GILD GILES. 



445 



1. GABRIEL GILBERT, lived in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, was a contemporary of Corneille and Racine, 

 whom he preceded in his dramatic writings, which 

 were, however, thrown into the shade by theirs, 

 although it appears that these two great poets were 

 not ashamed to borrow from him. He was secretary 

 to the duchess of Rohan ; then lived with Christina, 

 queen of Sweden, who was wont to call him man beau 

 genie, appointed him Swedish resident at the court 

 of France, and loaded him with favours. After the 

 death of Christina, and after his pieces had ceased to 

 please the public, he sunk into poverty and oblivion. 

 Besides a great number of poems, we have fifteen 

 dramatical pieces of his. Cardinal Richelieu allowed 

 some of his own verses to be inserted in his tragedy 

 of Telephonic. Gilbert also wrote an Art of Love, 

 in imitation of Ovid. 



2. NICHOLAS JOSEPH GILBERT, born in 1751, was 

 inclined to satire ; and some French critics call him 

 the French Juvenal. He joined the party who 

 opposed the philosophers, so called, with zeal. His 

 satires, The Eighteenth Century, which he addressed 

 to Freron, and My Apology (in 1778), contain passa- 

 ges so striking and powerful, as to remind us of the 

 Roman satirists. There is a collection of his poems, 

 in two volumes. He died, deranged, in 1780. 



GILD; a corporation. See Guild. 



GILDAS, SAPIENS ; a British ecclesiastic and 

 historian of the sixth century, of whom little is 

 known. There is extant a declamatory diatribe 

 ascribed to Gildas, which has been repeatedly pub- 

 lished ynder the title of Epistola de Excidio Britan- 

 niee, et Castigatio Ordinis Ecclesiastici. This is a 

 violent invective against the whole British nation. 

 Some doubts have arisen as to the authenticity of this 

 epistle, the unsparing severity of animadversion -with 

 which the Britons are treated being considered as 

 more characteristic of a foe to their race and nation, 

 than of the alleged author. 



GILDING is the art of applying gold leaf or gold 

 dust to surfaces of wood, stone, metals. The Egyp- 

 tian monuments present numerous traces of the exist- 

 ence of the art in Egypt. The process was nearly 

 the same with that now used. The artists employed 

 a sort of paste, like that now used in gilding wood, 

 even for gilding metals ; but they were also ac- 

 quainted with the art of applying the gold directly to 

 the substance to be gilt. The Persians were also 

 acquainted with this art, as appears from the ruins of 

 Persepolis. The Greeks and Romans employed 

 gilding for many purposes. The Greeks used to gild 

 the hoofs and horns of victims. The practice of 

 gilding statues prevailed in the infancy of the art of 

 sculpture, and was never entirely dropped by the 

 ancients. The Romans used to gild sweetmeats; 

 and many articles of furniture and utensils which 

 have come down to us are gilt. There are also spe- 

 cimens of gilt glass and metals. The gilding, which 

 still remains on some ancient bronze monuments, is 

 remarkable for its brilliancy. This is owing, in part, 

 to the great accuracy of the finish, but in part to the 

 thickness of the leaf, which was much greater than 

 that of the leaf used by the moderns. Besides, we 

 must consider, that, in the most common way of 

 gilding brass with an amalgam of gold and quicksil- 

 ver, the gold is reduced to a state of much greater 

 subdivision than in the leaf the only state in which 

 the ancients employed it. The account of Pliny 

 shows that they did not fix the leaf merely by the aid 

 of fire, as is now done in gilding metals, but that 

 they first covered the substance with quicksilver, 

 which was then evaporated by heat, in a manner 

 somewhat similar to the modern practice of gilding 

 with amalgam. The ancients carried the practice of 

 gilding to a greater extent than the moderns ; they 



gilded almost all their statues of bronze, wood, or 

 plaster, and frequently those of marble, the ceilings 

 of rooms, and even marble columns, eatables, and 

 victims. The bracteatores , or inauratores, were in 

 high esteem among them, and enjoyed an exemp- 

 tion from taxes. In architectural ornaments, gild- 

 ing may please the eye, either from its appearance 

 of richness, or merely from its agreeable colour. 

 The most remarkable examples of gilding, employed 

 with taste and effect in architecture, are the ceiling 

 of St Peter's, and that of Santa Maria Maggiore. 

 But artists often fall into the error of mistaking 

 richness of appearance for beauty. The art of gild- 

 ing, at the present day, is performed either upon 

 metals, or upon wood, leather, parchment, or paper 

 and there are three distinct methods in general prac- 

 tice ; namely, wash, or water gilding, in which the 

 gold is spread, whilst reduced to a fluid state, by so- 

 lution in mercury; leaf gilding, either burnished or 

 in oil, performed by cementing thin leaves of gold 

 upon the work, either by size or by oil ; jnpanner's 

 gilding, in which gold dust or powder is used instead 

 of leaves. Gilding on copper is performed with an 

 amalgam of gold and mercury. The surface of the 

 copper, being freed from oxide, is covered with the 

 amalgam, and afterwards exposed to heat till the 

 mercury is driven off, leaving a thin coat of gold. It 

 is also performed by dipping a linen rag in a satu- 

 rated solution of gold, and burning it to tinder. The 

 black powder thus obtained is rubbed on the metal 

 to be gilded, with a cork dipped in salt water, till 

 the gilding appears. Iron or steel is gilded by ap- 

 plying gold leaf to the metal, after the surface has 

 been well cleaned, and heated until it has acquired 

 the blue colour, which at a certain temperature it 

 assumes. The surface is previously burnished, and 

 the process is repeated when the gilding is required 

 to be more durable. It is also performed by diluting 

 the solution of gold in nitro-muriatic acid, with alco- 

 hol, and applying it to the clean surface. This last 

 process has been improved by Mr Stoddart. A 

 saturated solution of gold in nitro-muriatic acid, 

 being mixed with three times its weight of sulphuric 

 ether, dissolves the muriate of gold, and the solution 

 is separated from the acid beneath. To gild the 

 steel, it is merely necessary to dip it, the surface 

 being previously well polished and cleaned, in the 

 ethereal solution, for an instant, and, on withdrawing 

 it, to wash it instantly by agitation in water. By 

 this method, steel instruments are very commonly 

 gilt. 



GILEAD, THE MOUNTAINS OF, in ancient geo- 

 graphy; part of the ridge which runs south from 

 mount Lebanon, on the east of Palestine. They gave 

 their name to the whole country which lies on the 

 east of the sea of Galilee, and included the moun- 

 tainous region, called, in the New Testament, Tra- 

 chonitis. 



GILES, ST (St JEgidius); a native of Greece, who 

 lived in the sixth century, and was descended from 

 an illustrious family. He gave all his property to 

 the poor, and went to France, where lie worked 

 miracles, and founded a convent. He is still revered 

 in that country. A relic of this saint was carried to 

 Scotland, and bequeathed, under James II., to the 

 church of Edinburgh : hence he became the patron 

 of that city. 



St Giles is the name of a parish in London, so 

 called from the church of St Giles. It is the resort 

 of poverty and wretchedness, and a greater contrast 

 can hardly be found than that formed by the west 

 end of the metropolis, the richest spot in the world, 

 and St Giles, one of the most wretched. There is 

 another church of St Giles, called St Giles Cripple- 

 gate, which contains the tomb of Milton, whose 



