G I B 
and gipfeys.—.Some, if they happen to hear AYi old v/erd, 
albeit very natural and fignificant, cry out (Iraightway, 
that we fpeak no Englirti, hut gibberipi. Spenjer. 
GIB'BKT, y. Iqibet, Fr. ] A gallows; the poll on 
which malefactors are hanged, or on which their car- 
cafes arc expofed. A gibbet differs from a common gal¬ 
lows, in that it confilts of one perpendicular poll', fiom 
the top of which proceeds one arm; except it be a dou¬ 
ble gibbet, vvhich lall is formed in tiie Ihape of a Roman 
capital T.—Haman fuffered death himl'elf upon the very- 
gibbet that he had provided for another. L’EJtrange .— 
Any traverfc beams. A great cudgel or flick, Inch as 
they throw up in trees, to beat down the fruit. 
To GIB'BET, V. n. To hang orexpofe on a gibbet.— 
I’ll gibbet up his name. Oldham. —To hang on any thing 
going traverfc : as the beam of a gibbet.—He fhall come 
off and on fwifter than he that gibbets on the brewer’s 
bucket. Shakefpearc. 
GIB'BET-MA'KER, fg One that makes gibbets.— 
Ho! thz gibbet-maker! he fays, that he liath taken them 
down again. Titus Andronicus. 
GIB'BETHON, a city of Paleftine, fituated in the 
tribe of Dan; and one of the cities of tire Levites of the 
family of Kohath. This city was afterwards poffeffed 
by the Philiftines, and remained fubjeCt to them until 
the reign of Nadab king of Ifrael, w ho, whilft in the aCl 
of befieging it, fell by the treachery of Baaflia, who 
fucceeded him in the kingdom. Here alfo Omri was 
proclaimed king of Ifrael. Jofi. xix. 44. xxi. 23. i Kings 
XV. 27. xvi. 15-17. 
GIB'BIER,/'. [French'.] Game ; wild-fowl.—Thefe 
impofls are laid on all butcher’s.meat, while, at the fame 
time, the fowl and are tax-free. Addifon on Italy. 
GIB'BON (Edward), a moff dillinguilhed modern 
Engliih iiifiorian, born at Putney, in 1737. His father, 
iidward Gibbon, efq. was of an ancient family at Bur. 
ton near Petersficld in Flamplhire, and had a leat in two 
parliaments. Edward was the only^child reared by his 
parents; and his conffitution was fo infirm in childhood, 
that his life was often delpaired of. In his ninth year 
he was fent to the fchool of Dr. Woodeibn, at Kingtlon- 
iipon-Tliames. After a refidence of two years'with this 
matter, in which he acquired the rudiments of Latin, he 
returned to his friends; and he has recorded Jiis twelftli 
year, in which he read a variety of Englifli books of 
poetry, romance, hiftory, and travels, “ as the moft pro¬ 
pitious to the growth of his intelledtual ftaturc.” Fie 
then was entered at Weltmintter-fcliool; but repeated at¬ 
tacks of ill health prevented him from making a regular 
progrefs in the claflical Itudies of the place; and he was 
more the nurfeling of an affedtionate aunt, with whom he 
boarded, than the adventurous fchool-boy. After feverql 
changes of fituation, in which he was chiefly the object 
of medical care, his conffitution began to acquire firm- 
nefs ; and his father, with the idea of pufliing him for¬ 
wards to manly acquifitions, placed him as a gentleman- 
commoner in Magdalen-college, Oxford, before he had 
completed his fifteenth year. Fie had already imbibed 
an extraordinary portion of hifiorical knowledge by mul¬ 
tifarious reading, which had flood in the place of the 
grammatical and philological Itudies ufed in a literary 
progrefs at that period of life. “ I arrived at Oxford,” 
fays he, “ with a flock of erudition that might have 
puzzled a doitor, and a degree of ignorance of which a 
Ic'hool-boy would have been afliamed.” In this Hate,it 
is evident that he was ill prepared to receive the bene¬ 
fits, whatever they may be, of an univerfity education; 
and this circumllance might perhaps operate as fome 
counterpoife to the very bitter philippic he has pro¬ 
nounced againfl the conduift of public and private in- 
firudtion at,Oxford. The fourteen months he fpent 
there, lie lligmatifes as the molt idle and unprofitable of 
his whole life. To a total negleit of religious inftruc- 
tion he has attributed the moll remarkable incident of 
his early days, which took place at this time. From 
VOL.VIII. No. 524. 
G I B 549 
childhood he had been addicted to-difputation on topics 
of divini.ty. Flis leifure from other purfuits induced him 
to turn his attention to the centroverfies between the 
piapifts and proteltants ; and as he entered into the field 
“ without armour,” he fell before the weapons oi autho- 
rity which the catholics fo well know how to wield. His 
converfion to that faith was chiefly efferted by reading 
the works of Bofluct; and it was not till a perfett con¬ 
fidence in ti'at author’s tenets had taken place iti his 
mind, that he had an interview in London vvith a popifh 
priefl, at whole feet, in June, 1753, he folcmnly abjured 
the protellant religion. He immediately wrote a long 
letter to his father, in wdiich he avowed and jultified 
tl'.e ftep he had taken. In reply to fome reproaches that 
have been cafl upon him for this change of religion, he 
has laid,, with proper confidence, “ I arn proud of an 
honeft facrificc of intereff to confcience : I can never 
bliifii if my tender mind was entangled in the fophiflry 
tliat feduced the acute and manly underflandings of Chil- 
lingworth and Bayle.” In order to reclaim him, F.e was 
fent by his oflended father to refide among the Calvinifts 
at I.aufanne in Swilferlaad, and was placed under Mr. 
Pavilliard, acalvinilt minilter. There is fomething very 
charafiterillic in the Iketch that gentleman has given of 
his pupil as he firll appeared to F.im : “A little thin 
figure, witii a large head, difputing, and urging with 
the greatelt ability, all the belt arguments that had ever 
been tiled in favour of popery.” By the well-dire6ted 
efforts of this tutor, aided by his own found reafon and 
mature refleitions, his faith in the Romilli articles gra¬ 
dually gave way, and on Chrillmas-day, 1754, he re¬ 
ceived the facrament in the protellant churcli. Flis re¬ 
sidence at Tvaulanne was alfo of high imp.ortance to his 
progrefs in knowledge, and the formation of regular 
habits of Itudy. He made himfelf perfeblly mailer of 
the r'rench and Latin languages, and of the art of logic ; 
and read with great attention many excellent authors, 
from which he made large feleCtions. His ruling paf. 
fion, that of reading, now fully developed itfelf, and he 
wanted no incitements to indullry from a tutor. Belles, 
lettres, and the hiltory of man and the human mind, 
were his favourite objetts of lludy : mathematics he 
nightly touched upon, but foon relinquiflied ; and he 
congratulates himfelf that he efcaped from them “ be. 
fore his mind was hardened by the habit 0; rigid demon- 
llration, fo deltructive of the finer feelings ot moral evi¬ 
dence.” 'I'his is an uncommon view of the eft'efl of 
mathematical Itudies, and which he never would have 
made^ had the light of true mathematical demonllration 
Hied Its effulgence over his mind. An extraordinary 
inltance of his ardour for information is, that while an 
unknown youth at I.aufanne, he ventured to open a cor- 
relpondence on learned topics with lome celebrated to. 
reign profelfors. In the midlt of thele literary occupa¬ 
tions, love unfufpedtedly found an entrance into his 
heart. The perfonal and nientaBaccomplifliments ot an 
amiable and celebrated woman, were not to be refilled. 
The circumftances are fo elegantly and undilguifedly re¬ 
lated by Mr. Gibbon himfelf, as to give public intereff 
to private conne.xion: we fliall theretore ffate the palfage 
in the writer’s own words: “ 1 helitate, trom the api- 
prehcnlioH of ridicule, when I approach the delicate 
fubjetSl of my early love. By this word I do not mean 
the polite tittcntion, the gallantry without hope or de- 
fign, which has originated in the Ipirit ot chivalry, and 
is interwoven with the texture ot French manners. I 
tmdcrltand by this pallion the union ot delire, triendlhip, 
and tendernefs, which is inflamed by a tingle female; 
which prefers her to the reft of her fex, and which leeks 
her polfeflion as the fupreme or the lole happinels of 
our being. I need not blulh at recolletfting the object 
of my choice ; and though my love was dilappointed of 
fuccefs, I am rather proud that I was once capable of 
feelyig fuch a pure and exalted fentiment. 1 he per¬ 
fonal attraiRions of madenioifelle Sufan Curchod were 
7 A embelliftied 
