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whose images and pictures are drawn with more some Homilies of John Chrysostom; and some originality from the store of his own observa- other works.

tion.

Biog. Brit. Johnson's Poets.-A. GAZA,THEODORE, a learned modern Greek, was a native of Thessalonica, after the destruction of which city by the Turks in 1430, he took refuge in Italy. He put himself to the school of Vittorino da Feltre at Mantua, in order to learn Latin, at the same time assisting his master in teaching Greek to his scholars; and such was his application, that in three years he acquired the Latin language so perfectly as to become one of the most eloquent writers of it in his time. He was a professor in the university of Ferrara from 1441 to 1450, and was appointed its first rector upon its reform under the duke Leonello. He there taught Greek from a grammar of his own composition, and explained some of the orations of Demosthenes. Before this period he was in such a state of indigence as to be obliged to copy Greek manuscripts for a livelihood. From Ferrara he went. into the service of pope Nicholas V., and also obtained the munificent patronage of cardinal Bessarion, who took him into his house, and placed so much confidence in his integrity, as to entrust him with large sums of money. After the pope's death he was some time with king Alphonso at Naples; upon whose decease he returned to Rome.. Cardinal Bessarion piocured him a rich benefice in Calabria, the income of which might have enabled him to live at his ease; but with a scholar-like negligence he suffered his agents to manage as they pleased, so that very little of the revenue found its way to him. In the time of Sixtus IV he finished his translation of Aristotle upon Animals, undertaken at the instance of NicholasV., and presented it to his holiness; but receiving from him only the paltry reward of fifty crowns, he is said in a fit of indignation to have thrown the money into the Tyber. He then returned to Ferrara, and afterwards retired into Calabria, where it is probable that he died in 1478, though some writers make Rome the place of his death. Theodore Gaza was one of the most learned, of those of his country who imported Grecian literature into the West, and has been highly. commended by the principal scholars of that time. His" Greek Grammar" was first printed by Aldus in 1495, together with his treatise On the Grecian Months." He translated from Greek into Latin, besides Aristotle's work upon Animals, the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, and Commentaries upon them by Galen; Theophrastus on Plants; the Problems of Alexander Aphrodiseus; Elian's Tactics; Dionysius Halicarn. de Compositione Orationis;

He also translated Cicero de

Senectute and Somnium Scipionis from Latin into Greek; and likewise a work of Savonarola. He engaged in the controversy between the Platonists and Aristotelians, and composed a work against the notions of the former. Hodii Græc. Illustr. Tiraboschi.-A.

GAZALI, surnamed ABOU HAMED MoHAMMED ZEIN EDDIN AL THOUSI, one of the most celebrated of the mussulman doctors, was born at Thous, a town in Khorasan, in the year 450 of the Hegira, or 1058 of the christian æra. Nezam Almulk gave him the appointment of professor in the college which he had founded at Bagdat, under the reign of Malec Schah;. but Gazali relinquished this situation for the sake of embracing a life of retirement and study; and after having made the pilgrimage. to Mecca, he returned to his native country,, where he died in the year 504 or 505 of the Hegira. The reputation which he acquired by his learning and virtues, occasioned him to be distinguished, in the oriental manner, by many magnificent titles: as Imam Alálam, or the Imam of the World; Amel al Olamah, or he who practised what he taught; al Vará al Zahed, or the man who feared most to offend God, and who abstained entirely from the pleasures of life; Scheikh al Tharicat, or the Doctor of the Spiritual Life; and Hoggiat al ' Islám, or the Greatest Witness of Islamism. This doctor being asked what means he had used to arrive at that eminence in science to which he had attained, answered, "that he had never been ashamed to ask for information on subjects concerning which he was ignorant." The most famous production of this doctor is entitled "Ahia ôloum Eddin," or The different Classes of the Sciences which relate to Religion. He was also, most probably, the author of another work, entitled "Anis fil ovahedat," or the Companion of Solitude, attributed to Abou Hamed al GAZALI, who is said to have died in. the year 705 of the Hegira; and he is to be distinguished from another GAZALI, surnamed Ali Ben Cosaibah, who died in the year 878 of the Hegira, and was the author of a work. entitled "Estehatháth al merahem," or The Means of obtaining the Mercy of God. For the titles of other productions of our doctor, and of some superstitious pieces falsely attributed to him, several of which were in the royal library at Paris, we refer the curious read-. er to D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale.-M..

GAZET, WILLIAM, a Flemish priest, and various writer, was born at Arras, in the year 1554. When young he taught the classics in.

the university of Louvain, and about the year 1580 was presented to the living of St. Mary Magdalen, at Arras. Afterwards he obtained a canonry of the cathedral church of St. Peter, at Aire, in Artois, and kept both those benefices till his death in 1612, when he was about fiftyseven years of age. His writings are numerous, but are represented to be superficial and unpolished, and to afford abundant proofs of the author's credulity and superstitious turn of mind. Among others he wrote "Magdalis, Tragedia sacra," 1589, 8vo.; "The Order and Succession of the Bishops and Archbishops of Cambray," 1597, 8vo., including a short history of their most illustrious actions, the most memorable events of their time, &c.; "The Order of the Bishops of Arras, after the Separation of that See from the Bishopric of Cambray, &c." 1598, 8vo.; "Thesaurus Precum & Litaniarum, ex Scripturæ Sacræ sanctorumque Patrum Gazophylaciis depromptus," 1602, 12mo.; "The Ecclesiastical History of the Low-countries, &c." published after the author's death, 1614, 4to. ; " The Lives of the Saints, with moral Reflections," also posthumous, in two volumes, 1613, 8vo.; "The Mirror of Conscience;" "The Holy Feast, or Exercises preparatory to the Reception of the Eucharist," "Spiritual Exercises and Litanies for the whole Week, with Prayers," &c.; "Remedies for Scrupulous Consciences," &c. Mereri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

GEBER, a chemist and astronomer, to whom some writers give the christian name of JoHN, is commonly considered as an Arabian, born at Seville in Spain; but Leo Africanus asserts, that he was a Greek, who afterwards embraced Mahometanism. As the word Geber signifies a king, this circumstance, it is probable, gave rise to the fabulous report of his having been a sovereign in India. The events of his life and the period when he flourished are very uncertain. According to some he was a nephew of Mahomet, and lived in the seventh century; while others place him in the eighth or ninth. He was not only an excellent astronomer, and corrected many errors in the Almagest of Ptolemy, but was also the first reviver of chemistry, and therefore he is mentioned with great respect by Boerhaave, who says that he found in his works many observations and experiments which were afterwards published as new. That he involved himself in the mysteries of alchemy must be ascribed to the taste of the period at which he lived. The alchemists make him the inventor of an universal medicine, as Cardan does of algebra. His works were written in Arabic; but were soon, translated into other

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languages. They were presented by Golius, in Arabic manuscripts, to the library of the university of Leyden, where they are still preserved. Those which have been printed are: taxis Astronomica, sive Demonstrativum Opus Astrologie, Libri IX," Nuremberg, 1533, folio, Synvestigatione Perfectionis;" Basle, 1561, folio, translated by Gerrard de Sabionetta; "De Inwith some alchemistic works, collected by Gratarola: " Liber Fornacum," in Gratarola's collection; ibid. 1572, 8vo.: "De Alchymia, Traditio Summæ Perfectionis, in duos Libros divisa:" "Liber Investigationis Magisterii;" Strasb. 1588, 8vo.: "Summa Perfectionis Magisterii;" Venice, 1542, 8vo.; improved from a manuscript in the Vatican, Dantzic, 1682, 8vo.: Investigatio Magisterii;" Leyden, 1668; of this "Chymia, sive Traditio Summæ Perfectionis & work there is another edition improved by George Horn, with the addition of Medulla Alchymie Gebricæ:"Enarratio Methodica trium Gebri Medicinarum, in quibus continetur Lapidis Philosophici vera Confectio ;"Amsterdam, 1678, 8vo.: "La Esposizione di molti Secreti della Natura," Venice, 1544, 8vo.: “Geomanica," translated into Italian; ibid. 1552. Golius gave a Latin translation of the alchemical works of Geber, under the title of "Lapis Philosophorum," which was published first at Leyden, in folio, and afterwards in quarto. An English translation, by Richard Russel, appearLexicon.-J. ed at Leyden, in 1668, 8vo. Jöcher's Gelehrt.

GEDDES, ALEXANDER, a learned Scotch Arradowl, in the parish of Ruthven, Bamffcatholic divine and biblical critic, was born at shire, in the year 1737. His parents were reputable, but not opulent, farmers, who spared no labour in order to give their children the gious sentiments they were liberal Roman-cabest education in their power.. In their relitholics, in whose library the principal book was an English edition of the Bible, which they taught their son to read, at a very early period, with reverence and attention. By the care and frequency with which he perused that book, the principal facts contained in it became familiar to his mind in his infancy, and before, he had attained his eleventh year he knew all its history by heart. His first instructions, excepting what his parents gave him, he received from a neighbouring school-mistress, whose distinction of him, he was accustomed to say, was the earliest mental pleasure which he remembered to have felt. He was next put under the tuition of a young man from Aberdeen, whom the Laird had engaged to educate his sons; and was afterwards.removed to Scalan, an obscure place

of education in the Highlands, where those children of Catholics were brought up who were devoted to the priesthood, and destined to finish their education at a foreign university. At this seminary young Geddes laid the foundation of that superior skill in the learned languages, for which he was afterwards so eminently distinguished. In the year 1758 he was sent to the Scotch college at Paris, of which Mr, Gordon was then principal, and not long after his arrival began to attend the lectures in the college of Navarre, where he entered into the rhetorical class. By the quickness of his parts and the diligence of his application he soon got at the head of this class, though there were then two veterans in it, and recommended himself to the friendship of Vicaire, who was then professor, and who continued attached to him as long as he lived. At the beginning of the next academical year, according to the usual course of study, he should have entered into the philosophical class; but he was persuaded to study philosophy at home, at such intervals as he could spare from his other studies, and to enter in divinity. Accordingly, he attended the lectures of MM. Buré and de Sauvent at the college of Navarre, and of Lavocat for the Hebrew language at the Sorbonne. His proficiency interested the last-mentioned professor strongly in his favour, who wished much to have him remain at Paris; but through the advice of other friends he was prevailed upon to return to Scotland, in the year 1764. The first appointment which he had as priest was among the Catholics in the county of Angus; from which situation he removed in 1765 to Traquaire, where he resided nearly three years in the capacity of domestic chaplain to the ear of that name. Of this connection he was accustomed to speak in terms of satisfaction and gratitude, as having afforded him much leisure for literary pursuits, as well as the use of a well-furnished library, admirably adapted to assist him in his favourite studies. In the autumn of 1768 he quitted Traquaire, and returned to Paris, where he spent the following winter, devoting his time chiefly to the consultation of books and MSS. in the king's and other libraries, and making extracts from rare copies, particularly Hebrew ones. In the spring of 1769 he returned to Scotland, and undertook the charge of a considerable Roman-catholic congregation at Auchinhalrig, in Bamffshire. Here, by the debts which he incurred in consequence of undertaking to build a new chapel for his flock, and rendering the parsonage-house one of the most neat and

convenient belonging to the Roman-catholic. clergy in Scotland, he for a time involved himself in pecuniary difficulties; from which he was relieved by the generosity of the late duke of Norfolk. Afterwards he took a little farm, thinking that by that means he should be enabled to live more comfortably; but as he was under the necessity of borrowing money in order to stock it, and met with failures in three successive crops, he was obliged to relinquish his farming scheme. His disappointments in this project again embarrassed his finances, which felt an additional burthen from the responsibility which he had contracted by the erection of another chapel at Fochabers. By his spirited exertions, however, and the assistance of friends, together with the profits which he received from publishing a translation of some select Satires of Horace, he was enabled honourably to discharge all the pecuniary claims upon him. In the year 1779 he resigned his pastoral connection with the congregation at Auchinhalrig, to the great regret of his people, whose respect and affection he had conciliated by the diligence and fidelity with which he had discharged his duties as their minister, and particularly by the attention which he had paid to the instruction and improvement of the younger part of his flock. In the following year, the university of Aberdeen, from a regard to his learning and merits, conferred on him the degree of doctor of laws: an honour by which that body had not before distinguished any Roman-catholic since the Reformation. About this period Dr. Geddes removed to London, for the sake of being within reach of greater facilities for prosecuting the grand work to which his course of studies had for some time been subservient, which was a new English translation of the Books of the Old and New Testament from their original languages. For a few months after his arrival at the metropolis he officiated as priest in the Imperial embassador's chapel, till it was suppressed at the end of the year 1780, by an order from the emperor Joseph II.; and afterwards he preached occasionally at the chapel in Duke-street, Lincoln'sinn-fields, till Easter, 1782, at which time it is believed that he entirely declined the public exercise of all clerical functions.. Dr. Geddes had formed the design of a new translation of the Bible while he was a student at Paris; and about the year 1760 he began a course of reading necessary to qualify him for entering on such an undertaking. At that time he was acquainted with only two versions of the Scriptures; the vulgar Latin, and the vulgar English...

In the early part of his life he had been much prepossessed in favour of the latter; but now he gave a decided preference to the Vulgate. The English appeared to him rugged, constrained, and often obscure, where the Latin was smooth, easy, and intelligible. The former seemed to read like a translation, the latter like an original. In the year 1762 he began to read the originals with these versions constantly before him, when he discovered that the great object of the English translators had been to give a strictly literal version; while the author of the Vulgate had endeavoured to render the original equivalently, into such language as was current in his age. Struck with the advantages of the latter method, he immediately resolved to follow the same plan, if he should be encou raged to carry his projected design into execution. And his subsequent careful attention to the ancient versions in the Polyglott, and to the modern French, Italian, Dutch, and the Latin versions of Munster, Castalio, Junius, and Pagninus, convinced him that a strictly literal version was not the most proper to convey the meaning, and to display the beauties of the originals. When it was understood that Dr. Geddes was seriously bent on the design of a new translation of the Bible, he met with much discouragement and opposition from the less enlightened members of his own communion, originating in their well-known dread of permitting the laity to have access to the Scriptures in their native language. But as he was satisfied that his projected design was favourable to the interests of truth, of which he was a sincere and zealous votary, he was determined to persevere in his arduous undertaking, to whatever obloquy it might expose him. He had been engaged for several years on this work, before he saw any prospect of meeting with encouragement sufficient to make it public, if it were completed and ready for the press. He had also met with a cruel interruption to his biblical studies, probably occasioned by a want of assist ance, which his high-spirited mind could not brook to receive on terms inconsistent with his unshackled independence, and his determination to pursue his object on that plan which his own judgment suggested to be the most honourable and useful. In these circumstances, says he, "I had but little hopes of being ever an a situation to resume them, when Providence threw me into the arms of such a patron as Origen himself might have been proud to boast of: a patron who, for these ten years past, has, with a dignity peculiar to himself, afforded me every convenience that my heart could desire

towards the carrying on and completing my arduous work." That patron was the late excellent lord Petre, a catholic nobleman, whose memory is entitled to the respect of Christians of every denomination, for the zeal which he discovered in promoting the extension of biblical literature. In the year 1786 Dr. Geddes published his "Prospectus of a new Translation of the Bible, from corrected Texts of the Originals, compared with the ancient Versions, &c." 4to. ; which attracted considerable notice, and afforded evidence of the approbation which the author's plan met with from distinguished protestant ecclesiastics, particularly the late Dr. Kennicott, "on whose tomb," as Dr. Geddes justly and beautifully observed, "every biblical student ought annually to strew the tributary flower." In the following year our author published an "Appendix" to the preceding, in the form of a Letter to Dr. Louth, bishop of London, suggesting a variety of queries, doubts, and difficulties, relative to a vernacular version of the Scriptures; and also "A Letter to Dr. Priestley, intended to prove, by one prescriptive Argument, that the Divinity of Jesus Christ was a primitive Tenet of Christianity," 8vo. The argument which our author fixes on is, the decision of the first general council of Nice. In the year 1788 Dr. Geddes published his "Proposals for printing by Subscription, a new Translation of the Bible, &c." containing, besides the conditions of subscription, specimens of his translation and notes. In the year 1790 our author published "A General Answer to the Queries, Counsels, and Criticisms, that have been communicated to him since the Publication of his Proposals, &c." replete with learning, ingenuity, and good humour. An nexed to it is a List of the Subscribers to his work, in perusing which the liberal mind will be gratified by observing catholic monasteries. in Germany, colleges in the English and Scotch universities, catholic and protestant bishops, and clergy of different denominations, all united in giving encouragement to a design for promoting a more intimate acquaintance with the Sacred Scriptures. But, notwithstanding that our author's list of subscribers was respectable, their number was by no means adequate to the magnitude of the undertaking, and could scarcely afford the author hopes of being reimbursed the expences which his work must necessarily require, much less compensate him for the excessive exertion to which he had devoted himself. And, though lord Petre's generosity secured to our author all the comforts of life, and the means necessary to proceed with his work,

it could not be expected that it should also in demnify him against the risk attending a plan which demanded public and very extensive patronage. Trusting, however, that, when the first fruits of his labours made their appearance, the liberal and discerning would not suffer his services in the cause of literature and truth to want encouragement, he determined to commence the publication of his great undertaking. Accordingly, in the year 1792, the first volume was given to the public, and entitled "The Holy Bible, or the Books accounted Sacred by Jews and Christians, &c. faithfully translated from the corrected Texts of the Originals; with various Readings, explanatory Notes, and critical Remarks," 4to. This volume comprises the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua, and sufficiently satisfied all liberal and competent judges, that the author had not undertaken a task to which his learning and abilities were not fully adequate. It was not to be expected that it would prove a faultless work; but after admitting every objection against it, not advanced by ignorance or bigotry, the learned world concurred in pronouncing it a performance of very extraordinary merit, which entitled the author to a large share in their commendation and gratitude. Its appearance was soon followed by "An Address to the Public on the Publication of the first Volume, &c." in which he complains of attempts which had been made by bigotry and malevolence to deprive him of the fruits of his immense labours, by depreciating the value of his translation, and endeavouring, by every mean art, to asperse and injure his character; and also defends himself against the "monks, friars, witlings," and other assassins of his reputation, in language that is uncommonly energetic and elegant, and which breathes at the same time a noble spirit of integrity and independence. Soon after the pubfication of this volume, three catholic bishops, sustaining the character of vicars-apostolic, and the titles of Rama, Acanthos, and Centuri, addressed pastoral letters to their respective flocks, warning them against the reception and use of Dr. Geddes's version. This episcopal stretch of power occasioned a correspondence between Dr. Geddes and the bishop of Centuriæ, in the course of which the latter announced his suspension of the doctor from the exercise of his ecclesiastical functions, unless, with in a prescribed time, he should submit to an injunction contained in the pastoral letters. Such conduct the doctor resented with becoming spirit, and wrote a highly animated letter to

VOL. IV.

the bishop, informing him that he was not afraid of his threatenings, and should laugh at his censures, so long as he was conscious that he deserved them not; and that he would never submit to the injunction, because he deemed it rash, ridiculous, and informal. In the year 1794 the author published a longer "Letter to the Right Reverend John Douglas, Bishop of Centuria, and Vicar-Apostolic in the London District," in which he protested to the world against the bishop's tyrannical procecdings, and exposed them, on the ground of reason, as well as on received principles of ecclesiastical discipline, with much solid argument, not unmixed with a happy vein of irony. In the year 1797 Dr. Geddes published the second volume of his new translation, containing the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and the Prayer of Manasseh. In the preface to this volume he gives up, and boldly controverts, the generally received opinion respecting the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures; considers the Jewish historians to have written, like all other historians, from such human documents as they could find, and consequently to have been, like them, liable to mistakes; assigns them a lower rank in respect to elegance, correctness, and lucid order, than the celebrated historians of Greece and Rome; speaks of them as, like Homer, blending real facts with fanciful mythology, ascribing natural events to supernatural causes, and introducing a divine agency on every extraordinary occur rence; and expatiates on the advantages which would result to the cause of revelation from adopting the doctrine of partial and putative, in preference to that of absolute and plenary, inspiration. In concurrence with such notions, he rejects as fabulous, and unworthy of the divine goodness, such commands, precepts, and injunctions, as seemed to his mind unworthy even of human authority; maintaining that the very appearance of injustice, in any act, is a stronger proof that God did not command it, than the authority of all the Jewish historians put together. The freedom with which Dr. Geddes avowed his sentiments on these topics, exposed him to much reproach and obloquy, not only among the members of his own communion, but among the different sects of Protestants who entertained different views with respect to the inspiration of the Scriptures; and their clamour against him was still farther heightened, by the appearance of his volume of "Critical Remarks," in justification of his opinions, published in the year 1800, 4to. The

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