G I B 



^«d diftinguidioil by its agreeable fitiiation nnd falubrlous 

 air ; ly miles W. of Turin. 



• GIAUF, Al, adillrid of Egypt, in the S.E. part of 

 the Delta. 



GIAVI, H town of the idand of Sardinia; 21 mile* 

 E.S.E. of AJgcri. 



GIAUKIRI, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Natolia, 

 anciently " Sigeum," chiefly inhabited by Greeks. 



GIA'ZA, a town of Italy, in the Veronefe ; 14 miles 

 N.N.E. of Verona. 



GIB, in Agriaihnre, a fort of ftick with a hook at the 

 end, whicli is fonietimes ufeful in making and rcpainrg 

 hedges, and for various otlier purpofes. 



Gib, in Mechanics. See Craxe. 



Gibs, or Tohhigs, in Mining, are pieces of wood from 

 two to four or more feet long, with a bird's-mouth or notch 

 cut in each end, that are placed as ilruts between the four 

 upright poles, at the corners of fquare or redangiilar fliafts, 

 which are fupported with wood, inftead of being ginged or 

 bricked. 



GIBAU, in GfOgraphy,z town of Moravia, in the cir- 

 cle of Olmutz ; eight miles N.E.of Olinutz. 



GIBBAWAYS, an Indian tribe refiding in Upper Ca- 

 nada, on tlie E. fide of Detroit river, oppofite to fort Gib- 

 raltar. 



GIBEEN, a town of the duchv of Couvlnnd ; 32 miles 

 N.E. of Piltvn. 



GIBBETHON, in Scripture Geography, a city of Dan, 

 allotted to the Levites (Jodi. xxi. 23.) ; probably the 

 fame as Gabbala; 12 miles from Eleutheropolis. Here 

 they fhewed th.e tomb of the prophet Habbakuk. 



GIBBON, EowArai, in Biography, was born at Put- 

 ney in 1737. His father was a gentleman of fortune, and 

 fome years member of parliament. The iubjecl of this 

 article was a very delicate and fickly cliild, inlomuch that 

 his parents had but httle hope of rearing him. From nine 

 years of age to twelve, he was under the tuition of Dr. 

 Woodefon at Kingfton-upon-Thames. Here he acquired 

 the elements of claffical learning, and he mentions his tweltth 

 year as particularly "propitious to the growth of his intel- 

 leftual itature," becaufe at this period he read a variety of 

 Englifh books of poetry, romance, hiftoiy and travels. 

 «' He then went to Weftminftcr fcliool, but his ill ilate of 

 health prevented him from making a regular progrefs in the 

 itudies of the place. For feveral years he was chiefly the 

 obieft of medical care, till at length, and, as it were, very 

 fuddenly, his conftitution acquired firmnefs, and his father 

 immediately fent him, as gentleman-commoner, to Ivlagdalen 

 college, Oxford. He was probably ill prepared to receive 

 the benefits of an univerfity education, and he ftigm.atifes 

 the fourteen months tliat he fpent there as the moll idle and 

 unprofitable of his whole life. To a total neglect of reli- 

 gious inllruclion he has attributed a very remarkable inci- 

 dent which took place at this time. He had from an early 

 age been addifted to difputation oh topics of divinity. His 

 leifure from other purfuits induced him to turn his attention 

 to the controverfies between the Papifts and Protelbmts. 

 His mind was overfet by the arguments of the former, and 

 in 1753 he had an interview with a popifh prieft in London, 

 ■when he folemnly abjured the errors of Proteftantifm. He 

 immediately wrote an elaborate letter to his father, in which 

 he avowed the change in liis fentiments, and juftified the 

 raeafure which he had taken. With all the zeal of a new 

 convert he has fince declared, " I am proud of an honefl; fa- 

 crifice of intereft to confcience : I can never blufli if my 

 tender mind was entangled in the fophiftry that feduced the 

 acute and manly underltandings of Chillingworth and 



G I 6 



,B:iyle." lie was lent by his fatlier to Laufanne, and placed 

 with a Calvinill minifter, by whofe judicious efforts, aided by 

 his own found reafon and mature refleftions, his faith in the 

 Romifli articles gradually gave way, and on Chriilmas day 

 1754, he received the facrament in the Proteftant church. 

 During the time he fpent at Laufanne, he laid the foundation 

 of that knov/ledge in the languages, and in the art of logic, 

 which enabled him to make fo confpicuous a figure in the li- 

 terary world. To the "Hillory of the Decline and Falli 

 of the Roman empire,'' we have had occafion frequently to 

 recur for an elucidation of facts, we may therefore be 

 aUowed to fpeak fomewliat at large of the author of 

 that work. His riding pafTion, that of reading, com- 

 pL'tely developed itfelf in Switzerland, and he wanted no 

 excitements to induftry, from a tutor. Belles lettres, and 

 the hiftory of man, and the human mind, were his favourite 

 objefts of iludy ; for the mathematics he had no inchnation, 

 and what he did not, and perhaps could not purfue, he was 

 ready to condemn, and congratulated liimfelf that he efcaped 

 from them " before his mind was hardened by the habit of 

 rigid demonftration. fo dellructive of t!ie finer feelings of 

 moral evidence." That this view of the effect of mathema- 

 tical ftudies was unjuft, might be proved from a variety of 

 inftances in which tl>e ableft mathematicians have been equally 

 celebrated for tlicir fine tafte and excellent judgment in other 

 branciies of literature. In the year 175S he returned from 

 Laufanne to London, where he was kindly received by hjs 

 father, and he found in a mother-in-law, a new relative, 

 who in time conciliated his good will and confidence. He 

 now began laying the foundation of a copious library, 

 and foon fct about preparations for appearing before the 

 public as an author. In 1761, he printed his " ElTai fur 

 i'Etude de la Littcrature," in one volume i2nio. It was a 

 very refpettable juvenile performance, and was highly praifed 

 in the foreign journals. At home it obtained but a fmall 

 (hare of public notice. While he was compoling this work, 

 at leaft before it was publiflied, he was engaged in the mili- 

 tary profeffioii, whicli was but ill calculated for a perfon of 

 his turn. The peace, in 1763, fet him free from a commif- 

 fion which he had Iield in the militia, and he immediately 

 paid a vifit to Paris, and having fpent fome months in that 

 capital, he went to Lauianr,e, where he paCed a year in cul- 

 tivating fociety, and in collecting nwterials for a profitable 

 journey into Italy. This he undertook in 1765, and it was, 

 as he fat mufing amidft the ruins of the capitol, while the 

 friars were finging vefpers in the temple of Jupiter, that the 

 idea of writing his great work, i/'^. " The Hiflory of the 

 Decline and Fall of this City,'' ruflied into his mind. He had, 

 previoufly to this, proceeded fon>e way in another interett- 

 ing defign, and compofed, in tiie Frencli language, the firfl 

 book of a Hillory of the Swifs liberty; but this, perliaps 

 on account of its ilyle, was condemned by a literary fociety 

 of foreigners in London, to whom it was read, and lie com- 

 mitted it to the flames. In 1767, he alTiiled in compiling a 

 critical work, entitled " Memoires Litteraires de la Grande 

 Bretagne," the fuccefs of which was but trifling. In 1 770. 

 he publifhed, in his native tongue, a pamphlet, entitled 

 " Critical Obfervations on the fixth book of the JEneid,'' 

 whicli was intended as a refutation of Dr. Warburton's 

 hypothefis concerning tiie meaning of the defccnt of jEneas: 

 and in the fame year, by the death of his father, he fuc- 

 ceeded to an eftate confiderably involved, and from tiie per- I 

 plexities of which he fcarcely ever extricated himfelf. His 1 

 circumftances were, however, well fuited to the taflc he had : 

 undertaken as an author: for he thought himfelf, that had 

 he been either much poorer or much richer, he fhould never 

 have accomplilhcd it. Leifare and books were neceffary on ; 



the . 



