GNOMONICS GNOSTICS. 



491 



or column, or pyramid, erected upon level ground, or 

 a pavement. For making the more considerable ob- 

 servations, both the ancients and moderns liave made 

 greiit use of it, especially the former; and many have 

 preferred it to the smaller quadrants, both as more 

 accurate, and more easily made and applied. The 

 most ancient observation of this kind extant, is that 

 made by Pytheas, in the time of Alexander the Great, 

 at Marseilles, where he found the height of the 

 gnomon was in proportion to the meridian shadow at 

 tlie summer solstice, as 213^ to 600 ; just the same as 

 Gassendi found it to be, by an observation made at 

 the same place, almost 2000 years after, viz., in the 

 year 1636. This method of observation, however, is 

 by no means accurate, as is proved by the following 

 deficiencies in the ancient observations made in this 

 manner: 1. The astronomers did not take into 

 account the sun's parallax, which makes his appar- 

 ent altitude less than it would be if the gnomon were 

 placed at the centre of the earth. 2. They neglect 

 refraction, by which the apparent height of the sun 

 is somewhat increased. 3. They made their calcula- 

 tions as if the shadows were terminated by a ray 

 coming from the sun's centre ; whereas it is bounded 

 by one coming from the upper edge of his limb. 

 These errors, however, may be easily allowed for; and, 

 when this has been done, the ancient observations 

 are generally found to coincide nearly with those of 

 the moderns. 



Gnomon, in dialing, is the style-pin or cock of a 

 dial, the shadow of which points out the hours. This 

 is always supposed to represent the axis of the world, 

 to which it is therefore parallel, or coincident, the 

 two ends of it pointing straight to the north and south 

 poles of the world. See Dial. 



Gnomon, in geometry, is the space included between 

 the lines forming two similar parallelograms, of which 

 the smaller is inscribed within the larger, so as to 

 have one angle in each common to both. 



GNOMONICS ; the art of dialing, or of drawing 

 sun and moon dials, &c., on any given plane, so 

 called, as it shows how to find the hour of the day, 

 &c. , by the shadow of the gnomon or style. 



GNOSTICS (Greek; yv*<r/j, knowledge). This 

 name was assumed by a religious philosophical sect, 

 which combined the phantastic notions of the Orien- 

 tal systems of religion with the ideas of the Greek 

 philosophers, and the doctrines of Christianity. 

 There were sages, as early as the times of the apos- 

 tles, who boasted of a deeper insight into the origin 

 of the world, and of the evil in the world, than the 

 human understanding, so long as it remains in equili- 

 brium, can deem admissible, or even possible. Simon 

 the magician, of whom Luke speaks in the Acts of 

 the Apostles, was the first among them. Even in his 

 dogmas, we discover the traces of ideas which were 

 common to all the Gnostics ; and they bear the un- 

 questionable impression of an Oriental, particularly 

 of a Persian and Clialdaic origin. They may be redu- 

 ced to the following heads : God, the highest intel- 

 ligence, dwells in the plenitude of light, and is the 

 source of all good ; matter, the crude, chaotic mass 

 of which all things were made, is, like God, eternal, 

 and is the source of all evil. From these two princi- 

 ples, before time commenced, emanated beings called 

 aeons, which are described as divine spirits. The 

 world and the human race were created out of mat- 

 ter, by one aeon, demiurge or, according to the later 

 systems of the Gnostics, by several asons and angels. 

 The aeons made the bodies and the sensual soul of 

 man (sensorium, ^t/) of this matter; hence the origin 

 of evil in man. God gave man the rational soul; 

 hence the constant struggle of reason with sense. 

 What are called gods by men (for instance, Jehovah, 

 the God of the Jews), they say, are merely such aeons 



or creators, under whose dominion man became more 

 and more wicked and miserable. To destroy the power 

 of these creators, and to free man from the power 

 of matter, God sent the most exalted of all sons, 

 to which character Simon first made pretensions ; he 

 was followed in these pretensions by Menander, a 

 Samaritan, the most celebrated of his scholars, who. 

 towards the end of the first century, founded a sect at 

 Antioch in Syria. Simon, and Menander were 

 enemies to Christianity. Cerinthus, a Jew, of whom 

 John the evangelist seems to have had some know- 

 ledge, combined these reveries with the doctrines of 

 Christianity, and maintained, that the most elevated 

 aeon, sent by God for the salvation of man, was Christ, 

 who had descended upon Jesus, a Jew, in the form 

 of a dove, and, through him, revealed the doctrmes 

 of Christianity ; but, before the crucifixion of Jesus, 

 separated from him, and, at the resurrection of the 

 dead, will again be united with him, and lay the 

 foundation of a kingdom of the most perfect earthly 

 felicity, to continue a thousand years. In the second 

 century, during the reign of Adrian and both the 

 Antonines, these principles were adopted by the 

 Christian philosophers, who are more particularly 

 known under the name of Gnostics, and still further 

 refined, extended, and systematized. Saturninus, a 

 Syrian, speaks of an unknown supreme God, who had 

 generated many angels and powers ; seven of these 

 asons were, according to him, creators of the world, 

 and soon fell from God ; one of them, the God of the 

 Jews, had seduced man to him ; whence originated 

 the difference between good and bad men. Saturninus 

 also calls Christ the Saviour sent by God, and the Son 

 of God ; but the opinion that Christ was not actually 

 born, and had not a real human body, but only an 

 incorporeal image, is peculiar to him, on which 

 account, his followers and other later Gnostics, who 

 agreed with him in this respect, were called Docetee 

 and Phantasiasts. Saturninus very consistently deni- 

 ed a resurrection of the body, and admitted only a 

 return of the souls of good men into the being of the 

 Godhead. His sect was distinguished by austerity 

 of manners, by their abstinence from flesh, and by a 

 rejection of matrimony. Basilides, his contemporary, 

 an Alexandrian, was distinguished from him by the 

 use of a language imitated from the Egyptian priests, 

 though yet more mystic than theirs. According to 

 him, the generations of several (celestial) degrees, 

 each containing seven aeons, and of which his kingdom 

 of light consists, are emanations, and every inferior 

 family or order of this kingdom is a copy of the 

 higher. The internal harmony of the lowest order 

 of this kingdom of light, was disturbed by the king- 

 dom of darkness, which, perceiving its rays, endea- 

 voured to form a union with it. Pure natures were 

 therefore drawn downwards into the dead mass, out 

 of the former kingdom, and became engaged singly 

 in purifying combats with matter. Hence arose the 

 visible world, the object of which is the final separ- 

 ation of the good, and of those allied to the kingdom 

 of light, from the material dross. The souls or 

 natures fallen from light, pass for their purification, 

 in this world, through different bodies and conditions, 

 which Basilides proves from the different degrees of 

 fortune and the different education of men. The 

 highest point of this purification, however, was 

 unknown to the most exalted aeon of the lowest order, 

 whom Basilides considers the creator of the world. 

 Therefore, the first-born of the supreme original 

 being united itself with the man Jesus on his baptism 

 in Jordan in order to redeem souls, that is, to elevate 

 them above the worldly course to the highest order 

 of the kingdom of light. His sufferings were but 

 those of an innocent child, which shares the lot of 

 human nature, and liad no relation to his work, 



