'264 G A S 
GAS'KET, A fea term; a kind of plated cord 
fattened to the fail-yards of a Ihip, and ufed in furling 
the fails. 
GAS'KINS, f. [from Gafcoigne. See Gallic as- 
KINS.] Wide hofe; wide breeches. An old ludicrous zoord: 
If one point break, the other will hold ; 
Or, if both break, your ga/kins Shahefpeare. 
GASOM'ETER, or Gazometer, f. amachine con- 
ftrufted of feveral tubes and veffels, for the purpofes of 
chemical inveftigation, in examining and defining the 
properties of the various kinds of gafes. Lavoifier firll 
gave the name of gazometer to an apparatus which he in-, 
rented for the purpofe of meafuring and transferring 
gafes ; which, by promiting to become of great utility 
to the philofophical world, foon excited the attention 
and induftry of others in improving and extending fo 
ufeful an invention. The moft approved machines of 
this defeription, with correft engravings, are given in 
the article Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 374, 378, 380, &c. 
To GASP, w. 72 . \{xom gape, Skinner\ from Dan. 
to fob. Junius.~\ To open the mouth wide; to catch 
breath with labour.—The ladies gafp'd, and fcarcely 
could refpire. Dryden, ’ 
Pale and faint, 
He gafps for breath ; and, as his life flows from him. 
Demands to fee his friends. Addifon's Cato. 
To emit breath by opening the mouth convulfively : 
I lay me down to gafp my latefl: breath ; 
The wolves will get a breakfatl by my death. Dryden. 
To long" for. This fenfe is not proper, as nature ne¬ 
ver expretles defire by gafping.—The Caftilian and his 
wife had the comfort to be under the fame matter, who, 
feeing how dearly they loved one another, and gafped 
after their liberty, demanded a mott exorbitant price for 
their ranfom. Addifon. 
GASP, f. The acb of opening the mouth to catch 
breath. The thort catch of breath in the latl agonies; 
If in the dreadful hour of death, 
If at the latetl gafp of breath. 
When the cold damp bedews your brow, 
You hope for mercy, tliew it now. Addifon. 
GAS'PAR I'SLAND, a fmall itland in the Eaftern 
Sea, which gives name to a channel between the illands 
6f Bancaand Billiton, czWzAGafparStraits. Lat. i. 45. S, 
Ion. 107. E. Greenwich. 
GASPARI'NO (Barziza), one of the early Italian 
fcholars, born in the latter part of the fourteenth cen¬ 
tury at Barziza, a place in the Bergafnafque, whence he 
derived his furname. His father’s name was Bettino. 
He early acquired a tafte for the good authors of anti¬ 
quity, and became a profellbr of belles-lettres at the 
iinivcrfuy of Pavia, about the commencement of the 
fifteenth century, and continued there till 1407. He then 
palled fome time at Venice, after which he was invited 
50 the profelforlhip of rhetoric in Padua, where he alfo 
taugiit moral phiiofophy. The charge he generoufly 
took upon himfelf of maintaining eight children of his 
deceafed brother, reduced him to fuch indigence, that 
he was compelled to fell his books ; but he was fome- 
what relieved by an augmentation of his falary. In 
1418, Pliilip Maria Vifeonti, duke of Milan, fuminoned 
him to his capital, in order to open a public fchool of 
eloquence. He left Padua with regret ; but the duke, 
by his friendlhip and munificence, rendered the change 
as agreeable as pollible to him. He employed his lei- 
lure time at Milan, in givingprivate inftruebions to young 
perlonsof family, and in copying and corredting the ma- 
nuferipts of aqcient authors. He likewife compofed fe- 
veral works, in which he paid peculiar attention to the 
purity of his Latin ityle. The time of his death is not 
certainly known, but it was probably in the beginning 
e'f 1431. His works conlifl of Ihort treatiles on grammar 
GAS 
and rhetoric ; of orations compofed upon various occa. 
lions ; of letters to his friends ; and of other epiftles 
written by way of exercife, and as models to his pupils. 
Of his Letters, there have been feveral editions, parti¬ 
cularly one by Cord. Furietti, in 1723, to which are ad¬ 
ded his orations, and the works of his fon Gtiiniforte, 
who was alfo a man of learning. 
GASPE BAY, a bay on the coafl: of Canada, in the 
gulf of St. Lawrence, a little to the north of Cape 
Gafpe : near which is the Indian fettlement of Gafpefians. 
GASPE'SIA, a country on the fouthfideof the mouth 
of St. Lawrence river, and on the north fide of Chaleurs 
bay, in Lower Canada. Its eaftern extremity is Cape 
Rofiers. The Indians called Gafpefians inhabit here. 
GAS'SE, a town of Italy, in the principality of Pied¬ 
mont, on the Po : five miles fouth of Chivaflb. 
GASSEN'DI (Peter), a very eminent philofopher 
and mathematician, born in 1592, at Chanterfier, about 
three miles from Digne, in Provence. He afforded early 
evidence that he pofiefi'ed a lively genius, and a happy 
memory, which determined his parents, though they 
were but in moderate circtimftances, to bellow upon him 
the belt education in their power. When he was of a 
proper age to be fent to fchool, he was placed under the 
inftrudtions of an excellent mailer at Digne, where he 
made a rapid progrefs in the knowledge of the Latin 
tongue, and alfo acquired a pre-eminence over his fchool- 
fellows in rhetorical exercifes. Afterwards he was fent 
to ftudy phiiofophy for two years, under an able pro- 
feftbr at Aix ; and at the expiration of that period, re¬ 
turned to his father’s houfe at Chanterfier. He had not 
been long at home, before he was invited to teach rheto¬ 
ric at Digne, when not quite fixteen years of age; and 
about three years afterwards he was appointed to fill the 
vacant chair of phiiofophy in the univerfity of Aix. 
During his refidence at Digne he had feduloufly profe- 
cuted his ftudies in the learned languages, mathematics, 
and aftronomy ; and after a diligent examination of the 
different fyftems of phiiofophy among the ancients, em¬ 
braced that of Epicurus, of which he afterwards proved 
himfelf the moft ingenious defender in modern times. 
When he entered upon his philofophical profefforlliip 
at Aix, notwithftanding tliat the authority of Ariftotle 
was Hill acknowledged in almoft all the public fchools, 
Galfendi, after the examples of Vives, Ramus, and 
others, ventured publicly to expofe the defedls of his 
fyftem. The leHures which contained his cenfures of 
the Ariftotelian pliilofophy, delivered in the indiredl 
form of paradoxical problems, were publiflied under the 
title of Exercitationes Paradoxicse adverfns Ariftotelem. This 
work, which gave great offence to thofe who ftill re¬ 
tained their predileHion for fcholaftic fubtlety, obtained 
the author no fmall degree of reputation with feveral 
learned men, particularly with Nicholas Peirefc, the 
prefident of the univerfity of Aix, who determined to 
procure for him a fituation in the church, in which he 
Ihould be enabled’to purfue his favourite ftudies at his 
leifure, and without any moleftation. After Gaffendi 
had entered into holy orders, through the intereft of 
Peirefc, and Jofeph Walter prior of Vallette, he was- 
promoted to a canonry in the cathedral church of Digne, 
and admitted to the degree of dodtor of divinity; and 
afterwards received the appointment of warden, or rec¬ 
tor of the fame church. In confequence of thefe pro¬ 
motions he refigned his profeffoiihip at Aix, and retiring 
to Digne, applied himfelf clofely to his philofophical 
and aftronoinical purfuits. Among his other works 
which lie wrote in this place W'as a fecond book of his 
Exercitationes Paradoxica, intended to expofe the futility 
of the Ariftotelian logic. It was his firll intention to 
purfue the plan ftill further ; but the violent oppofition 
which he met with from fome of the zealous and power¬ 
ful advocates for the authority of Ariftotle, induced him. 
to delift from all direct ■ attacks upon hia phiiofophy. 
Still, however, he profelTed his attachment to the fyftem 
