103 



GILL, JOHN, P.P. 



OILLRAY, JAMES. 



101 



hi* piety, he went to that country, WM received with the greatest 

 joy by the king, reatored the church there which foul become very 

 corrupt to iu pristine purity, performed many minclr*, and founded 

 many monasteries. He then returned to England, and thence pro- 

 ceeded to Home ; and on hia return, through Brittany, founded the 

 monastery, afterwarda famous, of St Gildaa de Ruya, where he resided 

 some time, and there be ended hia dsja, according to a tradition pre- 

 xrved by the monka of that establishment; but, according to the 

 account given by Kngliah writer*, he returned to this country, and 

 (pent the remainder of hia life in religious retirement : hii last days 

 being paaaed in an oratory he had built for himself in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ghutonbury. Archbiahop Ueher (' Primord.,' p. 477, 

 from the 'Annalaof UlsUr') has fixed hu death in the year 570; 

 but tbia account, as will bare been aeen, U at least to a great 

 extent legendary. In truth, aa Mr. Stevenson observes in hia intro- 

 duction to the Latin text of ' Oildaa de Excidio Britannia.*,' " \\> 

 are unable to ipeak with certainty as to the parentage of Gildaa, hia 

 country, or even hia name, the period when he lired, or the works 

 of which ho waa the author." Mr. T. Wright attempts to show that 

 Qildas U a fabulous person, and his history the forgery of " some 

 Anglo-Saxon or foreign priest of the 7th century." (' Biog. Brit Lit,' 

 Anglo-Saxon Period, pp. 115-184.) But Stevenson, Lappenberg, and 

 others, while admitting the fabulous character of the common account*, 

 are inclined to believe that Gildaa really lived somewhere near the time 

 usually stated. The epistle, or treatise, ' De Calamitate, Excidio, et 

 Conquestu Britannia:,' is all that is printed of his writings, and U 

 probably all of his. that is extant, though Bale and Pita make him 

 author of several other book*. It waa first published and dedicated 

 to Cuthbert Tonstal, bishop of London, by Polydore Virgil, whose 

 imperfect and corrupt text was reprinted at Paris in the 'Bibliotheca 

 Patrum' in 1610. The second edition of this work was published in 

 the 'Upus Uisioriarum nostro Seoculo convenientiaaimum, pp. 484-540, 

 at Basel, 8vo, 1541 ; again, in a separate form, 12mo, Lond., 1568; 

 Bawl, in the same year ; and Paris, 1576 ; and from a better manu- 

 script than was used in any previous edition by Gale, in his ' Reruui 

 Anglicarum Scriptores Vetere*,' 8 vola, fol., 1684-87; but the best 

 edition U that published in 1838 by the Historical Society, and 

 admirably edited by Mr. Joseph Stevenson. There are three English 

 translations of it : one by Thomas Habington, 8vo, London, 1638 ; 

 another entitled ' A Description of the State of Great Britain, written 

 eleven hundred yeares since,' 12mo, London, 1652; and a third, by 

 Dr. Giles, but based on that of Uabiugtou, and published in Bobn's 

 'Antiquarian Library,' 1848. 



There were two other persons of the name of Gildaa in the 6th 

 century, one called Gildas Cambrius, the other Gildas Quartus, both 

 of whom seem to have been one and the game with Gildas Sapiens. 



GILL, JOHN, D.D., an eminent Baptist minister, was bora at 

 Kettering, in Northamptonshire, on the 23rd of November (old style) 

 1697. His parents, though in humble life, gave him a superior 

 education in the grammar-school of his native town, until the enforcing 

 of a rule which required attendance upon episcopal worship occasioned 

 hia withdrawal, in common with other children of dissenters. He 

 continued bis studies in private, and attained considerable proficiency 

 in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages. About the age of twenty 

 he began to preach at Higham Ferrers among the denomination to 

 which both he and his parents belonged, and in 1719 he removed t j 

 London, to take charge of a congregation which then assembled at 

 Horsleydown, South wark ; but removed in 1757 to a new chapel in 

 Carter-Une, near London Bridge, over which he presided until his 

 death, on the 14th of October 1771, a period of more than half a 

 century. Of his numerous publications, which are said to have been 

 equal to 10,000 folio pages, many were of a controversial character 

 and of temporary interest That by which he is best known is hia 

 'Exposition of the Bible,' published at various times in distinct portions. 

 The ' Exposition of the Song of Solomon ' appeared in a folio volume 

 in 1728, and was republished with corrections and additions in 1751 

 and 1707. In this work Gill replies to Whiston's endeavours to prove 

 the ' Song of Solomon ' to be a spurious book. The ' Exposition of 

 the New Testament ' appeared iu three folio volumes in 1746, 1747, 

 and 1748, in which hut year the degree of D.D. was conferred upon 

 the author from Mariacnal College, Aberdeen. The Old Testament 

 was completed at various times in six folio volumes, and a second 

 edition of the whole was published shortly before his death. A third 

 complete edition of the ' Exposition' waa published in 1809 and 1810 

 in nine large quarto volumes, with a very copious memoir of the life 

 and writings of Dr. Gill, from which the above facts are derived. 

 Among hia other works we may mention ' The Prophecies of the Old 

 Testament respecting the Messiah considered, and proved to be literally 

 fulfilled in Jesus,' published in 1728, in answer to Collius's 'Scheme of 

 Literal Prophecy considered ;' a ' Treatise on the Doctrine of the 

 Trinity,' published in 1731, and intended to check a then growing 

 tendency to Sabellianism among the BaptisU ; the ' Cause of God and 

 Truth,' in 4 vols. 8vo, published in 173j and following years, beini; a 

 defence of Calvinistic against Arniiuiau sentiments, in which Gill 

 displaced a strong inclination to Supralapaariauiam ; a ' Dissertation 

 concerning the Antiquities of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel- 

 PoiuU, and Accents,' 1767, 8vo; and a 'Body of Doctrinal Divinity,' 

 I vuK Uo, IV'jfl, and 'Body of Practical Divinity,' 1 vol. 4to, 1770, 



which were republiahed together in 1795 in 3 vols. Urge Svoaa'A 

 Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity,' with a portrait 

 of Dr. (Jill. 



GILLIES, JOHN, LL.IX, was bora on the 18th of January 1747 at 

 Brechin, in the county of Forfar, Scotland. He belonged to a respect- 

 able and enterprising family. One of hia younger brothers became 

 eminent as a lawyer, and was for many yean a judge of the Supremo 

 Court in Scotland. Dr. Gillies was educated at the University of 

 Glasgow, where, before be was of age, bo taught the classes of the 

 Greek professor, then old and infirm. Soon after this be removed to 

 London, with the design of occupying himself in literary labour ; but 

 before settling there he paid a visit to the continent, and on hia return 

 he waa engaged by the Earl of Hopetoun as travelling tutor to his 

 second son. This young man, while under his care, died at Lyon in 

 1776 ; and hia tutor's attention to him was rewarded by an annuity 

 for life from his father. 



In 1778 Dr. Gillies published his translation of Lysias and laocratea. 

 He had by that time received his degree as Doctor of Laws ; and to 

 this in later life he added other literary honours, being a member of 

 several societies in our own country, and a corresponding member of 

 the French Institute and the Royal Society of Gottiugen. He next 

 went abroad again with two other sons of the Karl of Hopetoun. 

 Returning to England about 1784, Dr. Gillies published in 1786 the 

 first part of his ' History of Ancient Greece.' In 1793 he was appointed 

 to succeed Dr. Robertson as Historiographer Royal for Scotland, a 

 sinecure place with a salary of 2002. a year. In 17U4 he married. 

 Enjoying a moderate competency, he prosecuted his studies with 

 leisure; and bis subsequent writings appeared at long intervals. 

 During his latest yean he was very infirm, though labouring under 

 no disease, and had retired altogether from general society. In 1830 

 he settled at Clapham, near London, where he spent the remainder of 

 his quiet old age; and died on the 15th of February 1836 of mere 

 decay, having just entered his ninetieth year. 



The following are his published works : 1. ' The Orations of Lysias 

 and Isociates, translated from the Greek, with some Account of their 

 Lives ; and a Discourse on the History, Manners, and Character of the 

 Greeks, from the Conclusion of the Peloponneeiau War to the Battle 

 of Chseronea,' 1778, 4to. 2. 'The History of Ancient Greece, its 

 Colonies and Conquests ' (afterwards entitled Part the First), ' from 

 the Earliest Accounts till the Division of the Macedonian Empire in 

 the East ; including the History of Literature, Philosophy, and the 

 Fin.- Arts,' 1786, 2 vola. 4to. This work had reached a sixth edition 

 in 18*20, 4 vols. 8vo. There is a German translation of it, 'Geschichto 

 von Altgriechenland,' 11 vols. 12mo, Vienna, 1825. 3. 'View of the 

 Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia, with a Parallel between that Piinco 

 and Philip II. of Macedon,' 1789, 8vo. 4. 'Aristotle's Ethics and 

 Politics, comprising hia Practical Philosophy, translated from the 

 Greek; illustrated by Introductions and Notes, the Critical lli.-tory of 

 his Life, and a New Analysis of his Speculative Works,' 1797, 2 vols. 

 Ho. The 'Supplement to the Analysis of Aristotle's Speculative 

 Works, containing an Account of the Interpreters and C'orrtipters of 

 Aristotle's Philosophy, iu connection with the Times in which they 

 respectively flourished,' 1804, 4to, was incorporated also iu a second 

 edition of the translation published in the same year, 2 vols. 8vo. 5. 

 ' The History of the Ancient World, from the Dominion of Alexander 

 to that of Augustus, with a Preliminary Survey of Preceding Periods,' 

 1807-10, 2 vols. 4to; reprinted in 4 vols. 8vo as 'The History of 

 Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests, Part the Second,' l-i<>. 

 6. ' A New Translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric, with an Introduction 

 and Appendix explaining its Relation to his Exact Philosophy, and 

 vindicating that Philosophy by proofs that all Departures from it have 

 been Deviations into Error,' 1823, 8vo. 



The first part of the ' History of Greece ' appeared in the same year 

 with the first volume of Mitford's work, and, if inferior to it, is yet 

 superior to anything of the sort which our language till then possessed. 

 The plan is well digested ; but the pompous verbosity of its narrative, 

 and the general dulness of its dissertative portions, perhaps prevent 

 it recovering its popularity, if newer views and wider and deeper 

 research had not rendered it otherwise of little value. The translations 

 of Dr. Gillies, however meritorious their intention, do not deserve 

 ! high praiae. They are everywhere at the very leaat paraphrastic, and 

 in many places repreheusibly unfaithful. Those from the orators are 

 the least faulty ; and for Isocrates the translator's style, elaborate, 

 diffuse, and thoroughly modern iu its structure, was not on the whole 

 ill calculated. But to Aristotle's works his mode of treatment does 

 great iuj uatice. His desire of popularising hia author has made him 

 depart almost always from his manner of expression ; and the same 

 motive, aided not uufrequently either by mistake as to his nomen- 

 clature or by the wish to evade a difficulty in the text, has made him 

 often misrepresent even the matter which the philosopher gave him. 

 The ' Ethics and Politics ' indeed he can scarcely be said to have 

 translated at all, so much do hia professed translations abound in 

 inaccuracies, in omissions, and iu unauthorised interpolations. 



GILLRAY, JAMES, the celebrated caricaturist, was born about the 

 middle of the last century, lie was originally a writing engraver, and 

 is said also to have been a strolling player for a short time. He had 

 an acute perception of character, a strong sense of the ludicrous, and 

 at the same time a gnat ability for drawing, and a practical skill in 



