390 



GENTILES GEOFFRIN. 



undone lias been discovered in New Holland; ten 

 species inhabit the United States of North America. 

 They are herbaceous plants, with simple, sessile, 

 opposite leaves, and terminal or axillary flowers, 

 either solitary or fasciculate, furnished with two 

 styles, and usually five stamens, but sometimes four 

 only ; the calyx is of one leaf, and the corolla mono- 

 petalous, varying, however, considerably in shape in 

 the different species, either rotate, campanulate, or 

 funnel-shaped, and sometimes plaited, or with a 

 fringed margin. The officinal gentian is the dried root 

 of the G. lutea of the European Alps, which has a 

 stem about three feet high, broad, ovate leaves, and 

 numerous yellow flowers ; it has an intensely bitter 

 taste, and is frequently employed as a tonic in diseases 

 of debility ; indeed, its febrifuge virtues have been 

 celebrated from antiquity, and it was in common use 

 in intermittents before the discovery of cinchona, 

 which it strongly resembles, and for which it may be 

 advantageously substituted. The other species of 

 gentian possess similar properties, in a greater or less 

 degree, which, indeed, extend to the other genera of 

 the same family frasera, sabbatia, spigelia, &c. 

 The G. crinita produces one of the most beautiful 

 flowers in North America ; it is very large, of a beau- 

 tiful blue, and fringed on the margin ; the plant 

 flowers late in the autumn, and is not uncommon in 

 wet places between the forty-eighth and thirty-eighth 

 parallels of latitude. 



GENTILES. The Hebrews gave the name of 

 gojim (nations), to all the inhabitants of the earth, 

 except the Israelites. Originally this word had 

 nothing reproachful in its meaning, but, by degrees, 

 the Jews attached such a character to it, on account 

 of the idolatry of all nations, except themselves. 

 The Jewish converts to the gospel continued the 

 name gojim (in Latin, gentes), for those who were 

 neither Jews nor Christians. St Paul is called the 

 apostle of the Gentiles, because he laboured chiefly to 

 convert or instruct the foreign pagans. 



GENTLEMAN. In the modern languages of 

 western Europe, we generally find a word to signify 

 a person distinguished by his standing from the 

 labouring classes, as gentiluomo, gentilhomme, hidal- 

 go, &c. In the German language, the term which 

 most nearly expresses the same idea, is gebtldet, 

 which includes not only gentlemanly manners, but 

 also a cultivated mind. The English law-books say, 

 tliat, under the denomination of gentlemen, are com- 

 prised all above yeomen ; so that noblemen are truly 

 called gentlemen ; and further, that a gentleman, in 

 England, is generally defined to be one, who, without 

 any title, bears a coat of arms, or whose ancestors 

 have been freemen : the coat determines whether he 

 is or is not descended from others of the same name. 

 In Blackstone's table of the rules of precedence in 

 England, we find, after the nobility and certain official 

 dignities, that doctors, esquires, gentlemen, yeomen, 

 tradesmen, artificers, labourers, take rank in the order 

 in which we have named them. But the word cor- 

 responding to gentleman, has in no language received 

 so much of a moral signification as in England. The 

 reason of this seems to us to be, that aristocracy lias 

 no where taken the lead, in all matters of life, so 

 much as in England, and that, therefore, the word 

 gentleman, meaning, originally, a man of gentle, that 

 is, noble blood, soon came to signify a man that does 

 what is proper, becoming, and behaves like a person 

 of the higher, viz., well bred classes. 



Gentleman, in its highest sense, signifies a person 

 who not only does what is right and just, but whose 

 conduct is guided by a true principle of honour, that 

 honour which does not consist in observing fashion- 

 able punctilios, but springs from that self-respect and 

 iuLolli.vl.ual refinement which manifest themselves in 



easy and free, yet delicate manners. To be truly a 

 gentleman in feeling and manners, is an object >f 

 great importance ; and many well meaning persons, 

 in the education of the young, forget to awaken early 

 enough the sense of honour and self-respect, whidi 

 is one of the best guards against all meanness of 

 conduct. 



Gentleman, in the United States of America, is a 

 word of a very comprehensive character. The anec- 

 dote related of the duke of Saxe- Weimar, during his 

 travels in that country, that a stage-coachman came 

 to his inn, and asked him, " Are you the man who 

 goes in the stage ? I am the gentleman that's to 

 drive you," is a good caricature of the wholesale 

 application of the word among them. 



GENTOO. See Hindoo. 



GEOCENTRIC ; what relates to the centre of 

 the earth, or is considered as if from the centre of the 

 earth. See Heliocentric. 



GEOCYCLIC MACHINE; a machine intended 

 to represent in what manner the changes of the sea- 

 sons, the increase and decrease of the days, &c., are 

 caused by the inclination of the axis of the earth to 

 the plane of the ecliptic, at an angle of sixty-six and 

 a half degrees, and how the axis, uy remaining paral- 

 lel to itself in all points of its path round the sun, 

 invariably preserves this inclination. 



GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH (called, also, 

 Geoffrey ap Arthur) ; an ecclesiastic and historian 

 of the twelfth century. According to Leland, he 

 was educated at Momnoulh, in a convent of the 

 Benedictines, whose society he entered. He was 

 afterwards made archdeacon of Monmouth, whence 

 he was raised to the bishopric of St Asaph. The 

 state of affairs in North Wales induced him to retire 

 to the court of Henry II. Geoffrey wrote various 

 works ; but his Chronicle, or History of tlie Britons, 

 is the only production of his pen which requires 

 notice. This Chronicle is now known to be, as the 

 compiler states, chiefly a translation from Armorican 

 manuscripts. It contains a pretended genealogy of 

 the kings of Britain, from the time of the fabulous 

 Bruce, or Brute, the Trojan. The wonderful stories 

 told of king Arthur also take their rise in this work. 



GEOFFRIN, MARIE THERESE RODET, MADAME, 

 born in 1699, a woman alike distinguished by her 

 qualities of mind and heart, who, during half a 

 century, was the ornament of the most polite and 

 cultivated societies in Paris, was an orphan from the 

 cradle. She was educated by her grandmother, and 

 early accustomed to think and judge justly. She 

 afterwards became the wife of a man, of whom no- 

 thing can be said, excepting that he left her in the 

 possession of a considerable fortune, which she em- 

 ployed partly in assisting the needy, partly in 

 assembling around her a select circle of distinguished 

 persons. Her benevolence was exerted in a touch- 

 ing and delicate manner. An attentive study of 

 mankind, enlightened by reason and justice, had 

 taught Mad. Geoffrin that men are more weak and 

 vain than wicked, that it is necessary to overlook the 

 weakness and bear with the vanity of others, that 

 they, in turn, may bear with ours. Her favourite 

 maxim, therefore, was " Give and forgive." From 

 her very childhood she was of the most charitable 

 disposition. She wished to perpetuate her benevo 

 lence through the hands of her friends. " They will 

 be blessed," said she, " and they, in their turn, will 

 bless my memory." Thus she assigned to one of her 

 friends, who was poor, an income of 1200 livres for 

 his lifetime. " If you should grow richer," said she, 

 " distribute the money out of love tome, when I can 

 use it no longer." In her house the best society in 

 Paris was assembled. Cultivated minds of every 

 description found access to her. None could there 



