GEM 
^ach figure in the four correfponding engravings, denote 
the fize or dimenfions of the gem from which each of 
tlie drawings was taken. 
The great objeftof the fecular games, both in Greece 
and Rome, was to promote military exereil’es, and to 
acquire that agility, addrefs, and valour, wltich decided 
the fate of battles, created emulation in the ranks, and 
roiil'ed men to hazard every danger. Tliey were the 
fchool and exhibition of the only virtue which Vv-as then 
regarded, military virtue ; and hence refembled the tour¬ 
naments in the age of chivalry. We are liruck with 
the force of an obferVation made by the ingenious 
Mr. Rafpe on this fubjeft; “Jn wliatever point of 
view we confider thefc games, fays he, they are too 
much negletled at prefent. We have the parade, mi¬ 
litary exercifes, and martinets fufficient for all the great 
military evolutions ; but have we any to form the mind, 
the heart, or the body, of the foldier? We are tormented 
with a number of difeafes,, fiiice we have loft the pru- 
deuce and the habit of preventing or curing them by 
fuitable exercifes, Wc become dull, heavy, av/kward, 
and embarrafFed, becaufe we have not learnt, or have 
ceafed to employ, the ftrength of our limbs. There are 
foldiers who can fcarcely walk, and horfemen who know 
not how to mourn their horfes, and even failors who are 
afraid of thejr element. The education, the difcipline, 
and manner of living, of the ancients, had great advanta¬ 
ges over ours. I do not view thefe games with the pre- 
judices of the antiquary, nor with a predilection for 
maftersof dancing,fencing, riding, wreftling, or boxing; 
their merits have been difcufTed by phyiicians and by 
military men. Baron Grothaufs pronounced in 1778, at 
the univerfity of Gottingen, a curious difcoiirl'e on the 
fiibje6l, and has fince proved by his own and his fervants 
example, that noiliing is wanting bu< reiolution to at¬ 
tain, by proper exercifes, the attivity, agility, and 
ftrength, of the ancient foldier.” 
In the opinion of others, however, the ancients carried 
their gyrnnaftic exercifes to a dangerous extreme ; which 
confiderably injured their health, and reiidered them 
incapable of more ul’eful employments. The acute and 
eccentric De Pauw, in his oblervations on the Greeks, 
declares “that the gyrnnaftic was a molt pernicious art, 
and only enervated the human race. Thole who con- 
ftantly exerciled themfelves in boxing or wreftling, be¬ 
came leaner every day from their thighs to their feet, 
while their fuperior parts acquired a prodigious bulk. 
Thole who incelTantly praftiied leaping or foot-racing 
became meagre from their head to their haunches, wiiile 
their inferior parts were of an enormous fize. The Dif- 
toboLi were thofe athletics who flung large and heavy 
quoits, made of wood or ftone, but much thicker in the 
middle than at the extremity ; thefe they were to launch 
to the extremity of the career, which muft have re¬ 
quired a moll: violent exertion. Thefe men had mon- 
ftrous flelliy arms,with necks that lolt all tiieir flexibility, 
which they could neither turn to the right or left, be- 
eaufe the head violently prclfed the vertebra, to in- 
creafe the power of flinging the quoit., The nervous 
fyftem of man cannot, without injury, undergo thefe 
viol nt exercifes, which the new theories of new philo- 
fophers have lately attempted to revive. When nature 
feels herfelf opprefled in any part of the human body, 
fne inftantly avenges her own caufe ; thus thefe violent 
wreftlers found, while their hands became ftronger, their 
feet became more feeble; while the foot-racer found his 
feet fortified at the expence of his weakened arms,” A 
moderated ufe of thefe games, it has been contended, 
would certainly not have proved fo pernicious; but it 
is anfwered by M. de Pauw, that this moderation could 
never have been praftifed,becaufe the whole was founded 
on emulation; each was refolved to out-do his antago- 
nift or rival, and for one athlete who won a wreath, a 
hundred perillied in their feeble effay, and, bit the dull 
GEM 807 
Gil which a rival triumphed.—See the article Game, 
p. 199, of this volume. 
The colours of antique gems, as chofen by artifts for 
particular purpofes, appear not to have been altogetlier 
fortuitous, but in many inllances ftudled, and judici- 
oufly adapted to the fubjefts and pailages wliicli were 
to be’illuilrated or expreffed. Thus we find Neptunes 
lyid Leanders engraved on beryl, which, from its beau¬ 
tiful fe:i-green colour, feems by nature adapted to Inch 
fubjefts'. Hence alfo Bacchus’s and Silenus’s, the lovers 
of wine, are depicted on tlie purple amethyft ; Apollo, 
or the Sun, oil the golden topaz ; Proferpines and Pliu 
tos, on jet and lava : aiV obfervation wortliy of notice, 
inafmuch .as it tends to prove the ftriCt attention of the 
ancients to minutenefs of character, and uniformity of 
clalTification, in their nunierous works. 
To GEM, V. a, \_genima, Lat.] .To adorn, as with 
jewels or buds. 
To GEM, v.n. {_ganmo, Lat.] To put forth the firft 
buds: 
Laft' rofe, in dance, the ftately trees, and fpread 
Their branches, hung with copious fruit; ox gemin’d 
Their bloflbms, Milton. 
GEMAAGIDID', oj Delgumutu, a town of Af¬ 
rica, in the empire of Morocco forty-five miles fouth- 
■welt of Morocco. 
GEMAP'PE, or J:EMAPPE,.a town of Kainault, fitii- 
ated at the junCftion of the rivers Haifne and Trouille 
remarkable on account of an obftinate battle fought there 
on the 5th of November, 1792, between the Auftrians 
and the French republican army commanded by general 
Dumourier, for particulars of which fee the- article 
France, vol. vii. p. 783, 
GEMA'RA, or Ghemara, the fccond part of the 
feriptures of the Jews.—See the article Ta lmud. 
GEMA'TRIA,y. in Jewilhantiquity, a kind of arith- 
metical cabbala. 
GEM'BIEZ, or Gembock,, a town of Poland, in the 
palatinate of Kalifti.; fixteeii miles eaft-north-eaft of 
Gnefne. 
GEMBL.OU'RS, or Giblou, a town of Brabant^ 
fituated on the river Orneau, which runs into the Sam- 
bre; it is more confiderable on account of its ancient- 
abbey than on any other account; which had anciently 
the privilege of coining money ; and was formerly in 
poireflion of a celebrated library, containing a number 
of valuable and ancient nranuicripls,. among wliich 
was tlie Chronicum GemblacenJ'e, well known among the 
learned, begun by Sigebert, a monk, who died in the 
year 1112, and continued by Anfelm, the abbot, todiis. 
death, in 1137. The town was twice burned.down, viz. 
on the 6th of Augull, 167S, and on the 17th of Auguft, 
1712. On the 31ft of January, 1578, a battle was fought 
near Gemblours between tlie Spaniards, under Don John 
of Auftria, and the army of the States General : moft 
of the chief officers of the latter were abfent at BrulFels, 
only thefieur de Coigny, and colonel Barflour, a Scotch¬ 
man, remaining with the troops; tliey wilhed to have 
retreated, but were compelled to an engagement, in 
which they loft their cannon, thirty pair of colours and 
four ftandards,,and de Coigny himfelf w^as taken prifoner . 
Ten miles north-weft of Namur, and eleven north-eaft of 
Charleroy. 
GEMEAU'X, a town of France, in the department 
of the Cote d’Or, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftrict of Is-l'ur-Tille: two miles fouth-eaft of Is.fur= 
Tille. 
GEMEL'LI CARRE'RI (Francis), a writer of tra= 
vels, and an advocate at Naples. He made a tour through 
Europe in 1683, of which he publilhed a relation in one 
volume. In 1693 he undertook a voyage round tlie 
world, which he completed in 1698 : and of this he pub-» 
Milled an account in J7001 which was feverai times re= 
edited^ 
