teutonic races.
FIORDS, deep indentations forming inlets of the sea, especially on the coast of Norway, overlooked by high mountains and precipitous cliffs.
FIRDAUSI or FIRDUSI, the pseudonym of Abu-'l Kasim Mansur, the great poet of Persia, born near Tûs, in Khorassan; flourished in the 10th century B.C.; spent 30 years in writing the "Shah Nama," a national epic, but having been cheated out of the reward promised by Sultan Mahmud, he gave vent to bitter satire against his royal master and fled the court; for some time he led a wandering life, till at length he returned to his birthplace, where he died; a complete translation of his great poem exists in French.
FIRE-WORSHIP, worship of fire, especially as embodied in the sun viewed as the most express and emphatic exhibition of beneficent divine power.
FIRMAMENT, a name given to the vault of the sky conceived as a solid substance studded with stars, so applied in the Vulgate.
FIRMAN, a Persian word denoting a mandate or decree; among the Turks the term is applied to such decrees as issue from the Ottoman Porte, and also to passports, the right of signing which lies with the Sultan or a Pasha; the word is also used in India to denote a permit to trade.
FIRMIN, ST., bishop of Amiens, who suffered martyrdom in 287. Festival, Sept. 25.
FIRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE, George IV., from his fine style and manners.
FISCHART, JOHANN, a German satirist; an imitator of Rabelais (1545-1589).
FISCHER, ERNST KUNO BERTHOLD, a German historian of philosophy, born at Sandewalde, Silesia; as a student of Erdmann at Halle he was smitten with the love of philosophy, and gave his life to the study of it; after graduating he went to Heidelberg and there established himself as a private lecturer, in which capacity he was eminently successful, but in 1853 was deprived of his status by Government, probably on account of the alleged Pantheistic trend of his teaching; in 1856, however, he was elected to the chair of Philosophy in Jena, and 16 years later was called back to Heidelberg as Zeller's successor; his chief work is a "History of Modern Philosophy"; b. 1824.
FISHER, JOHN, bishop of Rochester, born at Beverley; was distinguished at Cambridge, and became chaplain and confessor to the Countess of Richmond, Henry VII.'s mother, who had him appointed professor of Divinity at his alma mater; in 1504 he was elected Chancellor of the University and made bishop of Rochester, but incurred the royal displeasure by opposing Henry VIII.'s divorce of Catherine of Aragon, and by upholding the Pope's supremacy; became involved in the deceptions of Elizabeth Barton, maid of Kent, and was sent to the Tower in 1534 for refusing to take the oath of succession; was created a cardinal, but was beheaded by order of the king ere his hat arrived; was beatified in 1886 (1469-1535).
FISKE, JOHN, American writer, born at Hartford, Conn., U.S.; studied at Harvard; in 1869 lectured at his old university as a Positivist, and was under-librarian from 1872 to 1879; he is the author of a number of works on Darwinism, American history, philosophy, etc.; b. 1842.
FITCH, JOHN, an American inventor, born in Connecticut; led a life of adventure, at one time acting as gunsmith to the American revolutionaries and at another falling into the hands of Indians whilst trading in the West; in 1785 he brought out a model steamboat with side wheels, and in 1788 and in 1790 constructed larger vessels, one of the latter being for some time employed as a passenger boat; some of his plans are said to have fallen into Robert Fulton's hands and given him the idea of his steamship; disheartened by the ill-success of a trip to France he committed suicide at Bardstown, Kentucky (1743-1798).
FITZ-BOODLE, GEORGE, Thackeray's pseudonym in Fraser's Magazine.
FITZGERALD, EDWARD, English scholar, born in Suffolk; at Cambridge, where he graduated in 1830, he formed close friendships with James Spedding and Thackeray, and afterwards was on intimate terms with Carlyle and Tennyson; his life was quietly spent in his country residence in Suffolk, varied by yachting expeditions and visits to London, where he made the round of his friends; his first book, "Euphranor," a dialogue on youth, appeared when he was 42, "Polonius" followed and some Spanish translations, but his fame rests on his translations of Persian poetry, and especially on his rendering of the 11th-century poet, Omar Khayyám (1809-1883).
FITZGERALD, LADY, a daughter of Egalité and Mme. Genlis, called Pamela; distinguished for her beauty and enthusiasm for liberty, and who became the wife of LORD FITZGERALD, the Irish patriot (q. v.); d. 1831.
FITZGERALD, LORD EDWARD, the younger son of the Duke of Leinster, born at Carlton Castle, near Dublin; spent his early years in France; joined the English army and served with distinction in the American War; in 1784 he was elected to the Irish Parliament, and opposed the English Government; was attracted to France by the Revolution, but returned to Ireland and joined the United Irishmen in 1796, and began plotting the rising of 1798; his scheme was betrayed, and he was arrested in Dublin after a determined resistance, during which he received wounds of which he died in prison (1763-1798).
FITZHERBERT, MRS., a Roman Catholic lady, maiden name Maria Anne Smythe, with whom, after her second widowhood, George IV., while Prince of Wales, contracted a secret marriage in 1785, which, however, under the Royal Marriage Act, was declared invalid (1756-1837).
FITZROY, ROBERT, admiral, navigator, and meteorologist, born at Ampton Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds; entered the navy at 14, and in 1828-1830 conducted a survey of the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, a work he continued while commanding the Beagle (1831-1836), in which Darwin accompanied him; in 1843-1845 was governor of New Zealand; in his later years devoted himself to meteorology, and, on the retired list, rose to be vice-admiral; published accounts of his voyages, etc.; under pressure of work his mind gave way, and he committed suicide (1805-1865).
FITZWILLIAM, WILLIAM, EARL, a politician of George the Third's time; the excesses of the French Revolution caused him to come over from the Whigs and support Pitt; favoured Catholic emancipation during his Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, but was recalled; held office under Grenville in 1806, and took some part in the Reform Bill agitation of the day (1748-1833).
FIUME (29), a seaport of Hungary, on the Adriatic, at the rocky entrance of the Fiumara, 40 m. SE. of Trieste; a new town of spacious and colonnaded streets and many fine buildings, has grown up on the ground sloping down from the old town; has an excellent harbour, and flourishing industries in paper, torpedoes, tobacco, etc., besides being the entrepôt of an important and increasing commerce.
FLACIUS or VLACICH, MATTHIAS, surnamed Illyricus, a German theologian, born at Albona, in Illyria; was the pupil of Luther and Melanchthon; became professor of the Old Testament Scriptures at Wittenberg, but four years later lost his position on account of certain attacks he made on Melanchthon; subsequently he was elected professor at Jena, but was again deposed for heterodox notions on original sin; died in poverty; was author of an ecclesiastical history and other works (1520-1575).
FLAGELLANTS, a set of medieval fanatics, who first arose in Italy in 1260, and subsequently appeared in other quarters of Europe, and who thought by self-flagellation to atone for sin and avert divine judgment, hoping by a limited number of stripes to compensate for a century of scourgings; the practice arose at a time when it was reckoned that the final judgment of the world was at hand.
FLAHAULT DE LA BILLARDERIE, AUGUSTE CHARLES JOSEPH, COMTE DE, a French soldier and diplomatist, born at Paris; was aide-de-camp to Napoleon, and for distinguished services in the Peninsular war and at Leipzig was made a general and count; fought at Waterloo, and two years later married Margaret Elphinston, who by inheritance became Baroness Keith; he was ambassador at the Courts of Venice (1841-48) and at London (1860) (1785-1870).
FLAMBARD, RANDOLPH, a Norman who came over with the Conqueror to England and became chaplain to William Rufus, whom he abetted and pandered to in his vices, in return for which, and a heavy sum he paid, he was in 1099 made bishop of Durham.
FLAMBOYANT, the name given, from the flame-like windings of its tracery, to a florid style of architecture in vogue in France during the 15th and 16th centuries.
FLAMENS, priests elected in Rome by the people and consecrated by the chief pontiff to the service of a particular god, such as Jupiter, Mars, &c.
FLAMINIUS, CAIUS, a Roman tribune and consul, who constructed the Flaminian Way; perished at Lake Trasimene, where he was defeated by Hannibal in the Second Punic War, 217 B.C.
FLAMINIUS, T. QUINTUS, a Roman consul, who defeated Philip of Macedon and proclaimed the freedom of Greece, and it was his close neighbourhood to Hannibal that induced the latter to take poison rather than fall into his hands (230-174 B.C.).
FLAMMARION, CAMILLE, French astronomer, born at Montigny-le-Roi; he was attached to the Paris Observatory in 1858, and by means of books and lectures has spent a busy life in popularising his science; many of his works have been translated into English; b. 1842.
FLAMSTEED, JOHN, the first astronomer-royal of England, born near Derby; his devotion to astronomy gained him the favour of Sir Jonas Moore, who was the means of getting him the appointment of astronomer-royal in 1675; from the Observatory of Greenwich, specially built for his use, he catalogued the fixed stars and supplied Newton with useful information bearing on his lunar theory; in 1675 he took holy orders, and was presented to the living of Burstow in Surrey, which he held till his death (1646-1719).
FLANDERS, the land of the Flemings, borders upon the North Sea, formerly extended from the Scheldt to the Somme, and included, besides the present Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders, part of Zealand, and also of Artois, in France; the ancient county dates from 862, in which year Charles the Bold of France, as suzerain, raised it to the status of a sovereign county, and bestowed it upon his son Baldwin I.; it has successively belonged to Spain and Austria, and in Louis XIV.'s reign a portion of it was ceded to France, now known as French Flanders, while Zealand passed into the hands of the Dutch; the remainder was in 1714 made the Austrian Netherlands, and in 1831 was incorporated with the new kingdom of BELGIUM (q. v.).
FLANDRIN, a French painter, born at Lyons; was a pupil of Ingres; represented the religious movement in art in the 19th century (1809-1864).
FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE, a realistic romancer, born at Rouen; author of "Madame Bovary," a study of provincial life, which became the subject of a prosecution, and "Salammbô," wonderful for its vigour and skill in description; he indulged in repulsive subjects (1821-1880).
FLAVEL, JOHN, an English Nonconformist divine of spiritualising tendencies, much read by pious people of his class; d. 1691.
FLAXMAN, JOHN, an eminent sculptor, born at York; was brought up in London, where his father carried on business as a moulder of plaster figures; his love of drawing and modelling soon marked him out as an artist, and helped by friends he devoted himself to art; exhibited at the age of 12, and won the silver medal of the Royal Academy at 14; for some years he supplied the Wedgwoods with designs for their famous pottery, and in 1787 he went to Rome, which for seven years became his home; in 1810 became professor of Sculpture to the Royal Academy; besides many fine statues of eminent men and much exquisite work in bas-reliefs, he executed a series of noble designs illustrating Homer, Dante, and Æschylus; he was a Swedenborgian by religious creed (1755-1826).
FLECHIER, a famous French pulpit orator, bishop of Nîmes; his funeral orations compare with Bossuet's (1632-1710).
FLEET MARRIAGES, clandestine marriages, suppressed in 1754, performed without license by the chaplains of Fleet Prison, London.
FLEET PRISON, a celebrated London jail in Farringdon Street; was a debtor's prison as far back as the 12th century.
FLEETWOOD, CHARLES, a Cromwellian officer; fought as lieutenant-general against the king at Worcester, and acted as lord-deputy in Ireland; on the death of Cromwell advised the abdication of Richard; d. 1692.
FLEGEL, African explorer, born in Wilna, of German descent; made three journeys from Europe to explore the Niger territory, in which he made important discoveries; was suddenly stricken down in the last (1855-1886).
FLEISCHER, HEINRICH LEBERECHT, Orientalist, born at Schandau, Saxony; after a university training at Leipzig he undertook a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. in the royal library at Dresden, and in 1836 became professor of Oriental Languages at Leipzig; did important work as a critical editor of Oriental works and MSS. (1801-1888).
FLEMING, PAUL, a celebrated German poet, born at Hartenstein, Vogtland; received a medical training at Leipzig, and was engaged in embassies in Russia and Persia; settled in Hamburg in 1639, but died the following year; as a lyrist he stood in the front rank of German poets (1609-1640).
FLEMISH SCHOOL, a school of painting established in the 15th century, and to which Reubens, Vandyck, and Teniers belonged.
FLESHLY SCHOOL, a name given by Robert Buchanan to a realistic school of poets, to which Rossetti, William Morris, and Swinburne belong.
FLESSELLES, the last provost of the merchants of the Hôtel de Ville, Paris; "shot by an unknown hand at the turn of a street" after the fall of the Bastille (1721-1789).
FLETCHER, ANDREW, of Saltoun, a Scottish patriot and politician; after travelling on the Continent for four years he entered the Scottish Parliament, but got into trouble through his opposition to James, Duke of York, the Royal Commissioner in Scotland, and fled to Holland; his estates were confiscated, and for the next seven years he was a political refugee; he took part in the Rye House Plot and in Monmouth's invasion; his estates were restored in 1688, and he again sat in the Scottish Parliament; he was an active promoter of the abortive Darien Scheme, and a strong opponent of the Union of 1707 (1653-1716).
FLETCHER, GILES, an English poet, born in London; was the unappreciated rector of Alderton, in Suffolk, and author of a fervid and imaginative poem, "Christ's Victory and Triumph," which won the admiration of Milton (1588-1623).
FLETCHER, JOHN, English dramatist, the son of a bishop of London; was left an orphan and in poverty; collaborated with BEAUMONT (q. v.) in the production of the plays published under their joint names; died of the plague (1570-1625).
FLETCHER, PHINEAS, poet, brother of preceding; was rector of Hilgay, Norfolk; celebrated for his poem the "Purple Island, or the Isle of Man," an ingenious allegory descriptive of the human body--i. e. the Purple Island--and its vices and virtues.
FLEURANT, MONSIEUR, a character in Molière's "Malade Imaginaire."
FLEUR-DE-LIS (i. e. lily-flower), a badge of ultimately three golden fleurs-de-lis on a blue field, borne from the days of Clovis on their arms by the kings of France.
FLEURY, ANDRÉ HERCULE DE. CARDINAL, French statesman, born at Lodève, in Languedoc; studied philosophy in Paris; became a doctor of the Sorbonne and almoner to the Queen and King Louis XIV., who subsequently made him bishop of Frèjus and tutor to his son Louis; in 1726 he was chosen Prime Minister by Louis XV., and created a cardinal; he carried through a successful war with Germany, which resulted in the acquisition of Lorraine by France, but although honest and cautious, he cannot be styled a great statesman (1653-1743).
FLEURY, CLAUDE, ABBÉ, an ecclesiastical historian, born in Paris; was at the outset of his career a successful advocate, but afterwards entered the Church; as tutor he educated various princes, including an illegitimate son of Louis XIV., who in reward appointed him to the priory of Argenteuil; was chosen confessor to the young Louis XV., and in 1696 was elected to the Academy; his chief work is his great "Ecclesiastical History" in 20 vols., on which he laboured for 30 years, and the learning, ability, and impartiality of which procured for him the esteem of all parties (1640-1723).
FLINDERS, MATTHEW, a naval officer, born in Lincolnshire; explored the coast of Australia, experiencing not a few adventures, and adding materially to our geographical knowledge (1760-1814).
FLINT, 1, a maritime county (77) of North Wales, between Lancashire and Denbigh, of which a detached portion lies to the N. of Shropshire; low stretches of sand form its foreshore, but inland it is hilly, with here and there a picturesque and fertile valley in which dairy-farming is extensively carried on. 2, a seaport (5), on the estuary of the Dee, 13 m. NW. of Chester; has ruins of a castle with interesting historical associations; in the neighbourhood are copper-works and lead and coal mines.
FLINT, ROBERT, a theologian, born in Dumfriesshire; professor of Divinity in Edinburgh University; an eminent scholar, a vigorous thinker, and a man of broad sympathies, who takes a deep interest in all the vital questions of the times, and has contributed to the solution of them; has written on Theism, the Philosophy of History, Socialism, &c.; b. 1838.
FLOATING ISLANDS are sometimes formed of masses of driftwood on which débris, vegetation, &c., gradually form a soil, but are more commonly portions of river banks detached by the force of the current when swollen and drifted put, sometimes as much as 100 m., to sea, carrying with them plants, reptiles, and larger animals, and thus contributing to the distribution to distant shores of animal and vegetable life; they are to be met with off the mouths of the larger American, Asian, and African rivers, and sometimes in inland seas and lakes; Derwent Lake, in England, has a notable one, which sinks, and rises periodically; they are also made artificially in districts subject to floods as asylums of refuge.
FLODDEN, BATTLE OF, fought on Flodden Hill, a low spur of the Cheviots, 6 m. S. of Coldstream, between James IV. of Scotland and the English under the Earl of Surrey on the 9th of September 1513, which resulted in the crushing defeat of the Scots, who lost their king and the flower of their nobility, an event celebrated in Jean Elliot's "Flowers of the Forest"; a spirited account is given in the sixth canto of Scott's "Marmion."
FLOOD, HENRY, an Irish Nationalist, trained at Dublin and Oxford Universities; entering the Irish Parliament, he by his fervid oratory soon won a place in the front rank of Irish politicians; in 1769 he was put on trial for killing an opponent in a duel, but was acquitted; from 1775 to 1781 he was Vice-Treasurer of Ireland; to Grattan's Irish Bill of Right he offered bitter opposition, holding it to be an altogether inadequate measure; in 1783 he was returned to the English House of Commons, but failed to make his mark (1732-1791).
FLORA, goddess of the blossom of flowers and the spring, an early Roman divinity; had in the time of NUMA a flamen (q. v.) to herself.
FLORENCE (137), a famous Italian city, situated 50 m. from the sea; it lies in the valley of the Arno, and is built on both sides of the river, but chiefly on the N.; the outlying suburbs are singularly beautiful, and are surrounded by finely wooded hills, bright with gay villas and charming gardens; the old city itself is characterised by a sombre grandness, and is full of fine buildings of historic and artistic interest; chief amongst these is the cathedral, or Duomo, begun in 1298, with its grand dome and campanile (293 ft.), by Giotto. It is the city of Dante, Petrarch, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Galileo and many more of Italy's great men, and has a history of exceptional interest; it has many fine art galleries; is an educational centre, and carries on a trade in straw-plaiting and silk.
FLORIAN, JEAN PIERRE DE, a French novelist and writer of fables; was the friend of Voltaire, from whom he received his first literary impulse; was the author of several romances plays, &c., but his finest work is found in his Fables, in which department of literature he ranks next La Fontaine (1755-1794).
FLORIDA (391), "Land of Flowers," the most southern of the American States, forms a bold peninsula on the E. side of the Gulf of Mexico, and has on its eastern shore the Atlantic; has a coast-line of 1150 m.; the chief physical feature is the amount of water surface, made up of 19 navigable rivers and lakes and ponds to the number of 1200, besides swamps and marshes; the climate is, however, equable, and for the most part healthy; fruit-growing is largely engaged in; the timber trade flourishes, also the phosphate industry, and cotton and the sugar-cane are extensively cultivated; a successful business in cigar-making has also of recent years sprung up, and there are valuable fisheries along the coast; Florida was admitted into the Union in 1845; the capital is Tallahassee.
FLORIO, JOHN, the translator of Montaigne, born in London, of Italian parents; was a tutor of foreign languages for some years at Oxford, and in 1581 became a member of Magdalen College and teacher of French and Italian; published two works of a miscellaneous character, called "First Fruits" and "Second Fruits," and an English-Italian dictionary called a "World of Words," but his fame rests on his translation of Montaigne, which Shakespeare used so freely (1553-1625).
FLORUS, a Latin historian, contemporary of Trajan.
FLUDD, ROBERT, physician and theosophist, born at Milgate, Kent; studied at Oxford, and travelled on the Continent, where he came under the influence of Paracelsus's writings; settled in London as a doctor, and published a work embodying a vague theosophy (1574-1637).
FLUSHING (13), a Dutch seaport, strongly fortified, on the island of Walcheren, at the mouth of the western Scheldt; has an active shipping trade, docks, arsenals, &c.
FLUXIONS, a method, invented by Sir Isaac Newton, of determining the rate of increase or decrease of a quantity or magnitude whose value depends on that of another which itself varies in value at a uniform and given rate. See CALCULUS, DIFFERENTIAL, AND INTEGRAL.
FLYING DUTCHMAN, a Dutch captain, fated for his sins to scour the sea and never reach port, who appeared from time to time to sea-captains as on a black spectral ship, and from the very terror he inspired made them change their course; there are many versions of this fable in the German mythology.
FO, the name in China for Buddha.
FO-HI, or FUH-HE, the mythical founder of the Chinese dynasty, is said to have introduced cattle-rearing, instituted marriage, and invented letters.
FOIX, GASTON DE, illustrious French captain, nephew of Louis XII., was from his daring exploits called the Thunderbolt of Italy; he beat the Swiss, routed the Papal troops, captured Brescia from the Venetians, and gained the battle of Ravenna against the Spaniards, but was slain when pursuing the fugitives (1489-1512).
FOIX, GASTON III. DE, French captain, surnamed Phoebus on account of his beauty and handsome presence; distinguished in the wars against the English and in the Jacquerie revolt, in which he rescued the dauphin at Meaux (1331-1391).
FOLEY, JOHN HENRY, an eminent sculptor, born in Dublin; his first success was achieved in a series of classical figures, including some Shakespearian subjects; statues of Hampden, Burke, J. S. Mill, Goldsmith, &c., brought him further fame, and he was commissioned by the Queen to execute the figure of Prince Albert in the Albert Memorial; his vigour and genius were further revealed in the noble equestrian statues of Hardinge and Outram (1818-1874).
FOLKESTONE (24), a seaport and watering-place on the coast of Kent, 7 m. SW. of Dover; has a fine harbour and esplanade; is much engaged in the herring and mackerel fisheries, and is steam-packet station for Boulogne; a fine railway viaduct spans the valley in which the old town lies.
FONBLANQUE, ALBANY WILLIAM, journalistic editor, after serving on the staff of the Times and the Morning Chronicle became editor of the Examiner, which he conducted successfully from 1830 to 1847; Carlyle was introduced to him on his visit to London in 1831, and describes him as "a tall, loose, lank-haired, wrinkly, wintry, vehement-looking flail of a man," but "the best of the Fourth Estate" then extant; "I rather like the man," he adds, "has the air of a true-hearted Radical" (1793-1872).
FONTAINEBLEAU, a town on the left bank of the Seine, 35 m. SE. of Paris, and famous for a château or palace of the kings of France, and the forest that surrounds it. This château, founded towards the end of the 10th century, was enlarged and embellished by successive kings, beginning with Francis I., and was the place where Napoleon signed his abdication in 1814.
FONTANES, LOUIS, MARQUIS DE, poet and man of letters, born at Niort, Poitou; came to Paris and achieved some celebrity by his poems and translations from Pope and Gray; changing from the Royalist side, he, during the Revolution, edited two journals in the Republican interest, and held the post of professor of Literature at the College of the Four Nations; was for some time a refugee in England, but afterwards returned and became a zealous supporter of Napoleon, on the downfall of whom he embraced the Bourbon cause, and was raised to the peerage (1757-1821).
FONTENELLE, BERNARD LE BOVIER DE, a miscellaneous French writer, born at Rouen, a nephew of Corneille, whose Life he wrote; was designed for the bar, but under his uncle's patronage embarked on a literary career in Paris; he vehemently upheld the moderns in the famous literary quarrel of Moderns versus Ancients, and brought upon himself the satirical attacks of Boileau and Racine; became Secretary and then President of the Académie des Sciences; died in his hundredth year; his vigorous and versatile nature found vent in a wide variety of writings--literary, scientific, and historical; author of "Dialogues of the Dead," in imitation of Lucian, and "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds"; is credited with the saying, "A man may have his hand full of truth, and yet only care to open his little finger," and this other, "No man was ever written down but by himself" (1657-1757).
FONTENOY, a village in Belgium, 5 m. SW. of Tournay, where Marshal Saxe beat the English, Dutch, and Austrians under the Duke of Cumberland in 1745.
FOOCHOW (630), a Chinese city, the capital of the province of Fu-chien, situated on the Min, 125 m. NE. of Amoy. Massive walls 30 ft. high enclose the original town, but the extensive suburbs reach down to the river, which is bridged, and is a convenient waterway for trading with the interior; it was made a free port in 1842, and is the centre of a busy trade in tea, timber, and textiles.
FOOLS, FEAST OF, a festival of wild mirth in the Middle Ages, held on 1st January, in which the Ass of Scripture celebrity played a chief part, and in which many of the rites and ceremonies of the Church were travestied.
FOOT-POUND, the name given in mechanics to the force required to raise 1 lb. through 1 foot, the unit of work.
FOOTE, SAMUEL, a celebrated English actor and playwright, born at Truro, Cornwall, of a good family; was educated at Oxford, and studied law, but ruined himself by gaming, and took to the stage; he became the successful lessee of Haymarket Theatre in 1747, where, by his inimitable powers of mimicry and clever comedies, he firmly established himself in popular favour (1720-1777).
FORBES, ARCHIBALD, a noted war-correspondent, born in Morayshire; was educated at Aberdeen University; served in a cavalry regiment, acted as war-correspondent for the Daily News during the Franco-German war, and has since been the brilliant chronicler of war news in all parts of the globe; has published several volumes; b. 1838.
FORBES, DUNCAN, of Culloden, a distinguished lawyer and patriotic politician, born at Bunchrew; was trained at Edinburgh and Leyden, and called to the Scotch bar in 1709; took an active part in putting down the rebellion of 1715, and in 1722 entered Parliament; three years later he was appointed Lord Advocate and Lord President of the Court of Session; succeeded his brother in the estates of Culloden and Bunchrew; during the 1745 rebellion he was active in the Hanoverian interest, and did much to quell the uprising; Forbes was a devoted Scot, and unweariedly strove to allay the Jacobite discontent and to establish the country in peace, and used his great influence and wealth to further these ends, services which, in the end, impoverished him, and received little or no recognition at the hands of Government (1685-1747).
FORBES, EDWARD, a noted naturalist, born at Douglas, in the Isle of Man; studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he became smitten with the love of natural science, to which he devoted his life; in 1841 he accompanied the Beacon as naturalist, and returning in 1843 found himself elected to the chair of Botany in King's College, London; various geological appointments followed, and in 1852 he became President of the Geological Society, and two years later received the chair of Natural History in Edinburgh; Forbes was a prolific author, and his writings cover the whole field of natural science, to every section of which he has made contributions of great value (1815-1854).
FORBES, JAMES DAVID, physicist, born at Edinburgh, the grandson of Sir William, and the son of the first lady-love of Sir Walter Scott, and very like her; was called to the bar in 1830; physical science, however, was his ruling passion, and in 1833 he became professor of Natural Philosophy in Edinburgh University, from which he was called in 1859 to the Principalship of the United College, St. Andrews, in which he succeeded Sir David Brewster, whom he had defeated in obtaining the Edinburgh chair; he made some valuable contributions to natural science, including discoveries in the polarisation of heat and in regard to the motion of glaciers, to investigate which he travelled in Norway and in the Alps (1809-1868).
FORBES, SIR JOHN, physician, born at Cuttlebrae, Banffshire; entered the navy as assistant-surgeon in 1807, and became M.D. of Edinburgh ten years later; practised at Penzance and Chichester, but finally settled at London in 1840, where he became physician to the Queen; was for twelve years editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review, which he founded in 1836, and was joint-author of the "Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine"; first to use the stethoscope in England (1787-1861).
FORBES, SIR WILLIAM, an eminent banker, son of a Scotch advocate and baronet, born in Edinburgh; became partner in the banking firm of Messrs. John Coutts & Co.; two years later a new company was formed, of which he rose to be manager, and which in 1830 became the Union Bank of Scotland; he is author of a Life of his friend Beattie, the Scottish poet, and of "Memoirs of a Banking-House" (1739-1806).
FORD, JOHN, dramatist, born at Islington, North Devon; studied at Oxford, and entered the Middle Temple in 1602, but was never called to the bar; in 1606 appeared his first poetic work "Fame's Memorial," an elegy on the death of the Earl of Devonshire, and for the next 33 years he was a prolific writer of plays, chiefly tragedies, collaborating in some cases with Dekker and Webster; "The Broken Heart" was greatly admired by Charles Lamb, and "Perkin Warbeck" is considered by Stopford Brooke the best historical drama after Shakespeare; there is little of the lighter graces about his work, and he is prone to go beyond the bounds of nature in his treatment of the tragic, but his grip on the greater human passions, and his power of moving presentment, are undoubted (1586-1639).
FORDUN, JOHN OF, a Scottish chronicler; lived in the 14th century; was a canon of Aberdeen Cathedral, and wrote a chronicle of Scottish history, bringing the story up to 1153; materials for further volumes, which he left, were utilised by Walter Bower, an abbot of Inchcolm, in the Forth, who extended the account to 1437, but often tampered with Fordun's narrative; the work is the chief authority in Scottish history up to the time it treats of.
FORELAND, NORTH AND SOUTH, two rocky promontories on the E. coast of Kent, which lie 16 m. apart; have the Downs and Goodwin Sands between them; they are well marked with lighthouses.
FORENSIC MEDICINE, or MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, a branch of legal science in which the principles of medicine are applied to the purposes of the law, and originating out of the frequency with which medical points arise in the administration of justice, e. g. in murder trials and in cases where insanity is involved.
FOREST LAWS, laws enacted in ancient times for the purpose of guarding the royal forest lands as hunting preserves, and which were up to the time of Henry III. of excessive harshness, death being a not infrequent penalty for infringement. The privileges of forest (at one time the sole prerogative of the sovereign, but by him capable of being vested in another), which might include the right to the wild animals in the forests lying in the domains of a private estate, have now fallen into abeyance, as also the special Forest Courts, while many of the royal forests, which in Henry VIII.'s time numbered 69, have been disafforested.
FORFAR (13), the county town of Forfarshire, 14 m. NE. of Dundee; manufactures linen; was once an important royal residence, and was made a royal burgh by David I.
FORFARSHIRE or ANGUS (278), a maritime county on the E. side of Scotland, lying N. of the Firth of Tay; Strathmore and the Carse of Gowrie are fertile valleys, where agriculture and cattle-rearing flourish, and which, with the Braes of Angus in the N. and the Sidlaw Hills to the S., make up a finely diversified county; jute and linen are the most important articles of manufacture, of which Dundee and Arbroath are centres; Forfarshire is a county particularly rich in antiquities--Roman remains, castles, priories, &c.
FORMOSA (3,500), a large island off the coast of China, from which it is separated by the Fukien Channel, 90 m. broad. Formosa was ceded to Japan by the Chinese in 1895; it is an island of much natural beauty, and is traversed N. and S. by a fine range of hills; is famed for its bamboos, and exports coal, rice, tea, &c. Name also of a large territory in the Argentine.
FORNARINA, a Roman lady of great beauty, a friend of Raphael's, and who frequently posed as a model to him.
FORRES (3), a royal burgh in Elginshire, on the Findhorn, 2 m. from the sea and 10 m. SW. of Elgin by railway; has ruins of a castle--once a royal residence--and a famous "Stan'in Stane," Sueno's Stone, 25 ft. high, placed in the year 900.
FORREST, EDWIN, a celebrated American actor, born in Philadelphia; went on the stage at 14, and from the provinces made his way to New York, where his rendering of Othello at the age of 20 raised him to the front rank among actors; he made three tours in England, but during his last in 1845 he entirely lost the popular favour through his conduct in an embittered quarrel with Macready; after his final appearance on the stage in 1871 he continued for a short while to give Shakespearian readings; he was a tragedian of the highest order, and in his profession amassed a large fortune (1806-1872).
FORS CLAVIGERA, the name given by Ruskin to a series of letters to workmen, written during the seventies of this century, and employed by him to designate three great powers which go to fashion human destiny, viz., Force, wearing, as it were, (clava) the club of Hercules; _For_titude, wearing, as it were, (clavis) the key of Ulysses; and _For_tune, wearing, as it were, (clavus) the nail of Lycurgus; that is to say, Faculty waiting on the right moment, and then striking in. See Shakespeare's "Time and tide in the affairs of men," &c., the "flood" in which is the "Third Fors." The letters are represented as written at the dictation of the Third Fors, or, as it seems to the author, the right moment, or the occurrence of it.
FÖRSTER, ERNST, an art critic, brother of succeeding, author of a number of elaborate and important works bearing on the history of art in Germany and Italy; was the son-in-law of Jean Paul, whose works he edited, and to whose biography he made contributions of great value (1800-1885).
FÖRSTER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, German poet and historian; his poetic gifts were first called into exercise during the war of liberation, in which he served as a volunteer, and the series of spirited war-songs he then wrote procured him a wide-spread fame; afterwards he lived in Berlin, teaching in the school of artillery, and subsequently becoming custodian of the Royal Art Museum; besides poems he wrote several historical and biographical works (1791-1868).
FORSTER, JOHANN GEORGE ADAM, naturalist, son of the succeeding; accompanied his father in the voyage with Cook, and contributed to the literature anent the expedition; subsequently became professor of Natural History at Cassel and at Wilna, and eventually librarian to the Elector of Mayence in 1788; his works are published in 9 vols. (1754-1794).
FORSTER, JOHANN REINHOLD, a German naturalist and traveller, born in Prussia; accompanied Captain Cook as a naturalist on his second expedition to the South Seas, and in connection with which he wrote a volume of observations; died professor of Natural History and Mineralogy at Halle (1729-1798).
FORSTER, JOHN, a noted English writer, born at Newcastle; was educated for the bar, but took to journalism, and soon made his mark as a political writer in the Examiner; he subsequently edited the Foreign Quarterly Review, the Daily News (succeeding Dickens), and the Examiner (1847-56); he was the author of several historical sketches, but his best-known works are the admirable biographies of Goldsmith, Landor, and Dickens (1812-1876).
FORSTER, WILLIAM EDWARD, statesman, born at Bradpole, Dorset, son of a Quaker; entered upon a commercial career in a worsted manufactory at Bradford, but from the first politics engaged his paramount attention, and in 1861 he became member of Parliament for Bradford; became in succession Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Vice-president of the Council of Education, and a Privy Councillor; his chief legislative measure was the Elementary Education Bill of 1870, which, as a member of Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet, he carried through Parliament, two years after which the Ballot Act was introduced by him; in 1874 he visited the United States, and on his return was elected Lord Rector of Aberdeen University; as Irish Secretary in 1880 he made an earnest effort to grapple with the Irish problem, but losing the support of his colleagues, over the imprisonment of Mr. Parnell and other Land League leaders, he resigned; he was married to Jane, eldest daughter of Dr. Arnold of Rugby; his transparent honesty and rugged independence of character won him universal esteem (1819-1886).
FORT AUGUSTUS, a small village on the Caledonian Canal, 33 m. SW. of Inverness; the fort, built in 1716 and enlarged in 1730, was utilised as a barrack during the disturbances in the Highlands, but after being dismantled and again garrisoned down to 1857, it finally, in 1876, passed into the hands of the BENEDICTINES (q. v.), who have converted it into an abbey and college.
FORT GEORGE, a fortress on the Moray Firth, 12 m. NE. of Inverness; was built in 1748, and is now the head-quarters of the Seaforth Highlanders.
FORT WILLIAM, a small police-burgh in Inverness-shire, 66 m. SW. of Inverness, near the southern end of the Caledonian Canal; the railway station stands on the site of the old fort, which in 1655 was built by Monk; a meteorological observatory was erected here in 1889.
FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN, an eminent English lawyer, born in Somersetshire; flourished in the 15th century; was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and in 1442 became Lord Chief-Justice of the Court of King's Bench; he was a staunch Lancastrian during the Wars of the Roses, and shared the exile of Queen Margaret and her son Edward, for whom he wrote in dialogue form his famous "De Laudibus Legum," a treatise still read; the fate of the Lancastrian cause was sealed on the field of Tewkesbury, and he himself was taken prisoner; he died at the advanced age of 90.
FORTH, a river of Scotland, formed by the junction of Duchray Water and the Avondhu, streams which rise one on Ben Lomond and the other on Ben Venue, and which, after 14 and 9 m., unite at Aberfoyle; the river thence flows with many windings, called Links, through some of the fairest country of the eastern lowlands to Alloa (51½ m.), where begins the Firth, which stretches 51 m. to the German Ocean, and which at Queensferry is spanned by a massive railway bridge known as the Forth Bridge (1882-1890).
FORTUNA, a Roman divinity, the goddess of luck, and especially good luck, to whom Servius Tullius, in acknowledgment of her favours to him, erected several temples in Rome; is represented in art as standing poised on a globe or a wheel, to express her inconstancy.
FORTUNATUS, a character in a popular German legend, who possessed a purse out of which he was able to provide himself with money as often as he needed it and cap, by putting on of which, and wishing to be anywhere, he was straightway there; these he got, by his own free election and choice, conceded to him by the Upper Powers, and they proved a curse to him rather than a blessing, he finding out when too late that "the god Wish is not the true God."
FORTY THIEVES, a fraternity in the "Arabian Nights" who inhabited a secret den in a forest, the gate of which would open only to the magic word "Sesamë."
FORUM, a public place in Rome and Roman cities where the courts of justice were held, and popular assemblies for civic business.
FORWARDS, MARSHAL, MARSHAL BLÜCHER (q. v.).
FOSCARI, a Doge of Venice from 1423 to his death; his reign was distinguished by the glories of conquest, but his life was embittered by the misfortunes of his sons, and the judicial tortures inflicted on one of them which he was compelled to witness; he died at the age of 87, broken-hearted (1370-1457).
FOSCOLO, UGO, an Italian patriot and author, born at Zante; his literary career began in Venice with the successful performance of his tragedy "Trieste," but on the Austrian occupation of the town he joined the French army; disappointed in the hope that France would unite with and free Italy, he returned to literary work in Milan, and in 1809 was called to the chair of Eloquenco in Pavia; but the conquering Austrians again forced him to become a refugee, first in Switzerland and finally in England, where he died; he was the author of various essays, poems, etc., and of a translation of Sterne's "Sentimental Journey" (1778-1827).
FOSTER, BIRKET, a celebrated artist, born at North Shields; his earliest work was done in wood-engraving under the direction of Landells, and many of his sketches appeared in the Illustrated London News; following this he executed, in collaboration with John Gilbert, a series of illustrations for the works of Goldsmith, Cowper, Scott, and other poets, in which he exhibited a rare skill in rural scenes; subsequent work has been in water-colours, and in 1861 he was elected a member of the Water-Colour Society (1825-1899).
FOSTER, JOHN, an English essayist, born in Halifax, Yorkshire; was trained for the Baptist ministry, and for 25 years officiated in various congregations, but met with little success; from 1817 he devoted himself solely to literature, and became a contributor to the Eclectic Review, for which he wrote no fewer than 184 articles; his best-known work is an "Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance," in which he advocates a system of national education (1770-1843).
FOTHERINGAY, a village in Northamptonshire, on the Nen, 9 m. SW. of Peterborough; the ruined castle there was the scene of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587.
FOUCAULT, JOHN BERNARD, a French physicist, born in Paris; distinguished for his studies in optics and problems connected with light; demonstrated the rate of the rotation of the globe by the oscillation of a pendulum (1819-1868).
FOUCHÉ, JOSEPH, Duke of Otranto, born at Nantes, a member of the National Convention, and voted for the death of Louis XVI.; became Minister of Police under Napoleon; falling into disfavour, was sent into exile, but recalled to Paris in 1814; advised Napoleon to abdicate at that time and again after Waterloo; served under Louis XVIII. for a time, but was obliged at length to quit France for good; died at Trieste (1763-1820).
FOULA, a high and rocky islet among the Shetlands, 32 m. W. of Lerwick; its sandstone cliffs on the NW. are 1220 ft. in height, and rise sheer from the water; it is sparsely peopled; fishing is the almost sole pursuit.
FOULD, ACHILLE, French statesman, born at Paris; entered political life in 1842; became an authority in finance, served in that capacity under Louis Napoleon (1800-1865).
FOULIS, ROBERT and ANDREW, celebrated printers; were brought up in Glasgow, where Robert, the elder, after practising as a barber, took to printing, and in 1743 became printer to the university; his press was far-famed for the beauty and accuracy of editions of the classics; Andrew was trained for the ministry, but subsequently joined his brother; an academy, started by the brothers in 1753 for engraving, moulding, etc., although a complete success artistically, involved them in expense, and eventually financial ruin; they have been called the "Scottish Elzevirs" (Robert, 1707-1776; Andrew, 1712-1775).
FOULON, a French financier, nicknamed the Ame damnée, Familiar demon, of the parlement of Paris prior to the Revolution; "once, when it was objected to some financial scheme of his, 'What will the people do?' made answer, 'The people may eat grass,'" words which the people never forgot; when attacked by them "he defended himself like a mad lion, but was borne down, trampled, hanged, and mangled," his head thereafter paraded through the city on a pike and the mouth stuffed with grass (1715-1789).
FOUNDLING HOSPITALS are institutions for the rearing of children who have been deserted by their parents, and exist with varying regulations in most civilised countries; the first foundling hospital was established at Milan in 787, and others arose in Germany, Italy, and France before the 14th century; the Paris foundling hospital is a noted institution of the kind, and offers every encouragement for children to be brought in, and admits legitimate orphans and children pronounced incorrigible criminals by the court; the London foundling hospital was founded by Captain Thomas Coram, and supports about 500 illegitimates.
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, a merciless revolutionary, born near Artois; member of the Jacobin Club, Attorney-General of the Revolutionary Tribunal, purveyor of the guillotine; was guillotined himself after the fall of Robespierre (1747-1795).
FOURTH ESTATE, the daily press, so called by Edmund Burke, pointing, in the House of Commons, to the reporters' gallery.
FOURTH OF JULY, the anniversary of the declaration of American Independence in 1776.
FOWLER, SIR JOHN, K.C.M.G., civil engineer, born at Sheffield; was actively engaged in the construction of numerous railways (notably the London and Brighton), and in dock and bridge building; carried through important works in Egypt in 1885, and, along with Sir B. Baker, he designed the Forth Bridge, on the completion of which he received a baronetcy (1817-1889).
FOX, CHARLES JAMES, an eminent Whig statesman, third son of Henry Fox, first Lord Holland, born in London; was educated at Eton and Oxford, and at the age of 19 sat in Parliament for Midhurst; under Lord North he held office, but quarrelled with the premier and went over to the Whigs, then led by Rockingham; here he came under the influence of Burke, and with him offered uncompromising opposition to the American War; in the Rockingham ministry which followed he was Foreign Secretary, and subsequently joined North in the short-lived coalition ministry of 1783; during the next 14 years he was the great opponent of Pitt's Government, and his brilliant powers of debate were never more effectively displayed than in his speeches against Warren Hastings and in the debates arising out of the French Revolution, in which he advocated a policy of non-intervention; his sympathy with the French revolutionaries cost him the friendship of Burke; during a retirement of five years he wrote his "History of James II."; on Pitt's death in 1806 he again came into office as Foreign Secretary, but died shortly afterwards when about to plead in the House of Commons the cause of slave abolition; Fox stands in the front rank of our parliamentary debaters, and was a man of quick and generous sympathies, but the reckless dissipation of his private life diminished his popular influence, and probably accounts for the fact that he never reached the highest office of State (1749-1806).
FOX, GEORGE, the first of the Quakers, born at Drayton, Leicestershire; son of a poor weaver, and till his twentieth year plied the trade of a shoemaker; conceived, as he drudged at this task, that he had a call from above to withdraw from the world and give himself up to a higher ministry; stitched for himself one day a suit of leather, and so encased wandered through the country, rapt in his thoughts and bearing witness to the truth that God had revealed to him; about 1646 began his crusade against the religion of mere formality, and calling upon men to trust to the "inner light" alone; his quaint garb won him the title of "the man with the leather breeches," and his mode of speech with his "thou's" and "thee's" subjected him to general ridicule; but despite these eccentricities he by his earnestness gathered disciples about him who believed what he said and adopted his principles, and in the prosecution of his mission he visited Wales, Scotland, America, and various parts of Germany, not without results; he had no kindly feeling towards Cromwell, with whom he had three interviews, and who in his public conduct seemed to him to pay no regard to the claims of the "inner light" and the disciples of it (1624-1690). See "SARTOR RESARTUS," BOOK III. CHAP. I.
FOX, WILLIAM JOHNSON, religious and political orator, born near Southwold, Suffolk; was trained for the Independent ministry, but seceded to the Unitarians, and subsequently established himself as a preacher of pronounced rationalism at Finsbury; as a supporter of the Anti-Corn-Law movement he won celebrity as an impassioned orator, and from 1847 to 1863 represented Oldham in Parliament; he was editor of the Monthly Repository, and a frequent contributor to the Westminster Review, and published various works on political and religious topics (1786-1864).
FOXE, JOHN, martyrologist, born at Boston, Lincolnshire; in 1545 he resigned his Fellowship in Magdalen College, Oxford, on account of his espousing the doctrines of the Reformation, and for some years after he acted as a private tutor in noble families; during Queen Mary's reign he sought refuge on the Continent, where he formed acquaintance with Knox and other leading Reformers; he returned to England on the accession of Elizabeth, and was appointed a prebend in Salisbury cathedral, but his Nonconformist leanings precluded his further preferment; his most famous work is his "Book of Martyrs," first published in Latin on the Continent, the noble English version appearing in 1563 (1516-1587).
FOYERS, FALL OF, a fine cascade, having a fall of 165 ft., on the lower portion of the Foyers, a river of Inverness-shire, which enters Loch Ness on the E. side, 10 in. NE. of Fort Augustus.
FRA DIAVOLO, chief of a band of Italian brigands, born in Calabria; leader in sundry Italian insurrections; was hanged at Naples for treachery, in spite of remonstrances from England; gave name to an opera by Auber, but only the name (1760-1806).
FRACAS`TORO, GIROLAMO, a learned physician and poet, born at Verona; became professor of Dialectic at Padua in his twentieth year; subsequently practised as a physician, but eventually gave himself up to literature (1483-1553).
FRAGONARD, JEAN HONORÉ, a French artist, born at Grasse; gained the "prix de Rome" in 1752, and afterwards studied in Rome; was a member of the French Academy, and during the Revolution became keeper of the Musée; many of his paintings are in the Louvre, and are characterised by their free and luscious colouring (1732-1806).
FRANC, a silver coin 835/1000 fine, the monetary unity of France since 1799, weighs 5 grammes and equals about 9½ d. in English currency (£1 = 25.3 francs); has been adopted by Belgium and Switzerland, while under other names a similar coin is in use in Spain (peseta), Italy (lira), and Greece (drachma).
FRANCE (38,343), the land of the French; a nation standing in the front rank among the powers of Europe. It occupies a geographical position of peculiar advantage in the western portion of it, having a southern foreshore on the Mediterranean and a western and northern seaboard washed by the Atlantic and the English Channel, possessing altogether a coast-line, rather undeveloped however, of upwards of 2000 m., while to the E. it abuts upon Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. It is divided into 87 departments, including Corsica. It is mainly composed of lowland and plateau, but has the Cévennes in the S., while the Pyrenees and Alps (with the Vosges and Ardennes farther N.) lie on its southern and eastern boundaries. Rivers abound and form, with the splendid railway, canal, and telegraph systems, an unrivalled means of internal communication; but there are singularly few lakes. It enjoys on the whole a fine climate, which favours the vineyards in the centre (the finest in the world), the olive groves in the S., and the wheat and beetroot region in the N. The mineral wealth is inconsiderable, and what of coal and iron there is lies widely apart. Her manufactures, which include silk, wine, and woollen goods, are of the best, and in fine artistic work she is without an equal. The colonies are together larger in area than the mother-country, and include Algeria, Madagascar, and Cochin China. The French are a people of keen intelligence, of bright, impulsive, and vivacious nature; urbane, cultured, and pleasure-loving in the cities, thrifty and industrious in the country; few races have given so rich a bequest to the literature and art of the world. Roman Catholicism is the dominant form of religion, but Protestantism and the Jewish religion are also State supported, as also Mohammedanism in Algiers. Free compulsory education is in vogue. The Government is a Republic, and there are two chambers--a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. Originally occupied by Celts, the country, then called Gallia, was conquered by the Romans between 58 and 51 B.C., who occupied it till the 4th century, when it was overrun by the Teutons, including the Franks, who became dominant; and about 870 the country, under Charles the Bald, became known as France. The unsettling effects of the great cataclysm of 1789 have been apparent in the series of political changes which have swept across the country this century; within that time it has been thrice a monarchy, thrice an empire, and thrice a republic.
FRANCESCA, PISTRO DELLA, an Italian painter, sometimes called Piero Borghese after his native place; did fresco-work in Florence and at Loretto; painted pictures for the Duke of Rimini, notably "The Flagellation"; was a friend of Raphael's father; some of his pictures are in the London National Gallery (1420-1492).
FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, a beautiful Italian lady of the 13th century, whose pathetic love story finds a place in Dante's "Inferno"; she was betrothed by her father, the Lord of Ravenna, to Giovanni of Rimini, but her affections were engaged by Paolo, his brother; the lovers were found together by Giovanni and murdered by him.
FRANCESCO DI PAULA or ST. FRANCIS OF PAOLA, founder of the order of the Minims, born at Paula, in Calabria; was trained in a Franciscan convent, but at the age of 19 took up his abode in a cave, where the severe purity and piety of his life attracted to him many disciples; subsequently he founded an ascetic brotherhood, first called the Hermits of St. Francis of Assisi, but afterwards changed to Minim-Hermits of St. Francis of Paola; he eventually lived in France, where convents were built for him and his brotherhood under royal patronage (1416-1507).
FRANCHE-COMTÉ, an ancient province in the E. of France, added to the crown of France in the reign of Louis XIV. at the peace of Nimeguen in 1671.
FRANCIA, DR. JOSÉ GASPAR RODRIGUEZ DA, dictator of Paraguay, born near Asunçion, in Paraguay; graduated as a doctor of theology, but subsequently took to law, in the practice of which profession he was engaged for 30 years, and won a high reputation for ability and undeviating honesty; in the revolutionary uprising which spread throughout Spanish South America, Paraguay played a conspicuous part, and when in 1811 she declared her independence, Francia was elected secretary of the first national junta, and two years later one of two consuls; eventually, in 1814, he became dictator, a position he held till his death; he ruled the country with a strong hand and with scrupulous, if somewhat rough, justice, making it part of his policy to allow no intercourse, political or commercial, with other countries; the country flourished under his rule, but fell into disorder after his death; he is the subject of a well-known essay by Carlyle, who finds him a man very much after his own heart (1757-1840).
FRANCIS, ST., OF ASSISI, founder of the Franciscan order, born at Assisi, in Umbria; began life as a soldier, but during a serious illness his thoughts were turned from earth to heaven, and he devoted himself to a life of poverty and self-denial, with the result that his enthusiasm provoked emulation, and some of his neighbours associated with him and formed a brotherhood, which gave rise to the order; St. Dominic and he were contemporaries, "the former teaching Christian men how to behave, and the latter what they should think"; each sent a little company of disciples to teach and preach in Florence, where their influence soon made itself felt, St. Francis in 1212 and St. Dominic in 1220.
FRANCIS, ST., OF SALES, bishop of Geneva, born In the château of Sales, near Amiens, founder of the Order of the Visitation; was sent to persuade the Calvinists of Geneva back to the Church of Rome, and applied himself zealously to the reform of his diocese and the monasteries (1567-1622).
FRANCIS JOSEPH, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary; succeeded to the throne in 1848 on the abdication of his uncle, Ferdinand I.; the Hungarian difficulty has been the chief problem of his reign, with which he at first dealt in a spirit of harsh oppression, but since 1866 a milder policy has been adopted, and the desire for national autonomy was met by the creation of a dual monarchy in 1867, Francis being crowned king of Hungary; other important events have been the cession of Lombardy to Sardinia in 1859 and of Venetia in 1866, after an unsuccessful war with Prussia; b. 1830.
FRANCISCANS, or MINORITES, an order of monks founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1208; according to Ruskin, they were the order that preached with St James the gospel of Works as distinct from the Dominicans, who preached with St. Paul the gospel of Faith, and their gospel required three things: "to work without money and be poor, to work without pleasure and be chaste, and to work according to orders and be obedient"; these were the rules they were sworn to obey at first, but they gradually forsook the austerity they enjoined, acquired great wealth, instituted a highly sensuous ceremonial, and became invested with privileges which excited the jealousy of the regular clergy; with the order were associated a number of men eminent in the Church, and many no less so in philosophy, literature, and art.
FRANCK, SEBASTIAN, early German writer, born at Donauwörth; from a Catholic priest became a Protestant, but fell into disfavour for promulgating the doctrine that regeneration of life is of more importance than reform of dogma, and in 1531 was banished from Strasburg; subsequently he became a soap-boiler and eventually a printer; his most noted work is his "Chronica," a rough attempt--the first in Germany--at a general history (1499-1542).
FRANCKE, AUGUST HERMANN, a German religious philanthropist, born at Lübeck; was professor of Oriental Languages and subsequently of Theology at Halle; he founded various educational institutions and a large orphanage, all of which still exist and afford education for some 3000 children annually; he was active in promoting PIETISM, q. v. (1663-1727).
FRANCONIA, the name formerly applied to a loosely defined district in Central Germany, which, as the home of the Franks, was regarded as the heart of the Holy Roman Empire; the emperors long continued to be crowned within its boundaries; subsequently it was divided into two duchies, East Franconia and Rhenish Franconia; the latter was abolished in 1501 and the former much diminished; from 1806 to 1837 the name had no official existence, but in 1837 the names Upper, Middle, and Lower Franconia were given to the three northern divisions of Bavaria.
FRANC-TIREURS (i. e. free-shooters), French volunteers, chiefly peasants, who carried on a guerilla warfare against the Germans in the Franco-German War; were at first denied the status of regular soldiers by the Germans and mercilessly shot when captured, but subsequently, having joined in the movements of the regular army, they were when captured treated as prisoners of war.
FRANKENSTEIN, a monster of romance created without a soul, yet not without craving for human sympathy, who found existence on these terms a curse, as a man with high cravings might find science to be without God.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN (180), one of the old free cities of Germany, a centre of importance under the Kaisers and the seat of the Diet of the Germanic Confederation, and one of the great banking cities of the world; it is the birthplace of the poet Goethe, and is associated with his early history.
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-ODER (56), a town of Prussia, in the province of Brandenburg, 51 m. SE. of Berlin, is a well-built town; has a university incorporated with Breslau in 1811, and is actively engaged in the manufacture of machinery, chemicals, paper, &c.
FRANKLAND, SIR EDWARD, an eminent chemist, born at Churchtown, Lancashire; has held successively the chairs of Chemistry in Owens College, in Bartholomew's Hospital, in the Royal Institution, in the Royal College of Chemistry, and in the Normal School of Science, South Kensington, the latter of which he resigned in 1885; has published various works, and was engaged with Lockyer in researches on the atmosphere of the sun; b. 1825.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, born in Boston, was the youngest son of a tallow-chandler and one of a family of 17; received a meagre education, and at the age of 12 became apprenticed to his brother, a printer and proprietor of a small newspaper, to whose columns he began to contribute; but subsequently quarrelling with him made his way almost penniless to Philadelphia, where he worked as a printer; in 1724 he came to England under promises of assistance, which were not fulfilled, and for 18 months laboured at his printing trade in London, when he returned to Philadelphia, and there, by steady industry, won a secure position as a printer and proprietor of the Pennsylvania Gazette; in 1732 began to appear his Poor Richard's Almanac, which, with its famous maxims of prudential philosophy, had a phenomenal success; four years later he entered upon a public career, rising through various offices to the position of Deputy Postmaster-General for the Colonies, and sitting in the Assembly; carried through important political missions to England in 1757 and 1764, and was prominent in the deliberations which ended in the declaration of American independence in 1776; he visited France and helped to bring about the French alliance, and made an unavailing effort to bring in Canada, and, as American minister, signed the Treaty of Independence in 1783; was subsequently minister to France, and was twice unanimously elected President of Pennsylvania; his name is also associated with discoveries in natural science, notably the discovery of the identity of electricity and lightning, which he achieved by means of a kite; received degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, and was elected an F.R.S.; in 1730 he married Deborah Reid, by whom he had two children (1706-1790).
FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN, a famous Arctic explorer, born at Spilsby, Lincolnshire; entered the navy in 1800; was a midshipman; was present at the battle of Copenhagen; shortly afterwards accompanied an expedition, under Captain Minders, to explore and survey the coasts of Australia; was wrecked, and returned home on board the Camden as a signal-midshipman; he subsequently distinguished himself at the battle of Trafalgar, and took part in the attack on New Orleans; in 1818 he was second in command of an expedition sent out under Captain Buchan to discover a North-West Passage, which, although unsuccessful, contributed to reveal Franklin's admirable qualities as a leader, and in 1819 he was chosen to head another Arctic expedition, which, after exploring the Saskatchewan and Copper-Mine Rivers and adjacent territory, returned in 1822; Franklin was created a post-captain, and for services in a further expedition in search of a North-West Passage was, in 1829, knighted; after further services he was in 1845 put in command of an expedition, consisting of the Erebus and Terror, for the discovery of the North-West Passage; the expedition never returned, and for many years a painful interest was manifested in the various expeditions (17 in all) which were sent out to search for the lost party; many relics of this unfortunate explorer were found, demonstrating the discovery of the North-West Passage; but the story of his fate has never been precisely ascertained (1786-1847).
FRANKS, the name given in the 3rd century to a confederation of Germanic tribes, who subsequently grouped themselves into two main bodies called the Salians and the Ripuarians, the former dwelling on the Upper Rhine, and the latter on the Middle Rhine. Under their king, Clovis, the Salians overran Central Gaul, subjugating the Ripuarians, and extending their territory from the Scheldt to the Loire, whence in course of time there generally developed the kingdom of France. The Franks were of a tall and martial bearing, and thoroughly democratic in their political instincts.
FRANZ, ROBERT, musical composer, born at Halle; his first songs appeared in 1843, and were cordially appreciated by Mendelssohn and other masters; in 1868 ill-health forced him to resign his musical appointments in Halle, but by the efforts of Liszt, Joachim, and others, funds were raised by means of concerts to ensure him a competence for life; he published upwards of 250 songs (1815-1892).
FRANZENSBAD or FRANZENSBRUNN (2), a watering-place on the NW. frontier of Bohemia, 3 m. NW. of Eger; is 1460 ft. above sea-level, amidst a mountainous country; is much frequented by invalids for its mineral springs.
FRANZ-JOSEF LAND, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, N. of Nova Zembla; was discovered and partly explored in 1873-74 by Payer and Weyprecht; consists of two main divisions, Wilczek Land to the E., and Zichy Land to the W., between which runs Austria Sound. Arctic animals are found in good numbers. It is considered an excellent base for expeditions in quest of the North Pole.
FRASER, ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, philosopher, born at Ardchattan, Argyllshire; after a university training at Edinburgh and Glasgow he entered the Free Church; was for a brief term Free Church minister of Cramond, from which he was transferred to a chair in the Free Church College, but in 1856 succeeded Sir William Hamilton as professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh, a position he held till 1891, when he resigned; his writings include the standard edition of Berkeley, with notes and a life, monographs on Locke and Berkeley in the series of "Philosophical Classics," and two vols. on the "Philosophy of Theism," being the Gifford Lectures delivered 1895-96; b. 1819.
FRASER, JAMES, bishop of Manchester, born near Cheltenham, became a Fellow of Oriel after graduating with highest honours, and in 1847 was appointed to a college living; he issued in 1862-1864 valuable reports on education in Canada and the United States after visiting these countries; and in 1870 was appointed bishop by Mr. Gladstone; his strong sense and wide sympathy and interest in the labour questions won him universal respect (1818-1885).
FRASER RIVER, the chief river of British Columbia, is formed by the junction near Fort George of two streams, one rising in the Rockies, the other flowing out of the Lakes Stuart and Fraser; it discharges into the Georgian Gulf, 800 m. below Fort George. Rich deposits of gold are found in the lower basin, and an active industry in salmon-catching and canning is carried on.
FRATICELLI (i. e. Little Brethren), a religious sect which arose in Italy in the 13th century, and continued to exist until the close of the 15th. They were an offshoot from the FRANCISCANS (q. v.), who sought in their lives to enforce more rigidly the laws of St. Francis, and declined to accept the pontifical explanations of monastic rules; ultimately they broke away from the authority of the Church, and despite the efforts of various popes to reconcile them, and the bitter persecutions of others, maintained a separate organisation, going the length of appointing their own cardinals and pope, having declared the Church in a state of apostasy. Their régime of life was of the severest nature; they begged from door to door their daily food, and went clothed in rags.
FRAUNHOFER, JOSEPH VON, German optician, born in Straubing, Bavaria; after serving an apprenticeship as a glass-cutter in Münich, he rose to be manager of an optical institute there, and eventually attained to the position of professor in the Academy of Sciences; his name is associated with many discoveries in optical science as well as inventions and improvements in the optician's art; but he is chiefly remembered for his discovery of the dark lines in the solar spectrum, since called after him the Fraunhofer lines (1787-1826).
FREDEGONDA, wife of Chilpéric I. of Neustria; a woman of low birth, but of great beauty and insatiable ambition, who scrupled at no crime to attain her end; made away with Galswintha, Chilpéric's second wife, and superseded her on the throne; slew Siegbert, who had been sent to avenge Galswintha's death, and imprisoned Brunhilda, her sister, of Austrasia, and finally assassinated her husband and governed Neustria in the name of her son, Clotaire II. (543-597).
FREDERICK I., surnamed Barbarossa (Red-beard), of the house of Swabia, emperor of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE (q. v.) from 1152 till 1190; "a magnificent, magnanimous man, the greatest of all the Kaisers"; his reign is the most brilliant in the annals of the empire, and he himself among the most honoured of German heroes; his vast empire he ruled with iron rigour, quelling its rival factions and extending his sovereign rights to Poland, Hungary, Denmark, and Burgundy; the great struggle of his reign, however, was with Pope Alexander III. and the Lombard cities, whose right to independence he acknowledged by the treaty of Constanz (1183); he "died some unknown sudden death" at 70 in the crusade against Saladin and the Moslem power; his lifelong ambition was to secure the independence of the empire, and to subdue the States of Italy to the imperial sway (1123-1190).
FREDERICK II., called the Wonder of the World, grandson of the preceding; he was crowned emperor in 1215, at Aix-la-Chapelle, having driven Otto IV. from the throne; he gave much attention to the consolidating of his Italian possessions, encouraged learning and art, founded the university of Naples, and had the laws carefully codified; in these attempts at harmonising the various elements of his empire he was opposed by the Papal power and the Lombards; in 1228 he gained possession of Jerusalem, of which he crowned himself king; his later years were spent in struggles with the Papal and Lombard powers, and darkened by the treachery of his son Henry and of an intimate friend; he was a man of outstanding intellectual force and learning, but lacked the moral greatness of his grandfather (1194-1250).
FREDERICK III., emperor of Germany, born at Potsdam; bred for the army; rose to command; did signal service at Königgratz in 1860, and again in 1870 in the Franco-German War; married the Princess Royal of England; succeeded his father, but fell a victim to a serious throat malady after a reign of only 101 days, June 18 (1831-1888).
FREDERICK V., Electoral Prince Palatine; succeeded to the Palatinate in 1610, and three years later married Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England; an attempt to head the Protestant union of Germany and his usurpation of the crown of Bohemia brought about his ruin and expulsion from the Palatinate in 1620 by the Spaniards and Bavarians; he took refuge in Holland, but two years later his principality was given to Bavaria by the emperor (1596-1632).
FREDERICK III., of Denmark, succeeded to the throne in 1648; during his reign the arrogance and oppression of the nobles drove the commons, headed by the clergy, to seek redress of the king by proclaiming the constitution a hereditary and absolute monarchy (1609-1670).
FREDERICK V., of Denmark, ascended the throne in 1746; during his reign Denmark made great progress, manufactures were established, commerce extended, while science and the fine arts were liberally patronised (1723-1766).
FREDERICK VI., of Denmark, became regent in 1784 during the insanity of his father, who died in 1808; his reign is noted for the abolishment of feudal serfdom and the prohibition of the slave-trade in Danish colonies, and the granting of a liberal constitution in 1831; while his participation in the maritime confederation between Russia, Sweden, and Prussia led to the destruction of the Danish fleet off Copenhagen in 1800 by the British, and his sympathy and alliance with Napoleon brought about the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, and the cession of Norway to Sweden in 1814 (1768-1839).
FREDERICK I., first king of Prussia, third elector of Brandenburg, and son of the Great Elector Frederick-William, whom as elector he succeeded in 1688; he extended his territory by purchase; supported William of Orange in his English expedition, and lent assistance to the Grand Alliance against France, for which he received the title of king of Prussia, being crowned such in Königsberg in 1701; he was "an expensive Herr, and much given to magnificent ceremonies, etiquettes, and solemnities" (1657-1713).
FREDERICK II., king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, surnamed "The Great," grandson of the preceding, and nephew of George I. of England, born at Berlin; the irksome restraints of his early military education induced him to make an attempt, which failed, to escape to England, an episode which incensed his father, and nearly brought him to the scaffold; after his marriage in 1733 he resided at Rheinsburg, indulging his taste for music and French literature, and corresponding with Voltaire; he came to the throne with the ambition of extending and consolidating his power; from Austria, after two wars (1740-1744), he wrested Silesia, and again in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and in 1778 by force of arms acquired the duchy of Franconia; as administrator he was eminently efficient, the country flourished under his just, if severe, rule; his many wars imposed no debt on the nation; national industries were fostered, and religious toleration encouraged; he was not so successful in his literary attempts as his military, and all he wrote was in French, the spirit of it as well as the letter; he is accounted the creator of the Prussian monarchy "the first," says Carlyle, "who, in a highly public manner, announced its creation; announced to all men that it was, in very deed, created; standing on its own feet there, and would go a great way on the impulse it got from him and others" (1712-1786).
FREDERICK CHARLES, PRINCE, nephew of William I. of Germany; bred for the army; distinguished himself in the wars against Denmark and Austria, and in the Franco-German War (1828-1885).
FREDERICK-WILLIAM I., king of Prussia, born at Berlin, ascended the throne in 1713; in 1720, at the peace of Stockholm, he received part of Pomerania with Stettin for espousing the cause of Denmark in her war with Russia and Poland against Sweden; the rest of his reign was passed in improving the internal conditions of his country and her military resources; in praise of him as a sternly genuine man and king, Carlyle has much to say in the early volumes of his "Frederick"; "No Baresark of them" ("the primeval sons of Thor"), among whom he ranks him, "no Baresark of them, not Odin's self, I think, was a bit of truer human stuff; his value to me in these times, rare and great" (1688-1740).
FREDERICK-WILLIAM II., king of Prussia, nephew of FREDERICK THE GREAT (q. v.); succeeded to the throne in 1786, but soon lost favour by indolence and favouritism; in 1788 the freedom of the press was withdrawn, and religious freedom curtailed; he involved himself in a weak and vacillating foreign policy, wasting the funds accumulated by his uncle in a useless war with Holland; at the partition of Poland in 1793 and 1795 various districts were added to the kingdom (1744-1797).
FREDERICK-WILLIAM III., king of Prussia from 1797 till 1840; incited by the queen and the commons he abandoned his position of neutrality towards Napoleon and declared war in 1806; defeat followed at Jena and in other battles, and by the treaty of Tilsit (1807) Prussia was deprived of half her possessions; under the able administration of Stein the country began to recover itself, and a war for freedom succeeded in breaking the power of France at the victory of Leipzig (1813), and at the treaty of Vienna (1815) her lost territory was restored; his remaining years were spent in consolidating and developing his dominions, but his policy was sometimes reactionary in its effects (1770-1840).
FREDERICK-WILLIAM IV., king of Prussia from 1840 till 1861; his reign is marked by the persistent demands of the people for a constitutional form of government, which was finally granted in 1850; a year previous he had declined the imperial crown offered by the Frankfort Diet; in 1857 he became insane, and his brother was appointed regent (1795-1861).
FREDERIKSHALD, a fortified seaport of Norway, 65 m. SE. of Christiania; was burnt in 1826, but handsomely restored in modern style; timber is the main trade; in the immediate neighbourhood is the impregnable fortress of Frederiksteen, associated with the death of Charles XII. of Sweden, who fell fighting in the trenches before its walls in 1718.
FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, an ecclesiastical body formed by those who left the Established Church in 1843 on the ground that they were not free in their connection with the State to enforce certain obligations which they considered lay on them as a Church of Christ, to whom, and not to the State, they held themselves as a Church subject.
FREE CITIES OF GERMANY, were cities which enjoyed sovereign rights within their own walls, independent representation in the Diet, and owned allegiance solely to the emperor. Their internal government was sometimes democratic, sometimes the opposite. Their peculiar privileges were obtained either by force of arms, by purchase, or by gift of the emperors, who found in them a convenient means of checking the power of their feudal lords. Most of them lost their privileges in 1803, and since 1866 only Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg remain in the category of free cities.
FREE PORT, name given to a port at which ships of all nations may discharge or load cargo without payment of customs or other duties, save harbour dues. They were created in various Continental countries during the Middle Ages for the purpose of stimulating trade, but Copenhagen and, in a restricted sense, Hamburg and Bremen are now the only free ports in Europe. The system of bonded warehousing has superseded them.
FREE SOILERS, a political party which arose in the United States in 1848 to oppose slave-extension. In 1856 their principles were adopted, and the party absorbed in the newly-formed Republican party.
FREE TRADE, the name given to the commercial policy of England, first elaborately set forth with cogent reasoning by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations," and of which the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 was the first step towards its adoption. Strictly used, the term is applicable only to international or foreign trade, and signifies a policy of strict non-intervention in the free competition of foreign goods with home goods in the home markets. Differential duties, artificial encouragements (e. g. bounties, drawbacks), to the home producer, all of which are characteristic of a protective system of trading, are withheld, the belief being entertained by free-traders that the industrial interests of a country are best served by permitting the capital to flow into those channels of trade into which the character and resources of the country naturally dispose it to do, and also by bringing the consumer as near as possible to the cheapest producer. But it is not considered a violation of the Free Trade principles to impose a duty for revenue purposes on such imported articles as have no home competitor, e. g. tea.
FREEMAN, EDWARD AUGUSTUS, historian, born at Mitchley Abbey, Staffordshire; was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford; examiner in the School of Law and Modern History; in 1884 he was elected Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford; most of his life was spent in country retirement at Somerleaze, varied by Continental travel; he is the author of many scholarly works ranging over the whole field of history, his fame, however, mainly resting on his great "History of the Norman Conquest" (1823-1892).
FREEMASONRY, in modern times is the name given to a world-wide institution of the nature of a friendly benevolent society, having for its objects the promotion of social intercourse amongst its members, and, in its own language, "the practice of moral and social virtue," the exercise of charity being particularly commended. By a peculiar grip of the hand and certain passwords members are enabled to recognise each other, and the existence of masonic lodges in all countries enables the freemason to find friendly intercourse and assistance wherever he goes. Its origin is found in the masonic brotherhoods of the Middle Ages, and some of the names, forms, and symbols of these old craft guilds are still preserved. In an age when great cathedrals and monasteries were rapidly springing up masons were in great demand, and had to travel from place to place, hence signs were adopted by which true masons might be known amongst each other and assisted. The idea of utilising this secret method of recognition for general, social, and charitable purposes, without reference to the mason's craft, seems to have originated in the Edinburgh Lodge, where, in 1600, speculative or theoretical masons were admitted. In its present form of organisation it dates back to 1813, when the "United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England" was formed, and of which, since 1874, the Prince of Wales has been Grand-Master, and which has nearly 2000 local lodges under its protection.
FREEPORT, SIR ANDREW, a London merchant; a member of the imaginary club under whose auspices the Spectator was issued.
FREIBERG (29), in the centre of the Saxon mining district, 20 m. SW. of Dresden; is an old town, which arose upon the discovery of its silver mines in 1163. It has a fine old cathedral, and a famous school of mines; and the manufactures comprise gold and silver work, wire, chemicals, etc.
FREIBURG, 1, a Swiss canton (119) between Bern and Vaud, and having three esclaves in the latter; the population consists chiefly of French Catholics; is hilly; dairy-farming, watchmaking, and straw-plaiting are the chief industries. 2, Capital (12) of the canton, is situated on the Saane, 19 m. SW. of Bern; the river is spanned by a suspension bridge, and there is an old Gothic cathedral with one of the finest-toned organs in Europe.
FREIBURG (49), in Breisgau, an important town in Baden, at the W. side of the Black Forest, and 32 m. NE. of Basel; has a Gothic cathedral famous for its architectural beauty, a university with 87 professors and teachers and 884 students; has important manufactures in silk, cotton, thread, paper, etc.; is the seat of a Catholic archbishop, and is associated with many stirring events in German history.
FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND, a popular German poet, born at Detmold; was engaged in commerce in his early years, but the success of a small collection of poems in 1838 induced him to adopt a literary career; subsequently his democratic principles, expressed in stirring verse, involved him in trouble, and in 1846 he became a refugee in London; he was permitted to return in 1848, and shortly afterwards was the successful defendant in a celebrated trial for the publication of his poem "The Dead to the Living," after which fresh prosecution drove him to London in 1851, where, till his return in 1868, he engaged in poetical work, translating Burns, Shakespeare, and other English poets (1810-1876).
FREISCHÜTZ (i. e. Freeshooter), a legendary hunter who made a compact with the devil whereby of seven balls six should infallibly hit the mark, and the seventh be under the direction of the devil, a legend which was rife among the troopers in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has given name to one of Weber's operas.
FRÉMONT, JOHN CHARLES, an American explorer, born at Savannah, Georgia; at first a teacher of mathematics in the navy, subsequently took to civil-engineering and surveying; in 1843 explored the South Pass of the Rockies, and proved the practicability of an overland route; explored the Great Salt Lake, the watershed between the Mississippi and Pacific, and the upper reaches of the Rio Grande; he rendered valuable services in the Mexican War, but was deprived of his captaincy for disobedience; after unsuccessfully standing for the Presidency in the anti-slavery interest, he again served in the army as major-general; a scheme for a southern railway to the Pacific brought him into trouble with the French government in 1873, when he was tried and condemned for fraud, unjustly it would seem; from 1878 to 1882 he was governor of Arizona; he was the recipient of distinctions from various geographical societies (1813-1890).
FRENCH PHILOSOPHISM, an analysis of things conducted on the presumption that scientific knowledge is the key to unlock the mystery and resolve the riddle of the universe.
FRENCH REVOLUTION, according to Carlyle "the open violent revolt, and victory, of disimprisoned Anarchy against corrupt, worn-out Authority, the crowning Phenomenon of our Modern Time," but for which, he once protested to Mr. Froude, he would not have known what to make of this world at all; it was a sign to him that the God of judgment still sat sovereign at the heart of it.
FRERE, SIR HENRY BARTLE EDWARD, a distinguished diplomatist and colonial governor, born near Abergavenny; entering the East India Company in 1834, he rendered important services as administrator in Mahratta and as Resident in Sattara in 1847; as the chief-commissioner in Sind he did much to open up the country by means of canals, roads, etc.; during the Mutiny, which arrested these works of improvement, he distinguished himself by the prompt manner in which he suppressed the rising in his own province; from 1862 to 1867 he was governor of Bombay; in 1867 was knighted, and five years later carried through important diplomatic work in Zanzibar, signing the treaty abolishing the slave-trade; his last appointment was as governor of the Cape and High-Commissioner for the settlement of South African affairs; the Kaffir and Zulu Wars involved him in trouble, and in 1880 he was recalled, having effected little (1815-1884).
FRERE, JOHN HOOKHAM, English politician and author, born in London, uncle of the preceding; he was a staunch supporter of Pitt, and in 1799 became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs; a year later he was envoy to Lisbon, and subsequently minister to Spain; in 1821 he retired to Malta, where he devoted himself to scholarly pursuits, twice declining a peerage; in his early days he was a contributor to the Anti-Jacobin, and shares with his school-fellow Canning the authorship of the "Needy Knife-Grinder"; but he is best known by his fine translations of some of Aristophanes' plays (1769-1841).
FRESCO, the art of painting on walls freshly laid with plaster, or which have been damped so as to permit of the colour sinking into the lime; there were two methods, the fresco secco and the fresco buon; in the first the wall was sprinkled with water, and the colours were then worked into the damp surface; in the second process, in which finer and more permanent effects were obtained, the artist worked upon the fresh plaster of the wall (which is laid for him as he proceeds), pouncing or tracing his designs with a stylus; only colours which are natural earths can be employed, as they require to be mixed with lime ere being applied, and are subject to the destroying effect of that substance; as a method of mural decoration it was known to the ancients, and some of the finest specimens are to be seen in the Italian cathedrals of the 14th and 15th centuries; the art is still in vogue, but can only be practised successfully in a dry climate.
FRESNEL, AUGUSTIN JEAN, French physicist, born at Broglie, Eure; as an engineer he rose to be head of the Department of Public Works at Paris; in 1825 he was elected an F.R.S. of London; he made discoveries in optical science which helped to confirm the undulatory theory of light, also invented a compound lighthouse lens (1783-1827).
FRESNO (11), a town in California, on the Southern Pacific Railway, 207 m. SE. of San Francisco; the surrounding district, extensively irrigated, produces abundance of fruit, and raisins and wine are largely exported.
FREUND, WILHELM, German philologist, born at Kempen, in Posen; studied education at Berlin and Breslau, and was chiefly occupied in teaching till 1870, when he retired in order to devote himself to his literary pursuits; besides classical school-books and some works on philology, he compiled an elaborate Latin dictionary in 4 vols., which has been the basis of the standard English-Latin dictionaries since; b. 1806.
FREYR, figures in the Scandinavian mythology as the god who rules the rain and sunshine, and whose gifts were peace, wealth, and abundant harvests; the wooing of Gerda, daughter of the giant Gymer, by Freyr is one of the most beautiful stories in the northern mythology; his festival was celebrated at Christmas, and his first temple was built at Upsala by the Swedes, who especially honoured him.
FREYTAG, GUSTAV, an eminent German novelist and dramatist, born at Kreuzburg, Silesia; from 1839 was teacher of German language and literature at Breslau, and became editor of a journal, a position he held till 1870; was a member of the North German Diet, and accompanied the Crown Prince during the war of 1870-71; from 1879 resided at Wiesbaden; his many novels and plays and poems, which reveal a powerful and realistic genius, place him in the front rank of modern German littérateurs; several of his novels have been translated into English, amongst which his masterpiece, "Soll und Haben" (Debit and Credit) (1816-1895).
FRIAR (i. e. brother), a name applied generally to members of religious brotherhoods, but which in its strict significance indicated an order lower than that of priest, the latter being called "father," while they differed from monks in that they travelled about, whereas the monk remained secluded in his monastery; in the 13th century arose the Grey Friars or Franciscans, the Black Friars or Dominicans, the White Friars or Carmelites, Augustinians or Austin Friars, and later the Crutched Friars or Trinitarians.
FRIAR JOHN, a friar of Seville, in Rabelais' "Pantagruel," notorious for his irreverence in the discharge of his religious duties and for his lewd, lusty ways.
FRIAR TUCK, Robin Hood's chaplain and steward, introduced by Scott into "Ivanhoe" as a kind of clerical Falstaff.
FRIDAY, the young savage, the attendant of Robinson Crusoe, so called as discovered on a Friday.
FRIDAY, the sixth day of the week, so called as consecrated to Freyia or Frigga, the wife of Odin; is proverbially a day of ill luck; held sacred among Catholics as the day of the crucifixion, and the Mohammedan Sunday in commemoration as the day on which, as they believe, Adam was created.
FRIEDLAND, VALENTIN, an eminent scholar and educationist, born in Upper Lusatia; friend of Luther and Melanchthon; his fame as a teacher attracted to Goldberg, in Silesia, where he taught, pupils from far and near; the secret of his success lay in his inculcating on his pupils respect for their own honour; had a great faith in the intelligence that evinced itself in clear expression (1490-1556).
FRIEND OF MAN, Marquis de Mirabeau, so called from the title of one of his works, "L'Ami des Hommes."
FRIENDLY ISLANDS, islands of the S. Pacific, some 180 in number, mostly of coral or volcanic origin, and of which 30 are inhabited; the natives rank high among the South Sea islanders for intelligence. See TONGA ISLANDS.
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, associations of individuals for the purpose of mutual benefit in sickness and distress, and of old and wide-spread institution and under various names and forms.
FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF, a community of Christians popularly known as Quakers, founded in 1648 by GEORGE FOX (q. v.), distinguished for their plainness of speech and manners, and differing from other sects chiefly in the exclusive deference they pay to the "inner light," and their rejection of both clergy and sacrament as media of grace; they refuse to take oath, are averse to war, and have always been opposed to slavery.
FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE, an association formed as far back as 1792 to secure by constitutional means parliamentary reform.
FRIES, ELIAS, Swedish cryptogamic botanist, professor at Upsala; wrote on fungi and lichens (1794-1878).
FRIES, JAKOB FRIEDRICH, a German Kantian philosopher; was professor at Jena; aimed at reconciling the Kantian philosophy with Faith, or the intuitions of the Pure Reason (1773-1843).
FRIESLAND, the most northerly province of Holland, with a rich soil; divided into East and West Friesland; low-lying and pastoral; protected by dykes.
FRIGGA, a Scandinavian goddess, the wife of Odin; worshipped among the Saxons as a goddess mother; was the earth deified, or the Norse Demeter.
FRISIANS, a Low German people, who occupied originally the shores of the North Sea from the mouths of the Rhine and Ems; distinguished for their free institutions; tribes of them at one time invaded Britain, where traces of their presence may still be noted.
FRITH, WILLIAM POWELL, an English painter, born near Ripon, Yorkshire; his works are numerous, his subjects varied and interesting, and his most popular pictures have brought large sums; b. 1819.
FRITZ, FATHER, name given to Frederick the Great by his subjects "with a familiarity which did not breed contempt in his case."
FROBISHER, SIR MARTIN, famous English sailor and navigator, born near Doncaster; thrice over enthusiastically essayed the discovery of the North-West Passage under Elizabeth; accompanied Drake to the West Indies; was knighted for his services against the Armada; conducted several expeditions against Spain; was mortally wounded when leading an attack on Brest, and died on his passage home (1535-1594).
FROEBEL, FRIEDRICH, a devoted German educationist on the principles of Pestalozzi, which combined physical, moral, and intellectual training, commencing with the years of childhood; was the founder of the famous Kindergarten system (1782-1852).
FROGMORE, a royal palace and mausoleum in Windsor Park, the burial-place of Prince Albert.
FROISSART, JEAN, a French chronicler and poet, born at Valenciennes; visited England in the reign of Edward III., at whose Court, and particularly with the Queen, he became a great favourite for his tales of chivalry, and whence he was sent to Scotland to collect more materials for his chronicles, where he became the guest of the king and the Earl of Douglas; after this he wandered from place to place, ranging as far as Venice and Rome, to add to his store; he died in Flanders, and his chronicles, which extend from 1322 to 1400, are written without order, but with grace and naïveté (1337-1410).
FROMENTIN, EUGÈNE, an eminent French painter and author, born at Rochelle; was the author of two travel-sketches, and a brilliant novel "Dominique" (1820-1876).
FRONDE, a name given to a revolt in France opposed to the Court of Anne of Austria and Mazarin during the minority of Louis XIV. The war which arose, and which was due to the despotism of Mazarin, passed through two phases: it was first a war on the part of the people and the parlement, called the Old Fronde, which lasted from 1648 till 1649, and then a war on the part of the nobles, called the New Fronde, which lasted till 1652, when the revolt was crushed by Turenne to the triumph of the royal power. The name is derived from the mimic fights with slings in which the boys of Paris indulged themselves, and which even went so far as to beat back at times the civic guard sent to suppress them.
FROUDE, HURRELL, elder brother of the succeeding, a leader in the Tractarian movement; author of Tracts IX. and LXIII. (1803-1836).
FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, an English historian and man of letters, born at Totnes, Devon; trained originally for the Church, he gave himself to literature, his chief work being the "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada," in 12 vols., of which the first appeared in 1854 and the last in 1870, but it is with Carlyle and his "Life of Carlyle" that his name has of late been most intimately associated, and in connection with which he will ere long honourably figure in the history of the literature of England, though he has other claims to regard as the author of the "Nemesis of Faith," "Short Studies on Great Subjects," a "Life of Cæsar," a "Life of Bunyan," "The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," and "English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century"; he ranks as one of the masters of English prose, and as a man of penetration, insight, and enlarged views, if somewhat careless about minor details (1818-1894).
FROUDE, WILLIAM, another brother, a civil engineer, assistant to Brunel; made important discoveries in hydro-dynamics of great practical avail (1810-1879).
FRY, MRS. ELIZABETH, philanthropist, born at Norwich, third daughter of John Gurney, the Quaker banker; married Joseph Fry of Plashet, Essex; devoted her life to prison reform and the reform of criminals, as well as other benevolent enterprises; she has been called "the female Howard" (1780-1845).
FUAD-MAHMED, PASHA, a Turkish statesman, diplomatist, and man of letters; studied medicine, but soon turned himself to politics; was much esteemed and honoured at foreign courts, at which he represented Turkey, for his skill, sagacity, and finesse; became Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1852; was hostile to the pretensions of Russia, and gave umbrage to the Czar; published a Turkish grammar, which is received with favour (1814-1869).
FUDGE FAMILY, THE, a satiric piece by Thomas Moore, published in 1818.
FUENTES, COUNT, a Spanish general and statesman, eminent both in war and diplomacy; commanded the Spanish infantry at the siege of Rocroi when he was eighty-two, borne on a litter in the midst of the fight, and perished by the sword, the Great Condé having attacked the besiegers (1560-1643).
FUERO-FUEGO, a Wisigoth Spanish law of the 7th century, a curious monument of the legislation of the Middle Ages.
FUGGER, the name of a family of Augsburg who rose from the loom by way of commerce to great wealth and eminence in Germany, particularly under the Emperors Maximilian and Charles V., the real founder of the wealth being Jacob, who died 1409.
FULHAM, a suburb of London, on the Middlesex bank of the Thames, opposite Putney, with the palace and burying-place of the bishops of London.
FULLAH, a people of the Upper Soudan whose territory extends between Senegal and Darfur, a race of superior physique and intelligence, and of a certain polish of manners, and with Caucasian type of feature.
FULLER, ANDREW, an eminent Baptist minister, born in Cambridgeshire, was settled at Kettering, and a zealous controversialist in defence of the gospel against hyper-Calvinism on the one hand and Socinianism on the other, but he is chiefly distinguished in connection with the foundation of the Baptist Missionary Society, to which he for most part devoted the energies of his life (1754-1815).
FULLER, MARGARET, an American authoress, born at Cambridgepont, Mass., a woman of speculative ability and high aims, a friend of Emerson, and much esteemed by Carlyle, though he thought her enthusiasm extravagant and beyond the range of accomplishment; she was one of the leaders of the transcendental movement in America; visited Europe, and Italy in particular; engaged there in the struggle for political independence; married the young Marquis of Ossoli; sailed for New York, and was drowned with her husband and child on the sand-bars of Long Island (1810-1850).
FULLER, THOMAS, historian, divine, and wit, born in Northamptonshire, son of the rector of Sarum; entering into holy orders, he held in succession several benefices in the Church of England, and was a prebend in Salisbury Cathedral; taking sides with the king, he lost favour under the Commonwealth; wrote a number of works, in which one finds combined gaiety and piety, good sense and whimsical fancy; composed among other works the "History of the Holy War," a "History of the Crusades," "The Holy and the Profane States," the "Church History of Great Britain," and the "Worthies of England," the last his principal work, and published posthumously; he was a man of great shrewdness, broad sympathies, and a kindly nature; was an author much admired by Charles Lamb (1608-1661).
FULTON, ROBERT, an American engineer, born in Pennsylvania; began life as a miniature portrait and landscape painter, in which he made some progress, but soon turned to engineering; he was one of the first to apply steam to the propulsion of vessels, and devoted much attention to the invention of submarine boats and torpedoes; he built a steamboat to navigate the Hudson River, with a very slow rate of progress however, making only five miles an hour (1615-1765).
FUM, a grotesque animal figure, six cubits high, one of four presumed to preside over the destinies of China.
FUNCHAL (19), the capital of Madeira, at the head of a bay on the S. coast, and the base of a mountain 4000 ft. high, extends a mile along the shore, and slopes up the sides of the mountain; famous as a health resort, more at one time than now.
FUNDY BAY, an arm of the sea between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; it is of difficult navigation owing to the strong and rapid rush of the tides.
FÜNEN (221), the second in size of the Danish islands, separated from Zealand on the E. by the Great Belt and from Jutland on the W. by the Little Belt; is flat except on S. and W., fertile, well cultivated, and yields crops of cereals.
FURIES. See ERINNYES.
FURNIVALL, FREDERICK JAMES, English barrister, born at Egham, in Surrey; devoted to the study of Early and Middle English Literature; founder and director of numerous societies for promoting the study of special works, such as the Early English Text, Chaucer, Ballad, and New Shakespeare Societies, and editor of publications in connection with them; was in his early days a great authority on boating and boat-building; b. 1825.
FÜRST, JULIUS, a distinguished German Orientalist, born in Posen, of Jewish descent; a specialist in Hebrew and Aramaic; author of a Hebrew and Chaldee Manual (1805-1873).
FÜRST, WALTER, of Uri, a Swiss patriot, who, along with William Tell, contributed to establish the liberty and independence of Switzerland; d. 1317.
FUSELI, HENRY, properly FUSOLI, a famous portrait-painter, born at Zurich; coming to England at the age of 22, he became acquainted with Sir Joshua Reynolds, who advised him to go to Rome; after eight years spent in study of the Italian masters, and Michael Angelo in particular, he returned to England and became an R.A.; he painted a series of pictures, afterwards exhibited as the "Milton Gallery" (1741-1825).
FUST JOHANN, a rich burgher of Mainz, associated with Gutenberg and Schöffer, to whom along with them the invention of printing has been ascribed; d. 1466.
FYNE, LOCH, an Argyllshire arm of the sea, extending N. from Bute to Inveraray, and from 1 m. to 5 m. broad; famed for its herrings.
FYZABAD (78), capital of Oudh, in India, at one time, 78 m. E. of Lucknow; much decayed.
G
GABELENTZ, HANS CONON VON DER, a distinguished German philologist, born at Altenburg: was master, it is said, of 80 languages, contributed treatises on several of them, his most important work being on the Melanesian (1807-1874).
GABELLE, an indirect tax, specially one on salt, the term applied to a State monopoly in France in that article, and the exaction in connection with which was a source of much discontent; the people were obliged to purchase it at government warehouses and at extravagant, often very unequal, rates; the impost dates from 1286; was abolished in 1789.
GABELSBERGER, FRANZ XAVIER, inventor of the shorthand in use in German countries as well as elsewhere (1789-1849).
GABERLUNZIE, a licensed beggar, or any of the mendicant class, so called from the wallet he carried.
GABINUS, a Roman tribune in 66 B.C., afterwards consul; party to the banishment of Cicero, 57 B.C.
GABOON and FRENCH CONGO (5,000), a French Colony in W. Africa fronting the Atlantic, between the Cameroon country and the Congo State, and stretching inland as far as the head-waters of the Congo River; in the NW. is the great Gaboon estuary, 40 m. long and 10 broad at its mouth, with Libreville on its N. bank; along the coast the climate is hot and unhealthy, but it improves inland; the natives belong to the Bantu stock; the French settled in it first in 1842, but only since the explorations of De Brazza in 1876-86 have they begun to extend and colonise it.
GABRIEL, an angel, one of the seven archangels, "the power of God," who is represented in the traditions of both the Jews and the Moslems as discharging the highest functions, and in Christian tradition as announcing to the Virgin Mary her election of God to be the mother of the Messiah; he ranks fully higher among Moslems than Jews.
GABRIEL, a French architect, born in Paris (1710-1782).
GABRIELLES D'ESTRÉES, the mistress of Henry IV. of France, who for State reasons was not allowed to marry her (1571-1599).
GAD, one of the Jewish tribes inhabiting the E. of the Jordan.
GADAMES or GHADAMES (7 to 10), an oasis and town in Africa, situated in the SW. corner of Tripoli, on the N. border of the Sahara; the fertility of the oasis is due to hot springs, from which the place takes its name; high walls protect the soil and the fruit of it, which is abundant, from sand-storms; it is an entrepôt for trade with the interior; the inhabitants are Berber Mohammedans.
GADDI, GADDO, a Florentine painter and worker in mosaic, friend of Cimabue and Giotto (1239-1312).
GADDI, TADDEO, son of the preceding, and pupil of Giotto both in architecture and fresco-painting (1300-1366).
GADDI, AGNOLO, son of the preceding, and a painter of frescoes (1350-1396).
GADES, the ancient name of CADIZ (q. v.).
GADSHILL, an eminence in Kent, 3 m. NW. of Rochester, associated with the name of Falstaff, also of Dickens, who resided here from 1856 to 1870, and where he died.
GAETA (17), a fortified seaport of S. Italy, finely situated on a steep promontory 50 m. NW. of Naples; it was a favourite watering-place of the ancient Roman nobility, and the beauty of its bay is celebrated by Virgil and Horace; it is rich in classic remains, and in its day has witnessed many sieges; the inhabitants are chiefly employed with fishing and a light coast trade.
GAGE, THOMAS, English general, son of Viscount Gage; he served in the Seven Years' War, and took part in 1755 in Braddock's disastrous expedition in America; in 1760 he became military governor of Montreal, and three years later commander-in-chief of the British forces in America; as governor of Massachusetts he precipitated the revolution by his ill-timed severity, and after the battle of Bunker's Hill was recalled to England (1721-1787).
GAIA or GE, in the Greek mythology the primeval goddess of the earth, the alma mater of living things, both in heaven and on earth, called subsequently Demeter, i. e. Gemeter, Earth-mother.
GAILLARD, French historian, born at Amiens; devoted his life to history (1726-1806).
GAINSBOROUGH, THOMAS, one of England's greatest artists in portrait and landscape painting, born at Sudbury, Suffolk; he early displayed a talent for drawing, and at 14 was sent to London to study art; when 19 he started as a portrait-painter at Ipswich, having by this time married Margaret Burr, a young lady with £200 a year; patronised by Sir Philip Thicknesse, he removed in 1760 to Bath, where he rose into high favour, and in 1774 he sought a wider field in London; he shared the honours of painting portraits with Reynolds and of landscape with Wilson; his portraits have more of grace, if less of genius, than Reynolds, while his landscapes inaugurated a freer and more genial manner of dealing with nature, while as a colourist Ruskin declares him the greatest since Rubens; among his most famous pictures are portraits of Mrs. Siddons, the Duchess of Devonshire, and the Hon. Mrs. Graham, "Shepherd Boy in the Shower," "The Seashore," &c. (1727-1788).
GAIUS, a Roman jurist of the 2nd century, whose "Institutes" served for the basis of Justinian's.
GALAHAD, SIR, son of Lancelot, one of the Knights of the Round Table; distinguished for the immaculate purity of his character and life; was successful in his search for the Holy Graal.
GALAOR, a hero of Spanish romance, brother of Amadis de Gaul, the model of a courtly paladin, and always ready with his sword to avenge the wrongs of the widow and the orphan.
GALAPÁGOS, a sparsely populated group of islands (13 in number), barren on the N., but well wooded on the S., situated on the equator, 600 m. W. of Ecuador, and which, although belonging to Ecuador, all bear English names, bestowed upon them, it would appear, by the buccaneers of the 17th century; Albemarle Island makes up more than half of their area; they are volcanic in formation, and some of their 2000 craters are not yet inactive; their fauna is of peculiar scientific interest as exhibiting many species unknown elsewhere; besides the islands proper there is a vast number of islets and rocks.
GALATA, a faubourg of Constantinople where the European merchants reside.
GALATEA, a nymph whom Polyphemus made love to, but who preferred Acis to him, whom therefore he made away with by crushing him under a rock, in consequence of which the nymph threw herself into the sea.
GALATIA, a high-lying Roman province in Asia Minor that had been invaded and taken possession of by a horde of Gauls in the 3rd century B.C., whence the name.
GALATIANS, EPISTLE TO THE, an epistle of St. Paul to the churches in Galatia, which was an especial favourite with Luther, as, with its doctrine of spiritual freedom in Christ, it might well be, for it corroborated the great revelation first made to him by a neighbour monk; "man is not saved by singing masses, but by the grace of God"; it is a didactic epistle, in assertion, on the one hand, of freedom from the law, and, on the other, of the power of the spirit.
GALATZ or GALACZ (59), the great river-port of Roumania, on the Danube, 8 m. above the Sulina mouth of the river and 166 m. NE. of Bucharest; the new town is well laid out, and contains some fine buildings; its harbour is one of the finest on the Danube; a great export trade is carried on in cereals, while textiles and metals are the chief imports.
GALAXY, the Milky Way, a band of light seen after sunset across the heavens, consisting of an innumerable multitude of stars, or suns rather, stretching away into the depths of space.
GALBA, a Roman emperor from June 68 to January 69, elected at the age of 70 by the Gallic legions to succeed Nero, but for his severity and avarice was slain by the Prætorian guard, who proclaimed Otho emperor in his stead.
GALE, THEOPHILUS, a Nonconformist divine; author of the "Court of the Gentiles," in which he attempts to prove that the theology and philosophy of the Gentiles was borrowed from the Scriptures (1628-1678).
GALE, THOMAS, dean of York; edited classics, wrote on early English history (1636-1702).
GALEN, or CLAUDIUS GALENUS, a famous Greek physician, born at Pergamus, in Illyria, where, after studying in various cities, he settled in 158; subsequently he went to Rome, and eventually became physician to the emperors M. Aurelius, L. Verus, and Severus; of his voluminous writings 83 treatises are still extant, and these treat on a varied array of subjects, philosophical as well as professional; for centuries after his death his works were accepted as authoritative in the matter of medicine (131-201).
GALE`RIUS, VALERIUS MAXIMUS, Roman emperor, born in Dacia, of lowly parentage; rose from a common soldier to be the son-in-law of the Emperor Diocletian, who in 292 raised him to the dignity of a Cæsar; in 305, on the death of Diocletian, he became head of the Eastern Empire, which he continued to be till his death in 311; his name is associated with a cruel persecution of the Christians under Diocletian.
GALGACUS, a Caledonian chief defeated by Agricola at the battle of the Grampians in 85, after a desperate resistance.
GALIA`NI, FERDINANDO, an Italian political economist, man of letters, and a wit; held with honour several important offices under the Neapolitan Government; was attaché to the embassy at Paris, and the associate of Grimm and Diderot (1728-1787).
GALICIA, 1, an old province (1,919) of Spain, formerly a kingdom in the NW. corner of it, fronting the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic; now divided into the four minor provinces, Coruña, Lugo, Orense, Pontevedra; the county is hilly, well watered, fertile, and favoured with a fine climate, but cultivated only very partially; some mining is carried on. 2, A crownland (6,607) in the NE. of Austria, between Russia and the Carpathians; the inhabitants are mainly Slavs, but there is a goodly number of Jews, Germans, Poles, &c.; the land is fertile, consists chiefly of extensive plains, well watered by the Dneister and other large rivers, and yields abundance of cereals, while one-fourth is covered with forest; timber is largely exported, and salt; many of the useful metals are found, and productive petroleum wells; it has an independent Diet, but an Austrian governor; Austria annexed it in 1772.
GALILÆANS, a fanatical sect, followers of one Judas of Galilee, who fiercely resented the taxation of the Romans, and whose violence contributed to induce the latter to vow the extermination of the whole race.
GALILEE, the northern division of Palestine, divided into Upper, hilly, Lower, level, about 60 m. long and 30 broad.
GALILEE, SEA OF, an expansion of the Jordan, 12½ m. long, and at the most 8 m. broad, enclosed by steep mountains, except on NW.
GALILEO, an illustrious Italian mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, born at Pisa, demonstrated the isochronism of the pendulum, invented the thermometer and the hydrostatic balance, propounded the law of falling bodies, constructed the first astronomical telescope, and by means of it satisfied himself of, and proved, the truth of the Copernican doctrine, that the sun and not the earth is the centre of the planetary system, and that the earth revolves round it like the other planets which reflect its light; his insistence on this truth provoked the hostility of the Church, and an ecclesiastical decree which pronounced the Copernican theory heresy; for the profession of it he was brought to the bar of the Inquisition, where he was compelled to forswear it by oath, concluding his recantation, it is said, with the exclamation, "still, it moves"; before his end he became blind, and died in Florence at 78, the year Newton was born (1564-1642).
GALITZIN, the name of a Russian family distinguished for their ability and success in both war and peace from the 16th century onwards.
GALL, FRANZ JOSEPH, the founder of phrenology, born at Tiefenbronn, on the borders of Baden and Würtemberg; in 1785 he established himself as a physician in Vienna, where for many years he carried on a series of elaborate investigations on the nature of the brain and its relation to the outer cranium, visiting with that view lunatic asylums, &c.; in 1796 he gave publicity to his views in a series of lectures in Vienna, which were, however, condemned as subversive of morality and religion; being joined by Spurzheim, who adopted his theories, he undertook a lecturing tour through a large part of Europe, and eventually settled at Paris, where he published his phrenological work "Fonctions du Cerveau"; it is a curious fact that on his death his skull was found to be twice the usual thickness, and that there was a tumour in the cerebellum (1758-1828).
GALL, ST., an Irish monk who, about 585, accompanied St. Columban to France in his missionary labours, banished from which he went to Switzerland, and founded a monastery on the Lake of Constance, which bore his name; d. about 646.
GALLAND, ANTOINE, French Orientalist, born in Picardy, professor of Arabic in the College of France; was the first to translate the "Arabian Nights" into any European tongue (1646-1715).
GALLAS, an Ethiopian race occupying the S. and E. of Abyssinia, energetic, intelligent, and warlike; follow mostly pastoral occupations; number over four millions, and are mostly heathens.
GALLE or POINT DE GALLE (33), fortified seaport town, prettily situated on a rocky promontory in the SW. of Ceylon; there is a good harbour, but the shipping, which at one time was extensive, has declined since the rise of Colombo.
GALLICAN CHURCH, the Catholic Church in France which, while sincerely devoted to the Catholic faith and the Holy See, resolutely refused to concede certain rights and privileges which belonged to it from the earliest times; it steadfastly contended that infallibility was vested not in the Pope alone, but in the entire episcopal body under him as its head; maintained the supreme authority of general councils and that of the holy canons in the government of the Church, and insisted that there was a distinction between the temporal and the spiritual power; contentions summed up in a declaration of the French clergy in 1682, the body of whom opposed to which are known by the name of "Ultramontanists."
GALLICANISM, the name given to the contention of the GALLICAN CHURCH (q. v.).
GALLIENUS, PUBLIUS LICINIUS, Roman Emperor from 260 to 268, and for seven years (253-260) associated in the government with his father, the Emperor Valerian; under his lax rule the empire was subjected to hostile inroads on all sides, while in the provinces a succession of usurpers, known as the Thirty Tyrants, sprang up, disowning allegiance, and aspiring to the title of Cæsar; in his later years he roused himself to vigorous resistance, but in 268 was murdered by his own soldiers whilst pressing the rebel Aureolus at the siege of Milan.
GALLIGANTUA, the wizard giant slain by Jack the Giant-killer.
GALLIO, the Roman proconsul of Achaia in the days of St. Paul, before whom the Jews of Corinth brought an appeal against the latter, but which he treated with careless indifference as no affair of his, in consequence of which his name has become the synonym of an easy-going ruler or prince.
GALLIPOLI, 1, a fortified seaport town (8) in Southern Italy, 59 m. S. of Brindisi; stands on a rocky islet in the Gulf of Taranto, close to the mainland, with which it is connected by a bridge of 12 arches; a fine cathedral and huge tanks hewn out of the solid rock for the storage of olive-oil are objects of interest. 2, A seaport (15) of Turkey in Europe, stands on a peninsula of the same name at the western end of the Sea of Marmora, at the mouth of the Dardanelles, 90 m. S. of Adrianople; it was the first city captured by the Turks in Europe (1356), and is now the naval arsenal of Turkey and head-quarters of the Turkish navy.
GALLOWAY, a district in the SW. of Scotland, co-extensive with Wigtown and Kirkcudbright, though formerly of considerably greater extent; the lack of mineral wealth has retarded its development, and the industry of the population is limited chiefly to agriculture, the rearing of sheep and cattle, and fishing, and it is still noted for a small but hardy breed of horses called Galloways; the province derives its name from Gall-Gael, or foreign Gaels, as the early inhabitants were called, who up to the time of the Reformation maintained the characteristics, language, &c., of a distinct people; in 1455 Galloway ceased to exist as a separate lordship; in the extreme S. of Wigtown is the bold and rocky promontory, the MULL OF GALLOWAY, the extremity of the peninsula called the Rhinns of Galloway; the Mull, which is the most southerly point in Scotland, rises to a height of 210 ft., and is crowned by a powerful lighthouse.
GALSWINTHE, the sister of Brunhilda and the second wife of Chilpéric I.; was strangled to death in 568.
GALT, JOHN, Scotch novelist, born at Irvine; educated at Greenock, where he held a post in the Custom-house for a time; essayed literature, wrote "The Ayrshire Legatees," "The Annals of the Parish," "Sir Andrew Wylie," "The Entail," and "The Provost"; died of paralysis at Greenock; Carlyle, who met him in London in 1832, says, "He had the air of a broad, gaucie, Greenock burgher; mouth indicating sly humour and self-satisfaction; eyes, old and without lashes, gave me a wae interest for him; says little, but that little peaceable, clear, and gutmüthig" (1779-1839).
GALVANISED IRON, plate-iron coated with zinc, which renders it less liable to be affected by moisture and subject to corrosion.
GALVANISM, the mere contact with two dissimilar metals, the science of what is now called Voltaic or current electricity, produced, as in the above instance, from the contact of dissimilar metals, especially that of acids on metals.
GALVANI, LUIGI, an Italian physician, born at Bologna; celebrated for his discoveries in animal magnetism called after him Galvanism, due to an observation he made of the convulsive motion produced in the leg of a recently-killed frog (1737-1798).
GALVESTON (38), the chief seaport of Texas, situated on a low island of the same name at the entrance of Galveston Bay into the Gulf of Mexico; it has a splendid harbour, and is an important centre of the cotton trade, ranking as the third cotton port of the world; the city is well laid out, and is the see of a Roman Catholic bishop; it has a medical college and several foundries.
GALWAY (215), a maritime county in the W. of Ireland, in the province of Connaught; Lough Corrib (25 m. long) and Lough Mask (12 m. long), stretching N. and S., divide the county into East and West districts; the former is boggy, yet arable; the latter, including the picturesque district known as CONNEMARA, is wild and hilly, and chiefly consists of bleak morass and bogland; its rocky and indented coast affords excellent harbourage in many places; the Suck, Shannon, and Corrib are the chief rivers; the Slieve Boughta Mountains in the S. and in the W. the Twelve Pins (2395 ft.) are the principal mountains; fishing, some agriculture, and cattle-rearing are the chief employments; it contains many interesting cromlechs and ruins.
GALWAY (14), the capital of Connaught and of the county of that name; is situated on the N. side of Galway Bay, at the mouth of the Corrib River, 50 m. NW. of Limerick; it is divided into the old and new town, and contains several interesting ecclesiastical buildings, e. g. the cruciform church of St. Nicholas (1320), and is the seat of a Queen's College; fishing is an important industry, while wool and black marble are exported.
GAMA, VASCO DA, a famous Portuguese navigator, the discoverer of the route to India round the Cape of Good Hope, born at Sines, in Portugal, of good family; he seems to have won the favour of King Emmanuel at an early age, and already an experienced mariner, was in 1497 despatched on his celebrated voyage, in which he rounded the Cape; on that occasion he made his way to Calicut, in India, where he had to contend with the enmity of the natives, stirred against him by jealous Arabian merchants; in 1499 he returned to Lisbon, was received with great honour, and had conferred on him an array of high-sounding titles; three years later he was appointed to the command of an expedition to Calicut to avenge the massacre of a small Portuguese settlement founded there a year previous by Cabrat; in connection with this expedition he founded the colonies of Mozambique and Sofala, and after inflicting a cruel punishment upon the natives of Calicut, he returned to Lisbon in 1503; the following 20 years of his life were spent in retirement at Evora, but in 1524 he was appointed viceroy of Portuguese India, a position he held only for a short time, but sufficiently long to re-establish Portuguese power in India; he died at Cochin; the incidents of his famous first voyage round the Cape are celebrated in Camoëns' memorable poem "The Lusiad" (1469-1525).
GAMALIEL, a Jewish rabbi, the instructor of St. Paul in the knowledge of the law, and distinguished for his tolerant spirit and forbearance in dealing with the Apostles in their seeming departure from the Jewish faith.
GAMBETTA, LÉON MICHEL, a French republican leader, born at Cahors, of Italian descent; intended for the Church, to which he evinced no proclivity; he early showed a penchant for politics and adopted the profession of law, in the prosecution of which he delivered a speech which marked him out as the coming man of the French republic, from the spirit of hostility it manifested against the Empire; at the fall of the Empire he stood high in public regard, assumed the direction of affairs, and made desperate attempts to repel the invading Germans; though he failed in this, he never ceased to feel the shame of the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, and strove hard to recover them, but all his efforts proved ineffectual, and he died in Dec. 31, to the grief of the nation (1838-1882).
GAMBIA, 1, a river of W. Africa, that flows through Senegambia and discharges itself into the Atlantic at Bathurst after a course of more than 1400 m. into a splendid estuary which, in some parts, has a breadth of 27 m. but contracts to 2 m. at the seaward end; light craft can ascend as far as Barraconda, 400 m. from the mouth. 2. A British settlement (15) lying along the banks of the Gambia as far as Georgetown, with a protectorate to Barraconda (pop. 50); it enjoys a separate government under a British administrator, and produces hides, cotton, rice, &c.
GAMBIER, JAMES, LORD, British admiral, born in the Bahamas; at 22 he was created a post-captain; in 1781 distinguished himself in an engagement against the French at Jersey; and again under Lord Howe in 1794 he rendered material service in repulsing the French off Ushant; in the following year he was made rear-admiral, and in 1799 vice-admiral; for his gallant conduct as commander of the English fleet at the bombardment of Copenhagen he was made a baron; a dispute with Lord Cochrane at the battle of Aix Roads against the French led to his being court-martialled, but he was honourably acquitted; on the accession of William IV. he was made admiral of the fleet (1756-1833).
GAMP, SARAH, a nurse in "Martin Chuzzlewit," famous for her bulky umbrella, and for confirming her opinions of things by a constant reference to the authority of an imaginary Mrs. Harris.
GANDO (5,000), a native State traversed by the Niger in Western Soudan, lying upon the NW. border of Sokoto, of which it is a dependency; like Sokoto it has been brought within the sphere of influence of the British Royal Niger Company; the inhabitants belong to the Fulah race, and profess the Mohammedan religion; Gando is also the name of the capital, an active centre of the cotton trade.
GANEGA, the Hindu god with an elephant's head and four arms; the inspirer of cunning devices and good counsel, afterwards the patron of letters and learned men.
GANELON, a count of Mayence, one of Charlemagne's paladins; trusted by him but faithless, and a traitor to his cause; is placed by Dante in the lowest hell.
GANGES, the great sacred river of India, which, though somewhat shorter than the Indus, drains a larger area and traverses a more fertile basin; it has its source in an ice-cave on the southern side of the Himalayas, 8 m. above Gangotri, at an elevation of 13,800 ft. above the sea-level; at this its first stage it is known as the Bhagirathi, and not until 133 m. from its source does it assume the name of Ganges, having already received two tributaries; issuing from the Himalayas at Sukhi, it flows in a more or less southerly course to Allahabad, where it receives the Jumna, and thence makes its way by the plains of Behar and past Benares to Goalanda, where it is joined by the Brahmaputra; the united stream, lessened by innumerable offshoots, pursues a SE. course till joined by the Meghna, and under that name enters the Bay of Bengal; its most noted offshoot is the HOOGHLY (q. v.), which pursues a course to the S. of the Meghna; between these lies the Great Delta, which begins to take shape 220 m. inland from the Bay of Bengal; the Ganges is 1557 m. in length, and offers for the greater part an excellent waterway; it is held in great reverence as a sacred stream whose waters have power to cleanse from all sin, while burial on its banks is believed to ensure eternal happiness.
GANGES CANAL, constructed mainly for the purpose of irrigating the arid land stretching between the Ganges and the Jumna Rivers, originally extended from Hardwár to Cawnpore and Etawah, but has since been greatly enlarged, and at present (including branches) has a total extent of 3700 m., of which 500 m. are navigable; it has contributed to mitigate suffering caused by famines by affording a means of distributing ready relief.
GANGRENE, the first stage of mortification in any part of a living body.
GANGWAY, a passage in the House of Commons, running across the house, which separates the independent members from the supporters of the Government and the Opposition.
GANYMEDES, a beautiful youth, whom Zeus, attracted by his beauty, carried off, disguised as an eagle, to heaven, conferred immortality on, and made cup-bearer of the gods instead of Hebe.
GAO, KARVEH or KARVAH, a Persian blacksmith, whose sons had been slain to feed the serpents of the reigning tyrant, raised his leather apron on a spear, and with that for a standard excited a revolt; the revolt proved successful, and the apron became the standard of the new dynasty, which it continued to be till supplanted by the crescent.
GARAY, JÁNOS, Hungarian poet, born at Szegszard; his life was spent chiefly in Pesth, where he held a post in the university library; he published a number of dramas which show traces of German influence, and was also the author of a book of lyrics as well as tales (1812-1853).
GARCIA, MANUEL, a noted singer and composer, born at Seville; in 1808 he went to Paris with a reputation already gained at Madrid and Cadiz; till 1824 he was of high repute in London and Paris as an operatic tenor; and in the following year visited the United States; when on the road between Mexico and Vera Cruz he was robbed of all his money; he spent his closing years in Paris as a teacher of singing, his voice being greatly impaired by age as well as fatigue; his eldest daughter was the celebrated Madame Malibran (1775-1832).
GARCIAS, DON PEDRO, a mythical don mentioned in the preface to "Gil Blas" as buried with a small bag of doubloons, and the epitaph, "Here lies interred the soul of licentiate Pedro Garcia."
GARCILASO, called the INCA, as descended from the royal family of Peru; lived at Cordova; wrote "History of Peru," as well as a "History of Florida" (1530-1568).
GARCILASO DE LA VEGA, a Spanish poet, born in Toledo, a soldier by profession; accompanied Charles V. on his expeditions; died fighting bravely in battle; his poems consist of sonnets, elegies, &c., and reveal an unexpected tenderness (1503-1536).
GARCIN DE TASSY, Indian Orientalist, born at Marseilles (1794-1878).
GARD (419), a dep. in the S. of France, between the Cévennes and the Rhône; slopes to the Rhône and the sea, with a marshy coast; produces wine and olives, and is noted for its silkculture and breed of horses.
GARDA, LAGO DI, the largest of the Italian lakes; stretches, amidst beautiful Alpine scenery, between Lombardy and Venetia. It is 35 m. long, and from 2 to 10 broad. Its water is remarkably clear, and has a depth of 967 ft. It is studded with many picturesque islands, and is traversed by steamers.
GARDE NATIONALE, of France, a body of armed citizens organised in Paris in 1789 for the defence of the citizen interest, and soon by extensions throughout the country became a force of great national importance; the colours they adopted were the famous tricolor of red, white, and blue, and their first commandant was Lafayette. In 1795 they helped to repress the Paris mob, and under Napoleon were retained in service. They played a prominent part in the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, supporting the revolutionists; but in 1852 their powers were curtailed, and in 1871 they were dissolved by the National Assembly.
GARDES SUISSES, a celebrated corps of the French army, formed in 1616 for defence of royalty, and numbering 2000. During the great Revolution they gallantly defended the Louvre, but were overawed and overpowered almost to annihilation by the infuriated Paris mob. "Their work to die, and they did it," at that moment. The corps was finally disbanded in 1830.
GARDINER, COLONEL JAMES, soldier, captain of dragoons, noted for his bravery and piety; served under Marlborough; fell at Prestonpans; his Life was written by Dr. Doddridge, and is much prized by religious people (1688-1745).
GAIRDNER, JAMES, historian, born in Edinburgh, Assistant-Keeper Record Office, London; edited a series of historical documents, and wrote among other historical works the "Life and Reign of Richard III."; b. 1828.
GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON, English historian, born at Ropley, Hants; his chief historical works include "History of England" in the reign of James I. and Charles I.; "History of the Civil War," in four vols., and the "History of the Protectorate," on which he is still engaged; a most impartial and accurate historian; b. 1829.
GARDINER, STEPHEN, bishop of Winchester, born at Bury St. Edmunds; was secretary to Wolsey; promoted the divorce of Queen Catharine, and made bishop; imprisoned in the Tower under Edward VI.; restored to his see, and made Chancellor under Mary (1483-1555).
GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM, President of the United States, born in Orange, Ohio; reared amid lowly surroundings; at the age of ten began to help his widowed mother by working as a farmservant; an invincible passion for learning prompted him to devote the long winters to study, till he was able as a student to enter Hiram College, and subsequently to William's College, Massachusetts, where, in 1856, he graduated; in the following year he became President of Hiram College, and devoting his attention to the study of law, in 1859 became a member of the State Senate; he took an active part on the side of the Federalists in the Civil War, and distinguished himself in several engagements, rising to be major-general; in his thirty-third year he entered Congress, and soon came to the front, acting latterly as leader of the Republican party; in 1880 he became a member of the Senate, and in the same year was elected to the Presidency; he signalised his tenure of the presidential office by endeavouring to purify and reform the civil service, but this attempt drew on him the odium of a section of his party, and on the 2nd July 1881 he was shot down by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed place-hunter; after a prolonged struggle with death he succumbed on the 19th of September (1831-1881).
GARGANTUA, a gigantic personage, in Rabelais, of preternally lusty appetite and guzzling and gourmandising power; lived several centuries, and begat Pantagruel.
GARIBALDI, Italian patriot, began life as a sailor, associated himself enthusiastically with Mazzini for the liberation of his country, but being convicted of conspiracy fled to South America, where, both as a privateer and a soldier, he gave his services to the young republics struggling there for life; returned to Europe, and took part in the defence of Rome against France, but being defeated fled to New York, to return to the Isle of Caprera, biding his time; joined the Piedmontese against Austria, and in 1860 set himself to assist in the overthrow of the kingdom of Naples and the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel, landing in Calabria and entering Naples, driving the royal forces before him without striking a blow, after which he returned to his retreat at Caprera, ready still to draw sword, and occasionally offering it again, in the cause of republicanism (1807-1882).
GARMENT OF GOD, LIVING, Living Nature, so called by Goethe, nature being viewed by him as the garment, or vesture, with which God invests Himself so as to reveal and impart Himself to man.
GARNET, a well-known precious stone of a vitreous lustre, and usually of a dark-red colour, resembling a ruby, but also found in various other shades, e. g. black, green, and yellow. The finest specimens are brought from Ceylon, Pegu, and Greenland. The species of garnet crystal known as Pyrope, when cut in the shape of a tallow drop, is called a carbuncle.
GARNET, HENRY, a noted Jesuit, son of a Nottingham schoolmaster, implicated in the Gunpowder Plot; bred in the Protestant faith, he early turned Catholic and went abroad and joined the Jesuit order; in 1588 he returned to England as Superior of the English Jesuits, and engaged in various intrigues; on the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot he was arrested, found guilty of cognisance of the Plot, and executed (1555-1606).
GARNETT, RICHARD, philologist, born at Otley, Yorkshire, Keeper of the Printed Books in the British Museum, and one of the founders of the Philological Society, and contributor to its Proceedings (1789-1850).
GARNETT, RICHARD, an acute critic, born in Lichfield, son of preceding; long associated with the book department of the British Museum; an admirer of Shelley, and biographer of Carlyle and Emerson; b. 1835.
GARONNE, an important river of SW. France, which rises in the Val d'Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees; 26 m. from its source it enters France near Pont du Roi, and after it passes Toulouse flows in a north-westerly direction; joined by the Dordogne, 20 m. below Toulouse, it gradually widens into the Gironde estuary, which opens on the Bay of Biscay; it has a length of 346 m., and is freely navigable as far as Toulouse.
GARRICK, DAVID, a famous English actor and dramatist, born at Hereford; was educated at Lichfield, the home of his mother, and was for some months in his nineteenth year a pupil of Samuel Johnson; in 1737 he accompanied Johnson to London, with the intention of entering the legal profession, but soon abandoned the purpose, and started in the wine business with his brother; in 1741 he commenced his career as an actor, making his first appearance at Ipswich; in the autumn of the same year he returned to London, and as Richard III. achieved instant success; with the exception of a sojourn upon the Continent for two years, his life was spent mainly in the metropolis in the active pursuit of his profession; in 1747 he became patentee, along with James Lacy, of Drury Lane Theatre, which he continued to direct until his retirement from the stage in 1776; three years later he died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey; he was the author of many comedies and farces, which, however, are of no great merit, but his abiding fame rests upon his powers as an actor, his remarkable versatility enabling him to act with equal ease and success in farce, comedy, and tragedy; his admirable naturalness did much to redeem the stage from the stiff conventionalism under which it then laboured; his wife, Eva Maria Violette, a celebrated dancer of Viennese birth, whom he married in 1740, survived him till 1822, dying at the advanced age of 98 (1717-1779).
GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD, American journalist and abolitionist, born at Newburyport, Mass.; in his native town he rose to be editor of the Herald at 19, and five years later became joint-editor of the Genius of Universal Emancipation; his vigorous denunciation of slavery involved him in a charge of libel and brought about his imprisonment, from which he was liberated by a friend paying his fine; at Boston, in 1831, he founded his celebrated Liberator, a paper in which he unweariedly, and in the face of violent threats, advocated his anti-slavery opinions till 1865, when the cause was won; he visited England on several occasions in support of emancipation, and in 1868 his great labours in the cause were recognised by a gift of 30,000 dollars from his friends (1804-1879).
GARTER, THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE, a celebrated order of knighthood instituted in 1344 by King Edward III.; the original number of the knights was 26, of whom the sovereign was head; but this number has been increased by extending the honour to descendants of George I., II., and III., and also to distinguished foreigners; it is the highest order of knighthood, and is designated K.G.; the insignia of the order includes surcoat, mantle, star, &c., but the knights are chiefly distinguished by a garter of blue velvet worn on the left leg below the knee, and bearing the inscription in gold letters Honi soit qui mal y pense, "Evil be to him that evil thinks"; election to the order lies with the sovereign.
GARTH, SIR SAMUEL, a distinguished physician, born in co. Durham; had an extensive practice; author of a mock-heroic poem entitled "The Dispensary" (1661-1718).
GASCOIGNE, SIR WILLIAM, English judge, born at Gawthorpe, Yorkshire; during Richard II.'s reign he practised in the law courts, and in 1397 became king's serjeant; three years later he was raised to the Lord Chief-Justiceship; his single-eyed devotion to justice was strikingly exemplified in his refusal to pass sentence of death on Archbishop Scrope; the story of his committing Prince Henry to prison, immortalised by Shakespeare, is unauthenticated (1350-1419).
GASCONY, an ancient province of SW. France, lying between the Atlantic, the Pyrenees, and the Garonne; it included several of the present departments; the province was of Basque origin, but ultimately became united with Aquitaine, and was added to the territory of the French crown in 1453; the Gascons still retain their traditional characteristics; they are of dark complexion and small in stature, vivacious and boastful, but have a high reputation for integrity.
GASKELL, MRS., née STEVENSON, novelist and biographer, born at Cheyne Row, Chelsea; authoress of "Mary Barton," "Ruth," "Silvia's Lovers," &c., and the "Life of Charlotte Brontë," her friend (1810-1865).
GASSENDI, PIERRE, a French mathematician and philosopher, born in Provence; declared against scholastic methods out of deference to the empirical; controverted the metaphysics of Descartes; became the head of a school opposed to him; adopted the philosophy of Epicurus and contributed to the science of astronomy, and was the friend of Kepler, Galileo, and Hobbes; was a great admirer of Bayle, the head of his school, a school of Pyrrhonists, tending to materialism (1592-1655).
GASSNER, JOHANN JOSEPH, a noted "exorcist," born at Bludenz, in the Tyrol; while a Catholic priest at Klösterle he gained a wide celebrity by professing to "cast out devils" and to work cures on the sick by means simply of prayer; he was deposed as an impostor, but the bishop of Ratisbon, who believed in his honesty, bestowed upon him the cure of Bendorf (1727-1779).
GATAKER, THOMAS, an English divine, member of the Westminster Assembly; disapproved of the introduction of the Covenant, declared for Episcopacy, and opposed the trial of Charles I. (1574-1654).
GATE OF TEARS, the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, so called from the shipwrecks frequent in it.
GATES, HORATIO, an American general, born at Maldon, Essex, in England; served as an English officer in America till the peace of 1763, and then retired to Virginia; in the War of Independence he fought on the side of America, and, as commander of the northern army, defeated the English at Saratoga in 1777; so great was his popularity in consequence of this victory that ill-advised efforts were made to place him over Washington, but in 1780 he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the British at Camden, and was court-martialled; acquitted in 1782, he again retired to Virginia, and subsequently in 1800 removed to New York, having first emancipated and provided for his slaves (1728-1806).
GATESHEAD (86), an English town, situated on the Tyne, on N. border of Durham; it is united to Newcastle by three bridges spanning the river; it contains some handsome and interesting buildings, besides extensive iron-works, foundries, soap, glass, and chemical manufactories; it was here Defoe lived when he wrote "Robinson Crusoe."
GATH, Goliath's town, a city of the Philistines, on a cliff 12 m. NE. of Ashdod.
GATLING, RICHARD JORDAN, the inventor of the Gatling gun, born in Hertford County, N. Carolina, U.S.; he was bred to and graduated in medicine, but in 1849 settled in Indianapolis and engaged in land and railway speculation; his famous machine-gun, capable of firing 1200 shots a minute, was brought out in 1861; another invention of his is a steam-plough; b. 1818.
GATTY, MRS., writer of tales for young people, "Parables from Nature," and editor of Aunt Judy's Magazine; daughter of the chaplain of the Victory, Nelson's ship at Trafalgar, in whose arms Nelson breathed his last (1809-1873).
GAUCHOS, a name bestowed upon the natives of the pampas of S. America; they are of Indo-Spanish descent, and are chiefly engaged in pastoral pursuits, herding cattle, &c.; they are dexterous horsemen, and are courteous and hospitable; the wide-brimmed sombrero and loose poncho are characteristic articles of their dress.
GAUDEN, JOHN, bishop of Worcester; protested against the trial of Charles I., and after his execution published "EIKON BASILIKË" (q. v.), or the "Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and Sufferings," which he declared was written by him (1605-1669).
GAUL, the name the ancients gave to two distinct regions, the one CISALPINE GAUL, on the Roman side of the Alps, embracing the N. of Italy, as long inhabited by Gallic tribes; and the other TRANSALPINE GAUL, beyond the Alps from Rome, and extending from the Alps to the Pyrenees, from the ocean to the Rhine, inhabited by different races; subdued by Julius Cæsar 58-50 B.C., and divided by Augustus into four provinces.
GAUNT, JOHN OF, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III., born at Ghent, who in 1362 succeeded to the estates of his father-in-law, the Duke of Lancaster; having in 1372 married, as his second wife, the daughter of the king of Castile, he made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Castilian throne; in the later years of Edward III.'s reign he took an active part in public affairs, and by his opposition to the national party and overbearing conduct towards the Commons made himself obnoxious to the people; for selfish motives he for a time supported Wycliffe, but in 1381 the Peasant Revolt drove him into Scotland; in 1386 he made another ineffectual attempt to gain the crown of Castile; in his later years he was engaged in various embassies in France (1339-1399).
GAUR or LAKHNAUTI, the ancient capital of Bengal, now in ruins, but with Hindu remains of exceptional interest, is situated 4 m. S. of Malda, between the rivers Ganges and Mahananda; the city is believed to have been founded in the 11th century; it fell into decay after the Mogul conquest in 1575, but pestilence and the deflection of the Ganges into a new channel accelerated its fate.
GAUSS, KARL FRIEDRICH, a celebrated German mathematician and astronomer, born at Brunswick; was director of the observatory at Göttingen for 40 years; was equally great on theory of numbers and practice of calculation; he made important discoveries in magnetism, and was pronounced by Laplace the greatest mathematician in Europe (1775-1855).
GAUTAMA, the name of the family Buddha belonged to, a Rajput clan which at the time of his birth was settled on the banks on the Rohini, a small affluent of the Gogra, about 137 m. N. of Benares.
GAUTIER, THÉOPHILE, a distinguished French poet, novelist, and critic, born at Tarbes; began life as a painter, but turning to literature soon attracted the attention of Sainte-Beuve by some studies in the old French authors; by-and-by he came under the influence of Victor Hugo, and in 1830 started his career as a poet by the publication of "Albertus," five years after which appeared his famous novel "Mademoiselle de Maupin"; for many years he was engaged in the work of art criticism for the Paris newspapers, and those of his critiques dealing with the drama have been republished, and fill six vols.; both as poet and novelist his works have been numerous, and several delightful books of travel in Spain, Turkey, Algeria, &c., have come from his pen; as a literary artist Gautier has few equals to-day in France, but his work is marred by a lax and paradoxical philosophy of life, which has, by his more enthusiastic admirers, been elevated into a "cult" (1811-1872).
GAUTIER AND GARGUILLE, all the world and his wife.
GAVARNI, PAUL, the nom de plume of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier, caricaturist, born in Paris; began life as an engineer's draughtsman, but soon turned his attention to his proper vocation as a cartoonist; most of his best work appeared in Le Charivari, but some of his bitterest and most earnest pictures, the fruit of a visit to London, appeared in L'Illustration; he also illustrated Balzac's novels, and Sue's "Wandering Jew" (1801-1866).
GAVAZZI, ALESSANDRO, an Italian anti-papal agitator, born at Bologna; admitted into the order of Barnabite monks; he became professor of Rhetoric at Naples; one of the most energetic supporters of Pius IX. in his liberal policy, he afterwards withdrew his allegiance; joined the Revolution of 1848, and ultimately fled to England on the occupation of Rome by the French; as an anti-papal lecturer he showed considerable oratorical powers; delivered addresses in Italian in England and Scotland against the papacy, which were received with enthusiasm, although in Canada they led to riots; he was taken by some for an Italian Knox; "God help them," exclaimed Carlyle, who regarded him as a mere wind-bag (1809-1889).
GAVELKIND, descent of property to all the sons alike, the oldest to have the horse and arms and the youngest the homestead.
GAWAIN, SIR, one of the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur's nephew; celebrated for his courtesy and physical strength.
GAY, JOHN, an English poet, born at Barnstaple the same year as Pope, a friend of his, to whom he dedicated his "Rural Sports"; was the author of a series of "Fables" and the "Beggar's Opera," a piece which was received with great enthusiasm, and had a run of 63 nights, but which gave offence at Court, though it brought him the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, with whom he went to reside, and tinder whose roof he died; was buried in Westminster (1688-1732).
GAYA (80), chief town of a district of the same name in Bengal, on the Phalgu, 57 m. S. of Patna; it is a great centre of pilgrimage for Hindus, and has associations with Buddha; 100,000 pilgrims visit it annually.
GAY-LUSSAC, LOUIS JOSEPH, French chemist and physicist, born at St. Leonard, Haute-Vienne; at the Polytechnic School, Paris, his abilities attracted the attention of BERTHOLLET (q. v.), who appointed him his assistant in the government chemical works at Arcueil; here he assiduously employed himself in chemical and physical research, in connection with which he made two balloon ascents; in 1809 he became professor of Chemistry at the Paris Polytechnic School; in 1832 was elected to a similar chair at the Jardin des Plantes; seven years later was created a peer of France, while in 1829 he became chief assayer to the Mint; his name is associated with many notable discoveries in chemistry and physics, e. g. the law of volumes, isolation of cyanogen, &c. (1778-1850).
GAZA, a Philistine town, the gates of which Samson carried off by night; situated on a mound at the edge of the desert, 5 m. from the sea, a considerable place to this day.
GAZETTE THE, an official newspaper in which government and legal notices are published, issued on Tuesdays and Fridays; originally a Venetian newspaper, the first of the kind so called as issued for a farthing.
GEBIR or GEBER, the name under which several works on alchemy and chemistry were written by Jabir ihn Haijan, an Arabic alchemist of the 8th century; his birthplace is unknown, but he is said to have lived at Damascus and Kufa.
GED, WILLIAM, the inventor of stereotyping, born in Edinburgh, where he carried on business as a goldsmith; he endeavoured to push his new process of printing in London by joining in partnership with a capitalist, but, disappointed in his workmen and his partner, he returned despondent to Edinburgh; an edition of Sallust and two prayer-books (for Cambridge) were stereotyped by him (1699-1749).
GEDDES, ALEXANDER, biblical scholar, born at Arradowl, Banffshire; was trained for the Catholic Church, and after prosecuting his studies at Paris was appointed to the charge of a Catholic congregation at Auchinhalrig; ten years later he was deposed for heresy, and removing to London took to literary work; his most notable performance is his unfinished translation of the Scriptures, and the notes appended, in which he reveals a very pronounced rationalistic conception of holy writ; this work, which anticipated the views of such men as Eichhorn and Paulus, lost him his status as a priest, although to the end he professed a sincere belief in Christianity; he was the author of volumes of poems, &c. (1737-1802).
GEDDES, JENNY, an Edinburgh worthy who on 23rd July 1637 immortalised herself by throwing her stool at the head of Laud's bishop as he proceeded from the desk of St. Giles's in the city to read the Collect for the day, exclaiming as she did so, "Deil colic the wame o' thee, fause loon, would you say Mass at my lug," which was followed by great uproar, and a shout, "A Pape, a Pape; stane him"; "a daring feat, and a great," thinks Carlyle, "the first act of an audacity which ended with the beheading of the king."
GEEFS, GUILLAUME, Belgian sculptor, born at Antwerp; executed a colossal work at Brussels, "Victims of the Revolution," and numerous statues and busts as well as imaginative productions; had two brothers distinguished also as sculptors (1806-1860).
GEELONG (24), a prettily laid out city of Victoria, on Corio Bay, 45 m. SW. of Melbourne. The gold discoveries of 1851 gave a stimulus to the town, which is now a busy centre of the wool trade, and has tanneries and paper works, &c. The harbourage is excellent, and in summer the town is a favourite resort as a watering-place.
GEFLE (25), a seaport, and the third commercial town in Sweden; capital of the län of Gefleborg; is situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia, midway between Fahlun and Upsala; has an interesting old castle, a school of navigation, and, since a destructive fire in 1869, has been largely rebuilt.
GEHENNA, the valley of Hinnom, on the S. of Jerusalem, with TOPHET (q. v.) at its eastern end; became the symbol of hell from the fires kept burning in it night and day to consume the poisonous gases of the offal accumulated in it.
GEHENNA BAILIFFS, ministers of hell's justice, whose function is to see to and enforce the rights of hell.
GEIBEL, EMANUEL VON, a celebrated German poet, born at Lübeck; was professor of Æsthetics at Münich; the tender, sentimental passion that breathed in his poetry procured for him a wide-spread popularity, especially among women (1815-1884).
GEIGER, ABRAHAM, an eminent Hebrew scholar and Rabbi, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and editor of the Zeitschrift für jüdische Theologie; strove hard to break down the barrier of Jewish exclusiveness (1810-1874).
GEIJER, ERIK GUSTAV, great Swedish historian, born in Vermland; held a post in the Record Office, Stockholm; was a poet as well as a historian, his principal work being "History of the Swedish People" (1783-1847).
GEIKIE, SIR ARCHIBALD, geologist, born at Edinburgh; at the age of 20 he joined the Geological Survey of Scotland, and in 1867 became director; in 1870 he became Murchison professor of Geology at Edinburgh, and in 1881 was appointed chief director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain; in 1801 he was knighted, and from 1892 to 1893 was President of the British Association; he is the author of various works on geology, written with great lucidity, as well as essays much appreciated; b. 1835.
GEIKIE, JAMES, geologist, brother of the preceding, born at Edinburgh; in 1882, after serving 21 years in the Geological Survey of Scotland, he succeeded his brother in the chair of Geology at Edinburgh; his principal work as a scientist is "The Great Ice Age"; his literary sympathies appear in his admirable volume of translations of, "Songs and Lyrics of Heine"; b. 1839.
GEÏLER VON KAISERBERG, JOHANN, a famous German pulpit orator, born at Schaffhausen; Strasburg was the principal scene of his labours; his writings, though numerous, are rare, among them the "Narrenschiff, or Ship of Fools" (1453-1510).
GELASIUS I., ST., Pope from 492 to 496; a vigorous man and strong assertor of the supremacy of the chair of St. Peter; G. II., also Pope from 1118 to 1119.
GELL, SIR WILLIAM, archæologist, born at Hopton, Derbyshire; after graduating at Cambridge was elected to a Fellowship at Emmanuel College; his passion for classical antiquities led him latterly to settle in Italy, which bore fruit in various valuable works on the topography and antiquities of Troy, Pompeii, Rome, Attica, &c.; he had for some time previously been chamberlain to Queen Caroline, and appeared as a witness at her trial (1777-1836).
GELLERT or KILLHART, a famous dog which figures in Welsh tradition of the 13th century, and whose devotion and sad death are celebrated in a fine ballad written by the Hon. William Robert Spencer (1796-1834). The story is as follows: Prince Llewellyn on returning one day from the chase discovered the cradle of his child overturned and blood-stains on the floor. Immediately concluding that Gellert, whom he had left in charge of the child, had been the culprit, he plunged his sword into the breast of the dog and laid it dead. Too late he found his child safe hidden in the blankets, and by its side the dead body of an enormous wolf. Gellert's tomb is still pointed out in the village of Beddgelert on the S. of Snowdon. A story similar even to details is current in the traditionary lore of many other lands.
GELLERT, CHRISTIAN, a German poet, fabulist, and moralist, born in Saxony; professor of Philosophy at Leipzig; distinguished for the influence of his character and writings on the literature of the period in Germany, in the effect of it culminating in the literature of Schiller and Goethe; Frederick the Great, who had an interview with him, pronounced him the most rational of German professors (1715-1769).
GELLUS, AULUS, a Latin grammarian, born at Rome; author of "Noctes Atticæ," a miscellany professing to have been composed in a country house near Athens during winter nights, and ranging confusedly over topics of all kinds, interesting as abounding in extracts from ancient writings no longer extant.
GELON, tyrant of Syracuse from 484 to 478 B.C.; rose from the ranks, gained a victory in 480 B.C. on the day of the battle of Salamis over a large host of Carthaginians who had invaded Sicily; d. 478 B.C., leaving behind him an honoured memory.
GEMARA, the second part of the Talmud, being a body of notes, comments, &c. on the Mishna or text.
GEMINI, the Twins, two stars in the southern hemisphere named Castor and Pollux; also the name of a sign of the zodiac.
GENDARMES (i. e. men-at-arms), a military police in France organised since the Revolution, and charged with maintaining the public safety. The gendarmerie is considered a part of the regular army, and is divided into legions and companies; but the pay is better than that of an ordinary soldier. In the 14th and 15th centuries the name was applied to the heavy French cavalry, and later to the royal bodyguard of the Bourbons.
GENESIS, the first book in the Bible, so called in the Septuagint, as containing an account of the origin of the world, of the human family, and of the Jewish race; a book of the oldest date possessing any human interest.
GENEVA: 1. The smallest canton (106) of Switzerland, situated at the western extremity of the lake of the name; the surface is hilly, but not mountainous, and is watered by the Rhône and Arve; the soil is unfertile, but the patient industry of the inhabitants has made it fruitful; the cultivation of the vine, fruit-growing, and the manufacture of watches, &c., are the chief industries; 85 per cent, of the people speak French. 2. Capital (78) of the canton, occupies a splendid geographical position at the south-western end of the lake, at the exit of the Rhône; the town existed in Cæsar's time, and after being subject in turn to Rome and Burgundy, ere long won its independence in conjunction with Bern and Freiburg. In Calvin's time it became a centre of Protestantism, and its history, down to the time of its annexation by Napoleon in 1798, is mainly occupied with the struggles between the oligarchical and democratic factions. On the overthrow of Napoleon it joined the Swiss Confederation. Since 1847 the town has been largely rebuilt, and handsomely laid out. Among many fine buildings are the Transition Cathedral of St. Peter (1124), the Academy founded by Calvin and others. The Rhône flows through it, and compasses an island which forms part of the city. It has many literary and historical associations, and was the birthplace of Rousseau.
GENEVA, LAKE OF, or LAKE LEMAN, stretches in crescent shape between Switzerland and France, curving round the northern border of the French department of Haute-Savoie; length, 45 m.; greatest breadth, 9 m.; maximum depth, 1022 ft. On the French side precipitous rocks descend to the water's edge, and contrast with the wooded slopes of the north. The water is of a deep-blue colour; many streams flow into it, notably the Rhône, which flows out at Geneva.
GENEVIÈVE, the patron saint of Paris, born at Nanterre; by her prayer the city, then called LUTETIA (q. v.) was saved from the ravages of Attila (422-512) and his Huns.
GENGHIS KHAN (i. e. Very Mighty Ruler), a celebrated Mongol conqueror, born near Lake Baikal, the son of a Mongol chief; his career as a soldier began at the age of 13, an age at which he boldly assumed the reins of government in succession to his father; by his military skill and daring example he gradually raised his people to a position of supremacy in Asia, and established by means of them a kingdom which, at his death, stretched from the Volga to the Pacific, and from Siberia to the Persian Gulf; he regarded himself as commissioned by Heaven to conquer the world, a destiny which he almost fulfilled (1162-1227).
GENLIS, STEPHANIE FÉLICITÉ, COMTESSE DE, a celebrated French novelist, born at Champceri, near Autun, Burgundy; at the age of 16 she was married to the Comte de Genlis, who eventually fell a victim to the fury of the Revolution; in 1770 she was a lady-in-waiting to the Duchesse de Chartres, and 12 years later became governess to the children of the Duc d'Orléans, amongst whom was the future king of the French, Louis-Philippe; the Revolution drove her to Switzerland, but on the elevation of Napoleon she returned to Paris, and received from him a pension, which continued to be paid her even under the restored Bourbon dynasty: she was a voluminous writer of moral tales, comedies, &c., and her works amount to about 90 vols., among them the celebrated "Mémoirs" of her life and times; she was ill-natured, and in her "Memoirs" inaccurate, as well as prejudiced (1746-1830).
GEN`OA (138), a city and chief commercial seaport of Italy, built at the foot of the Apennines as they slope down to the gulf of the name. The encircling hills behind, which are strongly fortified, form a fine background to the picturesquely laid-out city. There is excellent harbourage for the extensive shipping, and an active export and import trade is carried on. In the city are iron-works, cotton and cloth mills, match factories, &c.; the streets are narrow and irregular, but many of the buildings, especially the ducal palaces and the cathedral, are of great historical and architectural interest; there is an excellent university, a public library, and an Academy of Fine Arts; Columbus was born here.
GENRE PAINTING, name given to paintings embracing figures as they appear in ordinary life and in ordinary situations.
GENS, the name among the Romans for what we understand by the word clan as consisting of families.
GENS BRACCATA, the Gauls, from wearing braccæ or breeches.
GENS TOGATA, the Roman, from wearing the TOGA (q. v.) as their distinguishing dress.
GEN`SERIC, king of the Vandals, son of Godigiselus, founder of the Vandal kingdom in Spain, and bastard brother of Gunderic, whom he succeeded in A.D. 429; from Spain he crossed to Africa, and in conjunction with the Moors added to his kingdom the land lying W. of Carthage, ultimately gaining possession of Carthage itself; he next set himself to organise a naval force, with which he systematically from year to year pillaged Spain, Italy, Greece, and the opposite lands of Asia Minor, sacking Rome in 455; until his death in 477 he continued master of the seas, despite strenuous efforts of the Roman emperors to crush his power.
GENTILLY, a southern suburb of Paris, once a village beyond the fortifications.
GENTLE SHEPHERD, a famous pastoral by Allan Ramsay, with some happy descriptive scenes and a pleasant delineation of manners, published in 1723.
GENTLE SHEPHERD, a nickname George Grenville bore from a retort of the elder Pitt one day in Parliament.
GENTLEMEN-AT-ARMS, next to the yeomen of the guard the oldest corps in the British army, is the bodyguard of the sovereign; was formed by Henry VIII. in 1509; now consists of a captain, lieutenant, standard-bearer, adjutant, and 40 members, whose duties are limited to attendance at State ceremonies.
GENTZ, FRIEDRICH VON, German politician and author, born at Breslau; while in the Prussian civil service he warmly sympathised with the French Revolution, but his zeal was greatly modified by perusal of Burke's "Reflections," a treatise he subsequently translated, and in 1802 entered the Austrian public service; in the capacity of a political writer he bitterly opposed Napoleon, but for other purposes his pen and support were at the service of the highest bidder; he was secretary at the Congress of Vienna, and held a similar post in many of the subsequent congresses (1764-1832).
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, a celebrated chronicler and ecclesiastic of the 12th century, born in Monmouth, where he was educated in a Benedictine monastery; in 1152 he was made bishop of St. Asaph; his Latin "Chronicon sive Historia Britonum" contains a circumstantial account of British history compiled from Gildas, Nennius, and other early chroniclers, interwoven with current legends and pieced together with additions from his own fertile imagination, the whole professing to be a translation of a chronicle found in Brittany; this remarkable history is the source of the stories of King Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin, and of Arthur and his knights as they have since taken shape in English literature; d. about 1154.
GEOFFREY SAINT-HILAIRE, ÉTIENNE, zoologist and biologist, born at Étampes; he was educated for the Church, but while studying theology at Paris his love for natural science was awakened, and the study of it henceforth became the ruling passion of his life; was made professor of Zoology in the Museum of Natural History in Paris; accompanied Napoleon to Egypt as a member of the scientific commission, and returned with rich collections, while his labours were rewarded by his election to the Academy of Sciences; a scientific mission to Portugal in 1808 next engaged him, and a year later he was nominated to the chair of Zoology in the Faculty of Sciences at Paris; the main object of his scientific writing was to establish, in opposition to the theories of his friend Cuvier, his conception of a grand unity of plan pervading the whole organic kingdom (1772-1844).
GEOFFRIN, MARIE THÉRÈSE, a French patroness of letters, born at Paris, the daughter of a valet-de-chambre; in her fifteenth year she married a wealthy merchant, whose immense fortune she inherited; her love of letters--which she cherished, though but poorly educated herself--and her liberality soon made her salon the most celebrated in Paris; the encyclopédists, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Marmontel, received from her a liberal encouragement in their great undertaking; Walpole, Hume, and Gibbon were among her friends; and Stanislas Poniatowsky, who became king of Poland, acknowledged her generosity to him by styling himself her son and welcoming her royally to his kingdom (1699-1777).
GEORGE I., king of Great Britain from 1714 to 1727, and first of the Hanoverian line; son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, and of Sophia, granddaughter of James I. of England; born in Hanover; in 1682 he married his cousin, the Princess Sophia Dorothea of Zell, and in 1698 became Elector of Hanover; he co-operated actively with Marlborough in opposing the schemes of Louis XIV., and commanded the Imperial forces; in accordance with the Act of Settlement, he succeeded to the English throne on the death of Queen Anne; his ignorance of English prevented him taking part in Cabinet councils, a circumstance which had important results in the growth of constitutional government, and the management of public affairs during his reign devolved chiefly upon Sir Robert Walpole; the abortive Jacobite rising of 1715, the South Sea Bubble (1720), and the institution of Septennial Parliaments (1716), are among the main events of his reign; in 1694 he divorced his wife on account of an amour with Count Königsmark, and kept her imprisoned abroad till her death in 1724, while he himself during these years lived in open profligacy with his mistresses (1660-1727).
GEORGE II., king of Great Britain from 1727 to 1760, and Elector of Hanover, born in Hanover, son of preceding; in 1705 he married Caroline of Anspach, and in 1714 was declared Prince of Wales; he joined his father in the struggle with Louis XIV., and distinguished himself on the side of the Allies at the battle of Oudenarde; the period of his reign is one of considerable importance in English history; Walpole and subsequently Pitt were the great ministers of the age; war was waged against Spain and France; the last Jacobite rising was crushed at Culloden (1746); English power was established in Canada by the brilliant victory of Wolfe at Quebec (1759); an empire was won in India by Clive; the victory of Minden (1759) was gained in the Seven Years' War; Methodism sprang up under Wesley and Whitfield; while a great development in literature and art took place; against these, however, must be set the doubling of the National Debt, mainly due to the Seven Years' War, and a defeat by the French at Fontenoy (1745) (1683-1760).
GEORGE III., king of Great Britain from 1760 to 1820, and king of Hanover (Elector from 1760 to 1815), eldest son of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, and grandson of preceding, born in London; in 1761 he married Princess Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by whom he had fifteen children; more English in sentiment and education than his two predecessors, George's main interest was centred in his English kingdom, and never during his long life did he once set foot in his Hanoverian possessions; the purity of his domestic life, his devotion to England, and the pathos attaching to his frequent fits of insanity, won him the affections of his people, an affection, however, sorely tried by his obstinate blundering; the 60 years of his reign present a succession of domestic episodes, far-reaching in their consequences to England and to the civilised world; the conclusion of the Seven Years' War left England predominant in North America, and with increased colonial possessions in the West Indies, &c., but under the ill-guided and obstinate policy of Lord North she suffered the loss of her American colonies, an event which also involved her in war with France and Spain; in 1787 the famous trial of WARREN HASTINGS (q. v.) began, and two years later came the French Revolution; the great struggle with Napoleon followed, and gave occasion for the brilliant achievements of Nelson and Wellington; during these long years of war the commercial prosperity of England never slackened, but through the inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Compton increased by leaps and bounds; freedom of the press was won by Wilkes; and in 1802 the union with Ireland took place; the majestic figure of Pitt stands out amidst a company of brilliant politicians that included Burke and Fox and Sheridan; literature is represented by a line of brilliant writers that stretches from Johnson to Keats, and includes the names of Burns, Cowper, Shelley, and Byron (1738-1820).
GEORGE IV., king of Great Britain and of Hanover from 1820 to 1830, eldest son of the preceding, born in London; in consequence of his father's insanity he became Regent in 1810; a tendency to profligacy early displayed itself in an intrigue with Mrs. Robinson, an actress; and two years afterwards in defiance of the Royal Marriage Act he secretly married MRS. FITZHERBERT (q. v.), a Roman Catholic; in 1795 he publicly espoused Princess Caroline of Brunswick, whom later he endeavoured to divorce; a Burmese War (1823), the victory of Admiral Codrington at Navarino (1827), the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828), and the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill (1829), were occurrences of some importance in an uneventful reign (1762-1830).
GEORGE I., king of Greece, son of King Christian of Denmark, and brother of the Princess of Wales; became king of Greece in 1864; b. 1845.
GEORGE, HENRY, an American writer on social and economic questions, born in Philadelphia; he first tried life on the sea, but in 1858 settled in California as a printer, and there married; in course of time he took to journalism, became an editor, and zealously addressed himself to the discussion of public affairs; his peculiar views on the question of land reform were set forth in "Our Land and Land Policy," published in 1870, and nine years later appeared his more famous and widely popular work "Progress and Poverty," in which he promulgated the theory that to the increase in economic rent and land values is due the lack of increase in wages and interest which the increased productive power of modern times should have ensured; he proposed the levying of a tax on land so as to appropriate economic rent to public uses, and the abolition of all taxes falling upon industry and thrift; he lectured in Great Britain and Ireland, Australia, &c.; in 1887 founded the Standard paper in New York; he died during his candidature for the mayoralty of Greater New York (1839-1897).
GEORGE, ST., the patron saint of chivalry and of England; adopted as such in the reign of Edward III.; believed to have been born in Armorica, and to have suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in A.D. 303; he is represented as mounted on horseback and slaying a DRAGON (q. v.), conceived as an incarnation of the evil one.
GEORGETOWN: 1 (53), capital of British Guiana, at the mouth of the Demerara River; is the see of an Anglican bishop; is neatly laid out, and has some handsome buildings, but is considered unhealthy; the staple industries are sugar and coffee. 2 (14), a port of entry in the District of Columbia, on the Potomac, 2 m. NW. of Washington; is a terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
GEORGIA: 1 (1,837), one of the 13 original States of the American Union, lies to the S., fronting the Atlantic between Florida and S. Carolina; is divided into 136 counties, Atlanta being the capital and Savannah the chief port; it is well watered with rivers; is low and swampy for some miles inland, but it rises into plateaux in the interior, and the Appalachians and Blue Mountains intersect it in the NW.; excellent crops of wheat and fruit are grown among the hills, rice in the lowlands, while immense quantities of cotton are raised on the islands skirting the coast; the vast forests of pitch-pine supply an increasing lumber trade; the mountain lands are rich in minerals; the State was named after George II. in 1733 by the founder, James Oglethorpe. 2, The former name of an independent kingdom, which extended along the southern slopes of the Caucasus, and which, since the beginning of the century, has belonged to Russia under the name of Gruzia, and now forms the central portion of Russian Transcaucasia; the Georgians number at present about a million; they are a people of splendid physique, whose history reaches back to the time of Alexander the Great, and who attained their zenith in the 12th century; subsequently they suffered from Persian and Turkish invasion, and eventually, as we have said, fell into the hands of Russia; at present there is a Georgian literature growing, especially in Tiflis, if that is any sign of advance.
GERA (30), a thriving city on the White Elster, 35 m. SW. of Leipzig; has broad streets and fine buildings, with a castle; chief manufactures woollen.
GERAINT, SIR, one of the Knights of the Round Table, the husband of Enid, whose fidelity he for a time distrusted, but who proved herself a true wife by the care with which she nursed him when he was wounded.
GÉRARD, ÉTIENNE MAURICE, COMTE, marshal of France, born at Damvillers, Lorraine; in 1791 he entered the army and fought under Bernadotte in various campaigns; at Austerlitz he won his brigade, and subsequently fought at Jena, Erfurt, and Wagram; he joined Napoleon after his flight from Elba, and was wounded at Wavre; on the downfall of the Emperor he quitted France, but returned in 1817; in 1822 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1831 assisted in driving the Dutch out of Flanders; he was War Minister under Louis Philippe (1773-1855).
GÉRARD, FRANÇOIS PASCAL SIMON, BARON, painter, born at Rome, of French and Italian parentage; came to Paris when a youth, where he studied painting under David; in 1795 his "Blind Belisarius" brought him to the front, whilst subsequent work as a portrait-painter raised him above all his contemporaries; his masterpiece, "Entry of Henri IV. into Paris," brought him a barony at the hands of Louis XVIII.; his historical paintings, characterised by minute accuracy of detail, include "Napoleon in his Coronation Robes," "Battle of Austerlitz," &c. (1770-1837).
GERHARDT, KARL FRIEDRICH, chemist, born at Strasburg; after a training at Carlsruhe and Leipzig, worked in Liebig's laboratory at Giessen; in 1838 he began lecturing in Paris, and made experiments along with Cahours on essential oils, which bore fruit in an important treatise; in 1844 he received the chair of Chemistry at Montpellier, but returned to Paris four years later; there he matured and published his theories of types, homologous series, &c., which have greatly influenced the science of chemistry; in 1855 he became professor of Chemistry in Strasburg (1816-1856).
GERHARDT, PAUL, a celebrated German hymn-writer of the Lutheran Church, born at Gräfenhainichen, in Saxony; in 1657 he became dean of St. Nicholas in Berlin, an appointment he held till 1666, when he was deposed for his embittered opposition to the union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches; he was subsequently pastor at Lübben; his hymns, 123 in number, rank amongst the finest of their class (1607-1676).
GERIZZIM, a mountain of 2848 ft. in height in the S. of the valley of Shechem, opposite EBAL (q. v.), and from the slopes of which the blessings were responded to by half the tribes of Israel on their arrival in Canaan (Josh. viii. 30-35); the Samaritans erected a temple on this mountain, ruins of which still remain.
GERM THEORY, the doctrine that certain diseases are due to fermentation caused by the presence of germs in the system in the form of minute organisms called bacteria.
GERMAN CATHOLICS, a sect formed in 1844 by secession from the Catholic Church of Germany, under the leadership of Johann Ronge, on account of the mummery under papal patronage connected with the exhibition of the Holy Coat of Trèves and the superstitious influence ascribed to it.
GERMAN VOLTAIRE, name given sometimes to Wieland and sometimes, but less appropriately, to Goethe.
GERMANICUS, CÆSAR, Roman general, son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony; he served with distinction under his uncle Tiberius in Dalmatia and Pannonia; was awarded a triumph, and in A.D. 12 was elected consul; his success and popularity as leader of the army on the Rhine provoked the jealousy of Tiberius, who transferred him to the East, where he subsequently died; his son Caligula succeeded Tiberius on the imperial throne (15 B.C.-A.D. 19).
GERMANY (49,428), constituted an empire in 1871, occupies a commanding position in Central Europe, and stretches from Switzerland in the S. to the German Ocean and Baltic Sea on the N.; Austria lies to the SE., Russia to the NE., while France, Belgium, and the Netherlands flank the W.; is made up of 26 States of widely varying size and importance, comprising four kingdoms (of which Prussia is by far the largest and most influential), six grand-duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free towns (Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg), and one imperial province, Alsace-Lorraine; the main physical divisions are (1) the great lowland plain stretching from the centre to the Baltic and North Sea, well watered by the Ems, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Vistula, and their tributaries, in which, bating large sandy tracts, agriculture employs a large class, and cereals, tobacco, and beetroot are raised; (2) the mountainous district, in the interior of which the Fichtelgebirge is the central knot, in which vast forests abound, and rich deposits of coal, fire-clays, iron, and other metals are worked, giving rise to iron-works and potteries; (3) the basin of the Rhine, on the W., where the vine is largely cultivated, and extensive manufactures of silks, cottons, and hardware are carried on; fine porcelain comes from Saxony and vast quantities of beer from Bavaria; Westphalia is the centre of the steel and iron works; throughout Germany there are 26,000 m. of railway line (chiefly State railways), 57,000 m. of telegraph line, while excellent roads, canals, and navigable rivers facilitate communication; 65 per cent. of the people are Protestants; education is compulsory and more highly developed than in any other European country; the energies of the increasing population have in recent years found scope for their action in their growing colonial possessions; the military system imposes upon every German a term of seven years' service, three in active service, and the remainder in the reserve, and till his forty-sixth year he is liable to be called out on any great emergency; under the emperor the government is carried on by a Federal Council, the members of which are appointed by the governments of the various estates, and the Reichstag, elected by universal suffrage and ballot for three years.
GÉRÔME, LÉON, a celebrated French painter, born at Vésoul; he studied at Paris under Paul Delaroche, with whom he subsequently travelled in Italy; he travelled in the East and familiarised himself with Eastern scenes; in 1863 he was appointed professor of Painting in the Paris School of Fine Arts; among his most famous pictures, all characterised by vivid colouring and strong dramatic effect, are "The Age of Augustus and the Birth of Christ," "Roman Gladiators in the Amphitheatre," "Cleopatra and Cæsar," &c.; b. 1824.
GERRY, ELBRIDGE, American statesman, born in Marblehead, Mass.; in 1773, eight years after graduating at Harvard, he was elected to the Massachusetts Assembly, and in 1789 to the first National Congress; as envoy to France in 1797 he assisted in establishing diplomatic relations with that country, and after his recall in 1810 was chosen governor of his native State; during his tenancy of this office, by an unfair redistribution of the electoral districts in the State he gave undue advantage to his own political party, a proceeding which led to the coining of the word "gerrymandering"; subsequently he held office as Vice-President of the Republic (1744-1814).
GERSON, JOHN CHARLIER DE, an eminent ecclesiastical scholar, born at Gerson, in the diocese of Rheims; in 1395 he became chancellor of his old university at Paris, and earned in that office a high reputation for learning, becoming known as Doctor Christianissimus; he was a prominent member of the councils of Pisa and Constance, advocating, as a remedy for the Western Schism, the resignation of the rival Popes; in consequence of his denunciation of the Duke of Burgundy for the murder of the Duke of Orleans he was forced to become a refugee in Germany for some time, but finally retired into the monastery of Lyons; his various works reveal an intellect of keen intelligence, but somewhat tinged with a cloudy mysticism (1363-1429).
GERSTÄCKER, FRIEDRICH, German author and traveller, born in Hamburg; when 21 he emigrated to New York, and for six years led a wandering life in different parts of America, working the while now at one occupation now at another, a narrative of which he published on his return to Germany; in 1849 he undertook a journey round the world which occupied him three years; in 1860-61 he crossed S. America; in 1862 he was in Africa with Duke Ernst of Gotha, and in 1863 in Central America; his many writings, descriptive of these countries, exhibit a fresh and graphic style, and have had a wide popularity; he is the author also of several thrilling stories (1816-1872).
GERVASE OF TILBURY, a mediæval historical writer, born at Tilbury, in Essex; said to have been a nephew of King Henry II.; he held a lectureship in Canon Law at Bologna, and through the influence of Emperor Otto IV. was made marshal of the kingdom of Arles; he was the author of "Otia Imperiala," a historical and geographical work; d. about 1235.
GERVINUS, GEORG GOTTFRIED, German historian and Shakespearian critic, born at Darmstadt; he was elected to the chair of History at Göttingen in 1836, an appointment which was cancelled the following year by his signing the protest against the abolition of the Hanoverian constitution; in 1844 he was appointed honorary professor at Heidelberg, and subsequently contributed greatly to the establishment of constitutional liberty in Germany by means of his writings and by founding the Deutsche Zeitung there; in 1848 he became a member of the National Assembly, but shortly afterwards withdrew, disgusted with the course things were taking; he now engaged in literary studies, the fruit of which appeared in his celebrated volumes of Shakespearian criticism (1805-1871).
GERYON, a king of Erytheia (i. e. red island), on the western borders of the world, with three bodies and three heads, who had a herd of oxen guarded by a giant shepherd and his dog, the two-throated Orthros, which were carried off by Hercules at the behest of his fate.
GESENIUS, an eminent German Hebraist and Biblical scholar, born in Prussian Saxony, whose labours form an epoch in the study of the Hebrew Scriptures; was 30 years professor of the language in Halle; produced a Hebrew Grammar and Lexicon, and commentary on Isaiah on rationalistic lines (1785-1842).
GESNER, KONRAD VON, Swiss scholar and naturalist, born at Zurich; hampered by ill-health and poverty in his youth, he yet contrived by unremitting diligence to obtain an excellent education at Strasburg, Bourges, and Paris; in his twenty-first year he obtained an appointment in Zurich University, and in 1537 became professor of Greek at Lausanne; abandoning the idea he entertained of entering the Church, he determined to adopt the medical profession instead, graduated at Basel in 1540, and a year later went to Zurich to occupy the chair of Natural History and to practise as a doctor; his chief works are the "Bibliotheca Universalis" (a catalogue and summary of all Hebrew, Greek, and Latin works then known to exist), and the "Historia Animalium"; these monuments of learning have won him the cognomen of the German Pliny (1516-1565).
GESSLER, ALBRECHT, a governor of the forest cantons of Switzerland, who figures in Swiss legend as an oppressor who was shot as related in the tradition of Tell.
GESSNER, SALOMON, Swiss poet and artist, born at Zurich; served an apprenticeship to a bookseller in Berlin, and after a sojourn in Hamburg returned to Zurich, where the rest of his life was spent; he published several volumes of poetry, chiefly pastoral and of no great value; his "Death of Abel" is his most notable performance; his paintings are mainly landscapes of a conventional type, several of which he engraved, revealing better abilities as an engraver than as an artist (1730-1788).
GESTA ROMANORUM (the exploits of the Romans), a collection of short didactic stories, not however solely Roman, written in the Latin tongue, probably towards the close of the 13th century, the authorship of which is uncertain, though it is generally recognised as of English origin; the stories are characterised by naïve simplicity, and have served as materials for many notable literary productions; thus Shakespeare owes to this work the plot of Pericles and the incidents of the caskets and the pound of flesh in the "Merchant of Venice," Parnell his "Hermit," Byron his "Three Black Crows," and Longfellow his "King Robert of Sicily."
GETHSEMANE, somewhere on the E. of Kedron, half a mile from Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Olivet, the scene of the Agony of Christ.
GETTYSBURG (3), a town in Pennsylvania, built on a group of hills 50 m. SW. of Harrisburg; during the Civil War it was the scene of General Meade's famous victory over the Confederates under General Lee on July 3, 1863.
GEYSER, fountains which from time to time, under the expansion of steam, eject columns of steam and hot water, and which are met with in Iceland, North America, and New Zealand, of which the most remarkable is the Great Geyser, 70 m. N. of Reikiavik, in Iceland, which ejects a column of water to 60 ft. in height, accompanied with rumblings underground; these eruptions will continue some 15 minutes, and they recur every few hours.
GFRÖRER, AUGUST FRIEDRICH, a learned German historian, born in the Black Forest; educated for the Protestant ministry; in 1828, after residence at Geneva and Rome, started as a tutor of theology, and two years later became librarian at Stuttgart; published a number of historical works, including a "Life of Gustavus Adolphus," "Pope Gregory VII.," a "History of Primitive Christianity," "Church History to the Fourteenth Century"; in this last work he showed a strong leaning to Catholicism; was appointed to the chair of History in the university of Freiburg; was elected to the Frankfort parliament, and finally openly professed the Catholic faith (1803-1861).
GHÂTS, or GHAUTS, EASTERN AND WESTERN, two mountain ranges running parallel with the E. and W. coasts of S. India, the latter skirting the Malabar coast between 30 and 40 m. from the sea, rising to nearly 5000 ft., and exhibiting fine mountain and forest scenery, and the former skirting the E. of the Deccan, of which tableland it here forms the buttress, and has a much lower mean level; the two ranges converge into one a short distance from Cape Comorin.
GHAZALI, ABU MOHAMMED AL-, Arabian philosopher, born at Tûs, Persia; in 1091 he was appointed professor of Philosophy in Bagdad; four years later he went to Mecca, and subsequently taught at Damascus, Jerusalem, and Alexandria; finally, he returned to his native town and there founded a Sufic college; of his numerous philosophic and religious works the most famous is the "Destruction of the Philosophers," in which he combats the theories and conclusions of the current Arabian scholasticism (1058-1111).
GHAZIPUR (45), a city of India, on the Ganges, 44 m. NE. of Benares, capital of the district of that name (1,077), in the North-West Provinces; is the head-quarters of the Government Opium Department, and trades in rose-water, sugar, tobacco, &c.; contains the ruins of the Palace of Forty Pillars.
GHAZNI (10), a fortified city of Afghanistan, 7726 ft. above the sea, 85 m. SW. of Cabul; it is the chief strategical point on the military route between Kandahar and Cabul; in the 11th and 12th centuries it was the capital of the KINGDOM OF GHAZNEVIDS, which stretched from the plains of Delhi to the Black Sea, and which came to an end in 1186.
GHEEL (12), a town in Belgium, situated on a fertile spot in the midst of the sandy plain called the Campine, 26 m. SE. of Antwerp; it has been for centuries celebrated as an asylum for the insane, who (about 1300) are now boarded out among the peasants; these cottage asylums are under government control, and the board of the patients in most cases is guaranteed.
GHENT (150), a city of Belgium, capital of East Flanders, situated at the junction of the Scheldt and the Lys, 34 m. NW. of Brussels; rivers and canals divide it into 26 quarters, connected by 270 bridges; in the older part are many quaint and interesting buildings, notably the cathedral of St. Bavon (13th century); it is the first industrial city of Belgium, and is a great emporium of the cotton, woollen, and linen trades; the floriculture is famed, and the flower-shows have won it the name of the "City of Flowers."
GHETTO, an Italian word applied to the quarters set apart in Italian cities for the Jews, and to which in former times they were restricted; the term is now applied to the Jews' quarters in any city.
GHIBELLINES, a political party in Italy who, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, maintained the supremacy of the German emperors over the Italian States in opposition to the GUELPHS (q. v.).
GHIBERTI, LORENZO, an Italian sculptor and designer, born at Florence; his first notable work was a grand fresco in the palace of Malatesta at Rimini in 1400, but his most famous achievement, which immortalised his name, was the execution of two doorways, with bas-relief designs, in the baptistery at Florence; he spent 50 years at this work, and so noble were the designs and so perfect the execution that Michael Angelo declared them fit to be the gates of Paradise (about 1378-1455).
GHIKA, HELENA. See DORA D'ISTRIA.
GHILAN (200), a province of NW. Persia, between the SW. border of the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains; is low-lying, swampy, and unhealthy towards the Caspian, but the rising ground to the S. is more salubrious; wild animals are numerous in the vast forests; the soil, where cleared, is fertile and well cultivated; the Caspian fisheries are valuable; the people are of Iranian descent, and speak a Persian dialect.
GHIRLANDAJO (i. e. Garland-maker), nickname of Domenico Curradi, an Italian painter, born at Florence; acquired celebrity first as a designer in gold; he at 24 turned to painting, and devoted himself to fresco and mosaic work, in which he won wide-spread fame; amongst his many great frescoes it is enough to mention here "The Massacre of the Innocents," at Florence, and "Christ calling Peter and Andrew," at Rome; Michael Angelo was for a time his pupil (1449-1494).
GHUZNI. See GHAZNI.
GIANTS, in the Greek mythology often confounded with, but distinct from, the TITANS (q. v.), being a mere earthly brood of great stature and strength, who thought by their violence to dethrone Zeus, and were with the assistance of Hercules overpowered and buried under Etna and other volcanoes, doomed to continue their impotent grumbling there.
GIANT'S CAUSEWAY, a remarkable headland of columnar basaltic rock in North Ireland, projecting into the North Channel from the Antrim coast at Bengore Head, 7 m. NE. of Portrush; is an unequal surface 300 yds. long and 30 ft. wide, formed by the tops of the 40,000 closely packed, vertical columns which rise to a height of 400 ft. The legend goes that it was the beginning of a roadway laid down by a giant.
GIAOUR, the Turkish name for an unbeliever in the Mohammedan faith, and especially for a Christian in that regard.
GIBBON, EDWARD, eminent historian, born at Putney, near London, of good parentage; his early education was greatly hindered by a nervous complaint, which, however, disappeared by the time he was 14; a wide course of desultory reading had, in a measure, repaired the lack of regular schooling, and when at the age of 15 he was entered at Magdalen College, Oxford, he possessed, as he himself quaintly puts it, "a stock of erudition which might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance of which a schoolboy might have been ashamed"; 14 months later he became a convert to Roman Catholicism, and in consequence was obliged to quit Oxford; in the hope of reclaiming him to the Protestant faith he was placed in the charge of the deistical poet Mallet, and subsequently under a Calvinist minister at Lausanne; under the latter's kindly suasion he speedily discarded Catholicism, and during five years' residence established his learning on a solid foundation; time was also found for the one love episode of his life--an amour with Suzanne Curchod, an accomplished young lady, who subsequently became the wife of the French minister M. Neckar, and mother of Madame de Staël; shortly after his return to England in 1758 he published in French an Essay on the Study of Literature, and for some time served in the militia; in 1774, having four years previously inherited his father's estate, he entered Parliament, and from 1779 to 1782 was one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations; in 1776 appeared the first volume of his great history "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," the conception of which had come to him in 1764 in Rome whilst "musing amongst the ruins of the Capitol"; in 1787 his great work was finished at Lausanne, where he had resided since 1783; modern criticism, working with fresh sources of information, has failed to find any serious flaw in the fabric of this masterpiece in history, but the cynical attitude adopted towards the Christian religion has always been regarded as a defect; "a man of endless reading and research," was Carlyle's verdict after a final perusal of the "Decline," "but of a most disagreeable style, and a great want of the highest faculties of what we would call a classical historian, compared with Herodotus, for instance, and his perfect clearness and simplicity in every part"; he, nevertheless, characterised his work to Emerson once as "a splendid bridge from the old world to the new" (1737-1794).
GIBBONS, GRINLING, a celebrated wood-carver, born at Rotterdam, but brought up in England; through the influence of Evelyn he obtained a post in the Board of Works, and his marvellous skill as a wood-carver won him the patronage of Charles II., who employed him to furnish ornamental carving for the Chapel of Windsor; much of his best work was done for the nobility, and in many of their mansions his carving is yet extant in all its grace and finish, the ceiling of a room at Petworth being considered his masterpiece; he also did some notable work in bronze and marble (1648-1721).
GIBBONS, ORLANDO, an eminent English musician, composer of many exquisite anthems, madrigals, &c., born at Cambridge; in 1604 he obtained the post of organist in the Chapel Royal, London, and two years later received the degree of Mus. Bac. of Cambridge, while Oxford recognised his rare merits in 1622 by creating him a Mus. Doc.; in the following year he became organist of Westminster Abbey, and in 1625 was in official attendance at Canterbury on the occasion of Charles I.'s marriage, but he did not live to celebrate the ceremony, for which he wrote the music; he is considered the last and greatest of the old Church musicians of England (1583-1625).
GIBEON, a place on the northern slopes of a hill 6 or 7 m. S. of Bethel, and the spot over which Joshua bade the sun stand still; its inhabitants, for a trick they played on the invading Israelites, wore condemned to serve them as "hewers of wood and drawers of water."
GIBRALTAR, a promontory of rock, in the S. of Spain, about 2 m. square and over 1400 ft. in height, connected with the mainland by a spit of sand, forming a strong fortress, with a town (25) of the name at the foot of it on the W. side, and with the Strait of Gibraltar on the S., which at its narrowest is 15 m. broad; the rock above the town is a network of batteries, mounted with heavy cannon, and the town itself is a trade entrepôt for N. Africa; the rock has been held as a stronghold by the British since 1704.
GIBSON, JOHN, sculptor, born at Gyffin, near Conway, Wales, of humble parentage; after serving an apprenticeship to a cabinet-maker in Liverpool, he took to carving in wood and stone, and supported by Roscoe became a pupil of Canova and afterwards of Thorwaldsen in Rome; here he made his home and did his best work; mention may be made of "Theseus and the Robber," "Amazon thrown from her horse," statues of George Stephenson, Peel, and Queen Victoria; in 1836 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy (1790-1866).
GIBSON, THOMAS MILNER, politician, born at Trinidad; graduated at Cambridge; entered Parliament in the Conservative interest, but becoming a convert to Free-Trade principles, he went over to the Liberal ranks, and became an active and eloquent supporter of the Manchester policy; returned for Manchester in 1841 and 1846, was made a Privy Councillor and Vice-President of the Board of Trade; his earnest advocacy of peace at the Crimean crisis lost him his seat in Manchester, but Ashton-under-Lyne returned him the same year; under Palmerston he was for seven years (1859-66) President of the Board of Trade; his name is honourably associated with the repeal of the Advertisement, Newspaper Stamp, and Paper Duties; in 1868 he retired from public life (1806-1884).
GIDEON, one of the most eminent of the Judges of Israel, famous for his defeat of the Midianites at Gilboa, and the peace of 40 years' duration which it ensured to the people under his rule.
GIESEBRECHT, WILHELM VON, historian, born at Berlin; was professor of History at Königsberg and at Münich; his chief work is "Geschichte der Deutschen Kaiserzeit" (1814-1889).
GIESELER, JOHANN KARL LUDWIG, a learned Church historian, born near Minden; after quitting Halle University adopted teaching as a profession, but in 1813 served in the war against France; on the conclusion of the war he held educational appointments at Minden; was nominated in 1819 to the chair of Theology at Bonn, and in 1831 was appointed to a like professorship in Göttingen; his great work is a "History of the Church" in 6 vols. (1793-1854).
GIESSEN (21), the chief town of Hesse-Darmstadt, situated at the confluence of the Wieseck and the Lahn, 40 m. N. of Frankfort-on-the-Main; has a flourishing university, and various manufactories.
GIFFORD, ADAM, LORD, a Scottish judge, born in Edinburgh; had a large practice as a barrister, and realised a considerable fortune, which he bequeathed towards the endowment of four lectureships on Natural Theology in connection with each of the four universities in Scotland; was a man of a philosophical turn of mind, and a student of Spinoza; held office as a judge from 1870 to 1881 (1820-1887).
GIFFORD, WILLIAM, an English man of letters, born in Ashburton, Devonshire; left friendless and penniless at an early age by the death of his parents, he first served as a cabin-boy, and subsequently for four years worked as a cobbler's apprentice; through the generosity of a local doctor, and afterwards of Earl Grosvenor, he obtained a university training at Oxford, where in 1792 he graduated; a period of travel on the Continent was followed in 1794 by his celebrated satire the "Baviad," and in two years later by the "Mæviad"; his editorship of the Anti-Jacobin (1797-1798) procured him favour and office at the hands of the Tories; the work of translation, and the editing of Elizabethan poets, occupied him till 1809, when he became the first editor of the Quarterly Review; his writing is vigorous, and marked by strong partisanship, but his bitter attacks on the new literature inaugurated by Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and others reveal a prejudiced and narrow view of literature (1757-1826).
GIGMAN, Carlyle's name for a man who prides himself on, and pays all respect to, respectability; derived from a definition once given in a court of justice by a witness who, having described a person as respectable, was asked by the judge in the case what he meant by the word; "one that keeps a gig," was the answer.
GIL BLAS, a romance by Le Sage, from the name of the hero, a character described by Scott as honestly disposed, but being constitutionally timid, unable to resist temptation, though capable of brave actions, and intelligent, but apt to be deceived through vanity, with sufficient virtue to make us love him, but indifferent to our respect.
GILBERT, SIR HUMPHREY, navigator, born in Devonshire, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh; in 1583 established a settlement in Newfoundland.
GILBERT, SIR JOHN, English artist, President of the Royal Society of Water-Colour Painters; was for long an illustrator of books, among the number an edition of Shakespeare; he was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (1817-1897).
GILBERT, WILLIAM SCHWENCK, barrister, notable as a play-writer and as the author of the librettos of a series of well-known popular comic operas set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan; b. 1836.
GILBERT ISLANDS, or KINGSMILL GROUP (37), a group of islands in the Pacific, of coral formation, lying on the equator between 172° and 177° E. long; they are 16 in number, were discovered in 1788, and annexed by Britain in 1892.
GILBOA, MOUNT, a range of hills on the SE. of the Plain of Esdraëlon, in Palestine, attaining a height of 1698 ft.
GILCHRIST, ALEXANDER, biographer of WILLIAM BLAKE (q. v.), born at Newington Green, son of a Unitarian minister; although called to the bar, literary and art criticism became his main pursuit; settled at Guildford in 1853, where he wrote his Life of the artist Etty; became in 1856 a next-door neighbour of Carlyle at Chelsea, and had all but finished his Life of Blake when he died (1828-1861).--His wife, Anne Gilchrist, née Burrows, was during her life an active contributor to magazines; she completed her husband's Life of Blake, and in 1883 published a Life of Mary Lamb (1828-1885).
GILDAS, a monkish historian of Britain, who wrote in the 6th century a Latin work entitled "De Excidio Britanniæ," which afterwards appeared in two parts, a History and an Epistle.
GILEAD, a tableland extending along the E. of the Jordan, at a general level of 2000 ft. above the sea, the highest point near Ramoth-Gilead being 3597 ft.
GILES, ST., the patron saint of cripples, beggars, and lepers; was himself a cripple, due to his refusal to be cured of a wound that he might learn to mortify the flesh; was fed by the milk of a hind that visited him daily; had once at his monastery a long interview with St. Louis, without either of them speaking a word to the other.
GILFILLAN, GEORGE, a critic and essayist, born at Comrie, minister of a Dissenting congregation in Dundee from 1836 to his death; a writer with a perfervid style; author of "Gallery of Literary Portraits," "Bards of the Bible," etc., and editor of Nichol's "British Poets," which extended to 48 vols. (1817-1878).
GILLESPIE, GEORGE, a celebrated Scotch divine, born at Kirkcaldy; trained at St. Andrews, and ordained to a charge at Wemyss; in 1642 he was called to Edinburgh, and in the following year appointed one of a deputation of four to represent Scotland at the Westminster Assembly; his chief work is "Aaron's Rod Blossoming," a vigorous statement and vindication of his Presbyterianism; in 1648 he was Moderator of the General Assembly (1613-1648).
GILPIN, JOHN, a London citizen, on an adventure of whose life Cowper has written a humorous poem.
GILPIN, WILLIAM, OF BOLDRE, an English author, who by his series of "Picturesque Tours" exercised an influence on English literature similar to that of White's "Selborne," at the same time (1724-1804).
GILRAY, JAMES, English caricaturist, born in Chelsea; distinguished for his broad humour and keen satire; his works were numerous and highly popular; died insane (1757-1815).
GIOBERTI, VINCENZO, an Italian philosophical and political writer, born at Turin; in 1825 he was appointed to the chair of Theology in his native city, and in 1831 chaplain to the Court of Charles Albert of Sardinia; two years later was exiled on a charge of complicity in the plots of the Young Italy party, and till 1847 remained abroad, chiefly in Brussels, busy with his pen on literary, philosophical, and political subjects; in 1848 he was welcomed back to Italy, and shortly afterwards rose to be Prime Minister of a short-lived government; his later years were spent in diplomatic work at Paris; in philosophy he reveals Platonic tendencies, while his political ideal was a confederated Italy, with the Pope at the head and the king of Sardinia as military guardian (1801-1852).
GIORDANO, LUCA, Italian painter, born at Naples; studied under various celebrated masters at Naples, Rome, Lombardy, and other places, finally returning to Naples; in 1692 he received a commission from Charles II. of Spain to adorn the Escurial, and in the execution of this work remained at Madrid till 1700, when he again settled in his native city; he was famous in his day for marvellous rapidity of workmanship, but this fluency combined with a too slavish adherence to the methods of the great masters has somewhat robbed his work of individuality; his frescoes in the Escurial at Madrid and others in Florence and Rome are esteemed his finest work (1632-1705).
GIORGIONE (i. e. Great George), the sobriquet given to Giorgio Barbarella, one of the early masters of the Venetian school, born near Castelfranco, in the NE. of Italy; at Venice he studied under Giovanni Bellini, and had Titian as a fellow-pupil; his portraits are among the finest of the Italian school, and exhibit a freshness of colour and conception and a firmness of touch unsurpassed in his day; his works deal chiefly with scriptural and pastoral scenes, and include a "Holy Family" in the Louvre, "Virgin and Child" in Venice, and "Moses Rescued" (1447-1511).
GIOTTO, a great Italian painter, born at a village near Florence; was a shepherd's boy, and at 10 years of age, while tending his flock and drawing pictures of them, was discovered by Cimabue, who took him home and made a pupil of him; "never," says Ruskin, "checked the boy from the first day he found him, showed him all he knew, talked with him of many things he himself felt unable to paint; made him a workman and a gentleman, above all, a Christian, yet left him a shepherd.... His special character among the great painters of Italy was that he was a practical person; what others dreamt of he did; he could work in mosaic, could work in marble, and paint; could build ... built the Campanile of the Duomo, because he was then the best master of sculpture, painting, and architecture in Florence, and supposed in such business to be without a superior in the world.... Dante was his friend and Titian copied him.... His rules in art were: You shall see things as they are; and the least with the greatest, because God made them; and the greatest with the least, because God made you, and gave you eyes and a heart; he threw aside all glitter and conventionality, and the most significant thing in all his work is his choice of moments." Cimabue still painted the Holy Family in the old conventional style, "but Giotto came into the field, and saw with his simple eyes a lowlier worth; and he painted the Madonna, St. Joseph, and the Christ,--yes, by all means if you choose to call them so, but essentially--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby; and all Italy threw up its cap" (1276-1336). See Ruskin's "Mornings in Florence."
GIOTTO'S O, a perfectly round O, such as Giotto is said to have sent the Pope in evidence of his ability to do some decorative work for his Holiness.
GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS (i. e. Giraldus of Cambria), ecclesiastic and author, born in Pembrokeshire, of Norman descent; studied with distinction in Paris; was a zealous churchman; obtained ecclesiastical preferment in England; was twice elected bishop of St. David's, but both times set aside; travelled in Ireland as well as Wales, and left record of his impressions, which give an entertaining picture and a valuable account of the times, though disfigured by credulity and personal vanity (1147-1223).
GIRARD, STEPHEN, a philanthropist, born at Bordeaux; in early life followed the career of a seaman and rose to be captain of an American coast-trader; in 1769 set up as a trader in Philadelphia, and in course of time establishing a bank, accumulated an immense fortune; during his lifetime he exhibited a strange mixture of niggardliness, scepticism, public charitableness, and a philanthropy which moved him during a yellow-fever epidemic to labour as a nurse in the hospital; at his death he bequeathed $2,000,000 to found an orphanage for boys, attaching to the bequest the remarkable condition, that no clergyman should ever be on the board or ever be permitted to enter the building (1750-1831).
GIRARDIN, ÉMILE DE, journalist and politician, born in Switzerland, the natural son of General Alexandre de Girardin; took to stockbroking, but quitting it for journalism he soon established a reputation as a ready, vivacious writer, and in 1836 started La Presse, the first French penny paper; his rapid change of front in politics earned for him the nickname of "The Weathercock"; latterly he adhered to the Republican cause, and founded La France in its interest; he published many political brochures and a few plays, and was for some years editor of La Liberté (1806-1881).--His wife, DELPHINE GAY, enjoyed a wide celebrity both as a beauty and authoress; her poems, plays, and novels fill six vols. (1806-1881).
GIRARDIN, FRANÇOIS SAINT-MARC, a French professor and littérateur, born at Paris; in 1827 was professor in the College Louis-le-Grand, and in 1834 was nominated to the chair of Literature in the Sorbonne; as leader-writer in the Journal des Débats he vigorously opposed the Democrats, and sat in the Senate from 1834 to 1848; in 1869, as Saint-Beuve's successor, he took up the editorship of the Journal des Savants, and in 1871 became a member of the National Assembly; he published his collected essays and also his popular literary lectures (1801-1873).
GIRONDE (794), a maritime department in SW. France, facing the Bay of Biscay on the W. and lying N. and S. between Charente-Inférieure and Landes; the Garonne and the Dordogne flowing through it form the Gironde estuary, and with their tributaries sufficiently water the undulating land; agriculture and some manufactories flourish, but wine is the chief product.
GIRONDINS or GIRONDISTS, a party of moderate republican opinions in the French Revolution; "men," says Carlyle, "of fervid constitutional principles, of quick talent, irrefragable logic, clear respectability, who would have the reign of liberty establish itself, but only by respectable methods." The leaders of it were from the Gironde district, whence their name, were in succession members of the Legislative Body and of the Convention, on the right in the former, on the left in the latter, and numbered among them such names as Condorcet, Brissot, Roland, Carnot, and others; they opposed the court and the clerical party, and voted for the death of the king, but sought to rescue him by a proposal of appeal to the people; overpowered by the Jacobins in June 1793, with whom they came to open rupture, they sought in vain to provoke a rising in their favour; on October 24 they were arraigned before the Revolutionary tribunal, and on the 31st twenty-one of them were brought to the guillotine, singing the "Marseillaise" as they went and on the scaffold, while the rest, all to a few, perished later on either the same way or by their own hands.
GIRTIN, THOMAS, a landscape-painter, born in London; painted in water-colour views of scenes near Paris and London; was a friend of Turner (1773-1802).
GIRTON COLLEGE, a celebrated college for women, founded in 1869 at Hitchin, but since 1873 located at Girton, near Cambridge; the ordinary course extends to three years, and degree certificates of the standard of the Cambridge B.A. are granted; the staff consists of a "head" and five resident lecturers, all women, but there is a large accession of lecturers from Cambridge; the students number upwards of 100, the fee for board and education £35 per term.
GIZEH or GHIZEH (11), a town in Egypt, on the Nile, opposite Old Cairo, to which it is joined by a suspension bridge spanning the river; in the neighbourhood are the Great Pyramids.
GLACIER, a more or less snow-white mass of ice occupying an Alpine valley and moving slowly down its bed like a viscous substance, being fed by semi-melted snow at the top called nevé and forming streams at the bottom; it has been defined by Prof. J. D. FORBES (q. v.) as "a viscous body which is urged down slopes of a certain inclination by the mutual pressure of its parts"; in the Alps alone they number over 1000, have an utmost depth of 1500 ft., and an utmost length of 12 m.
GLADIATOR, one who fought in the arena at Rome with men or beasts for the amusement of the people, originally in connection with funeral games, under the belief, it is said, that the spirits of the dead were appeased at the sight of blood; exhibitions of the kind were common under the emperors, and held on high occasions; if the gladiator was wounded in the contest, the spectators decided whether he was to live or die by, in the former case, turning their thumbs downwards, and in the latter turning them upwards.
GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART, statesman, orator, and scholar, born at Liverpool, son of a Liverpool merchant, sometime of Leith, and of Ann, daughter of Andrew Robertson, Stornoway; educated at Eton and Oxford; entered Parliament in 1832 as member for Newark in the Tory interest; delivered his maiden speech on slavery emancipation on May 17, 1833; accepted office under Sir Robert Peel in 1834, and again in 1841 and 1846; and as member for Oxford, separating from the Tory party, took office under Lord Aberdeen, and in 1859, under Lord Palmerston, became Chancellor of the Exchequer; elected member for South Lancashire, 1865, he became leader of the Commons under Lord John Russell; elected for Greenwich, he became Premier for the first time in 1869, holding office till 1875; after a brilliant campaign in Midlothian he was returned for that county in 1880, and became Premier for the second time; became Premier a third time in 1886, and a fourth time in 1892. During his tenure of office he introduced and carried a great number of important measures, but failed from desertion in the Liberal ranks to carry his pet measure of Home Rule for Ireland, so he retired from office into private life in 1895; his last days he spent chiefly in literary work, the fruit of which, added to earlier works, gives evidence of the breadth of his sympathies and the extent of his scholarly attainments; but being seized by a fatal malady, his strong constitution gradually sank under it, and he died at Hawarden, May 19, 1898; he was buried in Westminster Abbey at the expense of the nation and amid expressions of sorrow on the part of the whole community; he was a man of high moral character, transcendent ability, and strong will, and from the day he took the lead the acknowledged chief of the Liberal party in the country (1809-1898).
GLAISHER, JAMES, meteorologist and founder of the Royal Meteorological Society, born in London; his first observations in meteorology were done as an officer of the Irish Ordnance Survey; in 1836, after service in the Cambridge Observatory, he went to Greenwich, and from 1840 to 1874 he superintended the meteorological department of the Royal Observatory; in connection with atmospheric investigations he made a series of 28 balloon ascents, rising on one occasion to a height of 7 m., the greatest elevation yet attained: b. 1809.
GLAMORGANSHIRE (687), a maritime county in S. Wales, fronting the Bristol Channel, between Monmouth and Carmarthen; amid the hilly country of the N. lie the rich coal-fields and iron-stone quarries which have made it by far the most populous and wealthiest county of Wales; the S. country--the garden of Wales--is a succession of fertile valleys and wooded slopes; dairy-farming is extensively engaged in, but agriculture is somewhat backward; the large towns are actively engaged in the coal-trade and in the smelting of iron, copper, lead, and tin; some interesting Roman remains exist in the county.
GLANVILL, JOSEPH, born at Plymouth, graduated at Oxford; was at first an Aristotelian and Puritan in his opinions, but after the Restoration entered the Church, and obtained preferment in various sees; his fame rests upon his eloquent appeal for freedom of thought in "The Vanity of Dogmatising" (1661) and upon his two works in defence of a belief in witches; he was one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society; he seems to have made Sir Thomas Browne his model, though he is not equal to him in the vigour of his thinking or the harmony of his style (1636-1680).
GLANVILL, RANULF DE, Chief-Justiciary of England in the reign of Henry II., born at Stratford, in Suffolk; is the author of the earliest treatise on the laws of England, a work in 14 books; was deposed by Richard I., and, joining the Crusaders, fell before Acre; d. 1190.
GLASGOW (815, including suburbs), the second city of the empire and the chief centre of industry in Scotland, is situated on the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, 45 m. W. from Edinburgh and 405 from London; it is conjectured that the origin of the name is found in Cleschu ("beloved green spot"), the name of a Celtic village which occupied the site previously, near which St. Mungo, or Kentigern, erected his church about A.D. 560; although a royal burgh in 1636, it was not till after the stimulus to trade occasioned by the Union (1707) that it began to display its now characteristic mercantile activity; since then it has gone forward by leaps and bounds, owing not a little of its success to its exceptionally favourable situation; besides the advantages of waterway derived from the Clyde, it is in the heart of a rich coal and iron district; spinning and weaving, shipbuilding, foundries, chemical and iron works, and all manner of industries, flourish; the city is spaciously and handsomely laid out; the cathedral (1197) is the chief building of historical and architectural interest; there is a university (1451) and a variety of other colleges, besides several public libraries and art schools; Glasgow returns seven members of Parliament.
GLASSE, MRS., authoress, real or fictitious, of a cookery book, once in wide-spread repute; credited with the sage prescription, "First catch your hare."
GLASSITES, a Christian sect founded in Scotland about 1730 by John Glas (1695-1773), a minister of the Church of Scotland, who in 1730 was deposed for denouncing all national establishments of religion as "inconsistent with the true nature of the Church of Christ," and maintaining that a Church and its office-bearers owed allegiance to none other than Christ; the sect, which developed peculiarities of doctrine and worship in conformity with those of the primitive Church, spread to England and America, where they became known as Sandemanians, after Robert Sandeman (1718-1771), son-in-law to Glas, and his zealous supporter.
GLASTONBURY (4), an ancient town in Somersetshire, 36 m. S. of Bristol, on the Brue; it is associated with many interesting legends and historical traditions that point to its existence in very early times; thus it was the Avalon of Arthurian legend, and the place where Joseph of Arimathea, when he brought the Holy Grail, is said to have founded the first Christian Church; ruins are still extant of the old abbey founded by Henry II., which itself succeeded the ancient abbey of St. Dunstan (946); there is trade in gloves, mats, rugs, &c.
GLEIN, LUDWIG, German lyric poet, known as Father Glein for the encouragement he gave to young German authors; composed war songs for the Prussian army (1719-1803).
GLENCOE, a wild and desolate glen in the N. of Argyllshire, running eastward from Ballachulish 10 m.; shut in by two lofty and rugged mountain ranges; the Coe flows through the valley and enhances its lonely grandeur. See following.
GLENCOE, MASSACRE OF, a treacherous slaughter of the Macdonalds of that glen on the morning of 13th February 1691, to the number of 38, in consequence of the belated submission of MacIan, the chief, to William and Mary after the Revolution; the perpetrators of the deed were a body of soldiers led by Captain Campbell, who came among the people as friends, and stayed as friends among them for 12 days.
GLENDOWER, OWEN, a Welsh chief and patriot, a descendant of the old Welsh princes who stirred up a rebellion against the English under Henry IV., which, with the help of the Percies of Northumberland and Charles VI. of France, he conducted with varied success for years, but eventual failure (1349-1415). See Shakespeare's "Henry IV."
GLENLIVET, a valley in Banffshire, through which the Livet Water runs, about 20 m. SW. of Huntly; famed for its whisky.
GLENROY, a narrow glen 14 m. long, in Inverness-shire, in the Lochaber district; Fort William lies 13 m. NE. of its SW. extremity; the Roy flows through the valley; the steep sides are remarkable for three regular and distinctly-formed shelves or terraces running parallel almost the entire distance of the glen, the heights on either side exactly corresponding; these are now regarded as the margins of a former loch which gradually sank as the barrier of glacial ice which dammed the waters up slowly melted.
GLOGAU (20), a town with a strong fortress in Silesia, on the Oder, 35 m. NW. of Liegnitz; is a place of manufacture; was brilliantly taken by Frederick the Great in the Silesian War on the 9th March 1741 by scalade, in one hour, at the very break of day.
GLOMMEN or STOR-ELV (i. e. Great River), the largest river in Norway; has its source in Lake Aursund, and, after a southward course of 350 m., broken by many falls, and for the most part unnavigable, discharges into the Skager Rack at Frederikstad.
GLORIANA, Queen Elizabeth, represented in her capacity as sovereign in Spenser's "Faërie Queen."
GLOUCESTER: 1 (39), the capital of Gloucestershire, on the Severn, 38 m. NE. of Bristol; a handsomely laid out town, the main lines of its ground-plan testifying to its Roman origin; conspicuous among several fine buildings is the cathedral, begun in 1088 (restored in 1853) and exhibiting features of Perpendicular and Norman architecture; the river, here tidal, is spanned by two stone bridges, and a flourishing commerce is favoured by fine docks and a canal; chemicals, soap, &c., are manufactured. 2 (25), a seaport of Massachusetts, U.S., 30 m. NE. of Boston; is a favourite summer resort, an important fishing-station, and has an excellent harbour; granite is hewn in large quantities in the neighbouring quarries.
GLOUCESTER, ROBERT OF, English chronicler; was a monk of Gloucester Abbey, and lived in the 13th century; his chronicle, which is in verse, traces the history of England from the siege of Troy to 1271, the year before the accession of Edward I.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE (600), a west midland county of England, which touches Warwick in the centre of the country, and extends SW. to the estuary of the Severn; it presents three natural and well-defined districts known as the Hill, formed by the Cotswold Hills in the E.; the Vale, through which the Severn runs, in the centre; the Forest of Dean (the largest in England) in the W.; coal is wrought in two large fields, but agricultural and dairy-farming are the main industries; antiquities abound; the principal rivers are the Wye, Severn, Lower and Upper Avon, and Thames; BRISTOL (q. v.) is the largest town.
GLÜCK, CHRISTOPH VON, a German musical composer and reformer of the opera; made his first appearance in Vienna; studied afterwards for some years under San-Martini of Milan, and brought out his first opera "Artaxerxes," followed by seven others in the Italian style; invited to London, he studied Händel, attained a loftier ideal, and returned to the Continent, where, especially at Vienna and Paris, he achieved his triumphs, becoming founder of a new era in operatic music; in Paris he had a rival in Piccini, and the public opinion was for a time divided, but the production by him of "Iphigénie en Aulide" established his superiority, and he carried off the palm (1714-1787).
GNOMES, a set of imaginary beings misshapen in form and of diminutive size, viewed as inhabiting the interior of the earth and presiding over its secret treasures.
GNOSTICS, heretics, consisting of various sects that arose in the Apostolic age of Christianity, and that sought, agreeably to the philosophic opinions which they had severally embraced, to extract an esoteric meaning out of the letter of Scripture and the facts especially of the Gospel history, such as only those of superior speculative insight could appreciate; they set a higher value on Knowledge (gnosis, whence their name) than Faith; thus their understanding of Christianity was speculative, not spiritual, and their knowledge of it the result of thinking, not of life; like the Jews they denied the possibility of the Word becoming flesh and of a realisation of the infinite in the finite; indeed, Gnosticism was at once a speculative and a practical denial that Christ was God manifest in the flesh, and that participation in Christianity was, as He presented it (John vi. 53), participation in His flesh. See CHRISTIANITY.
GOA (495), a Portuguese possession in W. India, lying between the Western Ghâts and the sea-coast, 250 m. SE. of Bombay; large quantities of rice are raised in it; is hilly on the E. and covered with forests; it was captured in 1510 by Albuquerque. Old Goa, the former capital, has fallen from a populous and wealthy city into utter decay, its place being taken by Nova Goa or Panjim (8), on the Mandavi, 3 m. from the coast.
GOBELINS, GILLES AND JEAN, brothers, celebrated dyers, who in the 15th century introduced into France the art of dyeing in scarlet, subsequently adding on tapestry-weaving to their establishment; their works in Paris were taken over by government in Louis XIV.'s reign, and the tapestry, of gorgeous design, then put forth became known as Gobelins; Le Brun, the famous artist, was for a time chief designer, and the tapestries turned out in his time have a world-wide celebrity; the works are still in operation, and a second establishment, supported by government, for the manufacture of Gobelins exists at Beauvais.
GODAV`ARI, an important river of India, rises on the E. side of W. Ghâts, traverses in a SE. direction the entire Deccan, and forming a large delta, falls into the Bay of Bengal by seven mouths after a course of 900 m.; its mighty volume of water supplies irrigating and navigable canals for the whole Deccan; it is one of the 12 sacred rivers of India, and once in 12 years a bathing festival is celebrated on its banks.
GODET, FREDERICK, Swiss theologian, born at Neuchâtel; became professor of Theology there; author of commentaries on St. John's and Luke's Gospels and on the Epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, along with other works; b. 1812.
GODFREY OF BOUILLON, a renowned Crusader, eldest son of Eustace II., Count of Boulogne; he served with distinction under the Emperor Henry II., being present at the storming of Rome in 1084; his main title to fame rests on the gallantry and devotion he displayed in the first Crusade, of which he was a principal leader; a series of victories led up to the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, and he was proclaimed "Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre," but declined to wear a king's crown in the city where his Saviour had borne a crown of thorns; his defeat of the sultan of Egypt at Ascalon in the same year confirmed him in the possession of Palestine (1061-1100).
GODIVA, LADY, wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry, who pled in vain with her husband on behalf of the inhabitants of the place for relief from heavy exactions he had laid upon them, till one day he relented and consented he would grant her prayer if she would ride through Coventry on horseback naked, which, with his leave, she at once undertook to do, and did, not one soul of the place peering through to look at her save Peeping Tom, who paid for his curiosity by being smitten thereafter with blindness.
GODOLPHIN, SYDNEY GODOLPHIN, EARL OF, a celebrated English statesman and financier, born at Godolphin Hall, near Helston, Cornwall; at 19 was a royal page in the Court of Charles II., and in 1678 engaged on a political mission in Holland; in the following year entered Parliament and was appointed to a post in the Treasury, of which, five years later, he became First Commissioner, being at the same time raised to the peerage; under James II, was again at the head of the Treasury, and at the Revolution supported James, till the abdication, when he voted in favour of a regency; on the elevation of William to the throne was immediately reinstated at the Treasury, where he continued eight years, till the Whig ascendency brought about his dismissal; for six months in 1700 he once more assumed his former post, and under Anne fulfilled the duties of Lord High-Treasurer from 1702 to 1710, administering the finances with sagacity and integrity during the great campaigns of his friend Marlborough, and in 1706 he was created an Earl (1645-1712).
GODOY, MANUEL DE, minister of Charles IV. of Spain, born at Badajoz; played a conspicuous part in the affairs of Spain during the French Revolution and the Empire; received the title of Prince of Peace for an offensive and defensive treaty he concluded with France in 1796, in opposition to the general wish of the nation; lost all and died in Paris (1767-1851).
GODWIN, Earl of the West Saxons, a powerful English noble of the 11th century and father of Harold II.; first comes into prominence in the reign of Cnut; was created an earl previous to 1018, and shortly afterwards became related to the king by marriage; he was a zealous supporter of Harthacnut in the struggle which followed the demise of Cnut; subsequently was instrumental in raising Edward the Confessor to the throne, to whom he gave his daughter Edith in marriage; continued for some years virtual ruler of the kingdom, but in 1051 his opposition to the growing Norman influence brought about his banishment and the confiscation of his estates; in 1052 he returned to England and was received with so great popular acclaim that the king was forced to restore to him his estates and offices; d. 1054.
GODWIN, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, an English authoress, and first to publicly assert the Rights of Women, born at Hoxton, of humble Irish parentage; at 19 she began to support herself by teaching, and continued to do so till 1788, when she established herself in London to push her way as a writer, having already published "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters"; in 1791 she replied to Burke's "Reflections," and in the following year appeared her famous "Vindication of the Rights of Women"; while in Paris in 1793 she formed a liaison with an American, Captain Imlay, whose cruel desertion of her two years later induced her to attempt suicide by drowning; in 1796 she became attached to William Godwin, a friend of five years' standing, and with him lived for some months, although, in accord with their own pronounced opinions, no marriage ceremony had been performed; in deference to the opinions of others, however, they departed from this position, and a marriage was duly celebrated five months before the birth of their daughter Mary (Shelley's second wife); contemporary opinion shows her to have been generous and gentle of nature, and animated throughout by a noble zeal for the welfare of humanity (1759-1797).
GODWIN, WILLIAM, a political writer and novelist, the son of a Presbyterian minister, born at Wisbeach, Somersetshire; was educated for the Church, and was for five years in the ministry; during this period his opinions on politics and religion underwent a radical change, and when in 1787 he threw up his holy office to engage in literature, he had become a republican in the one and a free-thinker in the other; various works had come from his pen, including three novels, before his celebrated "Political Justice" appeared in 1793, "Caleb Williams," a novel, and his best-known work, being published in the following year; in 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft (See preceding), who died the same year, and four years later he married a widow, Mrs. Clement; to the close of his long life he was a prolific writer on literary, historical, and political subjects, but his carelessness and lack of business habits left him little profit from all his literary activity; his writings are clear and vigorous in the expression, if visionary and impracticable in theory (1756-1836).
GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON, a great poet and wise man, the greatest, it is alleged, the world has seen since Shakespeare left it, and who, being born in Frankfort-on-the-Main 10 years before Robert Burns, died in the small duchy of Weimar the same year as Sir Walter Scott; was the son of an imperial chancellor, a formal man and his pedagogue in boyhood, and of Elizabeth Textor, daughter of the chief magistrate of the city, a woman of bright intelligence, who was only eighteen at the time of his birth. Spiritually and bodily he was the most perfectly formed, symetrically proportioned, justly balanced, and completely cultivated man perhaps that ever lived, whose priceless value to the world lies in this, that in his philosophy and life there is found the union in one of what to smaller people appears entirely and absolutely antagonistic, of utmost scientific scepticism and highest spiritual faith and worth. "He was filled full with the scepticism, bitterness, hollowness, and thousandfold contradictions of his time, till his heart was like to break; yet he subdued all this, rose victorious over this, and manifoldly, by word and act, showed others that came after how to do the like." Carlyle, who is never done recalling his worth, confesses an indebtedness to him--which he found it beyond his power to express: "It was he," he writes to Emerson, "that first proclaimed to me (convincingly, for I saw it done): 'behold, even in this scandalous Sceptico-Epicurean generation, when all is gone but hunger and cant, it is still possible that Man be Man.'" "He was," says he, "king of himself and his world;... his faculties and feelings were not fettered or prostrated under the iron sway of Passion, but led and guided in kindly union under the mild sway of Reason; as the fierce primeval elements of chaos were stilled at the coming of Light, and bound together, under its soft vesture, into a glorious and beneficent Creation." His life lies latent in his successive works, above all in "Goetz," in "Werter," in "Faust," and in "Meister"; but as these have not been duly read it has not yet been duly written, though an attempt is being made to do so in the said connection. Of the last of the four works named, Carlyle, who has done more than any one else yet to bring Goethe near us, once said, "There are some ten pages of that book that, if ambition had been my object, I would rather have written than all the literature of my time." "One counsel," says Carlyle, "he has to give, the secret of his whole poetic alchemy, 'Think of living! Thy life is no idle dream, but a solemn reality. It is thy own, it is all thou hast to front eternity with.'" "Never thought on thinking," he has said, Nie ans Denken gedacht. "What a thrift," exclaims Carlyle, "of faculty here!" Some think he had one weakness: he lived for culture, believed in culture, irrespective of the fact and the need of individual regeneration. And Emerson, who afterwards in his "Representative Men" did Goethe full justice, in introducing him as, if not a world-wise man, at all events as a world-related, once complained that "he showed us the actual rather than the ideal." To which Carlyle answered, "That is true; but it is not the whole truth. The actual well seen is the ideal. The actual, what really is and exists; the past, the present, and the future do all lie there" (1749-1832).
GOETZ VON BERLICHINGEN (of the Iron Hand), a German knight of the 16th century; was involved in turbulent movements, and lost his right hand at the siege of Landshut, which he replaced by one of his own invention made of steel; spent his life in feuds, and left an autobiography which interested Goethe, who dramatised his story, "to save," as he said, "the memory of a brave man from darkness," a drama that had the honour of being translated by Sir Walter Scott.
GOG AND MAGOG, names that occur in the Bible of foes of Israel, and designative in the Apocalypse of enemies of the kingdom of God, as also of a Scythian tribe N. of the Caucasus. The names are applied likewise to two giants, survivors of a race found in Britain by Brute of Troy, effigies of whom stood at the Guildhall Gate, symbolic defenders of the city.
GOGOL, NICOLAI VASILIEVITCH, a popular Russian novelist, born in Poltava; in 1829 he started as a writer in St. Petersburg, but met with little success till the appearance of his "Evenings in a Farm near Dikanka"; the success of the included sketches of provincial life induced him to produce a second series in 1834, which are characterised by the same freshness and fidelity to nature; in 1837 appeared his masterpiece "Dead Souls," in which all his powers of pathos, humour, and satire are seen at their best; for some time he tried public teaching, being professor of History at St. Petersburg, and from 1836 to 1846 lived chiefly at Rome; many of his works, which rank beside those of Puschkin and Turgenieff, are translated into English (1809-1852).
GOLCONDA, a fortified town in the Nizam's dominions, 7 m. W. of Hyderabad; famous for its diamonds, found in the neighbourhood; beside it are the ruins of the ancient city, the former capital of the old kingdom; the fort is garrisoned, and is the treasury of the Nizam; it is also a State prison.
GOLD COAST (1,475, of whom 150 are Europeans), a British crown colony on the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa, with a coast-line of 350 m.; from the low and marshy foreshore the country slopes upward and inward to Ashanti; the climate is very unhealthy; palm-oil, india-rubber, gold dust, &c., are exported; Cape Coast Castle is the capital.
GOLDEN AGE, the age of happy innocence under the reign of Cronos or Saturn, in which, as fabled, the earth yielded all fulness without toil, and every creature lived at peace with every other; the term is applied to the most flourishing period in the history of a nation. See AGES.
GOLDEN ASS, a romance of APULEIUS (q. v.).
GOLDEN BULL, an Imperial edict, issued by the Emperor Charles IV., which determined the law in the matter of the Imperial elections, and that only one member of each electoral house should have a vote; so called from the gold case enclosing the Imperial seal attached.
GOLDEN FLEECE, the fleece of a ram which PHRYXOS (q. v.), after he had sacrificed him to Zeus, gave to Æëtes, king of Colchis, who hung it on a sacred oak, and had it guarded by a monstrous dragon, and which it was the object of the Argonautic expedition under Jason to recover and bring back to Greece, an object which they achieved. See ARGONAUTS.
GOLDEN FLEECE, ORDER OF THE, an order of knighthood founded by Philip III., Duke of Burgundy and the Netherlands in 1429, and instituted for the protection of the Church.
GOLDEN HORN, the inlet on which Constantinople is situated.
GOLDEN LEGEND, a collection of lives of saints and other tales, such as that of the "Seven Sleepers" and "St. George and the Dragon," made in the 13th century by Jacques de Voragine, a Dominican monk, to the glory especially of his brotherhood.
GOLDEN ROSE, a cluster of roses on a thorny stem, all of gold; perfumed, and blessed by the Pope on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and sent to a prince who has during the year shown most zeal for the Church.
GOLDONI, CARLO, the founder of Italian comedy, born at Venice; in his youth he studied medicine and subsequently law, but in 1732 appeared as a dramatist with his tragedy "Belisario"; moving from place to place as a strolling-player, he in 1736 returned to Venice, and finding his true vocation in comedy-writing, turned out a rapid succession of sparkling character plays after the manner of Molière; in 1761 he went to Paris as a playwright to the Italian theatre; became Italian master to Louis XV.'s daughters, and subsequently was pensioned; his comedies displaced the burlesques and farces till then in vogue on the stage in Italy (1707-1793).
GOLDSCHMIDT, MADAME. See LIND, JENNY.
GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, English man of letters, born at Pallas or Pallasmore, co. Longford, Ireland, and celebrated in English literature as the author of the "Vicar of Wakefield"; a born genius, but of careless ways, and could not be trained to any profession, either in the Church, in law, or in medicine, though more or less booked for all three in succession; set out on travel on the Continent without a penny, and supported himself by his flute and other unknown means; came to London, tried teaching, then literature, doing hack-work, his first work in that department being "An Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe," which was succeeded by his "Citizen of the World"; became a member of the "Literary Club," and associated with Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, and others; produced poems, "The Traveller" and the "Deserted Village," besides comedies, such as "She Stoops to Conquer"; lived extravagantly, and died in debt; wrote histories of Greece and Rome, and "Animated Nature"; was a charming writer (1728-1774).
GOLF, a game played with a bent club and a small ball on commons with short grass, in which the player who drives the ball into a succession of small holes in the ground, usually 18, with the fewest strokes, or who reckons up the most holes in the round by taking them with the fewest strokes, is the winner; an old popular Scotch game, and first introduced into English on Blackheath by James I., which has of late years been revived, and in connection with which clubs have established themselves far and wide over the globe, even at Bagdad.
GOLIATH, a Philistine giant of Gath slain by David with pebbles from a brook by a sling (1 Sam. xvii.).
GOMARISTS, a sect of Calvinists in Holland, so called from their leader Gomarus (1563-1641), a bitter enemy of ARMINIUS (q. v.).
GONCOURT, EDMOND AND JULES DE, French novelists, born, the former at Nancy, the latter at Paris; a habit of elaborate note-taking whilst on sketching tours first drew the brothers towards literature, and inoculated them with the habit of minute and accurate observation which gave value to their subsequent writings; their first real venture was a series of historical studies, designed to reproduce with every elaboration of detail French society in the later half of the 18th century, including a "History of French Society during the Revolution"; later they found their true province in the novel, and a series of striking works of fiction became the product of their joint labours, works which have influenced subsequent novelists not a little; "Les Hommes de Lettres" (1860) was the first of these, and "Madame Gervaisais" (1869) is perhaps their best; their collaboration was broken in 1870 by the death of Jules; but Edmond still continued to write, and produced amongst other novels "La Fille Élisa"; the "Journal" of the brothers appeared in 1888 in six vols. (Edmond, 1822-1888; Jules, 1830-1870).
GONDAR (4), a once populous city and the capital of AMHARA (q. v.), situated on a basaltic ridge in the Wogra Mountains, 23 m. N. of Lake Tzana; there are ruins of an old castle, churches and mosques, and establishments for the training of Abyssinian priests.
GONERAL, an unnatural daughter of King Lear.
GONSALEZ, a Spanish hero of the 10th century, celebrated for his adventures, and whose life was twice saved by his wife.
GONZAGA, the name of a princely family from Germany, settled in Mantua, from which the dukes were descended who ruled the territory from 1328 to 1708.
GONZALVO DI CORDOVA (the popular name of Gonzalo Hernandez y Aguilar), a renowned Spanish soldier, born at Montilla, near Cordova; he first became prominent in the wars with the Moors of Granada and with Portugal, and was rewarded with an estate and pensioned; in 1498 he so distinguished himself in assisting the king of Naples (Ferdinand II.) to drive out the French that he became known henceforth as El Gran Capitan, and was created Duke of San Angelo; subsequent heroic achievements in Naples, which won the kingdom for Spain (1503), roused a feeling of jealousy in the Spanish king, so that Gonzalvo was recalled and ill-requited for his great services (1453-1515).
GOOD FRIDAY, the Friday before Easter, held sacred from early times by the Church in commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ, observed originally with fasting and prayer.
GOOD REGENT, the REGENT MURRAY (q. v.).
GOOD TEMPLARS, a total abstinence fraternity organised in New York in 1851, which has lodges, subordinate, district, and grand, now all over the world; they exact a pledge of lifelong abstinence, and advocate the suppression of the vice by statute; there is a juvenile section pledged to abstinence from tobacco, gambling, and bad language, as well as drink.
GOODFELLOW, ROBIN, a merry domestic spirit, full of tricks and practical jokes, and a constant attendant upon the English fairy court.
GOODMAN OF BALLENGEICH, a name assumed by James V. of Scotland in his disguised perambulations about Edinburgh o' nights.
GOODSIR, JOHN, eminent Scotch anatomist, born at Anstruther; was trained at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, in which latter city he served an apprenticeship in dentistry; he settled in Anstruther and there wrote his noted essay on "Teeth"; in 1840 he became keeper of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, and lecturer on Diseases of the Bone in 1842; four years later he succeeded Dr. Monro in the chair of Anatomy in Edinburgh University, which he adorned, having for some time previously acted as assistant (1814-1867).
GOODWIN SANDS, a famous sandbank stretching 10 m. along the E. coast of Kent, about 5½ m. from the shore; with the flowing of the tidal current the hidden sands are apt to shift and change their outline, and when storms of great violence sweep over them, despite their being well marked by four lightships and nine buoys, they have often been the occasion of a long series of melancholy shipwrecks; the shoal forms a splendid breakwater for the Downs, an excellent anchorage, stretching between the Goodwins and the shore; they are supposed popularly to be the remnants of an estate which belonged to the great EARL OF GODWIN (q. v.), but this supposition is a mere fable.
GOODY TWO SHOES, a character in a nursery story published in 1765, and supposed to have been written by Goldsmith when in straits.
GOODYEAR, CHARLES, the inventor of vulcanised rubber, born at New Haven, Connecticut; his career was a troubled one; he failed as an iron-founder, and when, after 10 years labour, amidst every disadvantage of poverty and privation, he in 1844 produced his new method of hardening rubber by means of sulphur, he became involved in a fresh series of troubles, as well as poverty, consequent on the infringement of his inventions; his patents latterly amounted to 60, and medals and honours, were awarded him both in London and Paris (1800-1860).
GOORKHAS or GURKHAS, a brave and powerful native race in Nepal claiming Hindu descent; in 1814 they were subdued by the British, and have since rendered valuable service to Britain in the Mutiny, in the Afghan and in the Sikh Wars; there are now ten regiments of Goorkhas.
GORDIAN KNOT, a knot by which the yoke was fastened to the beam of the chariot of Gordius (q. v.), and which no one could untie except the man who was destined to be the conqueror of Asia; Alexander the Great being ambitious to achieve this feat, tried hard to undo it, but failing, cut it with his sword and marched on to conquest.
GORDIANUS, the name of three Roman Emperors, father, son, and grandson. MARCUS ANTONIUS GORDIANUS, surnamed Africanus, rose to be an ædile, consul twice, and subsequently became proconsul of Africa; on the deposition of the Emperor Maximinus in 238, he, then in his eightieth year, was proclaimed emperor, his son (b. A.D. 192) being associated with him in the imperial office; grief at the death of his son, killed in battle, caused him to commit suicide a month after he had assumed the purple; he was a man of refined and generous nature. MARCUS ANTONIUS GORDIANUS, grandson of preceding, was early raised to the dignity of Cæsar, and in 238 rose to the rank of Augustus; his most important achievement was his driving back of the Persians beyond the Euphrates and his relief of Antioch; he was assassinated in 244 by his own soldiers while preparing to cross the Euphrates.
GORDIUS, a boor, the father of Midas (q. v.), who was proclaimed king of Phrygia because he happened, in response to the decree of an oracle, to be the first to ride into Gordium during a particular assembly of the people; he rode into the city on a waggon, to which the yoke was attached by the Gordian knot, and which he dedicated to Zeus.
GORDON, GENERAL CHARLES GEORGE, born at Woolwich, son of an artillery officer; entered the Royal Engineers; served in the Crimea as an officer in that department, and was, after the war, employed in defining the boundaries of Asiatic Turkey and Russia; being employed in 1860 on a mission to square up matters with the Chinese, on the settlement of the quarrel lent himself to the Emperor in the interest of good order, and it was through him that the Taiping Rebellion in 1863-64 was extinguished, whereby he earned the title of "Chinese" Gordon; he returned to England in 1865, and was for the next six years engaged in completing the defences of the Thames at Gravesend; he was Vice-Consul of the delta of the Danube during 1871-73, at the end of which term he conducted an expedition into Africa under the Khedive of Egypt, and was in 1877 appointed governor of the Soudan, in which capacity, by the confidence his character inspired, he succeeded in settling no end of troubles and allaying lifelong feuds; he relinquished this post in 1880, and in 1884, the English Government having resolved to evacuate the Soudan, he was commissioned to superintend the operation; he started off at once, and arrived at Khartoum in February of that year, where, by the end of April, all communication between him and Cairo was cut off; an expedition was fitted out for his relief, but was too late in arriving, the place was stormed by the Arabs, and he with his comrades fell dead under a volley of Arab musketry, January 28; from the commencement to the close of his career he distinguished himself as a genuine Christian and a brave man (1833-1885).
GORDON, LORD GEORGE, Anti-Papal agitator, born in London, son of the Duke of Gordon; he adopted the navy as a profession, and rose to be lieutenant; entered Parliament, and soon made himself conspicuous by his indiscriminate attacks on both Whigs and Tories; gave a passionate support to the London Protestant Association formed for the purpose of bringing about the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation Bill of 1778; in 1780, as President of the Association, took the leading part in the famous No Popery riots in London; was tried but acquitted, mainly through the eloquent defence of Erskine; subsequently he was excommunicated for contempt of court, and eventually, after endeavouring to escape prosecution for two treasonable pamphlets, was apprehended, and died in Newgate (1751-1793).
GORDON, SIR JOHN WATSON, a portrait-painter, born in Edinburgh; was a pupil of Raeburn's, and his successor as a painter of portraits; executed portraits of most of the eminent Scotchmen of his time, and among the number Sir Walter Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Cockburn, Dr. Chalmers, and Professor Wilson (1788-1864).
GORE, CHARLES, canon of Westminster, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, is an exponent of High Church tenets; the editor of Lux Mundi, and the author of the Bampton Lecture for 1891, on "The Incarnation of the Son of God"; b. 1853.
GÖRGEI, ARTHUR, a Hungarian patriot; at the age of 27 entered the army, and designed to devote himself to the study of chemistry and the administration of his estate; but on the outbreak of the Revolution in 1848 he joined the revolutionists; crushed the Croatians at Ozora; at the head of a patriot army faced the Austrians under Windischgrätz on the western frontier, and despite a temporary repulse, succeeded in asserting the supremacy of the Hungarian cause in a series of victories; Russian assistance accorded to Austria, however, changed the fortune of war; Kossuth resigned, and Görgei became dictator; but hopeless of success, he immediately negotiated a peace with the Russians; in 1851 he published a vindication of his policy and surrender, and in 1885 was exonerated by his compatriots from the charges of treachery brought against him by Kossuth; b. 1818.
GORGIAS, a celebrated Greek sophist, born at Syracuse, in Sicily; settled in Athens, a swashbuckler of a man, who attached himself to the ELEATICS (q. v.), and especially Zeno, in order that by their dialectic "he might demonstrate that nothing exists, or if something exists, that it cannot be known, or if it can be known, that it cannot be communicated"; his work bore characteristically enough the title "Of the Non-Existent, or of Nature"!
GORGONS, three sisters, Medusa, Euryale, and Stheino, with hissing serpents on their heads instead of hair, of whom Medusa, the only one that was mortal, had the power of turning into stone any one who looked on her. See PERSEUS.
GORHAM, GEORGE CORNELIUS, an English ecclesiastic; being presented to the vicarage of Bramford Speke, N. Devon, was refused institution by Dr. Philpotts, the bishop of Exeter, because he was unsound in the matter of baptismal regeneration, upon which he appealed to the Court of Arches, which confirmed the bishop's decision, but the sentence of the court was reversed by the Privy Council, and institution granted (1787-1857).
GÖRLITZ (62), a fortified town in Prussian Silesia, 52 m. W. of Liegnitz, on the Meuse, where JACOB BOEHME (q. v.) lived and died.
GORTSCHAKOFF, MICHAEL, Russian general, brother of the succeeding; served in the war between Russia and Turkey in 1828-1829; commanded in the Danubian Principalities in 1853; distinguished himself in the defence of Sebastopol (1795-1861).
GORTSCHAKOFF, PRINCE, an eminent Russian general; was engaged in Finland in 1809, in the Turkish War in 1810, in the French War 1812-14, and the Crimean War (1789-1866).
GOSCHEN, GEORGE JOACHIM, English statesman, born in London; entered Parliament in the Liberal interest in 1863; served in office under Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone; was opposed to Home Rule, joined the Liberal-Unionist party and holds office under Lord Salisbury as First Lord of the Admiralty; b. 1831.
GOSHEN, a fertile district along a branch of the Nile, in the eastern part of the delta of Lower Egypt; assigned by Pharaoh to the children of Israel when they came to sojourn in the land.
GOSPELS, the name by which the four accounts in the New Testament of the character, life, and teaching of Christ are designated; have been known since as early as the 3rd century, of which the first three are called "Synoptic," because they are summaries of the chief events, and go over the same ground in the history, while the author of the fourth gospel follows lines of his own; the former aim mainly at mere narrative, while the object of the latter is dogmatic, as well as probably to supply deficiencies in the former; moreover, the interest of John's account centres in the person of Christ and that of the others in His gospel; the writers were severally represented as attended, Matthew by a man, Mark by a lion, Luke by an ox, and John by an eagle.
GOSPORT (25), a fortified port and market-town in Hants, on the W. side of Portsmouth harbour, opposite Portsmouth, with which it is connected by a floating bridge; its industries embrace flourishing iron-works, barracks, the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, and Haslar shipyard for the repair of gunboats.
GOSSE, EDMUND, poet, essayist, and critic, born in London, the son of the succeeding; author of "History of Eighteenth Century Literature," a collection of lyrics, and a series of monographs, in particular "Life of Gray"; b. 1849.
GOSSE, PHILIP HENRY, naturalist, horn at Worcester, in business in Newfoundland, Canada, and the United States; spent his leisure hours in the study of natural history, chiefly insects; after a visit of two years to Jamaica wrote an account of its birds; compiled several works introductory to the study of animal life, and latterly devoted himself to the study of marine animals (1810-1888).
GOTHA (30), northern capital of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and seat of the reigning prince, the present Duke of Edinburgh, situated on the Leine Canal, 6 m. from the northern border of the Thuringian Forest; is picturesquely laid out, and has considerable manufactures, the famous Perthes' geographical publishing-house; Friedenstein Castle, the ducal residence, built in 1643, has a library of 200,000 vols. and 6000 MSS.
GOTHAM, a village of N. Nottinghamshire, the natives of which were made a laughing-stock of for their foolish sayings and doings, an instance of the latter being their alleged joining hand in hand round a bush to hedge in a cuckoo.
GOTHAMITES, American cockneys, New York being called Gotham.
GOTHARD, ST., the central mountain mass (9850 ft. high) of the Middle Alps and core of the whole Alpine system; it forms a watershed for rivers flowing in four different directions, including the Rhône and the Rhine; the famous pass (6936 ft.) from Lake Lucerne to Lake Maggiore forms an excellent carriage-way, has two hotels and a hospice at its summit; on the lower slopes is the St. Gothard railway (opened 1882), with its celebrated tunnel (9¼ m.), the longest in the world.
GOTHENBURG (109), the second town of Sweden, at the mouth of the Gotha, 284 m. SW. of Stockholm, is a clean and modernly built town, intersected by several canals; it has a splendid harbour, and one of the finest botanical gardens in Europe; its industries include shipbuilding, iron-works, sugar-refining, and fisheries; its licensing system has become famous; all shops for the sale of liquor are in the hands of a company licensed by government; profits beyond a five per cent. dividend to the shareholders are handed over to the municipality.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, a varied style of architecture distinguished by its high and sharply-pointed arches, clustered columns, which had its origin in the Middle Ages, and prevailed from the 12th to the 15th centuries, though the term Gothic was originally applied to it as indicating a barbarous degeneracy from the classic, which it superseded.
GOTHLAND: 1 (2,595), the southernmost of the three old provinces of Sweden; chiefly mountainous, but with many fertile spaces; forest and lake scenery give a charm to the landscape; Gothenburg is the chief town. 2 (51), a Swedish island in the Baltic, 44 m. E. of the mainland, area 1217 sq. m.; forms, with other islands, the province of Gothland or Wisby; agriculture, fishing, and shipping are the main industries; Wisby is the chief town (also called Gottland).
GOTHS, a tribe of Teutons who in formidable numbers invaded the Roman empire from the east and north-east from as early as the third century, and though they were beaten back at the battle of Châlons, eventually broke it up.
GOTTFRIED VON STRASBURG, a medieval German poet and one of the famous minnesingers; flourished in Strasburg at the close of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th; his great poem "Tristan und Isolde," completed in 1210, extends to 19,552 lines, and has a grace and freshness suggestive of Chaucer.
GÖTTINGEN (24), an ancient Hanoverian town, prettily situated in the valley of the Leine, 50 m. S. of Hanover; is chiefly noteworthy on account of its university (1734), with its library of 500,000 vols. and 5000 MSS.; the students exceed 800, and are instructed by 120 professors; there is a flourishing book-trade.
GOTTSCHED, JOHANN CHRISTOPH, a German literary notability, born near Königsberg, professor of philosophy and belles-lettres at Leipzig; was throughout his life the literary dictator of Germany; did much to vindicate the rights and protect the purity of the German tongue, as well as to improve the drama, but he wrote and patronised a style of writing that was cold, stiff, and soulless (1700-1766).
GOUGH, HUGH, VISCOUNT, a distinguished English general, born at Woodstown, in Limerick; he first saw service at the Cape and in the West Indies; afterwards fought with distinction in the Peninsular war; subsequently, as major-general, he took part in the Indian campaign of 1827, and in 1840 commanded the forces in China; during seven years (1843-50) he was commander-in-chief of the Indian army, and carried through successfully the Sikh Wars, which added the Punjab to the British dominions; in 1849 he was created a viscount, and a field-marshal in 1862 (1779-1869).
GOUGH, J. B., temperance orator, born in Kent; bred a bookbinder; early a victim to intemperance; took the pledge in 1842, and became an eloquent and powerful advocate of the temperance cause both in England and America (1817-1886).
GOUJON, JEAN, a celebrated French sculptor and architect, born at Paris; he did the reliefs on the Fountain of the Innocents and the façade of the old Louvre; was a Huguenot, but died before the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572.
GOULD, JOHN, eminent ornithologist, born at Lyme Regis, Devonshire; his works are entitled "A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains," "The Birds of Europe," "The Birds of Australia," "The Birds of Asia," "The Birds of Great Britain," and "Humming-Birds," of which last he had an almost complete collection, only one wanting; the volumes in which these works were published were large folios and very expensive, with coloured illustrations of the birds described, the whole done under Mr. Gould's own eye, and in many cases by his own hand (1804-1881).
GOUNOD, CHARLES FRANÇOIS, an eminent French composer, born at Paris; a prize gained at the Paris Conservatoire followed by a government pension enabled him to continue his studies at Rome, where he gave himself chiefly to the study of religious music; the "Messe Solenelle" was published on his return to Paris; turning his attention to opera he produced "Sappho" in 1851, a popular comic opera "Le Médecin malgré lui" in 1858, and a year later his famous setting of "Faust," which placed him in the front rank of composers; other operas followed, with various masses, anthems, hymns, &c.; his oratorio "Redemption," perhaps his masterpiece, appeared in 1882 (1818-1893).
GOVAN (63), a town in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on S. bank of the Clyde, virtually a western suburb of Glasgow; the staple industry is shipbuilding.
GOW, NATHANIEL, youngest son of Neil, won celebrity as a composer of songs and other pieces; his 200 compositions include the popular "Caller Herrin'" (1766-1831).
GOW, NEIL, a famous Scotch fiddler, born at Inver, near Dunkeld, of lowly origin; during his long life he enjoyed a wide popularity amongst the Scotch nobility, his especial patron being the Duke of Atholl; Raeburn painted his portrait on several occasions; he composed over a hundred strathspeys, laments, &c., giving a fresh impulse and character to Scotch music, but his fame rests mainly on his violin playing (1727-1807).
GOWER, JOHN, an English poet, contemporary and friend of Chaucer, but of an older school; was the author of three works: "Speculum Meditantis," the "Thinker's Mirror," written in French, lost for long, but recovered lately; "Vox Clamantis," the "Voice of One Crying," written in Latin, an allegorising, moralising poem, "cataloguing the vice of the time," and suggested by the Wat Tyler insurrection, 1381; and "Confessio Amantis," "Confession of a Lover," written in English, treating of the course of love, the morals and metaphysics of it, illustrated by a profusion of apposite tales; was appropriately called by Chaucer the "moral Grower"; his tomb is in St. Mary's, Southwark (1325-1408).
GOWKTHRAPPLE, a "pulpit-drumming" Covenanter preacher in "Waverley," described by Scott as in his own regard a "chosen vessel."
GOWRIE CONSPIRACY, a remarkable and much disputed episode in the reign of James VI. of Scotland; the story goes that Alexander Ruthven and his brother, the Earl of Gowrie, enticed the king to come to Gowrie House in Perth on the 5th August 1600 for the purpose of murdering or kidnapping him, and that in the scuffle Ruthven and Gowrie perished. Historians have failed to trace any motive incriminating the brothers, while several good reasons have been brought to light why the king might have wished to get rid of them.
GOZO (17), an island in the Mediterranean which, together with Malta and Comino, forms a British crown colony; lies 4 m. NW. of Malta. Babato is the chief town.
GOZZI, COUNT CARLO, Italian dramatist, born at Venice; was 39 when his first dramatic piece, "Three Oranges," brought him prominently before the public; he followed up this success with a series of dramas designed to uphold the old methods of Italian dramatic art, and to resist the efforts of Goldoni and Chiari to introduce French models; these plays dealing with wonderful adventures and enchantments in the manner of Eastern tales ("dramatic fairy tales," he called them), enjoyed a wide popularity, and spread to Germany and France. Schiller translated "Turandot" (1722-1806).--His elder brother, COUNT GASPARO GOZZI, was an active littérateur; the author of various translations, essays on literature, besides editor of a couple of journals; was press censor in Venice for a time, and was in his later days engaged in school and university work (1713-1786).
GRACCHUS, CAIUS SEMPRONIUS, Roman tribune and reformer, brother of the succeeding, nine years his junior; devoted himself and his oratory on his brother's death to carry out his measures; was chosen tribune in 123 B.C., and re-elected in 122; his measures of reform were opposed and undone by the Senate, and being declared a public enemy he was driven to bay, his friends rallying round him in arms, when a combat took place in which 3000 fell, upon which Gracchus made his slave put him to death; "overthrown by the Patricians," he is said, "when struck with the fatal stab, to have flung dust toward heaven, and called on the avenging deities; and from this dust," says one, "there was born Marius--not so illustrious for exterminating the Cimbri as for overturning in Rome the tyranny of the nobles."
GRACCHUS, TIBERIUS SEMPRONIUS, Roman tribune and reformer, eldest son of Cornelia, and brought up by her; proposed, among others, a measure for the more equal distribution of the public land, which he had to battle for against heavy odds three successive times, but carried it the third time; was killed with others of his followers afterwards in a riot, and his body thrown into the Tiber and refused burial, 138 B.C., aged 40.
GRACE, the term in Scripture for that which is the free gift of God, unmerited by man and of eternal benefit to him.
GRACE, DR. W. G., the celebrated cricketer, born near Bristol; distinguished as a batsman, fielder, and bowler; earned the title of champion, which was spontaneously and by universal consent conferred on him; has written on cricket; b. 1848.
GRACE CUP, a silver bowl with two handles passed round the table after grace at all banquets in London City.
GRACES, THE, reckoned at one time two in number, but originally they appear to have been regarded as being, what at bottom they are, one. At last they are spoken of as three, and called Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia: Thalia, the blooming one, or life in full bloom; Euphrosyne, the cheerful one, or life in the exuberance of joy and sympathy; and Aglaia, the shining one, or life in its effulgence of sunny splendour and glory. But these three are one, involved each in the other, and made perfect in one. There is not Thalia by herself, or Aglaia, but where one truly is, there, in the same being also, the other two are. They are three sisters, as such always inseparable, and in their inseparability alone are Graces. Their secret is not learned from one, but from all three; and they give grace only with fulness, buoyancy, and radiancy of soul, or life, united all in one. They are in essence the soul in its fulness of life and sympathy, pouring itself rhythmically through every obstruction, before which the most solid becomes fluid, transparent, and radiant of itself.
GRACIOSA, a princess in a fairy tale, persecuted by her stepmother, and protected by Prince Percinet, her lover.
GRACIOSO, a fool in a Spanish comedy, who ever and anon appears on the stage during the performance with his jokes and gibes.
GRADGRIND, a character in "Hard Times," who weighs and measures everything by a hard and fast rule and makes no allowances.
GRAFTON, AUGUSTUS HENRY FITZROY, DUKE OF, English statesman in the reign of George III.; held various offices of State under Rockingham, Chatham, and North; was bitterly assailed in the famous "Junius Letters" (1735-1811).
GRAHAM, SIR JOHN, companion of Sir William Wallace, who fell at the battle of Falkirk.
GRAHAM, JOHN, VISCOUNT DUNDEE. See CLAVERHOUSE.
GRAHAM, THOMAS, celebrated Scottish chemist, born in Glasgow, where in 1830 he became professor of Chemistry in the Andersonian University; seven years later he was appointed to a similar chair in University College, London; in 1855 he resigned his professorship on succeeding Herschel as Master of the Mint; his name is honourably associated with important researches relating to the diffusion of gases and liquids, and with contributions to the atomic theory of matter (1805-1869).
GRAHAME, JAMES, a Scottish poet, born in GLASGOW; bred a lawyer; took to the Church; author of a poem on the "Sabbath," instinct with devout feeling, and containing good descriptive passages (1765-1811).
GRAHAM'S DYKE, a Roman wall extending between the Firths of Forth and Clyde.
GRAHAMSTOWN (16), capital of the eastern province of Cape Colony, 25 m. from the sea and 106 m. NE. of Port Elizabeth; is beautifully situated 1728 ft. above sea-level at the base of the Zuurberg Mountains; has an exceedingly salubrious climate; some fine buildings, and is the seat both of a Catholic and a Protestant bishop.
GRAIÆ, three old women in the Greek mythology, born with grey hair, had only one tooth and one eye among them, which they borrowed from each other as they wanted them; were personifications of old age.
GRAIL, THE HOLY, the cup or vessel, said to have been made of an emerald stone, that was used by Christ at the Last Supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea caught up the blood that flowed from His wounds on the Cross; it was brought to England by Joseph, it is alleged, but after a term disappeared; to recover it formed an object of quest to the Knights of the Round Table, in which Sir Galahad succeeded, when it was seen by certain other knights, but it has not been seen since, for none is permitted to see it or can set eye on it but such as are of a pure heart.
GRAMONT or GRAMMONT, PHILIBERT, COMTE DE, a celebrated French courtier in the age of Louis XIV.; he greatly distinguished himself in the army, as also at the court by his lively wit and gallant bearing, and soon established himself in the king's favour, but an intrigue with one of the royal mistresses brought about his exile from France; at the profligate court of Charles II of England he found a warm welcome and congenial surroundings; left memoirs which were mainly the work of his brother-in-law, Anthony Hamilton, and which give a marvellously witty and brilliant picture of the licentiousness and intrigue of the 17th-century court life (1621-1707).
GRAMPIANS, 1, a name somewhat loosely applied to the central and chief mountain system of Scotland, which stretches E. and W. right across the country, with many important offshoots running N. and S.; the principal heights are Ben Nevis (4406 ft), Ben Macdhui (4296 ft.), Cairntoul (4200 ft.). 2, A range of mountains in the W. of Victoria, Australia, highest elevation 5600 ft.
GRANADA, the last of the ancient Moorish kingdoms to be conquered (1492) in Spain, in the SE. of Andalusia, fronting the Mediterranean, now divided into Granada, Almeria, and Malaga; the modern province (484) has an area of 4928 sq. m.; Granada (72), the capital, is beautifully situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, on an eminence 2245 ft. above sea-level, 140 m. SE. of Seville; the Jenil flows past it; has a large university, a cathedral, and monastery; was founded by the Moors in the 8th century, but has been largely rebuilt on modern principles.
GRANADA, NEW (9), a commercial town in Nicaragua, Central America, on the NW. shore of Lake Nicaragua.
GRANBY, JOHN MANNERS, MARQUIS OF, an English general, eldest son of the third Duke of Rutland; rose to be commander-in-chief of the British army in Germany during the Seven Years' War; distinguished himself at Warburg; in 1763 he was master-general of the ordnance, and in 1766 commander-in-chief of the army; was the victim of some of Junius's most scathing invectives (1721-1770).
GRAND ALLIANCE, an alliance signed at Vienna 1689 by England, Germany, and the States-General to prevent the union of France and Spain.
GRAND JURY, a jury appointed to decide whether there are grounds for an accusation to warrant a trial.
GRAND LAMAISM, a belief of the people of Thibet that Providence sends down always an incarnation of Himself into every generation.
GRAND MONARQUE, THE, LOUIS XIV. (q. v.) of France, so called.
GRAND PENSIONARY, a state official in the Dutch Republic; in earlier times the Grand Pensionary was Secretary and also Advocate-General of the province of Holland; later his duties embraced the care of foreign affairs; held office for five years, but was generally re-elected; the office was abolished in 1795.
GRANDISON, SIR CHARLES, the hero of one of Richardson's novels, a character representative of an ideal Christian and gentleman.
GRANDVILLE, the pseudonym of JEAN IGNACE ISIDORE GÉRARD, a French caricaturist, born at Nancy; his fame was first established by the "Metamorphoses du Jour," a series of satirical sketches representing men with animal faces characteristic of them; his subsequent work embraced political cartoons and illustrations for "Gulliver's Travels," "Don Quixote," "Robinson Crusoe," La Fontaine's "Fables," &c. (1803-1847).
GRANGEMOUTH (6), a busy port in Stirlingshire, on the Forth, 3 m. NE. of Falkirk; exports iron-ware and coal; has excellent docks, and does some shipbuilding.
GRANI`CUS, a river in Asia Minor, flowing from the slopes of Mount Ida and falling into the Sea of Marmora, where Alexander gained, 334 B.C., the first of the three victories which ended in the overthrow of the Persian empire.
GRANT, SIR ALEXANDER, of Dalvey, born at New York; graduated at Oxford, and became a Fellow of Oriel College; in 1856 he succeeded to the baronetcy; was appointed Inspector of Schools at Madras; two years later was appointed professor of History and Principal in Elphinstone College there; at Bombay he became Vice-Chancellor of Elgin College, and in 1868 succeeded Sir David Brewster as Principal of Edinburgh University; wrote "The Story of Edinburgh University," various essays, and edited Aristotle's Ethics; was married to a daughter of Professor Ferrier of St. Andrews (1826-1884).
GRANT, MRS. ANNE, née M'VICAR, authoress, born in Glasgow; took to literature as a means of livelihood after the death of her husband, and produced several volumes descriptive of the Highlands of Scotland and the character of the people; "Letters from the Mountains" enjoyed a wide popularity, and first gave to the public some adequate conception of the charm and character of the Highlands (1755-1838).
GRANT, SIR FRANCIS, artist, born in Edinburgh; was educated for the Scottish bar, but took to painting, and became celebrated for his hunting pictures, into which portraits of well-known sportsmen were introduced; also executed portraits of the Queen and Prince Consort on horseback, of Palmerston, Macaulay, and others, and became President of the Royal Academy (1803-1878).
GRANT, JAMES, novelist, born in Edinburgh; joined the army as an ensign at 17, but after a few years resigned and adopted literature as his profession; "The Romance of War" (1846), his first book, was followed by a series of stirring novels which are yet in repute, and have most of them been translated into Danish, German, and French; he turned Catholic in 1875 (1822-1887).
GRANT, SIR JAMES HOPE, General, brother of Sir Francis Grant, born at Kilgraston, Perthshire; first distinguished himself in the Sikh Wars, and took a leading part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny; in 1859 he commanded the British forces in China, and captured Pekin; was created a G.C.B. in 1860 and a general in 1872; he published several works bearing upon the wars in which he had been engaged (1808-1875).
GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON, General, born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio; bred to the military profession, served in Mexico, and held several appointments in the army; retired to civic life in 1854, but on the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the army and fought on the side of the North with such success that in 1864 he was appointed general-in-chief; he was eventually raised to the Presidency in 1868, and re-elected in 1872; on the expiry of this second term he made a tour round the world, and was everywhere received with the distinction he deserved (1822-1885).
GRANTHAM (17), a market-town in Lincolnshire, on the Witham, 25 m. SW. of Lincoln, and has a fine 13th-century church; in the grammar-school Newton was educated, and in 1643 Cromwell won his first victory here; its industries embrace agricultural-implement making, malting, &c.; a 30 m. canal connects it with the Trent.
GRANVILLE, GEORGE LEVESON-GOWER, second Earl, statesman; entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1836, and became a supporter of free trade; in 1846 succeeded to the peerage, and in 1851 became Foreign Minister under Lord John Russell; four years later became leader of the Lords; figured in every Liberal cabinet till 1886, usually as Colonial or Foreign Secretary; in 1859 he failed to form a ministry of his own; was a staunch supporter of Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy (1815-1891).
GRATIAN, a celebrated canonist of the 12th century, born at Chiusi, Tuscany; was a Benedictine monk at Bologna, and compiled the "Decretum Gratiani" between 1139 and 1142.
GRATIANUS, AUGUSTUS, Roman emperor from 375 to 383, eldest son of Valentinian I., born in Pannonia; at 16, in conjunction with his four-year-old brother, Valentinian II., became ruler over the Western Empire, and three years later found himself, by the death of his uncle Valens, head also of the Eastern Empire, a year after which he summoned Theodosius to be his colleague; his reign is noted for the stern repression of the remains of the heathen worship; in 383, while endeavouring to combat the usurper Maximus, he was captured at Lyons and there put to death (359-383).
GRATTAN, HENRY, great Irish patriot and orator, born in Dublin, and by birth a Protestant; studied at Trinity College, where he stood high in classics; was called to the Irish bar in 1772, and entered the Irish Parliament three years after, where he distinguished himself as the champion of legislative freedom, by maintaining that the crown had no right to legislate on matters affecting Irish interests, and particularly Irish commercial interests, without consulting the Irish Parliament, and by securing thereby in a measure the legislative independence of Ireland; on the question of Irish Parliamentary reform he quarrelled with his compatriots, and he confined his own efforts to Catholic emancipation; in 1798 he retired from public life, but came forth as an opponent of the Union in 1800, though, on its accomplishment, he represented first Malton in Yorkshire, and then Dublin in the United Parliament, devoting the rest of his life to the political emancipation of his Catholic fellow-subjects; before the rupture referred to fell out, he received a grant of £50,000 from the Irish Parliament; in private as in public life, he was a man of irreproachable character, while as an orator he ranks among the foremost of his time (1746-1820).
GRATZ or GRÄTZ (112), capital of Styria, in Austria, picturesquely situated on the Mur, 141 m. SW. of Vienna; its many old and interesting buildings include a cathedral (1462), four monasteries, and the Landhaus, an ancient ducal residence; there is a flourishing university, with upwards of 1100 students; its industries embrace iron and steel works, sugar-refining, soap and candle factories, &c.
GRAVELOTTE, a village in Lorraine, 7 m. W. of Metz; was the scene of a German victory over the French in 1870.
GRAVESEND (35), a thriving river-port and watering-place in Kent, on the Thames, opposite Tilbury Fort, 24 m. SE. of London; the new town rises amid picturesque surroundings above the old town; it is the chief pilot station for the river; there is a busy trade in shipbuilding, iron-founding, brewing, &c.
GRAY, ASA, a distinguished American botanist, born at Paris, Oneida County, New York; graduated in medicine in 1842; became Fisher professor of Natural History at Harvard, and in 1874 succeeded Agassiz as Regent of the Smithsonian Institution; his writings did much to promote the study of botany in America on a sound scientific basis, and also to forward the theories of Darwin; in conjunction with Dr. Torrey he wrote "The Flora of North America," and by himself various manuals of botany and "Natural Science and Religion" (1810-1888).
GRAY, AULD ROBIN, the title of a ballad by Lady Anne Lindsay, from the name of its hero, a good old man who married a young girl whose lover is thought to be dead, but who turns up to claim her a month after.
GRAY, JOHN EDWARD, English naturalist, born at Walsall; studied medicine, and at 24 entered the British Museum as an assistant in the Natural History department; in 1840 he became keeper of the Zoological Collections, of which he made a complete catalogue, enriched with most valuable notes; is the author of books and papers to the number of 500, and was an active promoter of scientific societies in London (1800-1875).
GRAY, THOMAS, English poet, born in Cornhill, London, for whom Horace Walpole conceived a warm attachment, which, after a brief rupture, lasted with life; gave himself up to the study of Greek literature, and began to cultivate the muse of poetry; produced in 1747 "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," and in 1750 his well-known "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard"; these were followed by the "Pindaric Odes," the "Progress of Poesy," and the "Bard," which was finished in 1757; in 1760 he was presented by the Duke of Grafton with the professorship of Modern History in Cambridge, a sinecure office with £400 a year. "All is clear light," says Stopford Brooke, "in Gray's work. Out of the love of Greek he drew his fine lucidity.... He moved with easy power over many forms of poetry, but there is naturalness and no rudeness in the power. It was adorned by high ornament and finish.... The 'Elegy' will always remain one of the beloved poems of Englishmen; it is not only a piece of exquisite work; it is steeped in England" (1716-1771).
GREAT COMMONER, WILLIAM PITT, who became Earl Chatham (q. v.).
GREAT DUKE, DUKE OF WELLINGTON (q. v.).
GREAT EASTERN, the name of the largest ship ever built; was designed by Brunel and Scott Russell; laid down at Milwall in 1854, and launched in 1858, having cost £732,000; it did not prove a successful venture; was latterly used for laying the Atlantic cables; subsequently became a coal-hulk at Gibraltar, and in the end was sold in 1888 for old iron.
GREAT ELECTOR, Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (1620-1683).
GREAT HARRY, a man-of-war built by Henry VII., the first of any size built in England.
GREAT MAGICIAN, Sir Walter Scott.
GREAT MORALIST, SAMUEL JOHNSON (q. v.), from the character of his writings.
GREAT SALT LAKE, in N. of Utah, U.S., stretches upwards of 80 m. along the western base of the Wahsatch Mountains, about 4200 ft. above the sea-level; it is from 20 to 32 m. broad, and very shallow; Antelope Island, 18 m. long, is the largest island; the coast is rugged and desolate; its clear waters hold no fish, and the surplus inflow is carried off by evaporation only.
GREAT SLAVE LAKE, 300 m. long and 50 at its greatest breadth; lies within the Canadian NW. Territory; the Mackenzie River carries its overflow to the Arctic Ocean.
GREAT UNKNOWN, THE, author of "Waverley" and Waverley novels.
GREAT UNWASHED, THE, the artisan class.
GREATHEART, in the "Pilgrim's Progress," the guide of Christiana and her family to the Celestial City.
GREECE (2,187), a kingdom of S. Europe occupying the southern portion of a peninsula which projects into the Mediterranean between the peninsula of Italy and the mainland of Turkey in Asia; the N. is bounded by Turkey in Europe; it is made up of the N. and S. divisions connected by the narrow and canalled isthmus of Corinth, the Ionian Islands in the W., and the Cyclades and Sporades in the E.; it is a mountainous region, and many of the peaks are rich in classic associations, e. g. Olympus, Parnassus, and Helicon; the rivers are of no great size, and the lakes though numerous are inconsiderable; in the valleys the soil is fertile and agriculture is actively engaged in, although the methods adopted are still somewhat primitive; but favoured by a delightful climate the vine, olive, and other fruit-trees flourish; currants are the chief article of export, and textiles and cereals the principal imports; milling, dyeing, distilling, and tanning are important industries; various minerals are found, and the marble from Paros is famed as the finest for statue carving; there is a considerable mercantile marine, and a busy shipping trade of a small kind among the islands and along the deeply indented coast, and also valuable coral and sponge fisheries; the government is a limited and hereditary monarchy, and the legislative power is vested in an elected chamber of, at least, 150 paid representatives, called the Boul[=e]; universal suffrage obtains, and the period of election is for four years; the bulk of the people belong to the established Greek Church, but in Thessaly and Epirus there are about 25,000 Mohammedans; education is free and compulsory, but is badly administered, and a good deal of illiteracy exists; the glory of Greece lies in her past, in the imperishable monuments of her ancient literature and art; by 146 B.C. she had fallen before the growing power of the Romans and along with the rest of the Byzantine or Eastern empire was overrun by the Turks in A.D. 1453; her renascence as a modern nation took place between 1821 and 1829, when she threw off the Turkish yoke and reasserted her independence, which she had anew to attempt by arms in 1897, this time with humiliation and defeat, till the other powers of Europe came to the rescue, and put a check to the arrogance of the high-handed Turk.
GREEK or EASTERN CHURCH, that section of the Church which formerly separated from the Roman or Western in 1054, which assumed an independent existence on account of the arrogant claims of the latter, and which acknowledges the authority of only the first seven general councils; they dissent from the FILIOQUE DOCTRINE (q. v.), administer the Eucharist in both kinds to the laity, and are zealously conservative of the orthodoxy of the Church.
GREEK FIRE, a combustible of highly inflammable quality, but of uncertain composition, used by the Greeks of the Byzantine Empire against the Saracens; a source of great terror to those who were assailed by it, as it was difficult to extinguish, so difficult that it was said to burn under water.
GREELEY, HORACE, American journalist and politician, born at Amherst, New Hampshire, the son of a poor farmer; was bred a printer, and in 1831 settled in New York; in a few years he started a literary paper the New Yorker, and shortly afterwards made a more successful venture in the Log Cabin, a political paper, following that up by founding the New York Tribune in 1841, and merging his former papers in the Weekly Tribune; till his death he advocated temperance, anti-slavery, socialistic and protectionist principles in these papers; in 1848 he entered Congress and became a prominent member of the Republican party; he visited Europe, and was chairman of one of the juries of the Great Exhibition; in 1872 he unsuccessfully opposed Grant for the Presidency; in religion he was a Universalist; his works include "The American Conflict," "Recollections," "Essays," &c. (1811-1872).
GREEN, JOHN RICHARD, historian, born at Oxford; took orders, and was for a time vicar of St. Philip's, Stepney, contributing articles the while on historical subjects to the Saturday Review, and pursuing his historical studies with a zeal that undermined his health; in 1874 he published his "Short History of the English People," which was speedily adopted in schools, and was accepted at large as one of the ablest summaries of the history of the country; the welcome with which this small work was received induced the author to essay a larger, which he accordingly by-and-by published in 4 volumes, and which he dedicated to "My Masters in the study of English History, Bishop Stubbs and Professor Freeman"; this was followed by "The Making of England" and "The Conquest of England," the latter being published after his decease (1837-1883).
GREEN, NATHANAEL, a celebrated American general, born at Warwick, Rhode Island; though the son of a Quaker, he promptly took up arms on the outbreak of hostilities with the mother-country, and in 1775, as brigadier-general, headed the force in Rhode Island; his gallant conduct at the battles of Princeton and Brandywine won him promotion, and in 1780 he was advanced to the command of the army of the south; after a temporary reverse from Cornwallis at Guildford Court, he conducted his operations with so much success that, with the crowning victory at Eutaw Springs (1781), he cleared the British from the States; his last days were spent on his estate in Georgia, a gift from government in recognition of his services; next to Washington he was the great hero of the war (1742-1788).
GREEN, THOMAS HILL, philosopher, born in Yorkshire; studied at Balliol College, Oxford; was elected a Fellow and became eventually Whyte's professor of Moral Philosophy; his philosophy had a Kantian root, developed to a certain extent on the lines of Hegel, which, however, he applied less in speculative than a spiritual interest, though he was not slow, on the ground of it, to assail the evolution theory of Herbert Spencer and G. H. Lewes; he was a great moral force in Oxford, and that apart from his philosophical speculations, though there can be little doubt that the philosophy which he had embraced was a potent element in his moral character and his influence; his views on the purely spiritual nature and derivation of the Christian religion have, since his death, attracted attention, and are regarded with some anxiety by those whose faith requires a historical basis (1838-1882).
GREENBACKS, a name given to the inconvertible paper currency issued in the United States during the Civil War, so called from the colour of the notes, bonds, &c.; the name has since been popularly applied to the paper money of the States; the notes were made convertible in 1879.
GREENLAND (11), an extensive but imperfectly defined territory lying mostly within the Arctic circle to the NE. of North America, from which it is separated by Davis Strait and Baffin Bay; the area is variously estimated from 512,000 to 320,000 sq. m.; the land lies submerged beneath a vast plain of ice, pierced here and there by mountain tops, but it is conjectured to consist of one large island-continent engirt by groups of smaller islands; only on the S. coast, during the meagre summer, is there any appearance of vegetation; there is a great variety of birds, and the animals include the wolf, fox, bear, reindeer, musk ox, and Arctic hare, while whales, seals, and many kinds of fish are found; the inhabitants are chiefly Esquimaux, but there are some Danish settlements, begun in 1721, and the trade is a Danish monopoly; the country was known in early times to the Scandinavians (of whose settlements there are interesting remains), and was rediscovered by John Davis in 1585.
GREENOCK (63), a flourishing seaport of Renfrewshire, on the Firth of Clyde, 22 m. W. of Glasgow; it stretches some 4 m. along the shore and climbs the hill slopes behind, whence it commands a splendid view of the river and Highlands beyond; the west end is handsomely laid out, and contains some fine buildings, including the Watt Institute, with library of 130,000 vols.; the harbourage is excellent, and favours a large foreign shipping trade; the staple industries are shipbuilding, engineering, spinning, sugar-refining, &c.; coal and iron are the chief exports, and sugar and timber the largest imports.
GREENOUGH, HORATIO, an American sculptor, spent most of his life in Rome and Florence; executed the colossal statue of Washington in front of the Capitol in Washington City, and a group of figures entitled "The Rescue" (1803-1852).
GREENWICH (78), an important borough of Kent (officially within the county of London), on the Thames, 5 m. SE. of London Bridge; its active industries embrace engineering, telegraph works, chemical works, &c.; the Royal Observatory, founded by Charles II. in 1675, occupies a commanding site within the Park; it is from this point that degrees of longitude with us are reckoned.
GREENWICH HOSPITAL, founded in 1694 by Queen Mary after designs by Christopher Wren, was from 1705 till 1869 an asylum for disabled sailors; since then the funds, amounting to £167,259 a year, have been distributed in pensions and also utilised for the upkeep of Greenwich Hospital Schools (where 1000 children of seamen receive board and education); since 1873 this hospital has served as the college for the Royal Navy.
GREENWOOD, FREDERICK, publicist and journalist; editor of Cornhill Magazine, author of Life of Napoleon III., "Lover's Lexicon," and "Dreams"; b. 1830.
GREG, WILLIAM RATHBONE, literary and political essayist, born in Manchester; in 1856 became a Commissioner of Customs, and from 1864 till his resignation in 1877 acted as Controller of H.M. Stationery Office; his works embrace "The Creed of Christendom," "Enigmas of Life," "Political Problems," &c., and are marked by vigorous thought couched in a lucid, incisive style; was from his evil prognostications designated Cassandra Greg (1809-1881).
GRÉGOIRE, HENRI, bishop of Blois, born at Vého, near Lunéville, one of the clerical deputies to the States-General of 1789; attached himself to the Tiers-état, was a member of the National Convention, and a staunch advocate for civil and religious liberty, but refused resolutely to follow "Goose Gobel," the archbishop of Paris, and renounce the Christian religion and deny his Master (1750-1831). See CARLYLE'S "FRENCH REVOLUTION."
GREGORIAN CALENDAR, the regulation of the year according to the correction introduced by Gregory XIII. in 1582 of the Julian calendar, which allowed the year 11 minutes and 10 seconds too much.
GREGORIAN YEAR, the civil year according to the correction of the Gregorian calendar.
GREGORY, the name of 16 popes: G. I., the Great, Pope from 590 to 604; G. II., st., pope from 715 to 731; G. III., Pope from 731 to 741; G. IV., pope from 827 to 844; G. V., Pope from 996 to 997; G. VI., pope from 1045 to 1046; G. VII., Pope from 1073 to 1085; G. VIII., pope in 1187; G. IX., Pope from 1227 to 1241; G. X., pope from 1271 to 1276; G. XI, Pope from 1370 to 1378; G. XII., pope from 1406 to 1415; G. XIII., Pope from 1572 to 1585; G. XIV., pope from 1590 to 1591; G. XV., Pope from 1621 to 1623; G. XVI., Pope from 1831 1846. Of these the following are worthy of note:--
GREGORY I., THE GREAT, and ST., born in Rome, son of a senator; made prætor of Rome; relinquished the office and became a monk; devoted himself to the regulation of church worship (instituting, among other things, the liturgy of the Mass), to the reformation of the monks and clergy, and to the propagation of the faith; saw some fair-haired British youths in the slave-market at Rome one day; on being told they were Angles, he said they should be Angels, and resolved from that day on the conversion of the nation they belonged to, and sent over seas for that purpose a body of monks under Augustin.
GREGORY II., ST., born at Rome and bred a Benedictine; is celebrated for his zeal in promoting the independence of the Church and the supremacy of the see of Rome, and for his defence of the use of images in worship.
GREGORY III., born in Syria; was successor of Gregory II., and carried out the same policy to the territorial aggrandisement of the Holy See at a time when it might have been overborne by secular invasions.
GREGORY VII., HILDEBRAND, born in Tuscany; bred up as a monk in a life of severe austerity, he became sensible of the formidable evils tending to the corruption of the clergy, due to their dependence on the Emperor for investiture into their benefices, and he set himself with all his might to denounce the usurpation and prohibit the practice, to the extent of one day ex-communicating certain bishop who had submitted to the royal claim and those who had invested them; his conduct roused the Emperor, Henry IV., who went the length of deposing him, upon which the Pope retaliated with a threat of excommunication; it ended in the final submission of Henry at CANOSSA (q. v.); the terms of submission imposed were intolerable, and Henry broke them, elected a Pope of his own, entered Rome, was crowned by him, and besieged Gregory in San Angelo, from which Guiscard delivered him to retire to Salerno, where he died, 1035; he was a great man and a good Pope.
GREGORY IX., UGOLINO, born in Campania; had during his pontificate contests with the Emperor Barbarossa, whom he twice over excommunicated; was the personal friend of St. Francis of Assisi, whom he canonised; died at a very advanced age.
GREGORY XIII., born in Bologna; was skilled in canon law; distinguished himself in the Council of Trent, and by his zeal against the Protestants; celebrated the Bartholomew Massacre by public thanksgivings in Rome, and reformed the calendar.
GREGORY XVI., born at Belluno; occupied the Papal chair at a time of great civil commotion, and had much to do to stem the revolutionary movements of the time; developed ultramontanist notions, and paved the way for the hierarchical policy of his successor Pio Nono.
GREGORY NAZIANZEN, ST., bishop of Constantinople, born in Cappadocia; studied in Athens, where he became the friend of St. Basil, and held discussions with Julian, afterwards emperor and apostate, who was also studying there; had been bishop of Nazianzus before he was raised by Theodosius to the bishopric of Constantinople, which he held only for a year, at the end of which he retired into solitude; he was the champion of orthodoxy, a defender of the doctrine of the Trinity, and famed for his invectives against Julian; he has left writings that have made his name famous, besides letters, sermons, and poems (328-389). Festival, May 9.
GREGORY OF NYSSA, ST., one of the Fathers of the Greek Church, brother of St. Basil, and bishop of Nyssa, in Cappadocia; he was distinguished for his zeal against the Arians, and was banished from his diocese at the instance of the Emperor Valens, who belonged to that sect, but returned to it after his death; he was an eminent theologian and a valiant defender of orthodoxy, on, according to Harnack, something like Hegelian lines (332-400). Festival, March 9.
GREGORY OF TOURS, ST., bishop of Tours, French theologian and historian, born at Clermont; was mixed up a good deal in the political strife of the time, and suffered not a little persecution; was the author of a "History of the Franks," the earliest of French chronicles, entitling him to be regarded as the "Father of Frankish History"; his history contains a great number of valuable documents, though it is written in a barbarous style, and not unfrequently evinces a lack of moral sensibility (540-594).
GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, ST., a theologian of the Greek Church, and a convert and disciple of Origen; became bishop of Neo-Cæsarea in Pontus; was present at the Council of Antioch; numerous conversions from paganism are ascribed to him, as well as numerous miracles; d. 270. Festival November 12.
GREGORY, DAVID, nephew of succeeding, born at Aberdeen; became professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh at the age of 23, and in 1691 was appointed Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford; was one of the first to publicly teach the principles of Newton's philosophy (1661-1708).
GREGORY, JAMES (1), inventor of the reflecting telescope, born in Aberdeen; after a three years' residence in Padua received the appointment of professor of Mathematics in St. Andrews, which he held from 1669 to 1674, when he was elected to the corresponding chair in Edinburgh; author of various mathematical treatises which display a fine originality; he was struck blind whilst working at his telescope (1638-1675).
GREGORY, JAMES (2), son of succeeding, was his successor in the chair of Medicine at Edinburgh, and wrote "Philosophical and Literary Essays"; compounded "Gregory's mixture" (1753-1821).
GREGORY, JOHN, grandson of James (1), born at Aberdeen, where he became professor of Medicine in 1755, whence ten years later he was translated to fill the corresponding chair in Edinburgh; his works include, among others, "A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World" (1724-1773).
GREGORY, WILLIAM, son of James (2); held successively the chairs of Chemistry in Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh; he translated Liebig's "Agricultural Chemistry," and was the first to advance and expound Liebig's theories (1803-1858).
GRENADA (54), one of the most picturesque of the Windward Islands, in the British West Indies, of volcanic origin; lies about 60 m. N. of Venezuela; the harbour of St. George, the capital, is the most sheltered anchorage in the Windward Islands; fruits, cocoa, and coffee are cultivated; it was ceded by France in 1783.
GRENFELL, SIR FRANCIS WALLACE, Major-General, late Sirdar of the Egyptian army, born in London; distinguished himself in Zulu, Transvaal, Egyptian, and Nile expeditions (1885-1892), and commanded forces in Egypt (1897-98); was presented by the Khedive with a sword of honour on his retirement, in souvenir of the victories of Giniss, Gamaizo, and Toski; b. 1841.
GRENOBLE (57), a strongly fortified city of France, capital of the dep. of Isère, on the river Isère, 58 m. SE. of Lyons; there are several fine old cathedrals, and a university with a library of 170,000 vols.; the manufacture of kid gloves is the staple industry.
GRENVILLE, GEORGE, statesman, younger brother of Earl Temple; was called to the bar in 1735, and six years later entered Parliament; held various offices of State, and in 1763 succeeded Bute as Prime Minister; his administration is noted for the prosecution of WILKES (q. v.), and the passing of the American Stamp Act, a measure which precipitated the American Revolution (1712-1770).
GRENVILLE, SIR RICHARD, a gallant seaman of Queen Elizabeth's time; already a knight, commanded the first expedition sent by Raleigh to colonise Virginia; took part in the defeat of the Armada, and in 1591, while commanding the Revenge in Lord Howard's squadron, engaged single-handed the entire Spanish fleet off the Azores; after a desperate fight of about 18 hours, during which time four of the Spanish vessels were sunk, and upwards of 2000 of their men slain or drowned, he surrendered, was carried wounded on board a Spanish ship, in which he died; the fight is celebrated in Tennyson's noble ballad "The Revenge."
GRENVILLE, WILLIAM WYNDHAM, LORD, statesman; entered Parliament in 1782; was not a man of brilliant parts, but his integrity and capacity for work raised him to the highest offices of State; in 1789 he was Speaker of the House of Commons, and a year later was raised to the peerage and made Home Secretary under Pitt; in 1791 he was Foreign Secretary; supported Catholic Emancipation and the Abolition of the Slave-trade; he was Premier from 1806 to 1807; later he supported Canning and Earl Grey (1759-1834).
GRESHAM, SIR THOMAS, founder of the Royal Exchange, born in London; son of Sir Richard Gresham, a wealthy mercer, who was knighted and made Lord Mayor in Henry VIII.'s reign; after studying at Cambridge entered the Mercers' Company, and in 1552, as "King's agent" in Antwerp, negotiated important loans with the Flemish merchants; under the Catholic régime of Mary he was dismissed, but was shortly after restored, and in 1559 appointed ambassador in Antwerp; between 1566 and 1571 he carried through his project of erecting an Exchange, and his munificence was further displayed in the founding of a college and eight almshouses; in 1569 he was instrumental in bringing about the important fiscal arrangement of borrowing from home merchants instead of as formerly from foreign merchants (1519-1579).
GRESHAM COLLEGE, college founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1575, and managed by the Mercer's Company, London, where lectures are delivered, twelve each year, by successive lecturers on physics, rhetoric, astronomy, law, geometry, music, and divinity, to form part of the teaching of University College.
GRETCHEN, the German diminutive for Margaret, and the name of the guileless girl seduced by Faust in Goethe's tragedy of the name.
GRETNA GREEN, a village in Dumfriesshire, over the border from England, famous from 1754 to 1856 for clandestine marriages, which used latterly to be celebrated in the blacksmith's shop.
GRÉTRY, a celebrated musical composer, born at Liège, composed 40 operas marked by feeling and expression, the "Deux Avares," "Zemire et Azor," and "Richard Coeur de Lion" among them; he bought Rousseau's hermitage at Montmorency, where he died (1741-1813).
GREUZE, JEAN BAPTISTE, a French painter, much esteemed for his portraits and exquisite genre pieces; he died in poverty (1725-1805).
GRÈVE, PLACE DE, place of public execution in Paris at one time.
GREVILLE, CHARLES CAVENDISH FULKE, celebrated for his "Memoirs"; after quitting Oxford he acted as private secretary to Earl Bathurst, and from 1821 to 1860 was Clerk of the Council in Ordinary; it was during his tenure of this office that he enjoyed exceptional opportunities of meeting the public men of his times, and of studying the changing phases of political and court-life of which he gives so lively a picture in his "Memoirs" (1794-1865).
GREVILLE, FULKE, a minor English poet, born at Beauchamp Court, Warwickshire; was educated at Cambridge and Oxford; travelled on the Continent; played a part in the court-life of Elizabeth's time; was knighted in 1597, and in 1620 was created Lord Brooke; he was murdered in a scuffle with his valet (1554-1628).
GRÉVILLE, HENRY, the pseudonym of Madame Alice Durand (née Fleury), novelist, born at Paris; her works, which are numerous, contain lively pictures of life in Russia, in which country, in St. Petersburg, she spent 15 years of her life (1857-72), and married Émile Durand, a French professor of Law; since 1872 she has lived in France; b. 1842.
GRÉVY, FRANÇOIS, PAUL JULES, French President, born at Mont-sous-Vaudrey, Jura; became prominent at the Paris bar, and after the '48 Revolution entered the Constituent Assembly, of which he became Vice-President; his opposition to Louis Napoleon, and disapproval of his coup d'état, obliged him to retire; but in 1869 he again entered the political arena, and was four times chosen President of the National Assembly; in 1879 he was elected President of the Republic for seven years, and in 1886 was confirmed in his position for a similar period, but ministerial difficulties induced him to resign two years later (1807-1891).
GREY, CHARLES, FIRST EARL, soldier; as Sir Charles Grey of Howick he distinguished himself in the wars with the American Colonies and the French Republic, and in 1804 was rewarded with a Barony, and two years later was made Earl Grey (1728-1807).
GREY, CHARLES, 2ND EARL, party to the impeachment of Warren Hastings; tried to impeach Pitt; denounced union with Ireland; became leader of the House of Commons in 1806; carried Act for the Abolition of the African Slave-trade; succeeded to the earldom in 1807, and denounced the Bill against Queen Caroline; becoming Prime Minister in 1830 he was defeated, and resigned twice over the Reform Bill; returning to power in 1832, with permission to make as many peers as might be needed, he succeeded at last in passing the Bill; he was head of a powerful party in the reformed Parliament, and carried the bill abolishing slavery in the Colonies, but resigned over Irish troubles in 1834 (1764-1845).
GREY, SIR GEORGE, colonial governor and statesman, born at Lisburn, Ireland; while a captain in the army he, in 1837 and 1838, explored Central Australia and the Swan River district; in 1841, having retired from the army, he became Governor of South Australia; was made K.C.B. for his services: in 1846 was Governor of New Zealand, and in 1854 Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope, where he conciliated the Kaffirs; in 1858 a difference with the home government led him to resign, but he was soon re-established; from 1861 to 1867 he was at his former post in New Zealand, where he pacified the Maories; in 1875 he was Superintendent of Auckland, and in 1877-84 was Premier of New Zealand; he is the author of "Journals of Discovery in Australia," "Polynesian Mythology," &c. (1812-1898).
GREY, LADY JANE, the ill-fated "nine days' queen," born at Bradgate, Leicestershire; was the daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and the great-granddaughter of Henry VII.; her talents were of a rare order, and sedulously cultivated; she attained to great proficiency in Greek, Latin, and also in modern languages, while she was skilled in all the accomplishments of womanhood; a plot entered into by Suffolk and the Duke of Northumberland, whose son Lady Jane had been forced to espouse at 15, brought about her proclamation as Queen in 1553; the attempted usurpation was crushed in ten days, and four months later Lady Jane and her husband were executed (1537-1554).
GREY FRIARS, the FRANCISCANS (q. v.), from their grey habit.
GRIEG, EDOARD, Norwegian composer, born at Bergen, of Scotch descent; received his first musical lessons from his mother, and at 15 went to Leipzig; in 1863 was at Copenhagen and then established himself as a teacher at Christiania, where he continued eight years and became intimate with Ibsen; subsequently, after leading an unsettled life, he received a government pension, and after that devoted himself to musical composition; his music, chiefly pianoforte pieces and songs, achieved a wide popularity in England and Scotland; b. 1843.
GRIERSON, SIR ROBERT, OF LAG, a notorious persecutor of the Covenanters, whose memory is still regarded with odium among the peasants of Galloway; was for some years Steward of Kirkcudbright; was in 1685 made a Nova Scotia baronet, and awarded a pension (1655-1733).
GRIESBACH, JOHANN JACOB, German theologian and biblical critic, born in Hesse-Darmstadt; produced a critical revision of the text of the New Testament, the chief labour of his life, for which he visited and ransacked the various libraries of Europe (1745-1812).
GRIFFIN or GRIFFON, a chimerical fabulous animal with the body and legs of a lion in symbol of strength, with the wings and beak of an eagle in symbol of swiftness, with the ears of a horse in symbol of watchfulness, and instead of a mane the fin of a fish; figures among heraldic symbols with the significance here indicated.
GRILLPARZER, FRANZ, popular Austrian dramatist, born at Vienna; studied law and then entered the Civil Service, in which he remained from 1813 to 1856; his first notable drama was the tragedy "Die Ahnfrau," the motif of which is an extreme fatalism; "Sappho," "Das goldene Vliess," and many others followed, all of which are marked by dramatic power and lyric grace; he stands in the front rank of Austrian poets (1791-1872).
GRIMALDI, JOSEPH, a famous English clown, son of an Italian dancing-master, born in London; was bred to the stage from his infancy, appearing on the boards when not yet two years old; his Memoirs were edited by Dickens, who describes him as "the genuine droll, the grimacing, filching, irresistible clown" (1779-1837).
GRIMM, BARON, a German littérateur and critic, born at Ratisbon; a man of versatile powers and vast attainments; settled in Paris and became acquainted with Rousseau and the leading Encyclopédists and Madame d'Epinay; on the breaking out of the Revolution he retired to the court of Gotha and afterwards to that of Catharine II. of Russia, who made him her minister at Hamburg; his correspondence is full of interest, and abounds in piquant literary criticism (1723-1807).
GRIMM, JACOB LUDWIG, German philologist, born at Hanau; held office as librarian to Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, and afterwards to Göttingen University, as well as a professorship there, devoting himself the while chiefly to studies in early German lore, and afterwards with his brother settled in Berlin; his principal works were, "Deutsche Grammatik," "Deutsche Mythologie," "Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache," and the "Kinder-und-Haus-Märchen" in collaboration with his brother (1785-1863).
GRIMM, WILHELM KARL, philologist, younger brother of the preceding, born at Hanau; was associated both in his appointments and work with his brother, the two being known as the Brothers Grimm; edited several old German poems, his principal work "Die Deutsche Heldensage" (1786-1859).
GRIMM'S LAW, as enunciated by J. L. Grimm, is the law regulating the interchange of mute consonants in languages of Aryan origin, aspirates, flats, and sharps in the classical languages corresponding respectively to flats, sharps, and aspirates in Low German, and to sharps, aspirates, and flats in High German tongues.
GRIMSBY or GREAT GRIMSBY (59), a seaport of Lincolnshire, on the S. shore of the Humber, opposite Spurn Head, 20 m. SE. of Hull; was a port of importance in Edward III.'s time; is now noted as the largest fishing-port in the kingdom; has extensive docks, shipbuilding, tanning, brewing, and other industries.
GRINDAL, EDMUND, archbishop of Canterbury; was suspended for respecting his conscience more than the Queen (Elizabeth), but restored; offered to resign, but the Queen would not accept his resignation; became in the end blind from grief (1519-1583).
GRINDELWALD, a winter resort in Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland, in a beautiful valley 12½ m. long and 4 m. broad, and nearly 3500 ft. above sea-level.
GRINGO, a name of contempt in Mexico and South America for interlopers of English descent or speech.
GRINGORE, a French poet; flourished in the reigns of Louis XII. and Francis I.; was received with favour at court for political reasons, though he lashed its vices and those of the clergy; wrote satirical farces, and one especially at the instance of Louis against Pope Julius II., entitled "Le Jeu du Prince des Sots" (1476-1544).
GRIQUALAND, WEST AND EAST, British territories in South Africa. The former (83, 30 whites) lies to the N.E. of Cape Colony, between the Orange River on the S. and Bechuanaland on the N.; the diamond industry, of which Kimberley is the centre, is the chief source of wealth, and was begun in 1867; Kimberley is also the seat of government. The latter (153, 4 whites), situated in No-Man's-Land, between the Kaffir country and S. Natal, is chiefly inhabited by Griquas and Basutos. The first has been part of Cape Colony since 1881, and the second was annexed to that colony in 1871, though it is controlled by a chief-magistrate. Griqua is a name given to half-bloods of Dutch fathers and Hottentot mothers.
GRISELDA or GRISELDIS, a famous heroine of mediæval tradition; figures in Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Chaucer, and in later dramatists of England, Germany, and Spain; the beautiful daughter of a Piedmontese peasant, she was loved and married by the Marquis Walter of Saluzzo; his jealous affection subjected her to several cruel tests of love, which she bore with "wyfly pacience," and in the end "love was aye between them twa."
GRISI, GIULIA, a celebrated singer, born in Milan; Paris and London were the chief scenes of her triumphs; her greatest triumph was in playing the part of "Norma," in the opera of the name; she was famous alike for the beauty of her person and the quality of her voice (1811-1869).
GRISNEZ, CAPE, a headland with a lighthouse on the French coast opposite Dover, and the nearest point in France to England.
GRISONS (95), the largest of the Swiss cantons, lies in the SE. between Tyrol and Lombardy; consists of high mountains and valleys, amongst which are some of the most noted Alpine glaciers; the Engadine Valley, through which flows the Inn, is a celebrated health resort, as also the Davos Valley in the E.; some cereals are raised, but pasture and forest land occupy a large part of the canton, and supply the cattle and timber export trade; the population, which is small for the extent of territory, is a mixture of German, Romanic, and Italian elements.
GROCYN, WILLIAM, classical scholar, born at Bristol; was the first to teach Greek at Oxford, and the tutor in that department of Sir Thomas More and Erasmus (1442-1519).
GRODNO, a province and town of Russia; the latter (51) is on the Niemen, 148 m. NE. of Warsaw; has a Polish palace and medical school. The former (1,556) is a wide, pine-covered, swampy, yet fertile district, which produces good crops of cereals, and is a centre of the woollen industry.
GROLIER, JEAN, a famous bibliophile, whose library was dispersed in 1675; the bindings of the books being ornamented with geometric patterns, have given name to bindings in this style; they bore the inscription, "Io. Grolieri et Amicorum" (the property of Jean Grolier and his friends).
GRÖNINGEN (286), a low-lying province in the NE. of Holland, fronting the German Ocean on the N., and having Hanover on its eastern border; its fertile soil favours extensive farming and grazing; shipbuilding is an important industry. The capital (58) is situated on the Hunse, 94 m. NE. of Amsterdam; has several handsome buildings, a university (1614), botanic gardens, shipbuilding yards, and tobacco and linen factories.
GRONOVIUS, the name of two Dutch scholars, father and son, professors successively of belles-lettres at Leyden; John died 1671, and Jacob 1716.
GROS, ANTOINE JEAN, BARON, a French historical painter, born at Paris; his subjects were taken from events in the history of France, and especially in the career of Napoleon; his first work, received with unbounded enthusiasm, was "Pestiféré's de Jaffa," and his latest, a picture in the cupola of the Church of Geneviève, in Paris (1771-1835).
GROSE, CAPTAIN FRANCIS, an English antiquary, born at Greenford, Middlesex; was educated for an artist, and exhibited; proved a good draughtsman; became captain of Sussex militia; published the "Antiquities of England and Wales" (1773-1787); came to Scotland in 1789 on an antiquarian tour, and made the acquaintance of Burns, who celebrated him in his "Hear, Land o' Cakes and Brither Scots," as "a chield's amang you takin' notes, and faith he'll prent it"; was an easy-going man, with a corpulent figure, a smack of humour, and a hearty boon companion; lived to publish his "Antiquities of Scotland and Ireland"; died at Dublin in an apoplectic fit (1731-1791).
GROSSMITH, GEORGE, actor, famous for leading parts in Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, and since as giving single-handed dramatic sketches and songs, written by himself and set to music by himself; b. 1847.
GROSSMITH, WEEDON, actor, artist, and contributor to Art Magazine and Punch; brother of preceding.
GROSSETESTE, ROBERT, a famous bishop of Lincoln, born at Stradbroke, Suffolk, of peasant parents; a man of rare learning, he became a lecturer in the Franciscan school at Oxford, and rose through various stages to be bishop of Lincoln in 1235; he was an active Parliamentarian, and gave valuable assistance to his friend Simon de Montfort in the struggle with Henry III., and headed the Church reform party against the nepotism of Innocent IV.; according to Stubbs, "he was the most learned, the most acute, and most holy man of his time" (1175-1253).
GROTE, GEORGE, historian and politician, born at Clay Hill, near Beckenham, of German descent; was a banker to business; spent his leisure time in the study of philosophy and history; contributed to the Westminster Review, a philosophical Radical organ at that time; represented the City of London in that interest from 1833 to 1841, when he retired to devote all his time to his "History of Greece," of which the first volumes appeared In 1846 and the last in 1856, making 12 volumes in all; this work contributed to dispel many erroneous impressions, in regard particularly to Athens and its political constitution; wrote on Plato and Aristotle, but his philosophical creed made it impossible for him to do justice to the Greek metaphysics (1791-1871).
GROTEFEND, GEORG FRIEDRICH, antiquary and philologist, born at Minden, Hanover; was director of the Lyceum, Hanover; was the first to decipher the cuneiform inscriptions, a discovery which he gave to the world in 1802 (1775-1853).
GROTESQUE, THE, the combination in art of heterogeneous parts, suggested by some whimsically designed paintings in the artificial grottoes of Roman houses.
GROTIUS, HUGO, or HUIG VAN GROOT, a celebrated Dutch jurist and theologian, born at Delft; studied at Leyden under Scaliger, and displayed an extraordinary precocity in learning; won the patronage of Henri IV. while on an embassy to France; practised at the bar in Leyden, and in 1613 was appointed pensionary of Rotterdam; he became embroiled in a religious dispute, and for supporting the Arminians was sentenced to imprisonment for life; escaped in a book chest (a device of his wife), fled to Paris, and was pensioned by Louis XIII.; in 1625 he published his famous work on international law, "De Jure Belli et Pacis"; from 1634 to 1645 he acted as Swedish ambassador at Paris; his acute scholarship is manifested in various theological, historical, and legal treatises; his work "De Veritate Religionis Christiana;" is well known (1583-1645).
GROUCHY, EMMANUEL, MARQUIS DE, a French marshal, born at Paris; entered the army in 1780, and later gave enthusiastic support to the Revolution, laying aside his title; took part in the Vendéan campaign, the abortive attempt on Ireland, and, under Joubert, in the conquest of Italy; was a gallant and daring commander in the Piedmontese, Austrian, and Russian campaigns of Napoleon, and by skilful generalship covered the retreat of the French at Leipzig; he was among the first to welcome Napoleon back from Elba, defeated Blücher at Ligny, but failed to be forward in the field of Waterloo; led the remnants of the French army back to Paris afterwards, and then retired to the United States; in 1819 he returned, and in 1831 was reinstated as marshal (1766-1847).
GROVE, SIR GEORGE, born at Clapham; trained as a civil engineer, and assisted Robert Stephenson in constructing the Britannia tubular bridge; in 1849 he became secretary to the Society of Arts, a position he held till 1852, when he became secretary and director of the Crystal Palace Company; subsequently he was editor of Macmillan's Magazine, a contributor to Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," and is best known for the "Dictionary of Music and Musicians" which he edited and partly wrote; was knighted in 1883; b. 1820.
GROVE. SIR WILLIAM ROBERT, lawyer and physicist, burn at Swansea; called to the bar; was made a judge in 1871, and knighted a year later, and from 1875 to 1887 he was one of the judges in the High Court of Justice; throughout his life he busied himself in optical and electrical research; in 1839 invented the electric battery named after him, and from 1840 to 1847 lectured on Natural Science in the London Institution; in 1866 he was President of the British Association; his scientific publications are various, and are important contributions to their subjects (1811-1896).
GRUB STREET, a street in London near Moorfields, formerly inhabited by a needy class of jobbing literary men, and the birthplace of inferior literary productions.
GRUNDTVIG, NIKOLAI FREDERIK SEVERIN, Danish poet and theologian, born in Zealand; was early smitten with a passion for the old Saga literature of the North, and published in 1808 "Northern Mythology," which was followed by other works of a similar nature, patriotic songs, and a translation of "Beowulf"; he entered the Church as a curate in 1811; engaged in ardent controversy with the rationalists; became leader of a Church reform party, the Grundtvigians; was for seven years suspended from preaching, and eventually rose to be a bishop in Copenhagen, but had no see (1783-1872).
GRUNDY, MRS., an old lady referred to in Thomas Morgan's comedy of "Speed the Plough," personifying the often affected extreme offence taken by people of the old school at what they consider violations of propriety.
GRUYÈRE, a small town in FREIBURG (q. v.), where whole-milk cheese is made.
GUACHO, a native of the South American pampas.
GUADALQUIVIR, the most important river of Spain, rises in the Sierra de Cazorla, in the southern province of Jaen, and flows in a SW. direction through Andalusia, passing Cordova and Seville, to which town it is navigable for steamers; after a course of 374 m. it discharges into the Gulf of Cadiz at San Lucar de Barrameda.
GUADELOUPE (168), a French island among the Lesser Antilles, in the W. Indies; is subject to earthquakes; produces sugar and coffee; has belonged to France since 1816.
GUADIANA, an important river of Spain, has its source in the E. of the plateau of Mancha, and for a short distance is known as the Zancara, flows in a westerly direction as far as Badajoz, where it bends to the S., then forms the border between Portugal and Spain for a short distance, bends into Alemtejo, and again, ere reaching the Gulf of Cadiz, divides the two countries; it is 510 m. long, of which only 42 are navigable.
GUANAJUATO (1,007), a central province of Mexico; is rich in minerals, especially silver, and mining is the chief occupation; but stock-raising is of some importance, and large cotton and woollen factories have of recent years been introduced. The capital, Guanajuato (52), is built on both sides of a deep ravine traversed by a dashing torrent; it is the centre of the mining industry.
GUATEMALA (1,510), a republic of Central America, fronting the Pacific on the W., between Mexico on the N., and San Salvador and Honduras on the S.; is for the most part mountainous, with intervening valleys of rich fertility, little explored; minerals are abundant, and gold and silver are worked, but the wealth of the country lies in its fertile soil, which produces abundance of coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and fruits of all kinds; there is some manufacture of textiles, pottery, &c.; the want of good roads has hindered the development of the country; Roman Catholicism prevails, and the government is vested in a President and Council; its independence was proclaimed in 1839. The capital, Guatemala (85), stands on a plateau 72 m. NE. of its port, San José; there is a cathedral and an archbishop's palace, also electric light, and tramway conveyance.
GUAYAQUIL (45), the principal port of Ecuador, stands at the entrance of the river Guayaquil into the Gulf of Guayaquil; the foreign trade is centred here; there are sawmills and iron-works; coffee is by far the largest export; the town is badly laid out, and yellow fever is common.
GUBERNATIS, ANGELO DE, a distinguished Italian scholar, born at Turin; in 1863 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit at Florence; was for a time smitten with the anarchist ideas of Bakunin, whose daughter he married, and resigned his chair, but soon returned to his professional labours; in 1891 he became professor of Sanskrit at Rome; his numerous writings witness to his unceasing industry and versatility, and deal with Orientalism, mythology, archæology, and general literature; his work "Zoological Mythology," published in English by Mr. Trübner, is not unknown to scholars among us; b. 1840.
GUDRUN, a heroine in an old German epic so called; betrothed to Herwig, king of Zealand, and carried off by Hochmut, king of Norway, a rejected suitor; preferred out of respect to her vow to serve as a menial in his mother's kitchen rather than be his wife; was rescued from durance by her brother and her betrothed, and being married to Herwig, pardoned the suitor that had stolen her from his embraces.
GUELDERLAND (523), a province of Holland, stretching from the Zuider Zee on the NW. to Prussia on the SE.; agriculture is the staple industry; the Rhine crosses it in the S.
GUELPHS, a political party in Italy, who from the 11th to the 14th centuries maintained, against the claims of the Emperors, the independence of Italy, and the supremacy of the Pope, in opposition to the GHIBELLINES (q. v.).
GUERICKE, OTTO VON, a German physicist, born at Magdeburg; experimented on air, and invented the air-pump (1602-1686).
GUERIN, MAURICE DE, a French poet, of noble birth; bred for the Church, but broke away from it; of a genius of marked promise, whose days were cut short by an early death; his works included a prose poem called the "Centaur" (1810-1838).
GUERIN, PIERRE, a French painter; treated classical subjects in the classical style (1774-1833)
GUERNSEY (35), the second in size of the CHANNEL ISLANDS (q. v.); fruit and vegetables are largely exported, and it is noted for a fine breed of cows; St. Peter's Port is the only town, and has an excellent harbour.
GUERRAZZI, FRANCESCO DOMENICO, an Italian patriot and author, born at Leghorn; was trained to the law, but took to literature and produced a number of brilliant political novels; after the flight of the Duke of Tuscany in 1849 he was proclaimed dictator of the duchy, although little in sympathy with the republican government, and on the restoration of the duke was imprisoned for three years and banished to Corsica; later he sat in the Turin Parliament from 1862 to 1865 (1804-1873).
GUESCLIN, BERTRAND DU. See DU GUESCLIN, BERTRAND.
GUEST, EDWIN, master of Caius College, Cambridge, antiquary; wrote only one book "History of English Rhythms," a work of great learning, but contributed papers of great value on the early history of England in learned journals (1800-1880).
GUEUX, "the Beggars," the name assumed by the nobles and others in the Low Countries in the War of Independence against Philip II. of Spain; being called beggars in reproach by the court party, they adopted the name as well as the dress, wore a fox's tail for a plume and a platter for a brooch.
GUIANA, an extensive tract of country in the N. of S. America fronting the Atlantic, bordering on Venezuela on the W., and for the rest hemmed in by Brazil; it is divided into British, Dutch, and French Guiana, all fronting the sea; the physical characteristics of all three are practically the same; a fertile alluvial foreshore, with upward-sloping savannahs and forests to the unexplored highlands, dense with luxuriant primeval forest; rivers numerous, climate humid and hot, with a plentiful rainfall; vegetation, fauna, &c., of the richest tropical nature; timber, balsams, medicinal barks, fruits, cane-sugar, rice, cereals, &c., are the chief products; also some gold. BRITISH GUIANA (278) is the most westerly, and borders on Venezuela; area, 88,650 sq. m., divided into Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo; GEORGETOWN (q. v.) is the capital. DUTCH GUIANA or Surinam (73) occupies the central position; area, 46,058 sq. m.; capital PARAMARIBO (q. v.). FRENCH GUIANA or Cayenne (30) lies to the E.; area, 31,000 sq. m; capital, CAYENNE (q. v.).
GUICCIARDINI, an Italian statesman and historian, born in Florence; studied law; became professor of Jurisprudence there; was a disciple of Macchiavelli; did service as a statesman in the Papal territories; took a leading part in the political changes of Florence; secured the restoration of the Medici to power, and on his retirement composed a "History of Italy during his Own Time," which he had all but completed when he died (1485-1540).
GUICHARD, KARL, a Prussian officer, born at Magdeburg; joined Frederick the Great at Breslau, "a solid staid man, of a culture unusual for a soldier; brought with him his book, 'Memoirs Militaires sur les Grecs et les Romans,' a solid account of the matter by the first man who ever understood both war and Greek; very welcome to Frederick, whom he took to very warmly; dubbed him Quintus Icilius, and had his name so entered as major on the army books; promoted at length to colonel, a rank he held till the end of the war" (1721-1775). See Carlyle's "Frederick."
GUICOWAR, the hereditary title of the Mahratta princes who rule over BARODA (q. v.), in Gujarat, East India.
GUIDO ARETINUS, a Benedictine monk who flourished at Arezzo, in Italy, during the 11th century, the first to promote the theoretical study of music; he is credited, amongst other things, with the invention of counterpoint, and was the first to designate notes by means of alphabetical letters, and to establish the construction of the stave.
GUIDO RENI, Italian painter of the school of Bologna; best known by his masterpiece "Aurora and the Hours" at Rome, painted on a ceiling, and his unfinished "Nativity" at Naples (1575-1642).
GUIENNE (a corruption of Aquitania), an ancient province of SW. France, now subdivided into the departments of Gironde, Dordogne, Lot, Aveyron, and embraces parts of Lot-et-Garonne and Tarn-et-Garonne.
GUIGNES, JOSEPH DE, an eminent French Orientalist, and Sinologist especially; was author of "Histoire Générale des Huns, des Turcs, des Moguls, &c.," a work of vast research (1721-1800).
GUILDFORD (14), capital of Surrey, on the Wey, 30 m. SW. of London, a quaint old town with several interesting buildings, and the ruins of a Norman castle; is noted for its "Surrey wheats" and live-stock markets; and has corn, paper, and powder-mills, also iron-works.
GUILDHALL, a building in London and a hall for banquets of the City Corporation; destroyed by the fire of 1666 and rebuilt in 1789.
GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC, an institution established by the Corporation of London to provide advanced and thorough instruction in music at a moderate rate, a fine building in connection with which was erected in 1887; started with 62, and has now 3600 pupils. The Corporation have expended £50,000 on it, besides an annual contribution of £2300.
GUILDS, associations of craftsmen or tradesmen in the Middle Ages to watch over and protect the interests of their craft or trade, and to see that it is honourably as well as economically conducted, each with a body of officials to superintend its affairs; they were associations for mutual help, and of great benefit to the general community, religiously and morally, as well as municipally.
GUILLOTINE, a beheading-machine invented by a Dr. Guillotin, and recommended by him to the National Convention, which adopted it; "with my machine, Messieurs, I whisk off your head in a twinkling, and you have no pain;" it was anticipated by the Maiden in Scotland.
GUINEA, a name somewhat loosely applied to an extensive tract of territory on the W. coast of Africa, generally recognised as extending from the mouth of the Senegal in the N. to Cape Negro in the S., and is further designated as Lower and Upper Guinea, the boundary line being practically the Equator; the territory is occupied by various colonies of Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and the Negro Republic of Liberia.
GUINEGATE, a village in Hainault, SW. of Belgium, where Henry VIII. defeated the French in 1513 in the Battle of the SPURS (q. v.).
GUINEVERE, the wife of King Arthur; the most beautiful of women, conceived a guilty passion for Lancelot, one of Arthur's knights, and married Modred, her husband's nephew, in the latter's absence on an expedition against the Romans, on hearing of which he returned, met Modred on the field of battle, whom he slew, fell mortally wounded himself, while she escaped to a nunnery. Tennyson gives a different version in his "Idylls."
GUISCARD, ROBERT, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, born at Coutances, in Normandy; along with his brothers, sons of Tancred de Hauteville, he, the sixth of twelve, following others of the family, invaded S. Italy; won renown by his great prowess, and in the end the dukedom of Apulia; he engaged in war with the Emperor of the East, but returned to suppress a revolt in his own territory; when Pope Gregory VII. was besieged in San Angelo by Henry IV. of Germany he came to the rescue and the emperor made off (1015-1085).
GUISE, a celebrated French ducal family deriving its title from the town of Guise in Aisne.
GUISE, CHARLES, CARDINAL OF LORRAINE, DUKE OF, son of the succeeding, and considered the ablest of the Guise family; was archbishop of Rheims in 1538, and cardinal of Lorraine in 1547; was prominent at the Council of Trent, and in conjunction with his brother fiercely opposed Protestantism (1527-1574).
GUISE, CLAUDE OF LORRAINE, first Duke of, fifth son of René II., Duke of Lorraine; distinguished himself in the service of Francis I., who conferred on him the dukedom of Guise; was the grandfather of Mary, Queen of Scots, through his daughter Marie, wife of James V. of Scotland (1496-1550).
GUISE, FRANCIS, second Duke of, and son of preceding; rose, to the highest eminence as a soldier, winning, besides many others, the great victory of Metz (1552) over the Germans, and capturing Calais from the English in 1558; along with his brother CHARLES (q. v.) he was virtual ruler of France during the feeble rule of Francis II., and these two set themselves to crush the rise of Protestantism; he was murdered by a Huguenot at the siege of Orleans (1519-1563).
GUISE, HENRY I., third Duke of, son of Francis; the murder of his father added fresh zeal to his inborn hatred of the Protestants, and throughout his life he persecuted them with merciless rigour; he was a party to the massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572); his ambitious designs on the crown of France brought about his assassination (1550-1588).
GUISE, HENRY II., fifth Duke of, grandson of preceding; at 15 he became archbishop of Rheims, but the death of his brother placed him in the dukedom (1640); he opposed Richelieu, was condemned to death, but fled to Flanders; with Masaniello he made a fruitless attempt to seize the kingdom of Naples, and eventually settled in Paris, becoming grand-chamberlain to Louis XIV. (1614-1664).
GUIZOT, FRANÇOIS PIERRE GUILLAUME, a celebrated French historian and statesman, born at Nîmes; his boyhood was spent at Geneva, and in 1805 he came to Paris to study law, but he soon took to writing, and in his twenty-fourth year had published several works and translated Gibbon's great history; in 1812 he was appointed to the chair of History in the Sorbonne; on the second restoration (1814) became Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Interior; the return of Napoleon drove him from office, but on the downfall of the Corsican he received the post of Secretary to the Ministry of Justice; in 1830 he threw in his lot with Louis Philippe, became Minister of Public Instruction, Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister; his political career practically closed with the downfall of Louis Philippe; his voluminous historical works, executed between his terms of office and in his closing years, display wide learning and a great faculty of generalisation; the best known are "The History of the English Revolution" and "The History of Civilisation"; as a statesman he was honest, patriotic, but short-sighted (1787-1874).
GUJARAT (3,098), a N. maritime province of the Presidency of Bombay, lying between the Gulfs of Cutch and Cambay; it is a rich alluvial country, and chiefly comprises the native States of Kathiawar, Cutch, and Baroda.
GULF STREAM, the most important of the great ocean currents; it issues by the Strait of Florida from the Gulf of Mexico (whence its name), a vast body of water 50 m. wide, with a temperature of 84° and a speed of 5 m. an hour; flows along the coast of the U.S. as far as Newfoundland, whence it spreads itself in a NE. direction across the Atlantic, throwing out a branch which skirts the coasts of Spain and Africa, while the main body sweeps N. between the British Isles and Iceland, its influence being perceptible as far as Spitzbergen; the climate of Britain has been called "the gift of the Gulf Stream," and it is the genial influence of this great current which gives to Great Britain and Norway their warm and humid atmosphere, and preserves them from experiencing a climate like Labrador and Greenland, a climate which their latitude would otherwise subject them to.
GULL, SIR WILLIAM WITHEY, physician, born at Thorpe-le-Soken; received his medical training at London, and in 1843 became professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution; four years later he was appointed clinical lecturer at Guy's Hospital; in 1871 his attendance on the Prince of Wales brought him a baronetcy; published various lectures and papers on cholera, paralysis, &c. (1816-1890).
GULLIVER, the hero of Swift's satirical romance entitled "Gulliver's Travels," which records his adventures among the pigmies of Lilliput, the giants of Brobdingnag, the quacks of Laputa, and the HOUYHNHNMS (q. v.).
GULLY, RIGHT HON. WILLIAM COURT, Speaker of the House of Commons since 1895; has represented Carlisle since 1886, is son of Dr. Gully of water-cure celebrity; b. 1835.
GUN-COTTON, a powerful explosive formed by the action of nitric or sulphuric acid on cotton or some similar vegetable fibre.
GUN-METAL, a tough, close-grained alloy of copper and tin.
GUNNINGS, two beautiful Irish girls, MARIA (1733-1760) and ELIZABETH (1734-1790), the elder of whom became Countess of Cromarty, and the younger married first the Duke of Hamilton (1752) and afterwards the first Duke of Argyll (1759).
GUNPOWDER PLOT, an attempt on the part of a conspiracy to blow up the Parliament of England on Nov. 5, 1605, on the day of the opening, when it was expected the King, Lords, and Commons would be all assembled; the conspirators were a small section of Roman Catholics dissatisfied with King James's government, and were headed by Robert Catesby, the contriver of the plot; the plot was discovered, and Guy Fawkes was arrested as he was proceeding to carry it into execution, while the rest, who fled, were pursued, taken prisoners, and the chief of them put to death.
GUNTER, EDMUND, mathematician, born in Hertfordshire; was educated at Oxford for the Church, but his natural bent was towards mathematical science, and in 1619 he became professor of Astronomy in Gresham College, London, a position he held till his death; his "Canon Triangulorum" (1620) was the first table of logarithmic sines and tangents drawn up on Briggs's system; amongst other of his inventions was the surveying chain, a quadrant, Gunter's scale, and he was the first to observe the variations of the compass (1581-1626).
GUNTHER, king of Burgundy and brother of Chriemhild; his ambition was to wed BRUNHILDA (q. v.), who could only be won by one who surpassed her in three trials of skill and strength; by the help of Siegfried, who veiled himself in a cloak of darkness, he succeeded not only in winning her hand, but in reducing her to wifely subjection after she was wed.
GUPPY, the name of a pert, conceited lawyer's clerk who figures in Dickens's "Bleak House."
GURNEY, JOSEPH JOHN, a Quaker philanthropist and writer, born at Earlham Hall, near Norwich; in 1818 he became a Quaker minister; he energetically co-operated with his sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, in bringing about a reform of the prison system, and otherwise spent his life in philanthropic work; his works include "Prison Discipline," 1819, "Religious Peculiarities of the Society of Friends," 1824 (1788-1847).
GUSTAVUS (I.) VASA or GUSTAVUS ERICSSEN, king of Sweden from 1523 to 1560, born at Lindholm, in Upland; having conceived the idea of freeing his country from the yoke of Denmark, under which it had fallen in 1519, and his early efforts to infuse a spirit of patriotic rebellion into the Swedes proving ineffectual, he was captured by the Danes; escaping from captivity, he became a wanderer in his own land, working in mines and enduring great privations, but at last, in 1520, the Swedes were goaded to rebellion, and under him eventually drove the Danes from their land in 1523; during his long reign Gustavus gradually brought his at first disorganised empire into a peaceful and united realm (1496-1560).
GUSTAVUS (II.) ADOLPHUS, king of Sweden from 1611 to 1632, born at Stockholm, grandson of preceding and son of Charles IX.; successful territorial wars with Denmark and Russia occupied him during the early years of his reign, and in 1629 he concluded an advantageous truce for six years with Poland; next he espoused the Protestant cause in Germany against the Catholic League; victory crowned his efforts at every step, but in the great battle of Lützen (near Leipzig), whilst facing WALLENSTEIN (q. v.), his most powerful opponent, he fell in the act of rallying his forces, and in the hour of success, not without suspicion of having been assassinated; he ranks amongst the greatest of champions (1594-1632).
GUSTAVUS III., king of Sweden from 1771 to 1792; succeeded his father Adolphus Frederick; he found himself early at conflict with his nobles, and in 1772, supported by popular feeling, imposed a new constitution on the country greatly diminishing their power; Gustavus was an enlightened ruler, but somewhat alienated his people from him by his extravagance and fondness for French modes of life; in 1788 he became embroiled in a purposeless war with Russia; he was assassinated when about to take up arms in behalf of the Bourbon cause against the French Republicans (1746-1792).
GUSTAVUS IV., king of Sweden from 1792 to 1809, son of preceding; his incompetency and stubbornness made him an ill ruler; territory was lost to the French, and Finland to Russia, while an attack on Norway proved a failure; popular indignation rose to a height in 1809; he was deposed, and the crown given to his uncle, Charles XIII.; after this he lived on the Continent (1778-1837).
GUTENBURG, JOHANNES or HENNE, also called GENSFLEISCH, claimed by the Germans to have been the inventor of the art of printing with movable types, born at Mainz; for some time lived in Strasburg as a polisher of precious stones, mirrors, &c.; he set up his first printing-press at Mainz about 1450 (1400-1468).
GUTHRIE, THOMAS, a Scottish clergyman, distinguished as a pulpit orator and a philanthropist, born in Brechin; was minister at Arbirlot, near Arbroath, and then in Edinburgh; left the Established Church at the Disruption, and became minister of St. John's; traversed the country (1845-46) to raise a fund to provide manses for the Disruption ministers, and realised £116,000 for the object; came forward as an advocate for ragged schools, and founded one in Edinburgh; he was a warm-hearted man as well as an eloquent, who could both move his audience to tears and rouse it to enthusiasm (1803-1873).
GUTTA-PERCHA, the inspissated juice of a tree found in the Malay Archipelago.
GUY, THOMAS, founder of Guy's Hospital, London, born at Horsleydown, Southwark, London; he started as a bookseller in 1668, and after the importation of English Bibles from Holland was stopped he obtained the privilege of printing Bibles for Oxford University; lucky speculation in South Sea stock, combined with his printing business, enabled him to amass an immense fortune, which he devoted largely to charitable purposes; from 1695 to 1702 he sat in Parliament (1645-1724).
GUY OF WARWICK, a hero of English romance of the 13th century, who won the hand of the daughter of the Earl of Warwick by a succession of astonishing feats of valour, but repented of the slaughter he had made, and went a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; returned to his wife disguised as a palmer; retired into a hermitage; when about to die sent a ring to her, upon which she came and interred him; she died 15 days after him, and was buried by his side.
GUYON, SIR, a knight in Spenser's "Faërie Queene," the impersonation of temperance and self-control; he subdued the sorceress Acrasia (i. e. intemperance), and was the destroyer of her "Bower of Bliss."
GWALIOR (3,378), a native State of Central India, under British protection since 1803; governed by the Maharajah Sindhia; area, 29,067 sq. m.; consists of scattered districts in the basins of the Jumna and Nerbudda; opium is the chief export. Gwalior, the capital (1,041), is situated 65 m. S. of Agra; the citadel is very strongly posted on a steep rocky base 340 ft. high.
GWYNN, NELL, a "pretty, witty" actress of Drury Lane, who became mistress of Charles II., whose son by her was created Duke of St. Albans; the king was very fond of her and took special thought of her when he was dying (1640-1691).
GYGES, a young shepherd of Lydia, who, according to classic legend, possessed a magic ring of gold by which he could render himself invisible; he repaired to the Court of Candaules, whose first minister he became, whose chamber he entered invisibly, and whom he put to death to reign in his stead.
GYMNOSOPHISTS, a set of contemplative philosophers among the Hindus who practised an extreme asceticism and went about almost naked.
GYMNOTUS, an electric eel of South America, and found in the fresh waters of Brazil and Guiana.
GYPSIES, a race of people of wandering habits, presumed to be of Indian origin, found scattered over Europe, Asia, and Africa, and even in America, who appear to have begun to migrate westward from the valley of the Indus about A.D. 1000, and to have reached Europe in the 14th century, and to owe their name gypsies to their supposed origin in Egypt. They in general adhere to their unsettled habits wherever they go, show the same tastes, and follow the same pursuits, such as tinkering, mat-making, basket-making, fortune-telling. On their first appearance they were mere vagabonds and thieves.
H
HAAFIZ. See HÄFIZ.
HAARLEM (58), a handsome town in the province of N. Holland on the Spaarne, 4 m. from the sea, and 12 m. W. of Amsterdam; has a fine 15th-century church with a famous organ (8000 pipes), linen and other factories, &c., and is noted for its tulip-gardens and trade in flower-bulbs; it is intersected by several canals as well as the rivers; there existed at one time a lagoon of the Zuyder Zee called HAARLEM LAKE, which stretched southward as far as Leyden, between Amsterdam and Haarlem; but destructive inundations, caused by the tidal advance in 1836, compelled the Government to set about draining it, and this difficult engineering operation was successfully carried through by an English company during 1839-52.
HABAKKUK, a book of the Old Testament by a Levite, whose name it bears, and who appears to have flourished in the 7th century B.C., containing a prophecy which belongs, both in substance and form, to the classic period of Hebrew literature, and is written in a style which has been described as being "for grandeur and sublimity of conception, for gorgeousness of imagery, and for melody of language, among the foremost productions of that literature." The spirit of it is one: faith, namely, in the righteous ways of the Lord; but the burden is twofold; to denounce the judgment of God on the land for the violence and wrong that prevailed in it, as about to be executed on it by a power still more violent and unjust in its ways; and to comfort the generation of the righteous with the assurance of a time when this very rod of God's wrath shall in the pride of its power be broken in pieces, and the Lord be revealed as seated in His Holy Temple.
HABBERTON, JOHN, author of "Helen's Babies," born in Brooklyn, New York; was first a clerk and then a journalist; his other works include "Other People's Children," "The Worst Boy in Town," &c.; b. 1842.
HABEAS CORPUS, an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Charles II. to ensure the protection of one accused of a crime prior to conviction in an open court of justice.
HABINGTON, THOMAS, a Worcester gentleman of fortune, involved at one time in a conspiracy to release Mary, Queen of Scots, from prison, and convicted at another of concealing some of the agents in the Gunpowder Plot (1560-1647).
HABINGTON, WILLIAM, poet and historian, son of the preceding; a devoted Catholic, "who did not run with the times"; author of "Castara," a collection of exquisite lyrics in homage to his wife, and in celebration of her charms and virtues (1605-1654).
HACHETTE, JEAN, French mathematician; one of the founders of the École Polytechnique (1769-1834).
HACHETTE, JEANNE, a French heroine, born in Beauvais, who took part in the defence of her native town when besieged in 1472 by Charles the Bold.
HACKLÄNDER, German novelist and dramatist, born near Aix-la-Chapelle; his writings, which show a genial humour, have been compared to those of Dickens (1816-1877).
HACKNEY (230), an important parish and borough of Middlesex, a suburb of London, 3 m. NE. of St. Paul's; returns three members of Parliament.
HACO V., king of Norway from 1223 to 1263; was defeated by Alexander III. of Scotland at Largs, and died at the Orkneys on his way home.
HADDINGTON (3), the county town, on the Tyne, 17 m. E. of Edinburgh; has interesting ruins of an abbey church, called the "Lamp of Lothian," a cruciform pile with a central tower, a corn exchange, &c.; was the birthplace of John Knox, Samuel Smiles, and Jane Welsh Carlyle.
HADDINGTONSHIRE or EAST LOTHIAN (37), a maritime county of Scotland, on the E. fronting the Firth of Forth and the North Sea, N. of Berwickshire; on the southern border lie the Lammermuir Hills; the Tyne is the only river; considerable quantities of coal and limestone are wrought, but agriculture is the chief industry, 64 per cent, of the land being under cultivation.
HADEN, SIR FRANCIS SEYMOUR, an etcher and writer on etching, born in London; was bred to medicine, and in 1857 became F.R.C.S.; in 1843 he took up etching as a pastime and has since pursued it with enthusiasm and conspicuous success; he has won medals in France, America, and England for the excellency of his workmanship, while his various writings have largely contributed to revive interest in the art; he is President of the Society of Painters, and in 1894 a knighthood was conferred upon him; b. 1818.
HADES (lit. the Unseen), the dark abode of the shades of the dead in the nether world, the entrance into which, on the confines of the Western Ocean, is unvisited by a single ray of the sun; originally the god of the nether world, and a synonym of PLUTO (q. v.).
HADITH, the Mohammedan Talmud, being a traditional account of Mahomet's sayings and doings.
HADJI, a Mohammedan who has made his Hadj or pilgrimage to Mecca, and kissed the Black Stone of the CAABA (q. v.); the term is also applied to pilgrims to Jerusalem.
HADLEIGH (3), an interesting old market-town of Suffolk, on the Bret, 9½ m. W. of Ipswich; its cloth trade dates back to 1331; Guthrum, the Danish king, died here in 889, and Dr. Rowland Taylor suffered martyrdom in 1555. Also a small parish of Essex, near the N. shore of the Thames estuary, 37 m. E. of London, where in 1892 the Salvation Army planted their farm-colony.
HADLEY, JAMES, an American Greek scholar, and one of the American committee on the revision of the New Testament (1821-1872).
HADLEY, JOHN, natural philosopher; invented a 5 ft. reflecting telescope, and a quadrant which bears his name, though the honour of the invention has been assigned to others, Newton included (1682-1744).
HADRAMAUT (150), a dry and healthy plateau in Arabia, extending along the coast from Aden to Cape Ras-al-Hadd, nominally a dependency of Turkey.
HADRIAN, Roman emperor, born in Rome; distinguished himself under Trajan, his kinsman; was governor of Syria, and was proclaimed emperor by the army on Trajan's death in A.D. 117; had troubles both at home and abroad on his accession, but these settled, he devoted the last 18 years of his reign chiefly to the administration of affairs throughout the empire; visited Gaul in 120, whence he passed over to Britain, where he built the great wall from the Tyne to the Solway; he was a Greek scholar, had a knowledge of Greek literature, encouraged industry, literature, and the arts, as well as reformed the laws (76-138).
HAECKEL, ERNST HEINRICH, an eminent German biologist, born at Potsdam; carried through his medical studies at Berlin and Vienna; early evinced an enthusiasm for zoology, and, after working for some time at Naples and Messina, in 1865 became professor of Zoology at Jena; here he spent a life of unceasing industry, varied only by expeditions to Arabia, India, Ceylon, and different parts of Europe in the prosecution of his scientific theories; he was the first among German scientists to embrace and apply the evolutionary theories of Darwin, and along these lines he has produced several works of first-rate importance in biology; his great works on calcareous sponges, on jelly-fishes, and corals are enriched by elaborate plates of outstanding value; he made important contributions to the Challenger reports, and was among the first to outline the genealogical tree of animal life; his name is associated with far-reaching speculations on heredity, sexual selection, and various problems of embryology; "The Natural History of Creation," "Treatise on Morphology," "The Evolution of Man," are amongst his more popular works; b. 1834.
HÄFIZ, his real name Shems-Eddin-Mohammed, the great lyric poet of Persia, born in Shiraz, where he spent his life; he has been called the Anacreon of Persia; his poetry is of a sensuous character, though the images he employs are Interpreted by some in a supersensuous or mystical sense; Goethe composed a series of lyrics in imitation; the name Häfiz denotes a Mohammedan who knows the Korân and the Hadith by heart (1320-1391).
HAGAR, Sarah's maid, of Egyptian birth, who became by Abraham the mother of Ishmael and of the Ishmaelites.
HAGEDORN, a German poet, born at Hamburg; was secretary to the English factory there; wrote fables, tales, and moral poems (1708-1754).
HAGEN, king of Burgundy; the murderer of Siegfried in the "Nibelungen Lied," who is in turn killed by Chriemhild, Siegfried's wife, with Siegfried's sword.
HAGENAU (15), a town of Alsace-Lorraine, situated in the Hagenau Forest, on the Moder, 21 m. NE. of Strasburg; has two quaint old churches of the 12th and the 13th century respectively; hops and wine are the chief articles of commerce; was ceded to Germany in 1871.
HAGENBACH, KARL, a German theologian, born at Basel, and professor there; was a disciple of Schleiermacher; wrote a church history; is best known by his "Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte," or "History of Dogmas" (1801-1874).
HAGGADAH, a system of professedly traditional, mostly fanciful, amplifications of the historical and didactic, as distinct from the legal, portions of Jewish scripture; is a reconstructing and remodelling of both history and dogma; for the Jews seem to have thought, though they were bound to the letter of the Law, that any amount of licence was allowed them in the treatment of history and dogma.
HAGGAI, one of the Hebrew prophets of the Restoration (of Jerusalem and the Temple) after the Captivity, and who, it would seem, had returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua. Signs of the divine displeasure having appeared on account of the laggard spirit in which the Restoration was prosecuted by the people, this prophet was inspired to lift up his protest and rouse their patriotism, with the result that his appeal took instant effect, for in four years the work was finished and the Temple dedicated to the worship of Jehovah, as of old, in 516 B.C.; his book is a record of the prophecies he delivered in that connection, and the style, though prosaic, is pure and clear.
HAGGARD, RIDER, novelist, born in Norfolk; after service in a civic capacity in Natal, and in partly civil and partly military service in the Transvaal, adopted the profession of literature; first rose into popularity as author in 1885 by the publication of "King Solomon's Mines," the promise of which was sustained in a measure by a series of subsequent novels beginning with "She" in 1887; b. 1856.
HAGGIS, a Scotch dish, "great chieftain o' the puddin' race," composed of the chopped lungs, heart, and liver of a sheep, mixed with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with onions, pepper, salt, &c., and boiled in a sheep's stomach.
HAGIOGRAPHA, the third division of the Jewish canon of scripture, which included the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
HAGUE, THE (166), the capital of the Netherlands, seat of the Court and of the Government, 15 m. NW. of Rotterdam and 2 m. from the North Sea; is handsomely laid out, in spacious squares and broad streets, with stately buildings, statues, and winding canals, beautifully fringed with lindens and spanned by many bridges; has a fine picture-gallery, a royal library (200,000 vols.), archives rich in historical documents of rare value, an ancient castle, palace, and a Gothic church of the 14th century; industries embrace cannon-foundries, copper and lead smelting, printing, &c.; it is connected by tramway with Scheveningen, a fashionable watering-place on the coast.
HAHN-HAHN, IDA, a German authoress of aristocratic birth and prejudice, who, on the dissolution of an unhappy marriage, sought consolation in travel, and literature of a rather sickly kind (1805-1880).
HAHNEMANN, SAMUEL, a German physician, the founder of HOMOEOPATHY (q. v.), born at Meissen; established himself in practice in Dresden on orthodox lines and enjoyed a high reputation, but retired to revise the whole system of medicine in vogue, of which he had begun to entertain misgivings, and by various researches and experiments came to the conclusion that the true principle of the healing art was similia similibus curantur, "like things are cured by like," which he announced as such to the medical world in 1796, and on which he proceeded to practise first in Leipzig and finally in Paris, where he died (1755-1843).
HAIDEE, a beautiful Greek girl in "Don Juan," who, falling in love with the hero and losing him, came to a tragic end.
HAIDUK or HAJDUK (i. e. cowherd), a name bestowed on a body of irregular infantry in Hungary who kept up a guerilla warfare in the 16th century against the Turks; in 1605 a stretch of territory on the left bank of the Theiss was conferred upon them, together with a measure of local government and certain other privileges; but in 1876 their territory was incorporated in the county of Hajdu; the name was in later times applied to the Hungarian infantry and to noblemen's retainers.
HAILES, LORD, SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE, Scottish judge and antiquary, born at Edinburgh; was called to the Scotch bar in 1748, and raised to the bench in 1768; ten years later he became a justiciary lord; he devoted his vacations to literary pursuits, and a series of valuable historical works came from his pen, which include "Annals of Scotland from Malcolm III. to Robert I." and "Annals of Scotland from Robert I. to the Accession of the House of Stuart," "A Discourse on the Gowrie Conspiracy," &c. (1726-1792).
HAILEYBURY COLLEGE, lies 2 m. SE. of Hertford; was founded in 1809 by the East India Company as a training institution for their cadets, and was in use till 1858, when the company ceased to exist; in 1862 it was converted into a public school.
HAINAN (2,500), an island of China, in the extreme S., between the Gulf of Tongking and the China Sea, 15 m. S. of the mainland; agriculture is the staple industry; the mountainous and wooded interior is occupied by the aboriginal Les.
HAINAULT (1,082), a southern province of Belgium bordering on France, between W. Flanders and Namur; the N. and W. is occupied by fertile plains; the Forest of Ardennes extends into the S., where also are the richest coal-fields of Belgium; iron and lead are wrought also; the chief rivers are the Scheldt, Sambre, Dender, and Haine; textiles, porcelain, and iron goods are manufactured; Mons is the capital.
HAKIM or HAKEM, a Mohammedan name for a ruler, a physician, or a wise man.
HAKIM BEN ALLAH or BEN HASHEM, surnamed MOKANNA (i. e. the Veiled or the One-Eyed); the founder of a religious sect in Khorassan, Persia, in the 8th century; he pretended to be God incarnate, and wore over his face a veil to shroud, as his followers believed, the dazzling radiance of his countenance, but in reality to hide the loss of an eye, incurred in earlier years when he had served as a common soldier; the sect was after fierce fighting suppressed by the Caliph, and Hakim is said to have flung himself into a vessel of powerfully corrosive acid in the hope that, his body being destroyed, a belief in his translation to heaven might spread among his followers; the story of Hakim is told in Moore's "Lalla Rookh."
HAKLUYT, RICHARD, English author; was educated at Oxford, and became chaplain to the English embassy in Paris; wrote on historical subjects; his principal work, published in 1589, "Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation by Land and Sea," a work which, detailing as it does the great deeds of Englishmen, particularly on the sea, has borne very considerable fruit in English life and literature since (1552-1616).
HAKODATE (66), one of the open ports of Yezo in Japan, with a large harbour and large export trade.
HAL (9), a town of Belgium, 9 m. SW. from Brussels; noted for its 14th-century church, which contains a black wooden image of the Virgin credited with miraculous powers, and resorted to by pilgrims.
HALACHA, the Jewish law as developed into validity by the decisions of the Scribes, on the basis of inferential reasoning or established custom; it was of higher authority than the law as written, though not held valid till sanctioned by a majority of the doctors.
HALBERSTADT (37), an interesting old town in Prussian Saxony, 30 m. SW. of Magdeburg; the 13th-century cathedral is a fine specimen of Pointed Gothic, and the Church of Our Lady, a 12th-century structure, is in the Byzantine style; its industries embrace gloves, cigars, machines, sugar, &c.
HALCYON DAYS, days of peace, happiness, and prosperity, properly the seven days before and the seven after the winter Solstice, days of quiet, during which the halcyon, or kingfisher, is fabled to be breeding.
HALDANE, ROBERT, born in London, and JAMES, born in Dundee, brothers; entered the English navy, and after distinguishing themselves in it, left the service, and devoted their time and their wealth to evangelistic labours and the building of "tabernacles," as they were called, for religious worship in connection eventually with the Baptist body; they both contributed to theological literature in the Calvinistic interest; Robert died in 1842, being born in 1764, and James in 1851, being born in 1766.
HALE, SIR MATTHEW, Lord Chief-Justice of England, born at Alderley, Gloucestershire: in 1629 he entered Lincoln's Inn after some years of roving and dissipation, and eight years later was called to the bar; as he held aloof from the strife between king and commons, his service as advocate were in requisition by both parties, and in 1653 he was raised to the bench by Cromwell; on the death of the Protector he declined to receive his commission anew from Richard Cromwell, and favoured the return of Charles; after the Restoration he was made Chief Baron of the Exchequer and knighted; in 1671 he was created Lord Chief-Justice; charges of "trimming" have been made against him, but his integrity as a lawyer has never been impugned (1609-1676).
HALES, ALEXANDER OF, a scholastic philosopher, surnamed "Doctor Irrefragabilis," who flourished in the 15th century; author of "Summa Theologiæ."
HALES, JOHN, the "Ever-memorable," canon of Windsor; a most scholarly man, liberal-minded and highly cultured; was professor of Greek at Oxford; suffered great hardships under the Puritan supremacy (1584-1656).
HALES, STEPHEN, scientist, born at Beckesbourn, Kent; became a Fellow of Cambridge in 1702; took holy orders, and in 1710 settled down in the curacy of Teddington, Middlesex; science was his ruling passion, and his "Vegetable Staticks" is the first work to broach a true morphology of plants; his papers on Ventilation led to a wide-spread reform in prison ventilation, and his method of collecting gases greatly furthered the work of subsequent chemists (1677-1761).
HALÉVY, JACQUES FRANÇOIS ELIAS, a French operatic composer, born at Paris; became a professor at the Conservatoire; wrote a large number of operas, of which "La Juive" and "L'Éclair" were the best, and enjoyed a European reputation (1799-1862).
HALÉVY, JOSEPH, French Orientalist and traveller, born at Adrianople; his most notable work was done in Yemen, which he crossed during 1869-70 in search of Sabæan inscriptions, no European having traversed that land since A.D. 24; the result was a most valuable collection of 800 inscriptions, &c.; his works are numerous, and deal with various branches of Oriental study; b. 1827.
HALIBURTON, THOMAS CHANDLER, Nova Scotian judge and author, born at Windsor, Nova Scotia; was called to the bar in 1820, and soon after was elected a member of the House of Assembly; in 1840 he became Judge of the Supreme Court, and two years later retired to England, where, in 1869, he entered Parliament; he wrote several books bearing on Nova Scotia and aspects of colonial life, but is best known as the author of "Sam Slick," Yankee clockmaker, peripatetic philosopher, wit, and dispenser of "soft sawder" (1796-1865).
HALICARNASSUS, a Greek city, and the chief of Caria, in Asia Minor, on the sea-coast opposite the island of Cos, the birthplace of Herodotus; celebrated for the tomb of Mausolus, called the MAUSOLEUM (q. v.).
HALIDON HILL, an eminence in Northumberland, on the Tweed, 2 m. from Berwick, the scene of a bloody battle in 1333 between the English and Scots, to the defeat of the latter.
HALIFAX, 1, a prosperous manufacturing town (90), in the West Riding of Yorkshire, situated amid surrounding hills on the Hebble, 43 m. SW. of York; the staple industries are carpet and worsted manufacturing, the carpet works being the largest in the world; cotton, merinos, and damasks are also woven and dyed. 2, capital (39), of Nova Scotia; the naval and military head-quarters of the British in North America, and the chief port in East Canada; is situated near the head of Chebucto Bay, which forms a magnificent harbour; a citadel and masked batteries defend the town; it is an important railway and shipping terminus and coaling station; its gravingdock is the largest in America; it is the seat of Dalhousie University.
HALIFAX, CHARLES MONTAGUE, EARL OF, a celebrated Whig statesman, born at Horton, Northamptonshire; a clever skit on Dryden's "Hind and Panther," entitled "The Town and Country Mouse," written in collaboration with Prior after he had left Cambridge, brought him some reputation as a wit; in 1688 he entered the Convention Parliament, and attached himself to William's party, when his remarkable financial ability soon brought him to the front; in 1692 he brought forward his scheme for a National Debt, and two years later founded the Bank of England in accordance with the scheme of William Paterson; in the same year he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in 1697 Prime Minister; in conjunction with Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint, he carried through a re-coinage, and was the first to introduce Exchequer Bills; in 1699 he was created a Baron, and subsequently was made the victim of a prolonged and embittered but unsuccessful impeachment; with the accession of George I. he came back to power as Prime Minister, and received an earldom (1661-1715).
HALIFAX, GEORGE SAVILLE, MARQUIS OF, a noted statesman who played a prominent part in the changing politics of Charles II.'s and James II.'s reigns, and whose apparently vacillating conduct won him the epithet of "Trimmer"; he was an orator of brilliant powers and imbued with patriotic motives, and through his various changes may be seen a real desire to serve the cause of civil and religious liberty, but he was never a reliable party man; on the abdication of James II. he, as President of the Convention Parliament, proffered the crown to William of Orange; he rose through successive titles to be a marquis in 1682; his writings, chief of which is "Character of a Trimmer" (practically a defence of his own life), are marked by a pungent wit and graceful persuasiveness (about 1630-1695).
HALL, BASIL, explorer and miscellaneous writer, born in Edinburgh, son of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, a noted chemist and geologist; rose to be a post-captain in the navy, and in 1816 made a voyage of discovery on the coast of the Corea and the Great Loo Choo Islands, his account of which forms a fascinating and highly popular book of travel; during 1820-22 he commanded the Conway on the W. coast of South America, and his published journals covering that period of Spain's struggle with her colonies are of considerable historical value; "Travels in North America in 1827-28" is an entertaining record of travel; was also author of some tales, &c.; he died insane (1788-1844).
HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS, Arctic explorer, born at Rochester, New Hampshire; the mystery surrounding Franklin's fate awakened his interest in Arctic exploration, and during 1860-62 he headed a search party, and again in 1864-69; during the latter time he lived amongst the Eskimo, and returned with many interesting relics of Franklin's ill-fated expedition; in 1871 he made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole, and died at Thank God Harbour in Greenland; he published accounts of his expeditions (1821-1871).
HALL or HALLE, EDWARD, English lawyer and historian, born in London; studied law at Gray's Inn; in 1540 he became one of the judges of the Sheriff's Court; his fame rests on his history "The Union of the Two Noble Families of Lancaster and Yorke," a work which sheds a flood of light on contemporary events, and is, moreover, a noble specimen of English prose (1499-1547).
HALL, JOSEPH, bishop first of Exeter and then of Norwich, born at Ashby-de-la-Zouch; was accused of favouring Puritanism, and incurred the enmity of Laud; was sent to the Tower for joining 12 prelates who had protested against certain laws passed in Parliament during their enforced absence from the House; being released on bail, be returned to Norwich, and was persecuted by the Puritans, who plundered his house and spoiled the cathedral; was the author of a set of political satires and of "Meditations," early instances in English literature of an interest in biography (1574-1656).
HALL, ROBERT, an eminent Baptist minister and pulpit orator, born near Leicester; began his ministry in Bristol, and ended it there after a pastorate in Cambridge; was an intimate friend of Sir James Mackintosh (1764-1831).
HALL, SAMUEL CARTER, founder and editor of the Art Journal, born at Geneva Barracks, co. Waterford; was for a time a gallery reporter; succeeded Campbell, the poet, as editor of the New Monthly Magazine, and after other journalistic work started in 1839 the well-known periodical the Art Journal, which he continued to edit for upwards of 40 years; in 1880 he received a civil-list pension (1800-1889); his wife, ANNA MARIA FIELDING, was in her day a popular and voluminous writer of novels and short tales (1800-1881).
HALLAM, ARTHUR HENRY, eldest son of the succeeding, the early friend of Tennyson, who died suddenly at Vienna to the bitter grief of his father and of his friend, whose "In Memoriam" is a long elegy over his loss (1811-1838).
HALLAM, HENRY, English historian, born at Windsor, of which his father was a canon; bred for the bar; was one of the first contributors to the Edinburgh Review; was the author of three great works, "The State of Europe during the Middle Ages," published in 1818; "The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II.," published in 1827; and the "Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries," published in 1838; "was the first," says Stopford Brooke, "to write history in this country without prejudice" (1777-1859).
HALLE (101), a flourishing city in Prussian Saxony, on the Saale, 20 m. NW. of Leipzig; has a splendid university attended by upwards of 1500 students, and a library of 220,000 vols.; some fine old Gothic churches, medical institutes, hospitals, &c.; it is is an important railway centre, and is famed for its salt-works.
HALLÉ, SIR CHARLES, an eminent pianist, born at Hagen, in Westphalia; in 1848 he came to England, with a reputation already gained at Paris, and settled down in Manchester; his fine orchestra, which from year to year visited the important cities of the kingdom, did a great work in popularising classical music, and educating the public taste in its regard; in 1888 he was knighted (1819-1895). His wife, née Wilhelmine Néruda, a violinist of rare talent, born at Brünn, in Moravia, appeared first in Vienna when only seven years old; in 1864 she married Normann, a Swedish composer, and in 1885 became the wife of Sir Charles; b. 1839.
HALLECK, HENRY WAGER, an American general; distinguished himself on the side of the North in the Civil War, and was promoted to be commander-in-chief; was author of "Elements of Military Art and Science" (1815-1873).
HALLEL, name given to Psalms cxiii.-cxviii. chanted by the Jews at their great annual festivals.
HALLER, ALBERT VON, a celebrated anatomist, physiologist, botanist, physician, and poet, born at Bern; professor of Medicine at Göttingen; author of works in all these departments; took a keen interest in all the movements and questions of the day, literary and political, as well as scientific; was a voluminous author and writer (1708-1777).
HALLEY, EDMUND, astronomer and mathematician, born near London; determined the rotation of the sun from the spots on its surface, and the position of 350 stars; discovered in 1680 the great comet called after his name, which appeared again in 1825; was entrusted with the publication of his "Principia" by Sir Isaac Newton; made researches on the orbits of comets, and was appointed in 1719 astronomer-royal (1656-1742).
HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, JAMES ORCHARD, a celebrated Shakespearian scholar and antiquary, born at Chelsea; studied at Cambridge; his love for literary antiquities manifested itself at an early age, and his research in ballad literature and folk-lore, &c., had gained him election as Fellow to the Royal and Antiquarian Societies at the early age of 19; devoting himself more particularly to Shakespeare, he in 1848 published his famous "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," which has grown in fulness of detail with successive editions, and remains the most authoritative account of Shakespeare's life we have; his "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words" is also a work of wide scholarship; having succeeded in 1872 to the property of his father-in-law, Thomas Phillipps, he added Phillipps to his own surname (1820-1889).
HALL-MARK, an official mark or attestation of the genuineness of gold and silver articles.
HALLOWED FIRE, an expression of Carlyle's in definition of Christianity "at its rise and spread" as sacred, and kindling what was sacred and divine in man's soul, and burning up all that was not.
HALLOWE'EN, the eve of All Saints' Day, 31st October, which it was customary, in Scotland particularly, to observe with ceremonies of a superstitious character, presumed to have the power of eliciting certain interesting secrets of fate from wizard spirits of the earth and air, allowed, as believed, in that brief space, to rove about and be accessible to the influence of the charms employed.
HALOGENS (i. e., salt producers), name given to the elementary bodies, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and fluorine as in composition with metals forming compounds similar to sea-salt.
HALS, FRANS, an eminent Dutch portrait-painter, born at Antwerp; is considered to be the founder of the Dutch school of genre-painting; his portraits are full of life and vigour; Vandyck alone among his contemporaries was considered his superior (1581-1666).
HALSBURY, HARDINGE STANLEY GIFFORD, LORD, Lord Chancellor of England, born in London; was called to the bar in 1850; he was Solicitor-General in the last Disraeli Government; entered Parliament in 1877, and in 1885 was raised to the peerage and made Lord-Chancellor, a position he has held in successive Conservative Governments; b. 1825.
HALYBURTON, THOMAS, Scottish divine, known as "Holy Halyburton," born at Dupplin, near Perth; was minister of Ceres, in Fife, and from 1710 professor of Divinity in St. Andrews; was the author of several widely-read religious works (1674-1712).
HAM, a son of Noah, and the Biblical ancestor of the southern dark races of the world as known to the ancients.
HAM, a town in the dep. of Somme, France, 70 m. NE. of Paris, with a fortress, used in recent times as a State prison, in which Louis Napoleon was confined from 1840 to 1846.
HAMADAN (30), an ancient Persian town, at the foot of Mount Elwend, 160 m. SW. of Teheran, is an important entrepôt of Persian trade, and has flourishing tanneries; it is believed to stand on the site of ECBATANA (q. v.).
HAMADRYAD, a wood-nymph identified with a particular tree that was born with it and that died with it.
HAMAH (45), the Hamath of the Bible, an ancient city of Syria, on the Orontes, 110 m. NE. of Damascus; manufactures silk, cotton, and woollen fabrics; is one of the oldest cities of the world; has some trade with the Bedouins in woollen stuffs; during the Macedonian dynasty it was known as Epiphania; in 1812 Burckhardt discovered stones in it with Hittite inscriptions.
HAMAN, an enemy of the Jews in Persia, who persuaded the king to decree the destruction of them against a particular day, but whose purpose was defeated by the reversal of the sentence of doom.
HAMANN, JOHANN GEORG, a German thinker, born at Königsberg; a man of genius, whose ideas were appreciated by such a man as Goethe, and whose writings deeply influenced the views of Herder (1730-1788).
HAMBURG, a small German State (623) which includes the free city of Hamburg (323; suburbs, 245), Bergedorf, and Cuxhaven; the city, the chief emporium of German commerce, is situated on the Elbe, 75 m. E. of the North Sea and 177 NW. of Berlin; was founded by Charlemagne in 808, and is to-day the fifth commercial city of the world; the old town is intersected by canals, while the new portion, built since 1842, is spaciously laid out; the town library, a fine building, contains 400,000 volumes; its principal manufactures embrace cigar-making, distilling, brewing, sugar-refining, &c.
HAMELN (14), a quaint old Prussian town and fortress in the province of Hanover, situated at the junction of the Hamel with the Weser, 25 m. SW. of Hanover city; associated with the legend of the Pied Piper; a fine chain bridge spans the Weser; there are prosperous iron, paper, and leather works, breweries, &c.
HÄMERKIN or HÄMMERLEIN, the paternal name of THOMAS À KEMPIS (q. v.).
HAMERLING, ROBERT, Austrian poet, born at Kirchberg in the Forest, Lower Austria; his health gave way while teaching at Trieste, and while for upwards of 30 years an invalid in bed, he devoted himself to poetical composition; his fame rests chiefly on his satirical epics and lyric compositions, among the former "The King of Iron," "The Seven Deadly Sins," and "Cupid and Psyche," and among the latter "Venus in Exile" (1830-1889).
HAMERTON, PHILIP GILBERT, English critic, particularly of art; edited the Portfolio, an art magazine; author of a story of life in France entitled "Marmorne," and of a volume of essays entitled "The Intellectual Life" (1834-1894).
HAMILCAR BARCA, a Carthaginian general and one of the greatest, the father of Hannibal, commanded in Sicily, and held his ground there against the Romans for six years; concluded a peace with them and ended the First Punic War; invaded Spain with a view to invade Italy by the Alps, and after gaining a footing there fell in battle; had his son with him, a boy of nine, and made him swear upon the altar before he died eternal enmity to Rome; d. 229 B.C.
HAMILTON (25), a town of Lanarkshire, on the Clyde, 10 m. SE. of Glasgow; mining is the chief industry. Also a city (49) of Canada, on Burlington Bay, at the west end of Lake Ontario, 40 m. SW. of Toronto; is an important railway centre, and has manufactories of iron, cotton, and woollen goods, &c.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, American soldier and statesman, born in West Indies; entered the American army, fought in the War of Independence, became commander-in-chief, represented New York State in Congress, contributed by his essays to the favourable reception of the federal constitution, and under it did good service on behalf of his country; was mortally wounded in a duel (1757-1804).
HAMILTON, ELIZABETH, novelist and essayist, born, of Scottish parentage, in Belfast; is remembered for her early advocacy of the higher education of women and for her faithful pictures of lowly Scottish life; "Letters of a Hindoo Rajah" and "Modern Philosophers" were clever skits on the prevailing scepticism and republicanism of the time; "The Cottagers of Glenburnie" is her best novel (1758-1816).
HAMILTON, EMMA, LADY, née Amy Lyon or "Hart," born at Ness, Cheshire, a labourer's daughter; appeared as the Lady in the charlatan Graham's "Temple of Health," London; became the mother of two illegitimate children, and subsequently was the "geliebte" of the Hon. Charles Greville and of his uncle Sir Wm. Hamilton, whose wife she became in 1791; her notorious and lawless intimacy with Lord Nelson began in 1793, and in 1801 their daughter Horatia was born; although left a widow with a goodly fortune, she fell into debt and died in poverty (1763-1815).
HAMILTON, PATRICK, a Scottish martyr, born at the close of the 15th century, probably in Glasgow; returning from his continental studies at Paris and Louvain he came to St. Andrews University, where his Lutheran sympathies involved him in trouble; he escaped to the Continent, visited Wittenberg, the home of Luther, and then settled in Marburg, but returned to Scotland at the close of the same year (1527) and married; the following year he was burned at the stake in St. Andrews for heresy; his eager and winning nature and love of knowledge, together with his early martyrdom, have served to invest him with a special interest.
HAMILTON, WILLIAM, a minor Scottish poet, born near Uphall, Linlithgowshire; was a contributor to Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany; became involved in the second Jacobite rising and fled to France; subsequently he was permitted to return and take possession of his father's estate of Bangour, near Uphall; his collected poems include the beautiful and pathetic ballad, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1704-1754).
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM, distinguished philosopher of the Scotch school, born in Glasgow; studied there and in Oxford with distinction; bred for the bar, but hardly ever practised; contributed to the Edinburgh Review, having previously published "Discussions in Philosophy"; in 1836 he became professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Edinburgh University, in which capacity he exercised a great influence in the domain of philosophic speculation; his lectures were published after his death; his system was attacked by John Stuart Mill, and criticised in part by Dr. Hutchison Stirling, who, while deducting materially from his repute as an original thinker, describes his "writings as always brilliant, forcible, clear, and, where information is concerned, both entertaining and instructive"; was "almost the only earnest man," Carlyle testifies, he found in Edinburgh on his visit from Craigenputtock to the city in 1833 (1788-1856).
HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM ROWAN, an eminent mathematician, born in Dublin; such was his precocity that at 13 he was versed in thirteen languages, and by 17 was an acknowledged master in mathematical science; while yet an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, he was appointed in 1827 professor of Astronomy in Dublin University, and Astronomer-Royal of Ireland; his mathematical works and treatises, of the most original and a far-reaching character, brought him a European reputation, and embraced his "Theory of Systems of Rays," "A General Method in Dynamics," and the invention of "Quaternions"; he was knighted in 1835 (1805-1865).
HAMILTONIAN SYSTEM, a system of teaching languages by interlinear translation.
HAMMER, German Orientalist and historian, born at Grätz; author of a "History of the Ottoman Empire" (1774-1856).
HAMMERFEST (2), the most northerly town in Europe; is situated on the barren island of Kvalö, and is the port of the Norwegian province of Finmark; fishing is the staple industry; during two months in summer the sun never sets.
HAMMERSMITH (97), a parliamentary borough of Middlesex, on the N. side of the Thames, forms a part of W. London.
HAMMOND, HENRY, English divine, born at Chertsey; suffered as an adherent of the royal cause, being chaplain to Charles I.; author of "Paraphrase and Annotations of the New Testament" (1605-1660).
HAMPDEN, JOHN, a famous English statesman and patriot, cousin to Oliver Cromwell, born in London; passed through Oxford and studied law at the Inner Temple; subsequently he settled down on his father's estate, and in 1621 entered Parliament, joining the opposition; he came first into conflict with the king by refusing to contribute to a general loan levied by Charles, and subsequently became famous by his resistance to the ship-money tax; he was a member of the Short Parliament, and played a prominent part in the more eventful transactions of the Long Parliament; an attempt on Charles's part to seize Hampden and four other members precipitated the Civil War; he took an active part in organising the Parliamentary forces, and proved himself a brave and skilful general in the field; he fell mortally wounded while opposing Prince Rupert in a skirmish at Chalgrove Field; historians unite in extolling his nobility of character, statesmanship, and single-minded patriotism (1594-1643).
HAMPDEN, RENN DICKSON, theologian and bishop, born in Barbadoes; became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, and in 1832 delivered his celebrated Bampton lectures on the "Scholastic Philosophy considered in its Relation to Christian Theology," which drew upon him the charge of heresy and produced an embittered controversy in the Church of England; he was successively Principal, professor of Moral Philosophy, and of Divinity at St. Mary's Hall, and became bishop of Hereford in 1847 (1793-1868).
HAMPOLE, RICHARD ROLLE, "the Hermit of Hampole," born at Thornton, Yorkshire; studied at Oxford, and at the age of 19 turned hermit; was the author of "The Pricke of Conscience," a lengthy poem of a religious character (1290-1349).
HAMPSHIRE, HANTS (690), a maritime county of S. England, fronting the English Channel between Dorset on the W. and Sussex on the E.; in the NE. are the "rolling Downs," affording excellent sheep pasturage, while the SW. is largely occupied by the New Forest; the Test, Itchen, and Avon are principal rivers flowing to the S.; besides the usual cereals, hops are raised, while Hampshire bacon and honey are celebrated; Southampton, Portsmouth, and Gosport are the chief trading and manufacturing towns.
HAMPSTEAD (68), a Parliamentary borough of Middlesex, has a hilly and bright situation, 4 m. NW. of London; is a popular place of resort with Londoners, and contains many fine suburban residences; beyond the village is the celebrated Heath; many literary associations are connected with the place; the famous Kit-Cat Club of Steele and Addison's time is now a private house on the Heath; here lived Keats, Leigh Hunt, Coleridge, Hazlitt, &c.
HAMPTON (4), a village of Middlesex, on the Thames, 15 m. SW. of London; in the vicinity is HAMPTON COURT PALACE, a royal residence down to George II.'s time, and which was built originally by Wolsey, who presented it to Henry VIII.; in William III.'s time considerable alterations were made under the guidance of Wren; there is a fine picture-gallery and gardens; it is now occupied by persons of good family in reduced circumstances; the HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE to settle ecclesiastical differences took place here in 1604 under the presidency of James I., and the decisions at which proved unsatisfactory to the Puritan members of it; it was here at the suggestion of Dr. Reynolds the authorised version of the Bible was undertaken.
HANAU (25), a Prussian town in Hesse-Nassau, at the junction of the Kinzig and the Main, 11 m. NE. of Frankfurt; is celebrated for its jewellery and gold and silver work, and is otherwise a busy manufacturing town; it is the birthplace of the brothers Grimm.
HANCOCK, WINFIELD SCOTT, a noted American general, born near Philadelphia; he had already graduated and served with distinction in the Mexican War, when, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he received a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers; he led a heroic charge at Fredericksburg, and in 1864 his gallant conduct in many a hard-fought battle was rewarded by promotion to a major-generalship in the regular army; subsequently he held important commands in the departments of Missouri, Dakota, &c., and in 1880 unsuccessfully opposed Garfield for the Presidency (1824-1886).
HÄNDEL, musical composer, born at Halle; distinguished for his musical ability from his earliest years; was sent to Berlin to study when he was 14; began his musical career as a performer at Hamburg in 1703; produced his first opera in 1704; spent six years in Italy, devoting himself to his profession the while; came, on invitation, to England in 1710, where, being well received, he resolved to remain, and where, year after year--as many as nearly fifty of them--he added to his fame by his diligence as a composer; he produced a number of operas and oratorios; among the latter may be noted his "Saul," his "Samson," and "Judas Maccabæus," and pre-eminently the "Messiah," his masterpiece, and which fascinates with a charm that appeals to and is appreciated by initiated and uninitiated alike (1684-1759).
HANG-CHOW (800), a Chinese town, a treaty-port since the recent war with Japan; is at the mouth of the Tsien-tang at the entrance of the Imperial Canal, 110 m. SW. of Shanghai; it is an important literary, religious, and commercial centre; has flourishing silk factories, and is noted for its gold and silver ware.
HANGING GARDENS, THE, OF BABYLON, one of the seven wonders of the world, had an area of four acres, formed a square, were a series of terraces supported by pillars sloping upwards like a pyramid and seeming to hang in air; they are ascribed to Semiramis.
HANIF, name given to a Mohammedan or an Arab of rigidly monotheistic belief.
HANKOW (750), a Chinese river-port, at the confluence of the Han and Yangtsze Rivers; it is properly an extension of the large towns Wu-chang and Han-yang; there is a considerable amount of shipping; tea is the principal article of export, and a large trade is carried on with the inland provinces.
HANLEY (85), a busy manufacturing town in the "Potteries," 18 m. N. of Stafford; coal and iron are wrought in the neighbourhood.
HANMER, SIR THOMAS, Speaker of the House of Commons; elected in 1713, discharged the duties of the office with conspicuous impartiality; published an edition of Shakespeare (1677-1746).
HANNAY, JAMES, a novelist and critic, born in Dumfries; spent his boyhood in the navy, on quitting which he settled in London and took to letters; was for a time editor of the Edinburgh Courant, a Tory paper, and subsequently consul at Barcelona, where he died; he knew English literature and wrote English well (1827-1873).
HANNIBAL, the great Carthaginian general, son of HAMILCAR (q. v.); learned the art of war under his father in Spain; subjugated all Spain south of the Ebro by the capture of the Roman allied city of Saguntum, which led to the outbreak of the Second Punic War and his leading his army through hostile territory over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy; defeated the Romans in succession at the Ticinus, the Trebia, and Lake Trasimenus, to the extirpation of the army sent against him; passed the Apennines and descended into Apulia, where, after being harassed by the tantalising policy of Fabius Maximus, he met the Romans at Cannæ in 216 B.C. and inflicted on them a crushing defeat, retiring after this into winter quarters at Capua, where his soldiers became demoralised; he next season began to experience a succession of reverses, which ended in the evacuation of Italy and the transfer of the seat of war to Africa, where Hannibal was met by Scipio on the field of Zama in 201 B.C. and defeated; he afterwards joined Antiochus, king of Syria, who was at war with Rome, to his defeat there also, upon which he fled to Prusias, king of Bithynia, where, when his surrender was demanded, he ended his life by poisoning himself (247-183 B.C.).
HANNINGTON, JAMES, first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, born at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex; was ordained in 1873 after passing through Oxford, and in 1882 undertook missionary work in Uganda, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society; his health breaking down when he had gone as far as Victoria Nyanza, he returned home; but two years later as bishop he entered upon his duties at Frere Town, near Mombasa; in the following year he was killed by natives when making his way to the mission station at Rubaga, in Uganda (1847-1885).
HANNO, the name of several eminent Carthaginians, one of whom, surnamed the Great, was a persistent opponent of the Barcine faction, headed by Hamilcar; and another was a navigator who made a voyage round the western coast of Africa, of which he left an account in his "Periplus" or "Circumnavigating Voyage."
HANOVER (2,278), a Prussian province since 1866, formerly an independent kingdom; stretches N. from Westphalia to the German Ocean, between Holland on the W. and Saxony on the E.; the district is well watered by the Elbe, Weser, and Ems; in the S. are the Harz Mountains; for the rest the land is flat, and much of it is occupied by uncultivated moors; agriculture and cattle-rearing are, however, the chief industries, while the minerals of the Harz are extensively wrought; in 1714 George Ludwig, second Elector of Hanover, succeeded Anne on the English throne as her nearest Protestant kinsman, and till 1837 the dual rule was maintained, Hanover meanwhile in 1814 having been made a kingdom; in 1837 the Hanoverian crown passed to the Duke of Cumberland, Queen Victoria, as a woman, being ineligible; in 1866 the kingdom was conquered and annexed by Prussia.
HANOVER (164), the capital, is situated on the Leine, 78 m. SE. of Bremen; it consists of an old and a new portion; presents a handsome appearance, and its many fine buildings include the royal library (170,000 vols.), the Kestner Museum, several palaces and art-galleries, &c.; it is the centre of the North German railway system, and its many industries embrace iron-works, the manufacture of pianos, tobacco, linen, &c.
HANSARD, record of the proceedings and debates in the British Parliament, published by the printers Hansard, the founder of the firm being Luke Hansard, a printer of Norwich, who came to London in 1770 as a compositor, and succeeded as proprietor of the business in which he was a workman; d. 1828.
HANSEATIC LEAGUE, a combination of towns in North-western Germany for the mutual protection of their commerce against the pirates of the Baltic and the mutual defence of their liberties against the encroachments of neighbouring princes; it dates from 1241, and flourished for several centuries, to the extension of their commerce far and wide; numbered at one time 64 towns, and possessed fleets and armies, an exchequer, and a government of their own; the League dwindled down during the Thirty Years' War to six cities, and finally to three, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen.
HANSTEEN, CHRISTOPH, a Norwegian astronomer and mathematician, born in Christiania, where he became professor of Mathematics; is famous for his researches and discoveries in connection with the magnetism of the earth, and the impetus he gave to the study of it; he prosecuted his magnetic researches as far as the E. of Siberia, and published the results (1784-1873).
HANSWURST (i. e. Jack Pudding), a pantomimic character in comic performances on the German stage; a great favourite at one time with the vulgar; distinguished for his awkwardness, his gluttonous appetite, and his rotundity.
HANUMAN, the monkey-god of the Hindus, a friend of Râma, for whose benefit he reared a causeway across seas to Ceylon.
HANWAY, JONAS, a traveller and philanthropist, born in Portsmouth; travelled through Russia and Persia, and settled in London as one of the navy commissariat; devoted himself to the reclaiming and befriending of unfortunates of all kinds; was a man of very eccentric ways (1712-1786).
HAPSBURG or HABSBURG, HOUSE OF, a famous royal house which has played a leading part in the history of Continental Europe from its foundation in the 12th century by Albert, Count of Hapsburg, and which is represented to-day by the Imperial family of Austria. Representatives of this family wore the Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries. It takes its name from the castle of Habsburg or Habichtaburg, on the Aar, built by Werner, bishop of Strasburg, in the 11th century, a castle, however, which has long since ceased to be in the possession of the family.
HARBOUR GRACE (7), a seaport and the second town of Newfoundland, lies on the W. side of Conception Bay, 84 m. NW. of St. John's; its commodious harbour is somewhat exposed; it is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and has a cathedral and convent.
HARBURG (35), a prospering Prussian seaport in Lüneburg, on the Elbe, 5 m. S. of Hamburg; its industries embrace gutta-percha goods, oil, chemicals, &c.; is a favourite watering-place.
HARCOURT, SIR WILLIAM VERNON, statesman, born, a clergyman's son, at Nuneham Park, Oxfordshire; was highly distinguished at Cambridge, and in 1854 was called to the bar; was a Q.C. in 1866, and professor of International Law at Cambridge (1869-87); he won considerable repute by his articles in the Saturday Review and his "Historicus" letters to the Times, and in 1868 entered Parliament, representing Oxford in the Liberal interest; in 1873 he became Solicitor-General, and received a knighthood; he was a vigorous opponent of the Disraeli Government, and on the return of the Liberals to power in 1880 became Home Secretary; under Mr. Gladstone in 1886, and again in 1892, he held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer; he staunchly supported Mr. Gladstone in his Home Rule policy; became leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons on Mr. Gladstone's retirement, a post which for party reasons he resigned in 1899; b. 1827.
HARDENBERG, FRIEDRICH VON. See NOVALIS.
HARDENBERG PRINCE VON, a Prussian statesman, born in Hanover; after service in Hanover and Brunswick entered that of Prussia under William II., and became Chancellor of State under William III.; distinguished himself by the reforms he introduced in military and civic matters to the benefit of the country, though he was restrained a good deal by the reactionary proclivities of the king (1750-1822).
HARDICANUTE, king of England and Denmark, the son of Canute and his successor on the Danish throne; was king of England only in part till the death of his brother Harold, whom he survived only two years, but long enough to alienate his subjects by the re-imposition of the Danegelt; d. 1642.
HARDING, JOHN, or HARDYNG, an English rhyming chronicler in the reign of Edward IV.; had been a soldier, and fought at Agincourt (1378-1465).
HARDING, STEPHEN, a Benedictine monk, born in Devonshire, of noble descent, a born ascetic, who set himself to restore his order to its primitive austerity; retired with a few others into a dismal secluded place at Citeaux, and became abbot; was joined there by the great St. Bernard, his kindred, and followers, to the great aggrandisement of the order; d. 1134.
HARDINGE, HENRY, VISCOUNT, a distinguished soldier and Governor-General of India, born at Wrotham, Kent; joined the army in 1798, and served through the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, but wounded at Ligny he was unable to take part in the final struggle with Napoleon; he now turned his attention to politics; was Secretary of War under Wellington, and subsequently twice Chief Secretary for Ireland; in 1844 he was appointed Governor-General of India, and later distinguished himself under Gough in the first Sikh War; a viscountship and pension followed in 1845, and seven years later he succeeded Wellington as Commander-in-Chief of the British army (1785-1856).
HARDOUIN, JEAN, a French classical scholar, born at Quimper, Brittany; early entered the Jesuit order; was from 1683 librarian of the College of Louis le Grand in Paris; he is chiefly remembered for his wild assertion that the bulk of classical literature was spurious, and the work of 13th-century monks; Virgil's "Æneid" he declared to be an allegorical account of St. Peter's journey to Rome, and the original language of the New Testament to be Latin; his edition of Pliny, however, evinces real scholarship (1646-1729).
HARDWÁR, a town on the Ganges, 39 m. NE. of Saharunpur, North-West Provinces; famous for its large annual influx of pilgrims seeking ablution in the sacred river; a sacred festival held every twelfth year attracts some 300,000 persons.
HARDY, THOMAS, novelist, born in Dorsetshire, with whose scenery he has made his readers familiar; bred an architect; first earned popularity in 1874 by his "Far from the Madding Crowd," which was followed by, among others, "The Return of the Native," "The Woodlanders," and "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," the last in 1892, books which require to be read in order to appreciate the genius of the author; b. 1840.
HARDY, SIR THOMAS DUFFUS, an eminent palæographer, born in Jamaica; he acquired his skill in MS. deciphering as a clerk in the Record Office in the Tower; in 1861 he was elected deputy-keeper of the Public Records, and nine years later received a knighthood; his great learning is displayed in his editions of various "Rolls" for the Record Commission, in his "Descriptive Catalogue of MSS.," &c. (1804-1878).
HARDY, SIR THOMAS MASTERMAN, BART., a brave naval officer, whose name is associated with the closing scene of Nelson's life, born at Portisham, in Dorsetshire; as a commander in the battle of the Nile he greatly distinguished himself, and gained his post-commission to Nelson's flagship, the Vanguard; at Trafalgar he commanded the Victory, and subsequently brought Nelson's body to England; he received a baronetcy, and saw further service, eventually attaining to the rank of vice-admiral (1769-1839).
HARE, JULIUS CHARLES, archdeacon of Lewes, born at Vicenza; took orders in the Church, and in 1832 became, in succession to his uncle, rector of Hurstmonceaux, in Sussex, the advowson of which was in his family, in which rectory he laboured till his death; he was of the school of Maurice; wrote "The Mission of the Comforter," and with his brother Augustus "Guesses at Truth"; had John Sterling as his curate for a short time, and edited his remains as well as wrote his Life, the latter in so exclusively ecclesiastical a reference as to dissatisfy Carlyle, his joint-trustee, and provoke him, as in duty bound, to write another which should exhibit their common friend in the more interesting light of a man earnestly struggling with the great burning problems of the time, calling for some wise solution by all of us, church and no church (1795-1855).
HAREM, the apartment or suite of apartments in a Mohammedan's house for the female inmates and their attendants, and the name given to the collective body of them.
HARFLEUR, a village in France with a strong fortress, 4 m. S. of Havre, taken by Henry V. in 1415, and retaken afterwards by both French and English, becoming finally French in 1450.
HARGRAVES, EDMUND, discoverer of the gold-field in Australia, born at Gosport, Devon; had been to California, concluded that as the geological formation was the same in Australia where he had come from, he would find gold there too and found it in New South Wales in 1851, for which the Government gave him £10,000 (1818-1890).
HARGREAVES, JAMES, inventor of the spinning-jenny, born at Standhill, near Blackburn; was a poor and illiterate weaver when in 1760 he, in conjunction with Robert Peel, brought out a carding-machine; in 1766 he invented the spinning-jenny, a machine which has since revolutionised the cotton-weaving industry, but which at the time evoked the angry resentment of the hand-weaver; he was driven from his native town and settled in Nottingham, where he started a spinning-mill; he failed to get his machine patented, and died in comparative poverty (1745-1778).
HARI-KARI, called also a "happy despatch," a form of suicide, now obsolete, permitted to offenders of high rank to escape the indignity of a public execution; the nature of it may be gathered from the name, "a gash in the belly."
HÄRING, WILHELM, German novelist, born at Breslau; bred for law, but abandoned it for literature; wrote two romances, "Walladmor" and "Schloss Avalon," under the pseudonym of "Walter Scott," which imposed upon some; he afterwards assumed the name of Wilibald Alexis, a name by which he was long honourably known (1797-1871).
HARINGTON, SIR JOHN, courtier and miscellaneous writer, translated by desire of Queen Elizabeth Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" (1561-1612).
HARIRI, Arabic philologist and poet of the 11th century, born at Bassorah; celebrated far and wide as the author of "Makameat," a collection of tales in verse, the central figure in which is one Abu Seid, a clever and amusing production, and evincing a unique mastery of Arabic.
HARLAW, BATTLE OF, a battle fought at Harlaw, 18 m. NW. of Aberdeen, on 24th July 1411, which decided the supremacy of the Lowland Scots over the Highland.
HARLECH, an old Welsh town in Merionethshire, facing the sea, 10 m. N. of Barmouth; its grim old castle by the shore was a Lancastrian fortress during the Wars of the Roses, and its capture by the Yorkists in 1468 was the occasion of the well-known song, "The March of the Men of Harlech."
HARLEQUIN, a character in a Christmas pantomime, in love with Columbine, presumed to be invisible, and deft at tricks to frustrate those of the clown, who is his rival lover.
HARLEY, ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD, a celebrated English politician, born of good family; entered Parliament shortly after the Revolution (1688) as a Whig, but after a period of vacillation threw in his lot with Tories and in 1701 became Speaker of the House; in 1704 he was associated with St. John (Bolingbroke) in the Cabinet as Secretary of State, and set about undermining the influence of Godolphin and Marlborough; he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and head of the Government; was created Earl of Oxford and Lord High Treasurer; from this point his power began to wane; was displaced by Bolingbroke at last in 1715; was impeached for intriguing with the Jacobites and sent to the Tower; two years later he was released, and the remainder of his life was spent in the pursuit of letters and in the building up of his famous collection of MSS., now deposited in the British Museum (1661-1724).
HARMATTAN, a hot withering wind blowing over the coast of Guinea to the Atlantic from the interior of Africa, more or less from December to February.
HARMODIUS, an Athenian who in 514 B.C. conspired with Aristogeiton, his friend, against Hipparchus and his brother Hippias, the tyrant, but being betrayed were put to death; they figured in the traditions of Athens as political martyrs, and as such were honoured with statues.
HARNACK, ADOLF, a German theologian, born at Dorpat; professor successively at Giessen, Marburg, and Berlin; has written on the history of dogma in the Christian Church, on Gnosticism, early Christian literature, and the Apostles' Creed, on the latter offensively to the orthodox; B. 1851.
HAROLD I., king of England from 1035 to 1040, younger son of Cnut; the kingdom was practically divided between him and his brother Harthacnut; but the latter remaining in Denmark to protect his possessions there, England passed into Harold's hands.
HAROLD II., the last of the Saxon kings of England, held the crown for a few months in 1066, was the second son of the great EARL GODWIN (q. v.); in 1053 he succeeded his father in the earldom of the West Saxons, and during the later years of Edward's feeble rule was virtual administrator of the kingdom; on his accession to the throne his title was immediately challenged by his brother Tostig, and William, Duke of Normandy; having crushed his brother's invasion at Stamford Bridge, he immediately hurried S. to meet the forces of William at Hastings. Norman strategy won the day, and Harold fell in the battle pierced through the eye by an arrow; historians unite in ascribing to him every kingly quality--a noble presence, sagacity, and a brave yet gentle nature.
HAROLD I. OF NORWAY, surnamed Haarfager (fair-haired), by him the petty kingdoms of Norway were all conquered and knit into one compact realm; the story goes that he undertook this work to win the hand of his lady-love, and that he swore an oath neither to cut nor comb his hair till his task was done; d. 930.
HAROUN-AL-RASCHID ("Aaron the Orthodox or Just"), the most renowned of the Abbaside caliphs; succeeded to the caliphate in 786 on the death of his elder brother, El Hádi, and had for grand-vizier the Barmacide Yâhyá, to whom with his four sons he committed the administration of affairs, he the while making his court a centre of attraction to wise men, scholars, and artists, so that under him Bagdad became the capital of the civilised world; his glory was tarnished by one foul blot towards the end of his reign, and that was the massacre out of jealousy of the Barmacide family, members of which had contributed so much to his fame, an act which he had soon occasion to repent, for it was followed by an insurrection which cost him his life; the halo that invests his memory otherwise was, however, more fabulous than real, and history shows him at his best to have been avaricious, resentful, and cruel.
HARPIES, fabulous ravenous creatures, living in filth and defiling everything they touch, with the head and breast of a woman, the wings and claws of a bird, and a face pale with hunger, the personification of whirlwinds and storms, conceived of as merely ravening, wasting powers.
HARRINGTON, JAMES, political writer; author of a political romance entitled "The Commonwealth of Oceana," in which he argued that all secure government must be based on property, and for a democracy on this basis (1611-1677).
HARRIS, HOWEL, a noted Welsh Methodist, born at Trevecca, Brecon; embracing Calvinism, he at the age of 21 became an itinerant preacher, confining himself chiefly to Wales; in 1752 he took up his abode at Trevecca, where he erected a large house to accommodate those who sought his ministrations (1714-1773).
HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER, American writer, born in Georgia, U.S.; author of "Uncle Remus," his chief work a study of negro folk-lore, followed by interesting sketches and stories; b. 1848.
HARRIS, LUKE, founder of the "Brotherhood of the New Life," born in Buckinghamshire, a spiritualistic Socialist; his system founded on SWEDENBORGIANISM (q. v.) on the one hand and a form of communism on the other, with a scriptural Christianity spiritualised as backbone; the destiny of man he regards as angelhood, or a state of existence like that of God, in which the unity of sex, or fatherhood and motherhood, meet in one; the late Laurence Oliphant and the late John Pulsford were among his disciples; b. 1823.
HARRISBURG (50), capital of Pennsylvania, is beautifully situated on the Susquehanna, 106 m. NW. of Philadelphia; the industries include extensive iron and steel works and a flourishing lumber trade.
HARRISON, BENJAMIN. President of the United States and grandson of William Henry Harrison, a former President, born at North Bend, Ohio; started as a lawyer in Indianapolis, became an important functionary in the court of Indiana, and subsequently proved himself a brave and efficient commander during the Civil War; engaging actively in politics, he in 1880 became a United States Senator; as the nominee of the Protectionist and Republican party he won the Presidency against Cleveland, but at the election of 1892 the positions were reversed; in 1893 he became a professor in San Francisco; b. 1833.
HARRISON, FREDERIC, barrister, born in London, professor of Jurisprudence in the Inns of Court; author of articles contributed to Reviews and Essays, and of Lectures on a variety of current questions, historical, social, and religious, from the standpoint of the positivism of Auguste Comte, with his somewhat vague "Religion of Humanity" is the author of "Order and Progress," the "Choice of Books," &c.; b. 1831.
HARRISON, JOHN, a celebrated mechanician, born at Foulby, Yorkshire; was the first to invent a chronometer which, by its ingenious apparatus for compensating the disturbing effects caused by variations of climate, enabled mariners to determine longitude to within a distance of 18 m.; by this invention he won a prize of £20,000 offered by Government; amongst other things he invented the compensating gridiron pendulum, still in use (1693-1776).
HARRISON, WILLIAM, a noted historical writer, born in London; graduated at Cambridge, and after serving as chaplain to Lord Cobham, received the rectorship of Radwinter, in Essex; subsequently he became canon of Windsor; his fame rests on two celebrated historical works, "Description of England," an invaluable picture of social life and institutions in Elizabethan times, and "Description of Britain," written for Holinshed's "Chronicle" (1534-1593).
HARROGATE or HARROWGATE (14), a popular watering-place, prettily situated amid forest and moorland, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 20 m. NW. of York; it enjoys a wide repute for its sulphurous, saline, and chalybeate springs.
HARROW (6), a town of Middlesex, built on an eminence 200 ft. high, 12 m. from St. Paul's, London; its church, St. Mary's, founded by Lanfranc, is a Gothic structure of great architectural interest. Harrow School, a celebrated public school, was founded in 1571 for the free education of 30 poor boys of the parish, but subsequently opened its doors to "foreigners," and now numbers upwards of 500 pupils.
HARRY, BLIND, a famous Scottish minstrel who flourished in the 15th century; the few particulars of his life which have come down to us represent him as a blind and vagrant poet, living by reciting poems "before princes and peers"; to him is attributed the celebrated poem, "The Life of that Noble Champion of Scotland, Sir William Wallace, Knight," completed about 1488, a spirited, if partly apocryphal, account of Wallace, running to 11,861 lines in length.
HART, SOLOMON ALEXANDER, born at Plymouth; served as an engraver's apprentice in London; studied at the Royal Academy, and excelled in miniature painting; he became celebrated as a painter of historical scenes and characters, and in 1854 was appointed professor of Painting in the Royal Academy, and subsequently librarian; his works include "Henry I. receiving intelligence of the Death of his Son," "Milton visiting Galileo in Prison," "Wolsey and Buckingham," "Lady Jane Grey in the Tower," &c. (1806-1881).
HARTE, BRET, American humourist, born at Albany, New York; went to California at 15; tried various occupations, mining, school-mastering, printing, and literary sketching, when he got on the staff of a newspaper, and became eventually first editor of the Overland Monthly, in the columns of which he established his reputation as a humourist by the publication of the "Heathen Chinee" and other humorous productions, such as "The Luck of Roaring Camp"; he wields a prolific pen, and all he writes is of his own original coinage; b. 1839.
HARTFORD (80), the capital of Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut, 50 m. from its mouth and 112 m. NE. of New York; is handsomely laid out, and contains an imposing white marble capitol, Episcopalian and Congregational colleges, hospitals, libraries, &c.; is an important depôt for the manufacture of firearms, iron-ware, tobacco, &c., and is an important banking and insurance centre.
HARTLEPOOL (65), a seaport of Durham, situated on a tongue of land which forms the Bay of Hartlepool, 4 m. N. of the Tees estuary; the chief industries are shipbuilding, cement works, and a shipping trade, chiefly in coal and iron. WEST HARTLEPOOL (43), lies on the opposite and south side of the bay, 1 m. distant, but practically forming one town with Hartlepool, and carries on a similar trade, but on a somewhat larger scale; the extensive docks, stretching between the two towns, cover an area of 300 acres.
HARTLEY, DAVID, an English philosopher and physician; wrote "Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations"; ascribed sensation to vibration in the nerves, and applied the doctrine of the association of ideas to mental phenomena (1705-1757).
HARTMANN, a German philosopher, born at Berlin; established his fame by a work entitled the "Philosophy of the Unconscious," which rapidly passed through nine editions; he has since written on pessimism, the moral and the religious consciousness, the philosophy of the beautiful, and spiritualism; he is the founder of a new school of philosophy, which professes to be a synthesis of that of Hegel and that of Schopenhauer, and to aim at the reconciliation of philosophic results with scientific; b. 1842.
HARTMANN, MORITZ, a German poet; had a keen sympathy with the liberal political ideas that prevailed in 1848, and which his poems contributed to foster, and on account of which he got into trouble (1821-1872).
HARTZENBUSCH, JUAN EUGENIO, Spanish dramatist, born at Madrid, of German extraction; was educated under the Jesuits, but abandoned his intention of joining the Church, took to literature, and was given a post in the National Library at Madrid; his dramas are fresh and vigorous, and enjoy a wide popularity; he rose to be Director of the National Library, and in 1852 was President of the Theatrical Council (1806-1880).
HARUS`PICES, among the Romans, soothsayers who affected to foretell future events by the inspection of the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice, as well as by study of abnormal phenomena.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, the oldest and premier educational institution in the United States, is located at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 3 m. W. of Boston; it is named after the Rev. John Harvard, a graduate of Cambridge, who by the bequest of his library and small fortune helped to launch the institution in 1638; it was originally intended for the training of youths for the Puritan ministry, but it has during the present century been extended into a university of the first rank, under emancipation from all sectarian control; it has a student roll of about 3000, is splendidly equipped, and now richly endowed.
HARVEST-MOON, the full moon which in our latitude, at the autumnal equinox, rises for an evening or two about the same time.
HARVEY, SIR GEORGE, a Scotch artist, born at St. Ninians, Stirling; was one of the original associates of the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he at length became president; among his paintings are the "Covenanters' Preaching," "The Curlers," and "John Bunyan in Jail" (1805-1880).
HARVEY, WILLIAM, a celebrated English physician, born at Folkestone, in Kent; graduated at Cambridge, and in 1602 received his medical diploma at Padua; settling in London, he in a few years became physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and subsequently lecturer at the College of Physicians; in 1628 he announced in a published treatise his discovery of the circulation of the blood; for many years he was Court physician, and attended Charles I. at the battle of Edgehill (1578-1657).
HARWICH (8), a seaport and market town of Essex; is situated on a headland on the S. side of the conjoined estuaries of the Stour and the Orwell, 5 m. N. of the Naze and 65 m. NE. of London; it is an important packet station for Holland, has a good harbour and docks, with an increasing commerce.
HARZ MOUNTAINS, a mountain range of N. Germany, stretching for 57 m. between the Weser and the Elbe to the S. of Brunswick; it forms a picturesque and diversified highland, is a favourite resort of tourists, and rises to its greatest elevation in the far-famed BROCKEN (q. v.); the scene of the Walpurgisnacht in "Faust"; silver, iron, and other metals are found in considerable quantities, and, with the extensive forests, give rise to a prosperous mining and timber industry.
HASDRUBAL, the name of several distinguished Carthaginian generals, of whom the most noted were (1), the son of HAMILCAR BARCA (q. v.) and brother of HANNIBAL (q. v.); he played a prominent part in the Second Punic War, conquered Cn. Scipio in Spain (212 B.C.), and subsequently commanded the Carthaginian army in Italy; he fell at the battle of the Metaurus in 207 B.C.: (2) the brother-in-law of Hamilcar Barca, whom he succeeded in 228 B.C. as administrator of the new empire in the Iberian peninsula; he pushed the western frontiers back to the Tagus, and by his strong yet conciliatory government firmly established the Carthaginian power; he was assassinated in 221 B.C.
HASE, KARL AUGUST, an eminent German theologian, born at Steinbach, Saxony, professor at Jena; author of a "Text-book of Evangelical Dogma," a "Life of Christ," a "Church History," &c., was equally opposed to orthodoxy and rationalism, and sought to reconcile the creed of the Church with the conclusions of science (1800-1890).
HASHISH, an intoxicant made from Indian hemp, having different effects on different individuals according to the dose and to the constitution of the individual.
HASLINGDEN (18), a busy market-town of Lancashire, 19 m. NW. of Manchester; has flourishing cotton, silk, and woollen factories, and in the vicinity are coal-mines, iron-works, &c.
HASSAN PASHA, a Turkish grand-vizier of African birth; twice reduced the beys of Egypt; commanded, at the age of 85, the Turkish forces against Russia in 1788, but being defeated, was dismissed and put to death in 1790.
HASSELT (13); a Belgian town, capital of the province of Limburg, 47 m. NE. of Brussels; distilling, and the manufacture of lace, linen, and tobacco are the staple industries.
HASTINGS (61), a popular holiday and health resort in Sussex; occupies a fine situation on the coast, with lofty cliffs behind, 33 m. E. of Brighton; has a splendid esplanade 3 m. long, parks, public gardens, &c., and ruins of a castle.
HASTINGS, BATTLE OF, fought on 14th October 1066, on Senlac Hill, 6 m. NW. of Hastings (where now stands the little town of Battle), between William, Duke of Normandy and Harold II., King of England; victory rested with the Normans, and Harold was slain on the field.
HASTINGS, FRANCIS RAWDON-HASTINGS, MARQUIS OF, Governor-General of India; entering the army in 1771, he saw active service in the American War and in Holland; succeeded his father in the earldom of Moira; was in 1813 appointed to the Governor-Generalship of India; he was instrumental in extending the Company's territories, and pacifying the warlike Goorkhas, for which, in 1816, he was created Marquis of Hastings; latterly he held the Governorship of Malta (1754-1826).
HASTINGS, WARREN, first Governor-General of India, born at Churchill, Oxfordshire; early left an orphan, he was maintained at Westminster School by his uncle, and at 17 received a clerkship in the East India Company; for 14 years his life was occupied in mercantile and political work, at the close of which time he returned to England; in 1769 he was back in India as a member of the Madras Council; married the divorced wife of Baron Imhoff, and in 1772 was appointed President of the Council in Bengal; under the new arrangement for the governing of the provinces, Hastings was raised to the position of Governor-General in 1773; despite jealousies and misrepresentations both among his colleagues in India and the home authorities, he steadily, and with untiring energy, extended and brought into orderly government the British dominions; in 1785 he voluntarily resigned, and on his return he was impeached before the House of Lords for oppression of the natives, and for conniving at the plunder of the Begums or dowager-princesses of Oudh; the trial brought forth the greatest orators of the day, Burke, Fox, and Sheridan leading the impeachment, which, after dragging on for nearly eight years, resulted in the acquittal of Hastings on all the charges; his fortune having been consumed by the enormous expenses of the trial, he was awarded a handsome pension by the Company, and thereafter lived in honoured retirement (1732-1818).
HATCH, EDWIN, theologian, born at Derby; graduated at Oxford, and was for some years professor of Classics in Trinity College, Toronto; in 1867 was appointed Vice-Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford; Rector of Purleigh, Essex, in 1883; reader in Ecclesiastical History at Oxford; he held the Grinfield, Bampton, and Hibbert lectureships at different times, and established a reputation, both abroad and at home, for wide and accurate scholarship; HARNACK (q. v.) translated his learned lectures on "The Organisation of the Early Christian Churches"; and "The Growth of Church Institutions" displayed his rare gift of combining profound scholarship with popular presentation (1835-1889).
HATFIELD, or BISHOP'S HATFIELD (4), a market-town of Hertfordshire, 18 m. NW. of London; its parish church dates from the 13th century, and in the vicinity stands Hatfield House, a noble architectural pile of James I.'s time, the seat of the Marquis of Salisbury.
HATHERLEY, BARON, barrister, elected to represent Oxford in Parliament; in 1847 was Solicitor-General, in 1853 raised to the bench, and in 1868 made Lord Chancellor; retired in 1872 from failing sight (1801-1881).
HATHRAS (39), an important commercial town in the NW. Provinces, India, 97 m. SE. of Delhi; exports large quantities of sugar, grain, cotton, &c., and is famed for its beautiful carved stone-and-wood-work.
HATS AND CAPS, the name of two political factions in Sweden in the middle of the 18th century, the former favouring France and the latter Russia.
HATTERAS, CAPE, a low sandy headland of a small island separated from the mainland of N. Carolina, U.S., by Pimlico Sound; it is a storm-swept and treacherous point, and is marked by a powerful light, 190 ft. high.
HATTI-SHERIFF, a name given to an edict of the Sultan which is irrevocable, though many a one of them has proved a dead letter.
HATTO, archbishop of Mainz, of whom tradition alleges that he was assailed in his palace by an army of mice, to escape whose ravages he retired to a tower on the Rhine, whither the mice followed him and ate him up, a judgment due, as is alleged, to his having, during a great famine in 970, gathered the poor into a barn and burnt them to death, as "like mice, good only for devouring corn," he said.
HAUBERK, a coat or tunic of mail made of interwoven steel rings and extending below the knees.
HAUCH, HANS CARSTEN, Danish poet and novelist, born at Frederikshald, in Norway; in 1846 he became professor of Northern Literature at Kiel, and four years later of Æsthetics at Copenhagen; his historical tragedies, lyrics, tales, and romances are instinct with true poetic feeling, and are widely popular in Denmark (1790-1872).
HAUFF, WILHELM, a German prose writer, born in Stuttgart, who died young; wrote "Memoirs of Satan" and "The Man in the Moon," and a number of charmingly told "Tales," which have made his name famous among ourselves (1802-1827).
HAUG, a German Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit at Poona, and afterwards at Münich; devoted himself to the exposition of the Zendavesta (1827-1876).
HAUSER, KASPAR, a young man of about 16 who mysteriously appeared in Nürnberg one day in 1828, was found to be as helpless and ignorant as a baby, and held a letter in his hand giving an account of his history. The mystery of his case interested Lord Stanhope, who charged himself with the care of him, but he was enticed out of the house he was boarded in one day, returned mortally wounded, and died soon after.
HAUSSA or HOUSSA, a subject people of Central Soudan, whose language has become the common speech of some 15 millions of people between the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea. The language is allied to the Hamitic tongues, and is written in modified Arabic characters.
HAUSSMAN, GEORGE EUGÈNE, a celebrated Préfect of the Seine, who, while holding that position (1853-70), carried through extensive architectural improvements in Paris, which transformed it into one of the handsomest cities of Europe; the enormous cost entailed brought about his dismissal, but not before he had received many distinctions, and been ennobled by Napoleon III.; in 1881 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (1809-1891).
HAÜY, RENÉ JUST, known as the Abbé Haüy, a French mineralogist, born at St. Just; propounded the theory of crystallisation founded on geometrical principles; absorbed in study, was caught napping during the Revolution; got consequently into trouble, but was extricated out of it by his friend and pupil, Geoffrey St.-Hilaire; was appointed professor of Mineralogy by Napoleon (1743-1823).
HAVANA (200), fortified capital of the island of Cuba, in the West Indies; has a spacious and securely sheltered harbour, an old Spanish cathedral, a university, botanical garden, and several fine theatres; the town is ill laid out, badly drained, and subject to yellow fever; the staple industries are the raising of tobacco and sugar, and the manufacture of cigars.
HAVEL, an important tributary of the Lower Elbe, which it joins a few miles from Wittenberg; it rises in Mecklenburg, and takes a circuitous course past Potsdam of 180 m.
HAVELOCK, SIR HENRY, British general, born at Bishop Wearmouth; entered the army in 1815, and embarked in the service for India in 1823; served in the Afghan and Sikh Wars, as also in Persia; on the outbreak of the Mutiny he was in 1857 sent to the relief of Cawnpore and Lucknow, the latter of which places he entered on 25th Sept., where, being beleagured, he entrenched himself in the Residency, and held his own until November, when Sir Colin Campbell came to his relief, but his health had been undermined from his anxieties, and he died on the 22nd of that month; for his services on this occasion a baronetcy and a pension of £1000 was conferred on him, but it was too late, and the honour with the pension was transferred to his son; he was a Christian soldier, and a commander of the Puritan type (1795-1857).
HAVERFORDWEST (6), seaport and capital of Pembroke, Wales, prettily situated on the Cleddan, 10 m. NE. of Milford; has a 14th-century castle and a ruined priory; the chief industry is paper-making.
HAVERGAL, FRANCES RIDLEY, a hymn-writer, born at Astley, where her father, known as a musical composer, was rector; was authoress of "Ministry of Song," and collections which have been highly popular (1830-1879).
HAVERSIAN CANALS, canals in the bones to convey the vessels that nourish them.
HAVRE, LE (116), the second commercial port in France, on the N. side of the Seine estuary, 143 m. NW. of Paris, in the dep. of Seine-Inférieure; has a fine harbour, docks, &c., but shipping is incommoded by the shifting sandbanks of the estuary, and railway facilities are poor; it is an important centre of emigration, and its industries embrace shipbuilding, iron-works, flour-mills, &c.
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS (named by Cook the Sandwich Islands) (90), a group of volcanic islands, 12 in number, situated in the North Pacific; total area somewhat larger than Yorkshire. Of the five inhabited islands Hawaii is the largest; it contains the famous volcano, Kilauea, whose crater is one of the world's wonders, being 9 m. in circumference, and filled with a glowing lake of molten lava which ebbs and flows like an ocean tide. The island of Maui has the largest crater on the earth. The climate of the group is excellent, and vegetation (including forests) is abundant; sugar and rice are the chief crops. Honolulu (on Oahu), with a splendid harbour, is the capital. The islands are now under the jurisdiction of the United States.
HAWARDEN, a town 7 m. W. of Chester, near which is Hawarden Castle, where Mr. Gladstone resided and died.
HAWEIS, HUGH REGINALD, English churchman, born at Egham, Surrey, incumbent of St. James's, Marylebone; was present in Italy during the revolution there, and at several of the battles; is popular as a preacher and lecturer, and has written a number of works on the times, on music, Christ and Christianity, &c.; b. 1840.
HAWES, STEPHEN, an English poet; held a post In the household of Henry VII.; author of an allegorical poem on the right education of a knight, entitled "The Pastime of Pleasure"; d. d. 1503.
HAWICK (19), a prosperous and ancient town of Roxburghshire, at the confluence of the Teviot and Slitrig, 52 m. SE. of Edinburgh; is a flourishing centre of the tweed, yarn, and hosiery trade, and has besides dye-works, tanneries, &c.
HAWK-EYE STATE, Iowa, U.S., so called from the name of an Indian chief once a terror in those parts.
HAWKE, LORD, an English admiral, born in London; entered the navy at an early age in 1747; defeated a French fleet off Finisterre and captured six ships of the line in 1759; defeated Admiral Conflans off Belleisle; was made a peer in 1776; d. 1781.
HAWKER, ROBERT STEPHEN, a Cornish clergyman and poet; was vicar for 40 years of Morwenstow, a parish on the N. Cornwall coast; author of "Cornish Ballads"; was a humane man, of eccentric ways, and passionately fond of animals; was the author of several works besides his ballads, in particular "Echoes from Old Cornwall" and "Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall" (1805-1875).
HAWKESWORTH, JOHN, a miscellaneous writer; wrote a book of "Voyages," an account of the first voyage of Captain Cook; was a friend of Johnson's, and associated with him in literary work (1715-1773).
HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, an English navigator and admiral, born at Plymouth; was rear-admiral of the fleet sent against the Armada and contributed to its defeat; has the unenviable distinction of having been the first Englishman to traffic in slaves, which he carried off from Africa and imported into the West Indies (1530-1595).
HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, retired attorney, born in London; wrote a "History of Music," and edited Walton's "Complete Angler" with notes (1719-1789).
HAWKWOOD, SIR JOHN, an English captain, born in Essex; embracing the profession of arms, served with distinction at Crécy and Poitiers, and was in consequence knighted by Edward III.; afterwards fought as free-lance with his White Company in the wars of Italy, and finally in the service of Florence, where he spent his last days and died in 1393. For an account of his character, military ability, and manner of warfare, see Ruskin's "Fors Clavigera."
HAWORTH (3), a village of Yorkshire, situated on a rising moorland in the W. Biding, 2 m. SW. of Keighley, memorable as the lifelong home of the Brontës, and their final resting-place.
HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL, American novelist, born at Salem, Massachusetts; his early ambition was to be a literary man, and "Twice-told Tales" was the first production by which he won distinction, after the publication of which he spent some months at BROOK FARM (q. v.), leaving which he married and took up house at Concord; from 1848 to 1850 he held a State appointment, and in his leisure hours wrote his "Scarlet Letter," which appeared in the latter year, and established his fame as a master of literature; this was followed by "The House of the Seven Gables," "The Snow Image," "The Blithedale Romance," and by-and-by "The Marble Faun," and "Our Old Home" (1804-1864).
HAYDN, JOSEPH, German composer, born at Rohrau, in Austria, of poor parents; early evinced a musical talent, and became at the age of eight a cathedral chorister; came into notice first as a street musician; soon became a popular music-master in Vienna, and, under the patronage of the Esterhazys, kapellmeister to Prince Nicolaus, a passionate lover of music; he produced operas, symphonies, and oratorios, &c.; he is at his best in quartettes and symphonies, and in "The Creation" and "The Seasons"; he was a man of a happy disposition, and his character appears in his music; he was known at length as Father Haydn (1732-1809).
HAYDON, BENJAMIN ROBERT, an English historical painter, born at Plymouth; studied at the Royal Academy, and in 1807 exhibited "Joseph and Mary resting on the Road to Egypt"; two years later occurred his memorable split with the Royal Academy over a supposed slight to his picture, "Dentatus"; "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem" brought him £1700 by exhibition, and his "Judgment of Solomon," considered his finest work, sold for 700 guineas; despite large sums obtained for "The Mock Election," "The Reform Banquet," &c., he was continually in debt, and his high-strung, sensitive temperament, smarting under imaginary slights and weary of unrealised ambitions, led him to commit suicide by shooting himself in his studio; he was an artist of great but unequal genius; he was fascinated with the Elgin Marbles, and the admiration he expressed for them contributed to persuade the Government to purchase them (1786-1846).
HAYES, ISAAC ISRAEL, Arctic explorer, born in Pennsylvania; after graduating in medicine, joined the Kane expedition in search of Franklin in 1853, and subsequently made two other voyages to the Arctic regions, accounts of which are given in his "An Arctic Boat-journey," "The Land of Desolation," &c.; subsequently he served as a surgeon during the Civil War, and sat in the New York Assembly (1832-1881).
HAYES, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD, President of the United States, born at Delaware, Ohio; graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio; studied law at Harvard, and started practice at Cincinnati; he served with distinction through the Civil War, entered Congress in 1865, and was thrice governor of Ohio; in 1876 he was elected President in the Republican interest after a protracted and bitterly disputed election; he did much to pacify the South, reform the civil service, advance education, and to bring about resumption of specie payments, measures which greatly restored the prosperity of the country (1822-1893).
HAY-FEVER, a sort of catarrh, accompanied with paroxysms of sneezing, irritation in the eyes, pains in the head, &c., most frequent in early summer.
HAYLEY, WILLIAM, poet, the friend and biographer of Cowper; wrote "Triumphs of Temper," a poem (1745-1820).
HAYM, RUDOLF, professor of Philosophy at Halle; wrote biographies of Hegel, W. von Humboldt, and Schopenhauer; b. 1821.
HAYNAU, JULIUS JAKOB, BARON VON, a notorious Austrian general, born at Cassel, Germany; entered the army in 1801, and while holding a command during the Italian campaigns of 1848-49, crushed the revolt at Brescia with such brutal ferocity as to gain him the name of the "Hyæna of Brescia"; he was for a time dictator of Hungary, but his murderous cruelty towards the subjugate people became a European scandal and led to his removal; in London he was mobbed and narrowly escaped with his life (1786-1853).
HAYTI (Hispaniola or Santo Domingo), next to Cuba the largest of the W. Indian Islands, in the group of the Greater Antilles, lies midway between Cuba on the W. and Porto Rico on the E.; its area, somewhat larger than Scotland, is apportioned between the negro Republic of Hayti in the E. and the mulatto Dominican Republic in the W.; the island is mountainous, and forests of valuable timber abound; a warm, moist climate favours rice, cotton, &c., and minerals are plentiful; but during this century, under native government, the island has been retrogressive; agriculture and mining are practically at a standstill, while the natives seem incapable of self-government; the language spoken is a corrupt French; Port-au-Prince and San Domingo are the chief towns; discovered in 1492 by Columbus, the island was soon denuded of its aboriginals, then peopled by imported negroes, joined latterly by French buccaneers; in 1697 the island was ceded to France, but in 1791, under TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE (q. v.), the blacks, after a bloody revolution, swept the island clear of Europeans; population of island somewhat over a million.
HAYWARD, ABRAHAM, English essayist; bred to law, but took to literature; executed a prose translation of "Faust," Pt. I. (1802-1884).
HAZLITT, WILLIAM, critic and essayist, born in Maidstone, of Irish descent; began life as an artist, but abandoned art for letters, and contributed to the reviews; wrote on the English poets and dramatists, the "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays," "The Spirit of the Age," a "Life of Napoleon," &c.; criticism was his forte, and he ranks among the foremost devoted to that art; his life was not well regulated, his health gave way, and he died in poverty (1778-1830).
HEAD, SIR EDMUND WALKER, BART., writer on art, born near Maidstone, Kent, succeeded to the baronetcy in 1838; became lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick in 1847, and governor-general of Canada in 1854; wrote "Handbook of Spanish Painting," also "French Art," and some poems (1805-1868).
HEAD, SIR FRANCIS BOND, soldier and author; governor of Upper Canada; suppressed an insurrection; wrote a "Life of Bruce the African Traveller," "Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau," "A Faggot of French Sticks," &c. (1793-1875).
HEAD-HUNTERS, name given to the Dyaks of Borneo, from their habit of preserving in the way of trophy the heads of those whom they slay in battle, as the Red Indians did the scalps.
HEADRIGG, CUDDIE (i. e. Cuthbert), a ploughman in "Old Mortality."
HEALY, TIMOTHY MICHAEL, Irish Nationalist, born at Bantry, Cork; came into prominence during the Land League agitation in 1880, and in the same year was returned to Parliament; was called to the Irish bar in 1884, and has since been active in promoting the interests of the Home Rule movement; in 1890 he was one of the leaders in the revolt against Parnell; b. 1855.
HEARNE, THOMAS, a noted English antiquary, born in White Waltham, Berks; graduated at Oxford in 1699, and subsequently became second keeper of the Bodleian Library; his compilations and editions of old English texts, e. g. Camden's "Annals," Robert of Gloucester's "Chronicle," display wide and ingenious scholarship; he figures in Pope's "Dunciad" (1678-1735).
HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN, the old Tolbooth or jail of Edinburgh, the capital of Midlothian, which gives name to one of Scott's best novels.
HEATHENISM, as defined by Carlyle, "plurality of gods, mere sensuous representation of the Mystery of Life, and for chief recognised element therein Physical Force, as contrasted with Christianism, or Faith in an Invisible, not as real only, but as the only reality; Time, through every meanest moment of it, resting on Eternity; Pagan empire of Force displaced by a nobler supremacy, that of Holiness."
HEATHFIELD, GEORGE AUGUSTUS ELIOTT, LORD, a gallant general, the defender of Gibraltar, son of Sir Gilbert Eliott, born at Stobs, in Roxburghshire; saw service first in the war of the Austrian Succession, fighting at Dettingen and Fontenoy; as a colonel he fought with English troops in alliance with Frederick the Great against Austria; for his heroic defence of Gibraltar (1779-1783) against the combined forces of France and Spain he was raised to the peerage as Baron of Gibraltar (1717-1790).
HEAVEN, in Christian theology the place of the immediate Divine presence, where God manifests Himself without veil, and His saints enjoy that presence and know as they are known. In Scripture it denotes, (1) the atmosphere, (2) the starry region, (3) a state of bliss, (4) as defined, the divine presence, and (5) God Himself.
HEAVE-OFFERING, among the Jews, an offering for the support of divine service, so called as, when offered, lifted up in presence of the people.
HEBBEL, FRIEDRICH, lyrist and dramatist, born at Weselburen, Ditmarsh; settled in Vienna in 1846; "Die Nibelungen" is his best play, others are "Judith," "Maria Magdalena," &c.; his dramas are vigorous and original, but ill-proportioned, and in the passions they depict abnormal; his works are collected in 12 vols. (1813-1863).
HEBE, goddess of eternal youth, daughter of Zeus and Hera; was the cup-bearer of the gods; was superseded by Ganymedes, and became the wife of Hercules after his admission among the immortals.
HEBER, REGINALD, bishop of Calcutta, born in Cheshire, author of a prize poem entitled "Palestine" and a volume of "Hymns," several of them famous; died at his post in Trichinopoly; left a narrative of a "Journey through India" (1783-1826).
HÉBERT, JACQUES RENÉ, commonly called Per Duchesne as editor of a journal of that name, a violent revolutionary organ; took part in the September Massacres; brutally insulted the queen at her trial, to the disgust of Robespierre; was arrested by his colleagues, whom he dared to oppose, and guillotined, his widow found weeping, following him to his doom (1756-1794).
HEBREW, a Semitic language, the ancient language of the Jews, and that in which the Old Testament is written, the words of which, as indeed of others of the same stock, are derived from triliteral roots, and the verb in which has no present tense, only a past and a future, convertible, moreover, into one another.
HEBREW POETRY is of two kinds, either lyric or gnomic, i. e. subjectively emotional or sententiously didactic, the former belonging to the active or stirring, and the latter to the reflective or quiet, periods of Hebrew history, and whether expressed in lyric or gnome rises in the conscience and terminates in action; for Hebrew thought needs to go no higher, since therein it finds and affirms God; and it seeks to go no farther, for therein it compasses all being, and requires no epic and no drama to work out its destiny. However individualistic in feature, as working through the conscience, it yet relates itself to the whole moral world, and however it may express itself, it beats in accord with the pulse of eternity. The lyric expression of the Hebrew temper we find in the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and the gnomic in the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, while the book of Job, which is only dramatic in form, is partly lyric and partly dramatic.
HEBREW PROPHECY had throughout regard for the Jews as a nation and to see that it fulfilled its destiny as such in the world. This purpose we see carried out by five steps or stages. It taught, first, by the NEBIIM (q. v.), that the nation must regard itself as one nation; secondly, by Elijah, that it must have Jehovah alone for its God; thirdly, by Amos, that as a nation it was not necessarily God's chosen; fourthly, by Isaiah, that it existed for the preservation of a holy seed; and finally, that it ceased to exist when it was felt that religion primarily concerned the individual and was wholly an affair of the conscience. Thus does Hebrew prophecy terminate when it leads up to Christianity, the first requirement of which is a regeneration of the heart (John iii. 3), and the great promise of which is the outpouring of a spirit that "will guide into all truth" (John xvi. 13).
HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE, an epistle of the New Testament of uncertain authorship addressed to Christians of Jewish descent, who were strongly tempted, by the persecution they were subjected to at the hands of their Jewish brethren, to renounce the cross of Christ, which it was feared they would too readily do, and so to their own ruin crucify the Son of God afresh, there being only this alternative for them, either crucifixion with Christ or crucifixion of Christ, and death of all their hopes founded on Him.
HEBRIDES, or WESTERN ISLANDS, a general name for the islands on the west coast of Scotland (save the islands of the Firth of Clyde), about 500 in number, of which 100 are inhabited; they belong to the counties of Ross, Inverness, and Argyll, and are divided by the Little Minch and the Minch into the Outer Hebrides, of which the chief are Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist, Benbecula, &c.; and the Inner Hebrides, including Skye, Rum, Mull, Iona, Staffa, &c.; they have wild and rocky coasts, but are picturesque and verdurous, and are much frequented by tourists; the climate is mild and moist; cattle and sheep rearing and fishing are the chief industries.
HEBRON, an ancient town and city of refuge, originally called Kirjath-arba, i. e. four cities, only 20 m. S. of Jerusalem; it is a poor place now, but still abounds in orchards and vineyards.
HECATÆUS OF MILETUS, styled the "logographer," who flourished about 500 B.C.; visited many countries, and wrote two books, "The Tour of the World" and "Genealogies or Histories," the former containing descriptions of the places he visited, and the latter an account of the poetical fables and traditions of the Greeks.
HECATE, in the Greek mythology a mysterious divinity of the Titan brood and held in honour by all the gods, identified with Phoebe in heaven, Artemis on earth, and Persephone in Hades, as being invested with authority in all three regions; came to be regarded exclusively as an infernal deity, having under her command and at her beck all manner of demons and phantom spirits.
HECKER, FRIEDRICH KARL FRANZ, a German revolutionary, born at Eichtersheim, Baden; practised as an advocate in Mannheim, and in 1842 became an active democrat and Socialist; frustrated in an attempt during the '48 Revolution to create a republican assembly, he headed a revolutionary attack upon Baden, was defeated, and subsequently settled in the United States, where he took to farming; took part in the Civil War at the head of a regiment of Germans, and became a commander of a brigade (1811-1881).
HECKER, JUSTUS FRIEDRICH KARL, author of a great work on the "Epidemics of the Middle Ages"; was a professor of Medicine at Berlin (1795-1850).
HECKMONDWIKE (10), a market-town in Yorkshire, 8 m. NE. of Huddersfield; is the principal seat of the carpet and blanket manufactures in the West Riding.
HECLA or HEKLA, the loftiest of 20 active volcanoes in Iceland (5102 ft.); is an isolated peak with five craters, 68 m. E. of Reykjavik; its most violent outbreak in recent times continued from 1845 to 1846; its last eruption was in March 1878.
HECTIC FEVER, a fever connected with consumption, and showing itself by a bright pink flush on the cheeks.
HECTOR, the chief hero of Troy in the war with the Greeks, the son of Priam and Hecuba; fought with the bravest of the enemy and finally slew Patroclus, the friend of ACHILLES (q. v.), which roused the latter from his long lethargy to challenge him to fight; Achilles chased him three times round the city, pierced him with his spear, and dragged his dead body after his chariot round Ilium; his body was at the command of Zeus delivered up to Priam and buried with great pomp within the city walls.
HECUBA, the wife of Priam, king of Troy; distinguished both as a wife and a mother; on the fall of the city she fell into the hands of the Greeks, and, according to one tradition, was made a slave, and, according to another, threw herself in despair into the sea.
HEDONISM, the doctrine of the Cyrenaics that pleasure is the end of life, and the measure of virtue, or the summum bonum.
HEEM, JAN DAVIDSZ VAN, a famous Dutch painter, born at Utrecht; had a prosperous and uneventful career in Antwerp, where in 1635 he became a member of the Guild of Painters; he is considered the greatest of the "still life" painters; his pictures, masterpieces of colouring and chiaroscuro, have a great monetary value, and are to be found in the famous galleries of Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, &c. (1606-1684).
HEEREN, LUDWIG, a German historian; professor of History at Göttingen; wrote on ancient and modern history, specially the ancient and its antiquities; eminent in both (1760-1842).
HEFELE, KARL JOSEPH VON, a Catholic Church historian, born at Unterkochen, in Würtemberg; in 1840 became professor of Church History and Christian Archæology in the Catholic Theological Faculty in Tübingen University, and in 1869 Bishop of Rottenburg; was for some time zealously opposed to the doctrine of the Papal infallibility, but subsequently acquiesced, putting, however, his own construction on it; his best-known works are the "History of the Christian Councils" and "Contributions to Church History" (1809-1893).
HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH, German philosopher, the greatest of all, born in Stuttgart; studied first at Tübingen, with a view to theology; as a student attracted no particular attention, was outstript by Schelling; did domestic tutoring for a time; qualified at Jena for an academic career; adhered to and collaborated with Schelling in philosophy; first announced himself in 1807 by his work, "Phenomenology of the Spirit"; became rector of the Academy at Nürnberg, where in 1812-16 he composed his "Logic"; was in 1816 appointed professor of Philosophy at Heidelberg, whence he was removed to Berlin in 1818, where, his philosophy being now matured, he began to apply it with intense earnestness to every subject of human interest; he was the last of a line of thinkers beginning with Kant, with whom, however, he affiliated directly, and in his idealism philosophy first reached the goal which it was till then with hesitating steps only stretching forward to; his works fill 22 goodly sized volumes, and his system may be grouped under three heads, the "Science of Logic," the "Philosophy of Nature," and the "Philosophy of Spirit" (1770-1831).
HEGELIANISM, the philosophy of Hegel, which resolves being into thought, and thought into the unity of the logical moments of simple apprehension, judgment, and reason, all purely spiritual acts, whereby being in itself, or seyn, becomes other than itself, or daseyn, and returns into itself, or für sich seyn, the universal being first by separating from itself particularised, and then by return into itself individualised, the whole being what Hegel characterises as Der Process des Geistes, "The Process of the Spirit." Something like this is what Dr. Stirling calls "The Secret of Hegel," and an open secret it is, for he finds it pervading the whole system; "open where you will in Hegel," he says, "you find him always engaged in saying pretty well the same thing"; always identity by otherness passing into selfness, or making that for itself which is at first in itself;--a philosophy which is anticipated by the doctrine of St. Paul, which represents God as the One from whom are all things as Father, and through whom are all things as Son, and to whom are all things as Spirit, the One who is thus All; it is also involved in the doctrine of Christ when He says God is Spirit, or the Living One who lives, and manifests Himself in life, for Himself, from Himself, and through Himself, who, so to say, thus concretes Himself throughout the universe.
HEGE`SIAS, a Cyrenaic philosopher, who held that life was full of evils, that it was in vain to seek after pleasure, and that all a wise man could do was to fortify himself as best he could against pain.
HEGESIPPUS, a Church historian of the 2nd century, a convert from Judaism; only fragments of his "Memoirs of Ecclesiastical Affairs" remain.
HEIDELBERG (35), a celebrated German city, in Baden, situated amid beautiful surroundings, on the Neckar, 13 m. SE. of Mannheim; has many interesting buildings, including ruins of a splendid 13th-century castle, but is chiefly celebrated for its flourishing university (student roll, 800; professors, 100; library, 500,000), whose professoriate has included many of the most distinguished German scholars; it was long the centre of Calvinism; its chief trade is in books, tobacco, wine, and beer.
HEIJN, or HEYN, PETER PETERSEN, a famous Dutch admiral, born at Delftshaven; from being a cabin-boy rose to be commander of the Dutch fleet; off the east coast of S. America he twice defeated the Spanish fleet, securing an immense booty, and in 1628 captured a flotilla of Spanish galleons with silver and jewels equal to 16,000,000 Dutch guilders; fell in an action off Dunkirk (1577-1629).
HEILBRONN (30), a quaint old town of Würtemberg, on the Neckar, 23 m. N. of Stuttgart; has a fine 11th-century Gothic church, and the Thief's Tower (Diebsthurm); is associated with the captivity of GOETZ VON BERLICHINGEN (q. v.); it is now a busy commercial centre, and manufactures silverware, paper, beet-sugar, chemicals, &c.
HEILSBRONN, a Bavarian market-town, 16 m. SW. of Nüremberg; is celebrated for its Cistercian monastery, now suppressed, but whose church still contains monuments and art relics of great historic interest.
HEINE, HEINRICH, a German lyric poet, born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents; was bred to law, but devoted himself to literature, and mingled with literary people, and associated in particular with the Varnhagen von Ense circle; first became notable by the publication of his "Reisebilder" and his "Buch der Lieder," the appearance of which created a wide-spread enthusiasm in Germany in 1825 he abandoned the Jewish faith and professed the Christian, but the creed he adopted was that of a sceptic, and he indulged in a cynicism that outraged all propriety, and even common decency; in 1830 he quitted Germany and settled in Paris, and there a few years afterwards married a rich lady, who alleviated the sufferings of his last years; an attack of paralysis in 1847 left him only one eye, and in the following year he lost the other, but under these privations and much bodily pain he bore up with a singular fortitude, and continued his literary labours to the last; in his songs he was at his best, and by these alone it is believed he will be chiefly remembered (1797-1856).
HEINECCIUS, JOHANN GOTTLIEB, a celebrated German jurist, born at Eisenberg; was successively professor of Philosophy and subsequently of Law at several universities of Germany; he wrote several learned works in law treated from a philosophical standpoint; mention may be made of his "Historia Juris Civilis Romani" and "Elementa Juris Naturæ Gentium" (1681-1741).
HEINSIUS, ANTHONY, a noted Dutch statesman, born at Delft; became Grand Pensionary of Holland; was the intimate friend and correspondent of William III. of England, who left the guidance of Dutch affairs largely in his hands (1641-1720).
HEIR APPARENT, one whose right of succession is sure if he survive the present holder.
HEIR PRESUMPTIVE, one whose right of succession is sure if not barred by the birth of one nearer.
HEJAZ, EL, the holy land of the Moslems, a district of Arabia Felix, and so called by containing the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina.
HEJIRA or HEJRA (Arabic, "going away"), a word applied to Mahomet's flight from Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622; Calif Omar, 17 years later, adopted this date as the starting-point of a new Mohammedan calendar.
HEL or HELA, in Scandinavian mythology an inexorable divinity, the death-goddess who presides over the icy realm of the dead; her maw was insatiable and her heart pitiless.
HELDENBUCH, a collection of German heroic poems relating heroic deeds and events connected with the inroads of the barbarians on the empire.
HELDER, THE (25), a strongly fortified and flourishing seaport in North Holland, on the Marsdiep, at the N. end of the North Holland Canal, 51 m. NW. of Amsterdam; is an important naval centre, and has an excellent harbour.
HELEN, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; the most beautiful of women, who was carried off to Troy by Paris, to revenge whose abduction the princes of Greece, who had pledged themselves to protect her, made war on Troy, a war which lasted ten years.
HELENA, ST., the mother of Constantine the Great; is said to have visited Jerusalem and discovered the Holy Sepulchre and the cross on which Christ was crucified; d. 328, at the age of 80. Festival, Aug. 18. There are several other saints of the same name.
HELENSBURGH (8), a pleasantly situated watering-place in Dumbarton, on the Firth of Clyde, at the entrance of the Gareloch, 4 m. N. of Greenock.
HELENUS, a son of Priam and Hecuba, celebrated for his prophetic foresight; is said to have deserted his countrymen and joined the Greeks.
HELIAND, an old Saxon poem of the 9th century, of great philological value, but of no great literary merit; deals with the life and work of Christ; of the two extant MSS. one is in the British Museum.
HELICON, a mountain in Boeotia, Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses; famous for the fountains on its slopes dedicated to the latter.
HELIGOLAND (2, but rising to 14 in summer), an islet of the North Sea, 35 m. from the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser; German since 1890; consists of the Oberland, a plateau, with some 400 houses, and the Unterland on the shore, 206 ft. beneath, with a group of 70 dwellings. In the summer it is crowded with visitors, bathing being the chief attraction; fishing is the staple industry of the native Frisians.
HELIODORUS, the most noted and earliest of the Greek romancists, born at Emesa, Syria; flourished in the second half of the 3rd century A.D.; his romance "Æthiopica" is a love tale of great beauty and told with naïve simplicity; has had considerable influence over subsequent romance writers, e. g. Tasso.
HELIOGA`BALUS, a Roman emperor; invested, while yet a youth, with the Imperial purple by the army in 218; ruled with a show of moderation at first, but soon gave way to every manner of excess; was after four years put to death by the Prætorian Guard, and his body thrown into the Tiber.
HELIOGRAPHY, a method of signalling from distant points by means of the sun's rays flashed from mirrors; messages can in this manner be transmitted a distance of 190 m.; it has been found of great practical value in military operations.
HELIOPOLIS (i. e. City of the Sun), in Egyptian On, one of the oldest and most sacred cities of Egypt; was situated about 10 m. N. of Cairo, on the eastmost branch of the Nile; it was the centre of Egyptian learning; Solon and Plato are said to have studied there, and Potiphar was one of its chief priests; the famous obelisk PHARAOH'S NEEDLE stands near; and CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, now on the Thames Embankment, was originally of this city. Also the name of Baalbec.
HELIOS, the god of the sun, mistakenly identified with Apollo, but of an older dynasty, was the brother of SELENE (q. v.) and EOS (q. v.); a god of the brood of the TITANS (q. v.), and the source of light to both gods and men; he rises from the bosom of OKEANOS (q. v.) in the morning, and loses himself in his dark abyss every evening.
HELIOTROPE or BLOODSTONE, a variety of quartz (chalcedony or jasper) of a deep green colour, with bright red spots. The finest specimens, which come from South Asia, are of fairly translucent chalcedony; those of jasper are opaque; they are used as seals, ring-stones, &c.
HELL FIRE, the infinite terror to a true man, the infinite misery which he never fails to realise must befall him if he come short in his loyalty to truth and duty.
HELL GATE or HURL GATE, a narrow pass in the East River, between the city of New York and Long Island; at one time its hidden shoals and swift narrow current were dangerous to ships, but extensive blasting operations, completed in 1885, have greatly widened and cleared the pass.
HELLAS, the name of the abode of the ancient Greeks, and of greater extent than Greece proper.
HELLE, a maiden who, with her brother Phrixus, fled on the golden-fleeced ram to escape from the cruelty of her step-dame Ino, and fell into the strait called the Hellespont after her, in which she was drowned. See GOLDEN FLEECE.
HELLENISTS, originally Jews who would fain have seen Jewish thought and life more or less transformed in spirit as well as fashion after a Greek pattern; eventually those who by contact with Greek civilisation became Grecianised, and were open to learn as much from the civilisation of the Greeks as was consistent with the maintenance in their integrity of the principles of their own religion.
HELLER, STEPHEN, a distinguished pianist and composer, born at Pesth; made his début at nine, and by 17 had won a reputation throughout the great cities of Europe; in 1838 he settled in Paris, and gave himself to teaching and composition; he ranks beside Chopin as a master of technique; his works are almost entirely pianoforte pieces (1814-1888).
HELMHOLTZ, HERMANN VON, an eminent German scientist, born at Potsdam, Brandenburg; was first an army doctor, and in 1849 became professor of Physiology in Königsberg, and subsequently in Bonn and Heidelberg; in 1871 he became professor of Physics in Berlin; was ennobled, and in 1887 nominated head of the Charlottenburg Institute; to physiology he made contributions of great value on the various sense-organs, and to physics on the conservation of energy; but his most original work was done in connection with acoustics in its relation to optics; his published works include "Theory of Sound Sensations'" and "Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music" (1821-1894).
HELMONT, JEAN BAPTIST VAN, a celebrated German chemist, the father of chemistry, born at Brussels; his early years were divided between the study of medicine and the practice of a religious mysticism; the works of Paracelsus stimulated his interest in chemistry and physics, and having married a noble Brabant lady, he settled down on the family estate near Vilvorde, where he devoted himself to scientific research; mixed up a good deal of mysticism and alchemy with his scientific discoveries, and made a special study of gases; he was the first to prove the indestructibility of matter in chemical changes by utilising the balance in analysis; he invented the word gas, first used the melting-point of ice and the boiling-point of water as limits of a thermometric scale, and his physiological speculations led him to regard the stomach as the seat of the soul! (1577-1644).
HELOÏSE, niece of Canon Fulbert, born at Paris; celebrated for her amour with ABELARD (q. v.); became prioress of the convent of Argenteuil and abbess of the Paraclete, where she founded a new convent and lived a pious life (1101-1164).
HELOÏSE, NOUVELLE, a romance by Rousseau.
HELOTS, slaves who formed the lowest grade of the population of Sparta, were descendants of the original inhabitants of Laconia, or prisoners of war; they were slaves belonging to the State, from the State alone could they receive manumission; they were employed as tillers of the ground, waited at meals, filled various menial offices for private individuals, and were treated with the utmost harshness; were whipped annually to remind them of their servile position; slaughtered when their numbers increased too much, and were forced to exhibit themselves under intoxication as a warning to the Spartan youth.
HELPS, SIR ARTHUR, essayist and historian, born in Surrey; for a time held official posts in connection with the government of the day, and finally that of Clerk to the Privy Council, in which capacity he was brought into connection with the Queen, which led to his being appointed editor of the "Principal Speeches and Addresses of the late Prince Consort" and Her Majesty's "Leaves from a Journal of our Life in the Highlands"; he is the author of "Friends in Council," published one series in 1847 and a second in 1859, which dealt with a variety of subjects, and was, along with "Companions of my Solitude," very popular; he did also plays and romances as well as historical sketches (1817-1875).
HELSINGFORS (77), a strongly fortified seaport and capital of Finland, is in a commanding position placed on a rocky peninsula in the Gulf of Finland, 191 m. W. of St. Petersburg; the numerous islands and islets at the entrance of the harbour are strongly fortified; the town is handsomely laid out, and has a flourishing university (student roll, 1703), and does a good Baltic trade.
HELST, BARTHOLOMÆUS VAN DER, one of the greatest of the Dutch portrait-painters, born at Haarlem, but spent his life in Amsterdam; he enjoyed a great reputation in his day, and many of his pictures are to be found in European galleries; his "Muster of the Burgher Guard" was considered by Sir Joshua Reynolds to be "the first picture of portraits in the world" (1613-1670).
HELVELLYN, one of the Cumberland mountains, 3118 ft. high, rises at the side of Ulleswater, midway between Keswick and Ambleside.
HELVETII, a Celtic people mentioned by Cæsar as occupying territory in Central Europe now embraced in Switzerland; they suffered tremendous slaughter at the hands of Cæsar when endeavouring to make their way to a wider territory in Southern Gaul.
HELVÉTIUS, a French philosophe, born in Paris, of Swiss origin; author of a book entitled "De l'Esprit," which was condemned by the Parlement of Paris for views advocated in it that were considered derogatory to the dignity of man, and which exposed him to much bitter hostility, especially at the hands of the priests; man he reduced to a mere animal, made self-love the only motive of his actions, and the satisfaction of our sensuous desires the principle of morals, notwithstanding which he was a man of estimable character and of kindly disposition (1715-1771).
HEMANS, FELICIA DOROTHEA, née Browne, poetess, born in Liverpool; her marriage was an unhappy one, and after the birth of five children ended in permanent separation; she was the authoress of a number of works, a complete edition of which occupies 7 vols., the best of her productions being lyrics; and she enjoyed the friendship of Wordsworth, Scott, and other literary celebrities of the time (1791-1835).
HÉNAULT, French historian, born in Paris, president of the Parlement of Paris; was author of "Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire de France" (1685-1770).
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD (10), a busy market-town in Herts, 23 m. NW. of London; noted for its straw-plaiting, and has paper-mills, foundries, &c.
HEMS or HOMS (35), a noted Syrian city known to the Romans as Emesa, on the Orontes, 63 m. NE. of Tripoli; here stood in ancient times a famous temple of the Sun, one of whose priests, HELIOGABALUS (q. v.), became Roman emperor (218); the Crusaders captured it from the Saracens in 1098; it does a good trade in oil, cotton, silk, &c.
HEMSTERHUIS, Dutch philologist, born at Gröningen; was professor of Greek at Leyden; one of the greatest Grecians of his day; had for pupils Ruhnken and Valckenaer, and edited a number of classical works (1685-1766).
HENDERSON, ALEXANDER, a celebrated Scotch divine; became professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy in St. Andrews, and subsequently held the living of Leuchars, in Fife; he actively espoused the cause of the Covenanters, and became a prominent leader in negotiations with the king; in 1643 he drafted the "Solemn League and Covenant" which passed into force, and he was one of Scotland's representatives to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster (1583-1646).
HENDERSON, THOMAS, astronomer, born at Dundee, astronomer first at the Cape and then Astronomer-royal for Scotland, calculated the distance of the nearest fixed star [Greek: alpha] Centauri and found it nearly 19 billions of miles from the sun.
HENGIST AND HORSA, two Saxon brothers who came over to assist Vortigern against the Picts, and were rewarded by a gift of Thanet, though they were afterwards defeated by Vortigern and the latter slain.
HENGSTENBERG, a German theologian, born in Westphalia; was editor of the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, and the valiant unwearied assailant of Rationalism in its treatment of the Scriptures and the old orthodox faith; his principal works bear on Old Testament literature, such as its Christology and the Psalms, as well as on the New, such as St. John's Gospel and the Apocalypse (1802-1869).
HENLEY, WILLIAM ERNEST, poet and critic, author of a "Book of Verses" and "Song of the Sword," in which he reveals superior powers as a poet, and of a volume entitled "Views and Reviews," in which he evinces discriminative criticism of the highest order; he has edited, along with T. F. Henderson, in a workmanlike style, the "Centenary Edition of the Poetry of Burns," accompanied it with a "Life of the Poet," and a characterisation somewhat damping to the prevailing enthusiasm in connection with the poet; b. 1849.
HENLEY-ON-THAMES (5), a borough of Oxfordshire, on the Thames, near the Chiltern Hills, 36 m. W. of London; the river is spanned here by a fine five-arch bridge, and the annual amateur regatta is a noted social event; malting and brewing are the chief industries.
HENOTHEISM, a polytheism which assigns to one god of the pantheon superiority over the rest.
HENRIETTA MARIA, wife of Charles I., born at the Louvre; daughter of Henry IV. of France and of Marie de Medicis; a beautiful and able woman, much beloved, and deservedly so, by her husband, but from her bigotry as a Roman Catholic disliked and distrusted by the nation, not without good reason; by her imprudent conduct she embroiled matters more seriously than they were; menaced with impeachment by the Commons, had to flee the country; returned, indeed, with a supply of money and ammunition "purchased by crown jewels," but in 1644 was obliged to seek refuge again in France; revisited the country for a short time after the Restoration, and died near Paris at her retreat there (1609-1669).
HENRIETTA MARIA, daughter of Charles I., and wife of the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., born at Exeter; she had an itch for political intrigue like her mother, and was successful in persuading her brother, Charles II., into league with France by signing the treaty of Dover; on her return to France she died suddenly, by poison it is believed (1644-1670).
HENRIOT, a French revolutionary, born at Nanterre; was generalissimo of the National Guard of Paris during the Reign of Terror; marched with his sansculotte following into the Convention one day and escorted 29 of the Girondists to the guillotine; became the satellite of Robespierre, whom he defended at the last, but could not deliver; arrested himself in a state of intoxication, was dragged out of a drain, and despatched by the guillotine (1761-1794).
HENRY I., king of England from 1100 to 1135, youngest son of William the Conqueror, born at Selby, in Yorkshire; usurped the crown from his elder but irresolute brother Robert, an act which was confirmed by the Church and the mass of the people, Robert, after a weak resistance, being pensioned off; the epithets Beauclerc and the Lion of Justice, which were bestowed on him, so far accurately describe him as he appeared to his people; his attainments were scholarly for his times, and his reign was distinguished by the strong and organised administration of justice, although morally his life was a depraved one; after seizing Normandy from his brother Robert, whom he imprisoned for life, he governed his kingdom with a firm hand; the turbulent Norman nobles were subdued, while the administration of the law was greatly improved by the institution of the Curia Regis (the King's Court) and of itinerant judges; trade took a start, and the religious life of the nation was deepened through the advent of the Cistercian monks and the influence of Anselm; he was married to Eadgyth (changed to Matilda), daughter of Malcolm of Scotland (1068-1135).
HENRY II., king of England from 1154 to 1189, first of the Plantagenet line; was the son of Matilda, daughter of Henry I., and her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, born at Le Mans; when he came to the throne as Stephen's successor he was already in possession, mainly through his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII., of more than half of France; he set himself with all the vigour of his energetic nature to reform the abuses which had become rampant under Stephen, and Thomas à Becket was his zealous Chancellor; the Great Council was frequently summoned to deliberate on national affairs; the Curia Regis was strengthened, the itinerant judgeships revived, while the oppression and immorality of the nobles was sternly suppressed by the demolition of the "adulterine castles"; a blow was aimed at the privileges and licentiousness of the clergy by the Constitutions of Clarendon, but their enactment brought about a rupture between the king and Becket, now Archbishop of Canterbury, which subsequently ended in the murder of Becket; in 1171 Ireland was invaded and annexed, and three years later William the Lion of Scotland was forced to declare his kingdom a fief to the English throne; some time previously the Welsh princes had done him homage; the last years of his reign were embittered by quarrels and strife with his ungrateful sons; he was a man of many kingly qualities, perhaps the best, taken all in all, that England ever had, and his reign marks an epoch in the development of constitutional law and liberty (1133-1189).
HENRY III., king of England from 1216 to 1272, eldest son of King John; succeeded to the throne at the age of nine; during his minority the kingdom was wisely and faithfully served by the Earl of Pembroke and Hubert de Burgh; when he came to years he proved himself a weak ruler, and, according to Stubbs, his administration was "one long series of impolitic and unprincipled acts"; with the elevation of Peter des Roches, a native of Anjou, to the post of chief adviser, French interlopers soon became predominant at the Court, and the recipients of large estates and pensions, an injustice further stimulated by the king's marriage with Eleanor of Provence; justice was prostituted, England humiliated under a feeble foreign policy, and the country finally roused by infamous exactions; Simon de Montfort, the king's own brother-in-law, became the leader of the people and the champion of constitutional rights; by the Provisions of Oxford, forced upon the king by Parliament assembled at Oxford (1258), a wider and more frequent Parliamentary representation was given to the people, and the king's power limited by a permanent council of 15; as an issue of the Barons' War, which resulted in the defeat and capture of the king at Lewes (1264), these provisions were still further strengthened by the Mise of Lewes, and from this time may be dated the birth of representative government in England as it now exists; in 1265 was summoned the first Parliament as at present constituted, of peers temporal and spiritual, and representatives from counties, cities, and boroughs; internal dissensions ceased with the victory of Prince Edward over the barons at Eastham (1265), the popular leader De Montfort perished on the field (1206-1272).
HENRY IV., king of England from 1399 to 1418, first of the Lancastrian kings, son of John of Gaunt, and grandchild of Edward III., born at Bolingbroke, in Lincolnshire; Richard II.'s misrule and despotism had damped the loyalty of his people, and when Henry came to England to maintain his ducal rights he had little difficulty in deposing Richard, and, with the consent of Parliament, in assuming the crown; this act of usurpation--for Richard's true heir was Roger Mortimer, a descendant of an older branch of the family--had two important results; it made Henry more obsequious to the Parliamentary power which had placed him on the throne, and it was the occasion of the bloody Wars of the Roses that were to devastate the kingdom during the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV.; Henry's own reign was a troubled one; wars were successfully undertaken against the Welsh under Owen Glendower and against the Scotch; while rebellion was raised by the Percies in unsuccessful attempts to win the crown for Mortimer; the only law of importance passed was the statute for burning heretics, the first passed in England for the suppression of religious opinion (1366-1413).
HENRY V., king of England from 1413 to 1422, son of preceding, born at Monmouth; during the wars of his father's reign he gave evidence of his abilities as a soldier, distinguishing himself specially by his conquest of Wales; on his accession to the throne he renewed the claims put forward by Edward III. to the French crown, and with the support of his people embarked on his great struggle to win the kingdom of France; in 1415 he gained the glorious victory of Agincourt, strengthened his position by confirmed military successes, and by marrying Catherine, daughter of the French king, and by the treaty of Troyes got himself appointed regent of France and successor to the throne; he was idolised by his people as the perfect pattern of a warrior king, but he had neither the gifts of statesmanship nor the foresight of Edward I., to whom he is compared, and the English dominion which he established in France was too unsubstantial to endure (1388-1422).
HENRY VI., king of England from 1422 to 1461, son of preceding, born at Windsor; was a child of nine months when his father died, and in the same year was acknowledged king over the N. and E. of France; the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester became regents respectively over the English and French kingdoms; war was resumed with France, and for thirty years the weary struggle continued, by the end of which time England, despite some early successes, had been stripped of her French possessions, mainly owing to the enthusiasm awakened by the heroic and ill-fated JEANNE D'ARC (q. v.); the growing discontent of the people is indicated by Jack Cade's rebellion (1540), and five years later began the famous Wars of the Roses; six battles were fought between the rival houses, and four times victory rested with the Yorkists; after the final victory of the Yorkists at Towton (1461), Henry fled to Scotland and Edward was proclaimed king; Henry was a man of weak intellect, gentle, and of studious nature, and was ill mated in his ambitious and warlike queen, Margaret of Anjou; a futile struggle was made to win his kingdom back, but the hopes of the Lancastrians perished at Tewkesbury; the king was captured and confined in the Tower, where, there is little doubt, he was murdered (1421-1471).
HENRY VII., king of England from 1485 to 1509, son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, first of the Tudor monarchs, born at Pembroke Castle; after defeating and slaying Richard III. on Bosworth Field he assumed the crown, and by his marriage with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV., united the claims of the rival roses; his firm and prudent rule established quiet and order in the country; the pretensions of the pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck were promptly crushed; a peaceful relationship was established with France, and the Scotch were conciliated by the marriage of his daughter Margaret to their king, James IV.; increased prosperity followed, maritime enterprise was encouraged, but the kingly power grew at the expense of the constitutional authority of Parliament; resort was had to benevolences and other unconstitutional methods of raising funds, and in his latter years the king's exactions became tyrannical; Henry was not a man of fine kingly qualities, but he accomplished much for his country, and is best described in Gardiner's words, "his contemporaries needed a chief-constable to keep order, and he gave them what they needed" (1456-1509).
HENRY VIII., king of England from 1509 to 1547, son of preceding, born at Greenwich; was welcomed to the throne with great enthusiasm, and still further established himself in public favour by his gallant exploits at the Battle of Spurs and at the sieges of Tournay and Terouenne in the war of the Holy Alliance against France; in his absence an invasion of James IV. of Scotland was repulsed and the Scottish army crushed at Flodden (1513); during the first half of the reign public affairs were mainly conducted by the king's favourite minister, Wolsey, whose policy it was to hold the balance of power between Spain and France; but he fell into public disfavour by the heavy burden of taxation which he little by little laid upon the people; Henry, who in 1521 had been named "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope for his published defence of the sacraments against the attacks of Luther, was now moving for a divorce from his first wife Catherine of Arragon; a breach with the Pope ensued, Wolsey was deposed for his double-dealing in the matter, and Henry, having defiantly married Anne Boleyn, put an end to the papal jurisdiction in England to secure himself against appeals to the Papal Court, and got himself acknowledged Supreme Head of the Church of England; the suppression of the monasteries soon followed, and their estates were confiscated (1536-1540); in 1536 the movement of the Reformation was continued by the drawing up of Ten Articles and by an authorised translation of the Bible; but the passing of the Six Articles three years later, declaring in favour of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, clerical celibacy, private masses, auricular confession, &c., was an attempt to stay the rapid spread of Protestant doctrines; in 1541 Henry was declared King of Ireland, and in the two following years successful wars were waged with Scotland and France; the importance of the reign lies in the coincidence of it with the rise and culmination of the Reformation, a movement brought about in the first instance by no higher motive than the king's desire for a divorce as well as for absolute power; but for which a favourable reception had been prepared beforehand by the spread of the new learning and that free spirit of inquiry that was beginning to take possession of men's minds; historians for the greater part agree in representing Henry as a man of versatile powers, considerable intellectual force, but headstrong, selfish, and cruel in the gratification of his desires; he was six times married; Catherine and Anne of Clèves were divorced, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard executed, Jane Seymour died in childbirth, and Catherine Parr survived him; he left behind to succeed him on the throne Mary, daughter of Catherine, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, and Edward, son of Jane Seymour (1491-1547).
HENRY III., an illustrious Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, son of Conrad II.; in 1026 he became king of the Germans, succeeded to the dukedoms of Bavaria and Suabia, and in 1039 assumed the imperial crown; under his strong and wise government, dissensions, papal and otherwise, were put down, the territory of the empire extended, and many churches and monastic schools established (1017-1056).
HENRY IV., Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, son of preceding; his reign is memorable as witnessing the first open claim on the part of the Papal power to have dominion over the crowned heads of Europe; Henry's attempt to depose Gregory VII. was boldly met by a declaration of excommunication; Henry was forced to do penance and to receive his crown afresh from the Pope; but the struggle broke out anew; Clement III. was put up in opposition, and the contest raged with varying success till the deposition of Henry by his ungrateful son (1050-1106).
HENRY IV., king of France from 1594 till 1610, surnamed "The Great" and "The Good"; during his reign the great struggle between the Huguenots and the Catholics continued with unabated fury; Henry saved his life in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day by renouncing his early Calvinism, but was imprisoned; four years later he was again at the head of the Huguenot army and defeating the Bourbon claimant for the throne, was crowned king, but not before waiving his Protestant principles to conciliate the people; in 1598 he issued the famous Edict of Nantes, giving freedom of worship to the Huguenots; during his administration the nation was consolidated, new roads and a growing trade knit the towns together; financial reforms of great importance were carried out by his celebrated minister, DUC DE SULLY (q. v.); Henry was assassinated by instigation of the Jesuits (1553-1610).
HENRY OF HUNTINGDON, a noted English chronicler of the 12th century, who became archdeacon of Huntingdon, and wrote a Latin history of England down to the death of Stephen in 1154.
HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, son of John I., king of Portugal, born at Oporto; an able, enterprising man, animated with a zeal for maritime discovery, and who at his own expense sent out voyagers who discovered the Madeira Islands and explored the coast of Africa as far as Cape Blanco; is said to have been the first to employ the compass for purposes of navigation; his mother was daughter of John of Gaunt (1391-1460).
HENRY, MATTHEW, a Nonconformist divine; was minister at Hackney, London; was the author of a commentary long in repute among pious evangelical people, and to some extent still, as a practical and devotional guide in the study of the Scriptures (1662-1714).
HENRY, PATRICK, American statesman and orator, born in Virginia; having been in business he took to law, and rose into fame by his eloquent pleadings in the cause of the people; played a conspicuous part in the agitation for independence, especially by his oratory, which was of a quality to move large audiences; he was a member of the first Congress in 1774 (1736-1799).
HENRYSON, ROBERT, an early Scottish poet, flourished in the 15th century; most of his life was spent as a schoolmaster in Dunfermline; his chief works, which are full of pathos, humour, and a fine descriptive power, include "Testament of Cresseid," a continuation of Chaucer's tale, "Robene and Makyne," the earliest Scottish pastoral, a metrical version of some of "Æsop's Fables," and the story of "Orpheus and Eurydice."
HEPHÆSTOS, called Vulcan by the Romans, the Greek god of fire, or of labour in the element of fire, the son of Zeus and Hera, represented as ill-shapen, lame, and ungainly, so much so as to be an object of ridicule to the rest of the pantheon, but he was indispensable to the dynasty, and to none more than his father and mother, who were often unkind to him; he had his smithy in Olympus in the vicinity of the gods, and the marvellous creations of his art were shaped on an anvil, the hammer of which was plied by 20 bellows that worked at his bidding; in later traditions he had his workshop elsewhere, and the Cyclops for his servants, employed in manufacturing thunderbolts for Zeus; he was wedded to Aphrodité, whom he caught playing false with Ares, and whom he trapped along with him in a net a spectacle to all the upper deities.
HEPTAD, a term in chemistry to denote an atom that is the equivalent of seven atoms of hydrogen, from hepta, seven.
HEPTARCHY, ANGLO-SAXON, the seven kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumberland, East Anglia, and Mercia, the chief of those established by the Saxons during the 6th century in Great Britain.
HEPTATEUCH, a name given to the first seven books of the Bible.
HERA, called Juno by the Romans, daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and sister and wife of Zeus; was the queen of heaven, and treated with the same reverence as her husband, but being inferior in power was bound to obey him equally with the rest, or suffer if she did not; she was jealous of Zeus in his amours with mortals, and persecuted all his children by mortal mothers, Hercules among the chief.
HERACLES, i. e. the chosen of Hera, to be tried by her. See HERCULES.
HERACLI`DÆ, Spartans, presumed descendants of Hercules, who at one time invaded and took possession of the Peloponnesus.
HERACLITUS, a Greek philosopher, born at Ephesus, who flourished about the year 480 B.C.; was the first to note how everything throughout the universe is in constant flux, and nothing permanent but in transition from being to nothing and from nothing to being, from life to death and from death to life, that nothing is, that everything becomes, that the truth of being is becoming, that no one, nothing, is exempt from this law, the law symbolised by the fable of the PHOENIX IN THE FIRE (q. v.).
HERACLIUS, Emperor of the East from 610 to 642, born in Cappadocia; raised to the throne of the East on account of the services he rendered the citizens of Constantinople in getting rid of a tyrant; waged war against the hostile Persians, defeated Chosroës, and compelled a peace, but was unable to withstand the arms of the Moslem invaders.
HERAT (50), the chief town of the province of Herat, in W. Afghanistan, on the Hari-Rud, 300 m. W. of Cabul; its central position has given it a great commercial and military importance; it has manufactures of leather and wool, and as a place of great strategical value, since the advance of Russia in Asia is strongly fortified by a British citadel and garrison.
HÉRAULT (462), a maritime dep. of S. France fronting the Gulf of Lyons; in the N. are the Cévennes Mountains, but wide plains fringed on the sea border with large lagoons occupy the S.; the climate, except on the marshy coast, is dry and healthy; its former importance as a wine-growing district has greatly diminished, but olives and almonds are cultivated, sheep and silkworms bred; coal is the most important mineral; salt is obtained in large quantities from the salt marshes, and fishing is an important industry.
HERBART, German philosopher, born at Oldenburg; Kant's successor at Königsberg, professor also at Göttingen twice over; founded his philosophy like Kant on the criticism of subjective experience, but arrived at different results, and arrayed itself against the whole post-Kantian philosophy of Germany; it is described by SCHWEGLER "as an extension of the monadology of Leibnitz, full of ingenuity but devoid of inward fertility, or any germ of movement"; he failed to see, as Dr. Stirling points out, that "Philosophy is possible only on the supposition of a single principle that possesses within itself the capability of transition into all existent variety and varieties" (1776-1841).
HERBERT, EDWARD, LORD, of Cherbury, diplomatist, soldier, and scholar, born at Montgomery Castle, in Wales; served as a soldier under Maurice of Orange; was twice ambassador in France, but chiefly devoted to philosophical speculation; was the first of the deistical writers of England, though his deism was dogmatic not critical, positive not sceptical, as that of the subsequent English deists is (1581-1648).
HERBERT, GEORGE, poet, brother of the preceding, born in Montgomery Castle; failing in preferment at Court, took holy orders and became rector of Bemerton, Wiltshire, a post he lived only two years to hold; was the author of a Christian poem entitled "The Temple"; held in high regard by people of the devout and reverently contemplative spirit of the author; his memory is embalmed in a Life of him by Izaak Walton (1593-1632).
HERBERT, SIDNEY (Lord Herbert of Lea), politician, born at Richmond; entered the House of Commons in 1832 as a Tory, and was in turn Secretary to the Admiralty and War Secretary under Peel; during the Aberdeen ministry he, as War Secretary, incurred much popular disfavour for the mismanagement of the Crimean War, but under Palmerston he effected many beneficial reforms while at the head of the War Office; he was elevated to the House of Lords in 1860 (1810-1861).
HERCULANEUM, a city of ancient Italy, overwhelmed in A.D. 79 along with Pompeii and Stabiæ by an eruption of Vesuvius, at the north-western base of which it was situated, 5 m. E. of Naples; so completely was it buried by the ashes and lava that its site was completely obliterated, and in time two villages sprang up on the new surface, 40 to 100 ft. below which lay the buried city; relics were discovered while deepening a well in 1706, and since then a considerable portion of the town has been excavated, pictures, statues, &c., of the greatest value having been brought to light.
HERCULES, the typical hero of the Greeks, son of Zeus and Alkmene, and the tried therefore of Hera, who persecuted him from his cradle, sending two serpents to devour him as he lay there, but which he strangled with his arms; grown into manhood, and distinguished for his stature and strength, was doomed by the artifice of Hera to a series of perilous adventures before he could claim his rights as a son of his father; these are known as the "Twelve Labours of Hercules": the first the throttling of the Nemean lion; the second, the killing of the Lernean hydra; the third, the hunt and capture of the hind of Diana, with its hoofs of brass; the fourth, the taking alive of the boar of Erymanthus; the fifth, the cleansing of the stables of Augeas; the sixth, the destruction of the Stymphalian birds; the seventh, the capture of the Cretan bull; the eighth, the capture of the mares of Diomedes of Thrace; the ninth, the seizure of the girdle of the queen of the Amazons; the tenth, the killing of Geryon and capture of his oxen; the eleventh, fetching of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides; the twelfth, dragging Cerberus to the light of day. These were the twelve, but in addition, he strangled the giant Antæus, slew the robber Cacus, delivered Hesione, unchained Prometheus from the rocks of Caucasus, and smote the centaur Nessus, the last proving the cause of his death. See NESSUS.
HERCULES, THE CHOICE OF, the choice of a life of virtue offered to him by Athene, in preference to a life of pleasure offered by Aphrodité, in his youth.
HERCULES, THE PILLARS OF, two mountains on the opposite sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, originally one, but fabled to have been separated by Hercules, Calpë on the Spanish coast and Abyla on the African.
HERCYNIAN FOREST, a forest of Central Germany, extending at one time from the Rhine to the Carpathian Mountains, described by Cæsar as nine days journey in breadth and sixty in length, is now the district of the Harz Mountains.