GELD GELON. 



379 



becomes hard and semitransparent. It is a principal 

 ingredient both of the solid and fluid parts of animals, 

 and is employed in the state of glue, size, and isin- 

 glass. Gelatine is used in a new kind of bread, called 

 pain animalise, now manufactured in Paris. It hav- 

 ing been found that the gelatine of bones used for 

 soups was exceedingly nutritious, it was imagined 

 that if this gelatine could be introduced into bread 

 from potato flour, which is very much less nutritious 

 than wheaten flour, the former would be equally 

 pleasant, and even more nutritive than wheaten 

 bread. The experiment has been tried with great 

 success ; and beautiful loaves of bread, made in this 

 way, are now sold in Paris at a much lower price 

 than bread from wheat flour. The gelatine is so 

 purified as to impart no unpleasant flavour, and the 

 potato bread thus manufactured, is as agreeable as it 

 is wholesome. As a cheap, nutritious, and useful 

 article of food for the poor, the potato bread thus 

 made is unequalled. A large quantity of the biscuit 

 sent out with the French expedition to Algiers was 

 prepared in this way. 



GELD ; an Anglo-Saxon word, signifying money 

 or tribute ; also a compensation for a crime. Hence 

 wergeld was used for the value of a man slain, and 

 orsgeld, of a beast. 



GELEE, CLAUDE. See Claude Lorraine. 



GELLERT, CHRISTIAN FORCHTEGOTT ; a German 

 poet, was born 1715, at Haynichen, a city near 

 Freyberg, in the Erzgebirge, where his father was a 

 preacher. On account of the narrow circumstances 

 of his father, who had a family of thirteen children, 

 Gellert, at the age of eleven, was obliged to support 

 himself by copying. His first poetical attempt a 

 poem on his father's birthday he made at the age 

 of thirteen. In 1729, he was sent to the royal school 

 at Meissen. In 1734, he began the study of theology 

 at Leipsic. Better health, stronger lungs, and a 

 better memory, would have made him one of the 

 most distinguished preachers in Germany. He as- 

 sisted Gottsched in the translation of Bayle's Dic- 

 tionary. He also wrote fables, stories, didactic 

 poems, with several prose essays, besides comic and 

 idyllic pieces intended for the improvement of the 

 stage. With a view of adding to the dignity and 

 utility of romance, he wrote his Schwedische Grafin 

 (Swedish Countess) . He was much afflicted at times 

 with hypochondria. For twelve years, he had lec- 

 tured in Leipsic with much applause, when he was 

 appointed extraordinary professor of philosophy 

 there, in 1751. He now read lectures, with great 

 applause, on poetry and eloquence. The melan- 

 choly, to which he was subject, however, made him 

 renounce poetry, and devote himself to lectures on 

 morals. During the seven years' war, great num- 

 bers of strangers visited Gellert, who had become 

 the favourite of the nation. Frederic the Great was 

 so much pleased with his conversation, that he 

 called him le plus raisonnable de tons les savans Alle- 

 mands, Gellert received numerous presents and 

 other proofs of regard both from his scholars and 

 from strangers, and was surrounded with most of the 

 external means of happiness ; but his health grew 

 continually worse, and his disorder would not yield 

 to medicine. He died, December 13, 1769, aged 

 55. His private character was highly amiable. No 

 literary man was ever more ready to allow the merits 

 of others. Though not a genius of the first class, he 

 was an agreeable and fertile writer, the poet of reli- 

 gion and virtue. In his fables and spiritual songs, 

 he has displayed the whole force of his genius. The 

 former are characterized by a delicate vein of hu- 

 mour, liveliness, ease, and keen satire. In his tales, 

 he is fond of the serious, didactic style, and some- 

 times of the tragic. His verses are soft and harmo- 



nious. For romance he had no talent, as is shown 

 by his Swedish Countess. His theatrical pieces, 

 though better, are still a failure. His letters, for 

 the time when they were written, are worthy of 

 praise, though they are not wholly free from the 

 faults of the age. The last edition of his complete 

 works appeared at Leipsic, 1784, in ten volumes. 



GELLIUS, AULUS ; a Roman author, who lived 

 under Adrian and the Antonines. He studied rhe- 

 toric at Rome, and philosophy at Athens, and after- 

 wards received the dignity of a centumvir. He is 

 the author of Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights), full of 

 interesting observations, particularly for philologists 

 and critics, which he collected in the winter nights, 

 during his residence at Athens, from the best Latin 

 and Greek authors. The following are the best 

 editions: Paris, 1585, by Henry Stephanus; Paris, 

 1681, 4to, (in Usum Delphini); Amsterdam, 1651, 

 12mo, by Elzevir; Leyden, 1666 (cum Notis var.); 

 Leyden, 1706, 4to, by Gronovius ; Leipsic, 1762, 2 

 vols., by Conradi, &c. 



GELON ; son of Dinomenes, tyrant of Syracuse 

 of which he usurped the sovereignty about 491 or 50C 

 B. C. He embellished the city and increased its 

 population. When Greece was threatened by 

 Xerxes, Athens and Sparta sent ambassadors to him, 

 to conclude an alliance against the king of Persia. 

 Gelon offered 20G galleys, 20,000 heavy-armed sol- 

 diers, 4000 horsemen, 2000 archers, and as many 

 slingers, with provisions for them during the war, if 

 they would yield to him the supreme command by 

 land and sea. The conditions were rejected. Ge- 

 lon therefore refused the desired assistance, and sent 

 to Delphi a man, by the name of Cadmus, with 

 orders to await the result of the war, and, if the 

 Greeks were overcome, to pay homage to Xerxes in 

 his name, and to send him valuable presents. He 

 was not then aware that Xerxes had induced the 

 Carthaginians, while he was assaulting the Greeks in 

 their own country, to make an attack on their settle- 

 ments in Sicily and Italy. Hamilcar finally landed at 

 Panormus, with a fleet of 2000 ships of war and 

 3000 transports, carrying, in all, 300,000 land troops, 

 and laid siege to Himera. Gelon marched against 

 this army witli 50,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry. 

 He learnt from an intercepted letter, that Hamilcar 

 intended to engage in a solemn sacrifice the next 

 day, and to receive auxiliary troops into his camp. 

 Gelon succeeded in introducing, in the room of the 

 auxiliaries, a detachment of his own cavalry into the 

 enemy's camp, which fell upon Hamilcar in the midst 

 of his religious ceremony, slew him, and set fire to 

 his ships. At the same time, Gelon assailed the 

 Carthaginians, who were dejected by the death of 

 their general and the loss of their fleet, and totally 

 discomfitted them. This remarkable battle happened 

 on the same day on which the Greeks were victorious 

 at Marathon. It is celebrated in an ode by Pindar. 

 The booty was immense, and Gelon offered the Car- 

 thaginians peace only on condition that they should 

 pay 2000 talents of silver, erect two temples for pre- 

 serving the conditions of peace, and abolish for ever 

 human sacrifices. His next ambition was to obtain 

 the title of royalty. For this purpose, he summoned 

 a meeting of the people, before whom he appeared 

 unarmed, and declared his intention of resigning his 

 high power. All were filled with wonder and aston- 

 ishment ; and the general voice hailed him as the 

 preserver of Syracuse. The royal title was unani- 

 mously conferred upon him, and the people persisted 

 in compelling him to accept it. A statue, which 

 represented him in a citizen's dress, perpetuated the 

 memory of this event. Generosity and kindness 

 were the characteristics of Gclon's administration. 

 Ever striving to make his people happy, lie died 



