138 



GENUS 



GEOFFRIN 



sacrament is reserved ; the priests genuflect 

 repeatedly during mass, &c. See KNEELING. 



Genus (Lat., 'a kind'), in Natural History, 

 a group of Species (q.v. ) closely connected by com- 

 mon characters or natural affinity. In all branches 

 of zoology and botany the name of the genus forms 

 the first part of the scientific name of each organ- 

 ism, and is followed by a second word either an 

 adjective or a substantive which distinguishes the 

 particular species. This binomial nomenclature 

 was introduced by Linnanis, and has been of great 

 advantage, making names serve, in some measure, 

 for the indication of affinities. 



Some genera are more satisfactory than others, 

 the question turning on the nature of the com- 

 ponent Species (q.v.). A genus may contain a 

 single species e.g. the genus Ornithorhynchus ; or 

 it may include several hundreds, 'and in such cases 

 especially it is often split up into sub-genera. 

 Groups of related genera form a family, groups of 

 allied families form an order, and above orders are 

 class and phylum. But, again, we may have an 

 order with only a couple of living representatives, 

 as in Proboscidea (elephants), or with only one, 

 as in the Hyracoidea (conies). The real difficulties 

 concern species, and will be discussed under that 

 title. See also GENERALISATION. 



Genza.no, a town of Italy, on the Via Appia, 

 16 miles SE. of Rome, lies near the lake of Nemi, 

 and contains the Cesarini palace. It is noted for 

 its annual flower festival (Infiorata di Genzano), 

 held on the eighth day after Corpus Christi, which 

 attracts many visitors. Pop. 5291. 



Geocentric means having the earth for centre. 

 Thus, the moon's motions are geocentric ; also, 

 though no other of the heavenly bodies revolves 

 round the earth, their motions are spoken of as 

 geocentric when referred to, or considered as they 

 appear from, the earth. The geocentric latitude of 

 a planet is the inclination to the plane of the eclip- 

 tic of a line connecting it and the earth; the geo- 

 centric longitude being the distance measured on 

 the ecliptic from the first point of Aries to the point 

 in the ecliptic to which the planet as seen from the 

 earth is referred. 



Ge'odes ( Gr. , ' earthy ' ) are rounded hollow 

 concretions, or indurated nodules, either empty 

 or containing a more or less solid and free nucleus, 

 and having the cavity frequently lined with crys- 

 tals. They are sometimes called ' potato stones,' 

 on account of their size and shape. They were the 

 aetites ( ' eagle-stones ' ) of the Greeks, who asserted 

 they were found only in eagles' nests. The eagles 

 could not breed without their aid, and the aetites 

 were supposed to be beneficial to women in labour. 



Geo'desy, the science of measuring or survey- 

 ing extensive portions of the earth's surface by 

 means of triangulation. See ORDNANCE SURVEY. 

 The objects of the survey are generally to deter- 

 mine the contour and dimensions of the earth, and 

 in a secondary degree to acquire materials and 

 measurements for accurate maps. 



Geoffrey Of MonillOllth, a famous Latin 

 chronicler, who was Archdeacon of Monmouth, was 

 consecrated Bishop of St Asaph in 1152, and died 

 about 1154. His chief work, the Chronicon sive 

 Historia Britonum, was dedicated to Robert, Earl 

 of Gloucester, and must therefore have been com- 

 posed previous to 1147, the date of the latter's 

 death. It need hardly be said that it possesses 

 little value as history, but there is perhaps but one 

 other book that has exercised, directly or indirectly, 

 so profound an influence upon English literature. 

 Its author professes to have merely translated his 

 work from a chronicle entitled Brut y Brenhined, 

 a History of the Kings of Britain, found in 

 Brittany, and communicated to him by Walter 



Calenius, Archdeacon of Oxford ; but the work is 

 really nothing more than a masterpiece of the 

 creative imagination working freely on materials 

 found in Gildas, Nennius, and such chroniclers, 

 as well as early legends now difficult to trace. 

 In the dedicatory epistle Geoffrey describes his 

 original as ' a very ancient book in the British 

 tongue, which in a continued regular story and 

 elegant style related the actions of them all, from 

 Brutus, the first king of the Britains, down to 

 Cadwallader the son of Cadwallo.' An abridgment 

 of the Historia was made by Alfred of Beverley 

 as early as 1150, and it was translated into Norman- 

 French by Geoffrey Gaimar in 1154, and by Wace 

 (Li Romans de Brut] with new matter in 1180. 

 Layamon's Brut (early in 13th century) was a 

 semi-Saxon paraphrase of Wace, and Robert of 

 Gloucester's Chronicle was a fresh rhymed para- 

 phrase of the same, which being in the native 

 tongue helped to make the legends invented by 

 Geoffrey widely known. The convincing circum- 

 stantiality of the story, and the ingenuity of 

 its etymological connection of existing place- 

 names with eponymous heroes, as well as its 

 irresistible identifications and dovetailings into 

 British history of details of scriptural and of Roman 

 story were sufficient for an uncritical age ; and 

 henceforward the Trojan origin of the British people 

 became a point of patriotism and an established 

 historical fact. The stories of King Lear and of 

 Cymbeline, the prophecies of Merlin, and the legend 

 of the famous Arthur in the form in which we 

 know it, owe their origin to the rich imagination 

 of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who still influences us 

 enormously in our Malory, Drayton, Shakespeare, 

 Spenser, Milton, and Tennyson. Chaucer gives 

 'Englyssh Gaunfride' a niche in his House of Fame 

 as being ' besye for to bere up Troye. ' Yet the 

 book, even in its own day, did not altogether 

 escape the censure of more severe historians. A 

 Yorkshire monk, William of Newburgh, denounces 

 Geoffrey with honest indignation as having ' lied 

 saucily and shamelessly.' 'A certain writer has 

 come up in our times to wipe out the blots on the 

 Britons, weaving together ridiculous figments about 

 them, and raising them with impudent vanity high 

 above the virtue of the Macedonians and Romans. 

 This man is named Geoffrey, and has the by-name 

 of Arturus, because he cloaked with the honest 

 name of history, coloured in Latin phrase, the fables 

 about Arthur, taken from the old tales of the 

 Bretons, with increase of his own.' Giraldus Cam- 

 brensis, writing within fifty years after, distinctly 

 speaks of the book as fabulous, and gives us a 

 somewhat singular but perfectly conclusive proof 

 of this by relating the story of a Welshman at 

 Caerleon named Melerius, who, ' having always 

 an extraordinary familiarity with unclean spirits, 

 by seeing them, knowing them, talking with them, 

 and calling each by his proper name, was enabled 

 through their assistance to foretell future events. 

 . . . He knew when any one spoke falsely in his 

 presence, for he saw the devil as it were leaping 

 and exulting on the tongue of the liar. ... If the 

 evil spirits oppressed him too much, the Gospel of 

 St John was placed on his bosom, when, like birds, 

 they immediately vanished ; but when that book 

 was removed, and the History of the Britons by 

 Geoffrey Arthur was substituted in its place, they 

 immediately reappeared in greater numbers, and 

 remained a longer time than usual on his body and 

 on the book.' 



Geoffrey's Chronicle was printed as early as 1508. An 

 English translation by Aaron Thompson appeared in 1718, 

 and was issued in Bohn's ' Antiquarian Library ' in 1848. 



Geoffriii, MARIE THERESE, born at Paris, 2d 

 June 1699, was the daughter of a valet de chambre 

 named Rodet, a native of Dauphine ; and in her 



