Chapter 9

(R. N. B.)

GEE, THOMAS(1815-1898), Welsh Nonconformist preacher and journalist, was born at Denbigh on the 24th of January 1815. At the age of fourteen he went into his father’s printing office, but continued to attend the grammar school in the afternoons. In 1837 he went to London to improve his knowledge of printing, and on his return to Wales in the following year ardently threw himself into literary, educational and religious work. Among his publications were the well-known quarterly magazineY Traethodydd(“The Essayist”),Gwyddoniadur Cymreig(“Encyclopaedia Cambrensis”), and Dr Silvan Evans’sEnglish-Welsh Dictionary(1868), but his greatest achievement in this field was the newspaperBaner Cymru(“The Banner of Wales”), founded in 1857 and amalgamated withYr Amserau(“The Times”) two years later. This paper soon became an oracle in Wales, and played a great part in stirring up the nationalist movement in the principality. In educational matters he waged a long and successful struggle on behalf of undenominational schools and for the establishment of the intermediate school system. He was an enthusiastic advocate of church disestablishment, and had a historic newspaper duel with Dr John Owen (afterwards bishop of St David’s) on this question. The Eisteddfod found in him a thorough friend and a wise counsellor. His commanding presence, mastery of diction, and resonant voice made him an effective platform speaker. He was ordained to the Calvinistic Methodist ministry at Bala in 1847, and gave his time and talents ungrudgingly to Sunday school and temperance work. Throughout his life he believed in the itinerant unpaid ministry rather than in the settled pastorate. He died on the 28th of September 1898, and his funeral was the most imposing ever seen in North Wales.

GEEL, JACOB(1789-1862), Dutch scholar and critic, was born at Amsterdam on the 12th of November 1789. In 1823 he was appointed sub-librarian, and in 1833 chief librarian and honorary professor at Leiden, where he died on the 11th of November 1862. Geel materially contributed to the development of classical studies in Holland. He was the author of editions of Theocritus (1820), of the Vatican fragments of Polybius (1829), of theὈλυμπιακόςof Dio Chrysostom (1840) and of numerous essays in theRheinisches MuseumandBibliotheca critica nova, of which he was one of the founders. He also compiled a valuable catalogue of the MSS. in the Leiden library, wrote a history of the Greek sophists, and translated various German works into Dutch.

GEELONG,a seaport of Grant county, Victoria, Australia, situated on an extensive land-locked arm of Port Phillip known as Corio Bay, 45 m. by rail S.W. of Melbourne. Pop. of the city proper (1901) 12,399; with the adjacent boroughs of Geelong West, and Newton-and-Chilwell, 23,311. Geelong slopes to the bay on the north and to the Barwon river on the south, and its position in this respect, as well as the shelter it obtains from the Bellarine hills, renders it one of the healthiest towns in Victoria. As a manufacturing centre it is of considerable importance. The first woollen mill in the colony was established here, and the tweeds, cloths and other woollen fabrics of the town are noted throughout Australia. There are extensive tanneries, flour-mills and salt works, while at Fyansford, 3 m. distant, there are important cement works and paper-mills. The extensive vineyards in the neighbourhood of the town were destroyed under the Phylloxera Act, but replanting subsequently revived this industry. Corio Bay, a safe and commodious harbour, is entered by two channels across its bar, one of which has a depth of 23½ ft. There is extensive quayage, and the largest wool ships are able to load alongside the wharves, which are connected by rail with all parts of the colony. The facilities given for shipping wool direct to England from this port have caused a very extensive wool-broking trade to grow up in the town. The country surrounding Geelong is agricultural, but there are large limestone quarries east of the town, and in the Otway Forest, 23 m. distant, coal is worked. Geelong was incorporated in 1849.

GEESTEMÜNDE,a seaport town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, on the right bank of the Weser, at the mouth of the Geeste, which separates it from Bremerhaven, 32 m. N. from Bremen by rail. Pop. (1905) 23,625. The interest of the place is purely naval and commercial, its origin dating no farther back than 1857, when the construction of the harbour was begun. The great basin, which can accommodate large sea-going vessels, was completed in 1863, the petroleum basin was opened in 1874, and additional wharves have been constructed for the reception of vessels engaged in the fishing industry. The fish market of Geestemünde is the most important in Germany, and the auction hall practically determines the price of fish throughout the empire. The whole port is protected by powerful fortifications. Among the industrial establishments of the town are shipbuilding yards, foundries, engineering works and saw-mills.

GEFFCKEN, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH(1830-1896), German diplomatist and jurist, was born on the 9th of December 1830 at Hamburg, of which city his father was senator. After studying law at Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, he was attached in 1854 to the Prussian legation at Paris. For ten years (1856-1866) he was the diplomatic representative of Hamburg in Berlin, first as chargé d’affaires, and afterwards as minister-resident, being afterwards transferred in a like capacity to London. Appointed in 1872 professor of constitutional history and public law in the reorganized university of Strassburg, Geffcken became in 1880 a member of the council of state of Alsace-Lorraine. Of too nervous a temperament to withstand the strain of the responsibilities of his position, he retired from public service in 1882, and lived henceforth mostly at Munich, where he died, suffocated by an accidental escape of gas into his bedchamber, on the 1st of May 1896. Geffcken was a man of great erudition and wide knowledge and of remarkable legal acumen, and from these qualities proceeded the personal influence he possessed. He was moreover a clear writer and made his mark as an essayist. He was one of the most trusted advisers of the Prussian crown prince, Frederick William (afterwards the emperor Frederick), and it was he (it is said, at Bismarck’s suggestion) who drew up the draft of the New German federal constitution, which was submitted to the crown prince’s headquarters at Versailles during the war of 1870-71. It was also Geffcken who assisted in framing the famous document which the emperor Frederick, on his accession to the throne in 1888, addressed to the chancellor. This memorandum gave umbrage, and on the publication by Geffcken in theDeutsche Rundschau(Oct. 1888) of extracts from the emperor Frederick’s private diary during the war of 1870-71, he was, at Bismarck’s instance, prosecuted for high treason. The Reichsgericht (supreme court), however, quashed the indictment, and Geffcken was liberated after being under arrest for three months. Publications of various kinds proceeded from his pen. Among these areZur Geschichte des orientalischen Krieges 1853-1856(Berlin, 1881);Frankreich, Russland und der Dreibund(Berlin, 1894); andStaat und Kirche(1875), English translation by E.F. Fairfax (1877). His writings on English history have been translated by S.J. Macmullan and published asThe British Empire, with essays on Prince Albert, Palmerston, Beaconsfield, Gladstone, and reform of the House of Lords(1889).

GEFFROY, MATHIEU AUGUSTE(1820-1895), French historian, was born in Paris. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure he held history professorships at various lycées. His French thesis for the doctorate of letters,Étude sur les pamphlets politiques et religieux de Milton(1848), showed that he was attracted towards foreign history, a study for which he soon qualified himself by mastering the Germanic and Scandinavian languages. In 1851 he published aHistoire des états scandinaves, which is especially valuable for clear arrangement and for the trustworthiness of its facts. Later, a longstay in Sweden furnished him with valuable documents for a political and social history of Sweden and France at the end of the 18th century. In 1864 and 1865 he published in theRevue des deux mondesa series of articles on Gustavus III. and the French court, which were republished in book form in 1867. To the second volume he appended a critical study onMarie Antoinette et Louis XVI apocryphes, in which he proved, by evidence drawn from documents in the private archives of the emperor of Austria, that the letters published by Feuillet de Conches (Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette et Madame Elisabeth, 1864-1873) and Hunolstein (Corresp. inédite de Marie Antoinette, 1864) are forgeries. With the collaboration of Alfred von Arneth, director of the imperial archives at Vienna, he edited theCorrespondance secrète entre Marie-Thérèse et le comte de Mercy-Argenteau(3 vols., 1874), the first account based on trustworthy documents of Marie Antoinette’s character, private conduct and policy. The Franco-German War drew Geffroy’s attention to the origins of Germany, and hisRome et les Barbares: étude sur la Germanie de Tacite(1874) set forth some of the results of German scholarship. He was then appointed to superintend the opening of the French school of archaeology at Rome, and drew up two useful reports (1877 and 1884) on its origin and early work. But his personal tastes always led him back to the study of modern history. When the Paris archives of foreign affairs were thrown open to students, it was decided to publish a collection of the instructions given to French ambassadors since 1648 (Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs et ministres de France depuis le traité de Westphalie), and Geffroy was commissioned to edit the volumes dealing with Sweden (vol. ii., 1885) and Denmark (vol. xiii., 1895). In the interval he wroteMadame de Maintenon d’après sa correspondance authentique(2 vols., 1887), in which he displayed his penetrating critical faculty in discriminating between authentic documents and the additions and corrections of arrangers like La Beaumelle and Lavallée. His last works were anEssai sur la formation des collections d’antiques de la SuèdeandDes institutions et des mœurs du paganisme scandinave: l’Islande avant le Christianisme, both published posthumously. He died at Bièvre on the 16th of August 1895.

GEFLE,a seaport of Sweden on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia, chief town of the district (län) of Gefleborg, 112 m. N.N.W. of Stockholm by rail. Pop. (1900) 29,522. It is the chief port of the district of Kopparberg, with its iron and other mines and forests. The exports consist principally of timber and wood-pulp, iron and steel. The harbour, which has two entrances about 20 ft. deep, is usually ice-bound in mid-winter. Large vessels generally load in the roads at Gråberg, 6 m. distant. There are slips and shipbuilding yards, and a manufacture of sail-cloth. The town is an important industrial centre, having tobacco and leather factories, electrical and other mechanical works, and breweries. At Skutskär at the mouth of the Dal river are wood-pulp and saw mills, dealing with the large quantities of timber floated down the river; and there are large wood-yards in the suburb of Bomhus. Gefle was almost destroyed by fire in 1869, but was rebuilt in good style, and has the advantage of a beautiful situation. The principal buildings are a castle, founded by King John III. (1568-1592), but rebuilt later, a council-house erected by Gustavus III., who held a diet here in 1792, an exchange, and schools of commerce and navigation.

GEGENBAUR, CARL(1826-1903), German anatomist, was born on the 21st of August 1826 at Würzburg, the university of which he entered as a student in 1845. After taking his degree in 1851 he spent some time in travelling in Italy and Sicily, before returning to Würzburg asPrivatdocentin 1854. In 1855 he was appointed extraordinary professor of anatomy at Jena, where after 1865 his fellow-worker, Ernst Haeckel, was professor of zoology, and in 1858 he became the ordinary professor. In 1873 he was appointed to Heidelberg, where he was professor of anatomy and director of the Anatomical Institute until his retirement in 1901. He died at Heidelberg on the 14th of June 1903. The work by which perhaps he is best known is hisGrundriss der vergleichenden Anatomie(Leipzig, 1874; 2nd edition, 1878). This was translated into English by W.F. Jeffrey Bell (Elements of Comparative Anatomy, 1878), with additions by E. Ray Lankester. While recognizing the importance of comparative embryology in the study of descent, Gegenbaur laid stress on the higher value of comparative anatomy as the basis of the study of homologies,i.e.of the relations between corresponding parts in different animals, as, for example, the arm of man, the foreleg of the horse and the wing of a fowl. A distinctive piece of work was effected by him in 1871 in supplementing the evidence adduced by Huxley in refutation of the theory of the origin of the skull from expanded vertebrae, which, formulated independently by Goethe and Oken, had been championed by Owen. Huxley demonstrated that the skull is built up of cartilaginous pieces; Gegenbaur showed that “in the lowest (gristly) fishes, where hints of the original vertebrae might be most expected, the skull is an unsegmented gristly brain-box, and that in higher forms the vertebral nature of the skull cannot be maintained, since many of the bones, notably those along the top of the skull, arise in the skin.” Other publications by Gegenbaur include aText-book of Human Anatomy(Leipzig, 1883, new ed. 1903), theEpiglottis(1892) andComparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates in relation to the Invertebrates(Leipzig, 2 vols., 1898-1901). In 1875 he founded theMorphologisches Jahrbuch, which he edited for many years. In 1901 he published a short autobiography under the titleErlebtes und Erstrebtes.

See Fürbringer inHeidelberger Professoren aus dem 19ten Jahrhundert(Heidelberg, 1903).

See Fürbringer inHeidelberger Professoren aus dem 19ten Jahrhundert(Heidelberg, 1903).

GEGENSCHEIN(Ger.gegen, opposite, andschein, shine), an extremely faint luminescence of the sky, seen opposite the direction of the sun. Germany was the country in which it was first discovered and described. The English rendering “counterglow” is also given to it. Its faintness is such that it can be seen only by a practised eye under favourable conditions. It is invisible during the greater part of June, July, December and January, owing to its being then blotted out by the superior light of the Milky Way. It is also invisible during moonlight and near the horizon, and the neighbourhood of a bright star or planet may interfere with its recognition. When none of these unfavourable conditions supervene it may be seen at nearly any time when the air is clear and the depression of the sun below the horizon more than 20°. (SeeZodiacal Light.)

GEIBEL, EMANUEL(1815-1884), German poet, was born at Lübeck on the 17th of October 1815, the son of a pastor in the city. He was originally intended for his father’s profession, and studied at Bonn and Berlin, but his real interests lay not in theology but in classical and romance philology. In 1838 he accepted a tutorship at Athens, where he remained until 1840. In the same year he brought out, in conjunction with his friend Ernst Curtius, a volume of translations from the Greek. His first poems,Zeitstimmen, appeared in 1841; a tragedy,König Roderich, followed in 1843. In the same year he received a pension from the king of Prussia, which he retained until his invitation to Munich by the king of Bavaria in 1851 as honorary professor at the university. In the interim he had producedKönig Sigurds Brautfahrt(1846), an epic, andJuniuslieder(1848, 33rd ed. 1901), lyrics in a more spirited and manlier style than his early poems. A volume ofNeue Gedichte, published at Munich in 1857, and principally consisting of poems on classical subjects, denoted a further considerable advance in objectivity, and the series was worthily closed by theSpätherbstblätter, published in 1877. He had quitted Munich in 1869 and returned to Lübeck, where he died on the 6th of April 1884. His works further include two tragedies,Brunhild(1858, 5th ed. 1890), andSophonisbe(1869), and translations of French and Spanish popular poetry. Beginning as a member of the group of political poets who heralded the revolution of 1848, Geibel was also the chief poet to welcome the establishment of the Empire in 1871. His strength lay not, however, in his political songs but in his purely lyric poetry, such as the fine cycleAdaand his still popular love-songs. He may be regarded as the leading representative of German lyric poetry between 1848 and 1870.

Geibel’sGesammelte Werkewere published in 8 vols. (1883, 4th ed. 1906); hisGedichtehave gone through about 130 editions. An excellent selection in one volume appeared in 1904. For biography and criticism, see K. Goedeke,E. Geibel(1869); W. Scherer’s address on Geibel (1884); K.T. Gaedertz,Geibel-Denkwurdigkeiten(1886); C.C.T. Litzmann,E. Geibel, aus Erinnerungen, Briefen und Tagebüchern(1887), and biographies by C. Leimbach (2nd ed., 1894), and K.T. Gaedertz (1897).

Geibel’sGesammelte Werkewere published in 8 vols. (1883, 4th ed. 1906); hisGedichtehave gone through about 130 editions. An excellent selection in one volume appeared in 1904. For biography and criticism, see K. Goedeke,E. Geibel(1869); W. Scherer’s address on Geibel (1884); K.T. Gaedertz,Geibel-Denkwurdigkeiten(1886); C.C.T. Litzmann,E. Geibel, aus Erinnerungen, Briefen und Tagebüchern(1887), and biographies by C. Leimbach (2nd ed., 1894), and K.T. Gaedertz (1897).

GEIGE(O. Fr.gigue,gige; O. Ital. and Span.giga; Prov.gigua; O. Dutchgighe), in modern German the violin; in medieval German the name applied to the first stringed instruments played with a bow, in contradistinction to those whose strings were plucked by fingers or plectrum such as the cithara, rotta and fidula, the first of these terms having been very generally used to designate various instruments whose strings were plucked. The namegîgein Germany, of which the origin is uncertain,1and its derivatives in other languages, were in the middle ages applied to rebecs having fingerboards. As the first bowed instruments in Europe were, as far as we know, those of the rebab type, both boat-shaped and pear-shaped, it seems probable that the name clung to them long after the bow had been applied to other stringed instruments derived from the cithara, such as the fiddle (videl) or vielle. In the romances of the 12th and 13th centuries thegîgeis frequently mentioned, and generally associated with the rotta. Early in the 16th century we find definite information concerning the Geige in the works of Sebastian Virdung (1511), Hans Judenkünig (1523), Martin Agricola (1532), Hans Gerle (1533); and from the instruments depicted, of two distinct types and many varieties, it would appear that the principal idea attached to the name was still that of the bow used to vibrate the strings. Virdung qualifies the wordGeigewithKlein(small) andGross(large), which do not represent two sizes of the same instrument but widely different types, also recognized by Agricola, who names three or four sizes of each, discant, alto, tenor and bass. Virdung’sKlein Geigeis none other than the rebec with two C-shaped soundholes and a raised fingerboard cut in one piece with the vaulted back and having a separate flat soundboard glued over it, a change rendered necessary by the arched bridge. Agricola’sKlein Geigewith three strings was of a totally different construction, having ribs and wide incurvations but no bridge; there was a rose soundhole near the tailpiece and two C-shaped holes in the shoulders. Agricola (Musica instrumentalis) distinctly mentions three kinds ofGeigenwith three, four and five strings. From him we learn that only one position was as yet used on these instruments, one or two higher notes being occasionally obtained by sliding the little finger along. A century later Agricola’sGeigewas regarded as antiquated by Praetorius, who reproduces one of the bridgeless ones with five strings, a rose and two C-shaped soundholes, and calls it an old fiddle; underGeigehe gives the violins.

(K. S.)

1The wordsgîge,gîgen,geicappear suddenly in the M. H. German of the 12th century, and thence passed apparently into the Romance languages, though some would reverse the process (e.g.Weigand,Deutsches Wörterbuch). An elaborate argument in theDeutsches Wörterbuchof J. and W. Grimm (Leipzig, 1897) connects the word with an ancient common Teut. rootgag—meaning to sway to and fro, as preserved in numerous forms:e.g.M.H.Ggagen,gugen, “to sway to and fro” (gugen,gagen, the rocking of a cradle), the Swabiangigen,gagen, in the same sense, the Tirolesegaiggern, to sway, doubt, or the old Norsegeiga, to go astray or crooked. The reference is to the swaying motion of the violin bow. The English “jig” is derived fromgîgethrough the O. Fr.gigue(in the sense of a stringed instrument); the modern French gigue (a dance) is the English “jig” re-imported (Hatzfeld and Darmesteter,Dictionnaire). This opens up another possibility, of the origin of the name of the instrument in the dance which it accompanied.

1The wordsgîge,gîgen,geicappear suddenly in the M. H. German of the 12th century, and thence passed apparently into the Romance languages, though some would reverse the process (e.g.Weigand,Deutsches Wörterbuch). An elaborate argument in theDeutsches Wörterbuchof J. and W. Grimm (Leipzig, 1897) connects the word with an ancient common Teut. rootgag—meaning to sway to and fro, as preserved in numerous forms:e.g.M.H.Ggagen,gugen, “to sway to and fro” (gugen,gagen, the rocking of a cradle), the Swabiangigen,gagen, in the same sense, the Tirolesegaiggern, to sway, doubt, or the old Norsegeiga, to go astray or crooked. The reference is to the swaying motion of the violin bow. The English “jig” is derived fromgîgethrough the O. Fr.gigue(in the sense of a stringed instrument); the modern French gigue (a dance) is the English “jig” re-imported (Hatzfeld and Darmesteter,Dictionnaire). This opens up another possibility, of the origin of the name of the instrument in the dance which it accompanied.

(W. A. P.)

GEIGER, ABRAHAM(1810-1874), Jewish theologian and orientalist, was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 24th of May 1810, and educated at the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn. As a student he distinguished himself in philosophy and in philology, and at the close of his course wrote on the relations of Judaism and Mahommedanism a prize essay which was afterwards published in 1833 under the titleWas hat Mohammed aus dem Judentum aufgenommen?(English trans.Judaism and Islam, Madras, 1898). In November 1832 he went to Wiesbaden as rabbi of the synagogue, and became in 1835 one of the most active promoters of theZeitschrift für jüdische Theologie(1835-1839 and 1842-1847). From 1838 to 1863 he lived in Breslau, where he organized the reform movement in Judaism and wrote some of his most important works, includingLehr- und Lesebuch zur Sprache der Mischna(1845),Studienfrom Maimonides (1850), translation into German of the poems of Juda ha-Levi (1851), andUrschrift und Übersetzungen der Bibel in ihrer Abhängigkeit von der innern Entwickelung des Judentums(1857). The last-named work attracted little attention at the time, but now enjoys a great reputation as a new departure in the methods of studying the records of Judaism. TheUrschrifthas moreover been recognized as one of the most original contributions to biblical science. In 1863 Geiger became head of the synagogue of his native town, and in 1870 he removed to Berlin, where, in addition to his duties as chief rabbi, he took the principal charge of the newly established seminary for Jewish science. TheUrschriftwas followed by a more exhaustive handling of one of its topics inDie Sadducäer und Pharisäer(1863), and by a more thorough application of its leading principles in an elaborate history of Judaism (Das Judentum und seine Geschichte) in 1865-1871. Geiger also contributed frequently on Hebrew, Samaritan and Syriac subjects to theZeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, and from 1862 until his death (on the 23rd of October 1874) he was editor of a periodical entitledJüdische Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben. He also published a Jewish prayerbook (Israëlitisches Gebetbuch) and a variety of minor monographs on historical and literary subjects connected with the fortunes of his people.

(I. A.)

AnAllgemeine Einleitungand five volumes ofNachgelassene Schriftenwere edited in 1875 by his sonLudwig Geiger(b. 1848), who in 1880 became extraordinary professor in the university of Berlin. Ludwig Geiger published a large number of biographical and literary works and made a special study of German humanism. He edited theGoethe-Jahrbuchfrom 1880,Vierteljahrsschrift für Kultur und Litteratur der Renaissance(1885-1886),Zeitschr. für die Gesch. der Juden im Deutschland(1886-1891),Zeitschr. für vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte und Renaissance-Litteratur(1887-1891). Among his works areJohann Reuchlin, sein Leben und seine Werke(Leipzig, 1871); andJohann Reuchlin’s Briefwechsel(Tübingen, 1875);Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und Deutschland(1882, 2nd ed. 1901);Gesch. des geistigen Lebens der preussischen Hauptstadt(1892-1894);Berlin’s geistiges Leben(1894-1896).

See also J. Derenbourg inJüd. Zeitschrift, xi. 299-308; E. Schrieber,Abraham Geiger als Reformator des Judentums(1880), art. (with portrait) inJewish Encyclopedia.

See also J. Derenbourg inJüd. Zeitschrift, xi. 299-308; E. Schrieber,Abraham Geiger als Reformator des Judentums(1880), art. (with portrait) inJewish Encyclopedia.

Abraham Geiger’s nephewLazarus Geiger(1829-1870), philosopher and philologist, born at Frankfort-on-Main, was destined to commerce, but soon gave himself up to scholarship and studied at Marburg, Bonn and Heidelberg. From 1861 till his sudden death in 1870 he was professor in the Jewish high school at Frankfort. His chief aim was to prove that the evolution of human reason is closely bound up with that of language. He further maintained that the origin of the Indo-Germanic language is to be sought not in Asia but in central Germany. He was a convinced opponent of rationalism in religion. His chief work was hisUrsprung und Entwickelung der menschlichen Sprache und Vernunft(vol. i., Stuttgart, 1868), the principal results of which appeared in a more popular form asDer Ursprung der Sprache(Stuttgart, 1869 and 1878). The second volume of the former was published in an incomplete form (1872, 2nd ed. 1899) after his death by his brother Alfred Geiger, who also published a number of his scattered papers asZur Entwickelung der Menschheit(1871, 2nd ed. 1878; Eng. trans. D. Asher,Hist. of the Development of the Human Race, Lond., 1880).

See L.A. Rosenthal,Laz. Geiger: seine Lehre vom Ursprung d. Sprache und Vernunft und sein Leben(Stuttgart, 1883); E. Peschier,L. Geiger, sein Leben und Denken(1871); J. Keller,L. Geiger und d. Kritik d. Vernunft(Wertheim, 1883) andDer Ursprung d. Vernunft(Heidelberg, 1884).

See L.A. Rosenthal,Laz. Geiger: seine Lehre vom Ursprung d. Sprache und Vernunft und sein Leben(Stuttgart, 1883); E. Peschier,L. Geiger, sein Leben und Denken(1871); J. Keller,L. Geiger und d. Kritik d. Vernunft(Wertheim, 1883) andDer Ursprung d. Vernunft(Heidelberg, 1884).

GEIJER, ERIK GUSTAF(1783-1847), Swedish historian, was born at Ransäter in Värmland, on the 12th of January 1783, of a family that had immigrated from Austria in the 17th century.He was educated at the university of Upsala, where in 1803 he carried off the Swedish Academy’s great prize for hisÄreminne öfver Sten Sture den äldre. He graduated in 1806, and in 1810 returned from a year’s residence in England to becomedocentin his university. Soon afterwards he accepted a post in the public record office at Stockholm, where, with some friends, he founded the “Gothic Society,” to whose organIdunahe contributed a number of prose essays and the songsManhem,Vikingen,Den siste kämpen,Den siste skalden,Odalbonden,Kolargossen, which he set to music. About the same time he issued a volume of hymns, of which several are inserted in the Swedish Psalter.

Geijer’s lyric muse was soon after silenced by his call to be assistant to Erik Michael Fant, professor of history at Upsala, whom he succeeded in 1817. In 1824 he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy. A single volume of a great projected work,Svea Rikes Häfder, itself a masterly critical examination of the sources of Sweden’s legendary history, appeared in 1825. Geijer’s researches in its preparation had severely strained his health, and he went the same year on a tour through Denmark and part of Germany, his impressions from which are recorded in hisMinnen. In 1832-1836 he published three volumes of hisSvenska folkets historia(Eng. trans. by J.H. Turner, 1845), a clear view of the political and social development of Sweden down to 1654. The acute critical insight, just thought, and finished historical art of these incomplete works of Geijer entitle him to the first place among Swedish historians. His chief other historical and political writings are hisTeckning af Sveriges tillsånd1718-1772 (Stockholm, 1838), andFeodalism och republikanism, ett bidrag till Samhällsförfattningens historia(1844), which led to a controversy with the historian Anders Fryxell regarding the part played in history by the Swedish aristocracy. Geijer also edited, with the aid of J.H. Schröder, a continuation of Fant’sScriptores rerum svecicarum medii aevi(1818-1828), and, by himself, Thomas Thorild’sSamlade skrifter(1819-1825), andKonung Gustaf III.’sefterlemnade Papper(4 vols., 1843-1846). Geijer’s academic lectures, of which the last three, published in 1845 under the titleOm vår tids inre samhällsforhållanden, i synnerhet med afseende på Fäderneslandet, involved him in another controversy with Fryxell, but exercised a great influence over his students, who especially testified to their attachment after the failure of a prosecution against him for heresy. A number of his extempore lectures, recovered from notes, were published in 1856. He also wrote a life of Charles XIV. (Stockholm, 1844). Failing health forced Geijer to resign his chair in 1846, after which he removed to Stockholm for the purpose of completing hisSvenska folkets historia, and died there on the 23rd of April 1847. HisSamlade skrifter(13 vols., 1840-1855; new ed., 1873-1877) include a large number of philosophical and political essays contributed to reviews, particularly toLitteraturbladet(1838-1839), a periodical edited by himself, which attracted great attention in its day by its pronounced liberal views on public questions, a striking contrast to those he had defended in 1828-1830, when, as again in 1840-1841, he represented Upsala University in the Swedish diet. His poems were collected and published asSkaldestycken(Upsala, 1835 and 1878).

Geijer’s style is strong and manly. His genius bursts out in sudden flashes that light up the dark corners of history. A few strokes, and a personality stands before us instinct with life. His language is at once the scholar’s and the poet’s; with his profoundest thought there beats in unison the warmest, the noblest, the most patriotic heart. Geijer came to the writing of history fresh from researches in the whole field of Scandinavian antiquity, researches whose first-fruits are garnered in numerous articles inIduna, and his masterly treatiseOm den gamla nordiska folkvisan, prefixed to the collection of Svenska folkvisor which he edited with A.A. Afzelius (3 vols., 1814-1816). The development of freedom is the idea that gives unity to all his historical writings.

For Geijer’s biography, see his ownMinnen(1834), which contains copious extracts from his letters and diaries; B.E. Malmström,Minnestal öfver E.G. Geijer, addressed to the Upsala students (June 6, 1848), and printed among hisTal och esthetiska afhandlingar(1868), andGrunddragen af Svenska vitterhetens häfder(1866-1868); and S.A. Hollander,Minne af E.G. Geijer(Örebro, 1869). See also lives of Geijer by J. Hellstenius (Stockholm, 1876) and J. Niekson (Odense, 1902).

For Geijer’s biography, see his ownMinnen(1834), which contains copious extracts from his letters and diaries; B.E. Malmström,Minnestal öfver E.G. Geijer, addressed to the Upsala students (June 6, 1848), and printed among hisTal och esthetiska afhandlingar(1868), andGrunddragen af Svenska vitterhetens häfder(1866-1868); and S.A. Hollander,Minne af E.G. Geijer(Örebro, 1869). See also lives of Geijer by J. Hellstenius (Stockholm, 1876) and J. Niekson (Odense, 1902).

GEIKIE, SIR ARCHIBALD(1835-  ), Scottish geologist, was born at Edinburgh on the 28th of December 1835. He was educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh, and in 1855 was appointed an assistant on the Geological Survey. Wielding the pen with no less facility than the hammer, he inaugurated his long list of works withThe Story of a Boulder; or, Gleanings from the Note-Book of a Geologist(1858). His ability at once attracted the notice of his chief, Sir Roderick Murchison, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and whose biographer he subsequently became. With Murchison some of his earliest work was done on the complicated regions of the Highland schists; and the small geological map of Scotland published in 1862 was their joint work: a larger map was issued by Geikie in 1892. In 1863 he published an important essay “On the Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland,”Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, in which the effects of ice action in that country were for the first time clearly and connectedly delineated. In 1865 appeared Geikie’sScenery of Scotland(3rd edition, 1901), which was, he claimed, “the first attempt to elucidate in some detail the history of the topography of a country.” In the same year he was elected F.R.S. At this time the Edinburgh school of geologists—prominent among them Sir Andrew Ramsay, with hisPhysical Geology and Geography of Great Britain—were maintaining the supreme importance of denudation in the configuration of land-surfaces, and particularly the erosion of valleys by the action of running water. Geikie’s book, based on extensive personal knowledge of the country, was an able contribution to the doctrines of the Edinburgh school, of which he himself soon began to rank as one of the leaders.

In 1867, when a separate branch of the Geological Survey was established for Scotland, he was appointed director. On the foundation of the Murchison professorship of geology and mineralogy at the university of Edinburgh in 1871, he became the first occupant of the chair. These two appointments he continued to hold till 1881, when he succeeded Sir Andrew Ramsay in the joint offices of director-general of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom and director of the museum of practical geology, London, from which he retired in February 1901. A feature of his tenure of office was the impetus given to microscopic petrography, a branch of geology to which he had devoted special study, by a splendid collection of sections of British rocks. Later he wrote two important and interesting Survey Memoirs,The Geology of Central and Western Fife and Kinross(1900), andThe Geology of Eastern Fife(1902).

From the outset of his career, when he started to investigate the geology of Skye and other of the Western Isles, he took a keen interest in volcanic geology, and in 1871 he brought before the Geological Society of London an outline of the Tertiary volcanic history of Britain. Many difficult problems, however, remained to be solved. Here he was greatly aided by his extensive travels, not only throughout Europe, but in western America. While the canyons of the Colorado confirmed his long-standing views on erosion, the eruptive regions of Wyoming, Montana and Utah supplied him with valuable data in explanation of volcanic phenomena. The results of his further researches were given in an elaborate and charmingly written essay on “The History of Volcanic Action during the Tertiary Period in the British Isles,”Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., (1888). His mature views on volcanic geology were given to the world in his presidential addresses to the Geological Society in 1891 and 1892, and afterwards embodied in his great work onThe Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain(1897). Other results of his travels are collected in hisGeological Sketches at Home and Abroad(1882).

His experience as a field geologist resulted in an admirable text-book,Outlines of Field Geology(5th edition, 1900). After editing and practically re-writing Jukes’sStudent’s Manual of Geologyin 1872, he published in 1882 aText-Bookand in 1886 aClass-Bookof geology, which have taken rank as standard works of their kind. A fourth edition of hisText-Book, in two vols., wasissued in 1903. His writings are marked in a high degree by charm of style and power of vivid description. His literary ability has given him peculiar qualifications as a writer of scientific biography, and theMemoir of Edward Forbes(with G. Wilson), and those of his old chiefs, Sir R.I. Murchison (2 vols., 1875) and Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1895), are models of what such works should be. HisFounders of Geologyconsists of the inaugural course of Lectures (founded by Mrs G.H. Williams) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, delivered in 1897. In 1897 he issued an admirableGeological Map of England and Wales, with Descriptive Notes. In 1898 he delivered the Romanes Lectures, and his address was published under the title ofTypes of Scenery and their Influence on Literature. The study of geography owes its improved position in Great Britain largely to his efforts. Among his works on this subject isThe Teaching of Geography(1887). HisScottish Reminiscences(1904) andLandscape in History and other Essays(1905) are charmingly written and full of instruction. He was foreign secretary of the Royal Society from 1890 to 1894, joint secretary from 1903 to 1908, president in 1909, president of the Geological Society in 1891 and 1892, and president of the British Association, 1892. He received the honour of knighthood in 1891.

GEIKIE, JAMES(1839-  ), Scottish geologist, younger brother of Sir Archibald Geikie, was born at Edinburgh on the 23rd of August 1839. He was educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh. He served on the Geological Survey from 1861 until 1882, when he succeeded his brother as Murchison professor of geology and mineralogy at the university of Edinburgh. He took as his special subject of investigation the origin of surface-features, and the part played in their formation by glacial action. His views are embodied in his chief work,The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man(1874; 3rd ed., 1894). He was elected F.R.S. in 1875. James Geikie became the leader of the school that upholds the all-important action of land-ice, as against those geologists who assign chief importance to the work of pack-ice and icebergs. Continuing this line of investigation in hisPrehistoric Europe(1881), he maintained the hypothesis of five inter-Glacial periods in Great Britain, and argued that the palaeolithic deposits of the Pleistocene period were not post- but inter- or pre-Glacial. HisFragments of Earth Lore: Sketches and Addresses, Geological and Geographical(1893) andEarth Sculpture(1898) are mainly concerned with the same subject. HisOutlines of Geology(1886), a standard text-book of its subject, reached its third edition in 1896; and in 1905 he published an important manual onStructural and Field Geology. In 1887 he displayed another side of his activity in a volume ofSongs and Lyrics by H. Heine and other German Poets, done into English Verse. From 1888 he was honorary editor of theScottish Geographical Magazine.

GEIKIE, WALTER(1795-1837), Scottish painter, was born at Edinburgh on the 9th of November 1795. In his second year he was attacked by a nervous fever by which he permanently lost the faculty of hearing, but through the careful attention of his father he was enabled to obtain a good education. Before he had the advantage of the instruction of a master he had attained considerable proficiency in sketching both figures and landscapes from nature, and in 1812 he was admitted into the drawing academy of the board of Scottish manufactures. He first exhibited in 1815, and was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1831, and a fellow in 1834. He died on the 1st of August 1837, and was interred in the Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh. Owing to his want of feeling for colour, Geikie was not a successful painter in oils, but he sketched in India ink with great truth and humour the scenes and characters of Scottish lower-class life in his native city. A series of etchings which exhibit very high excellence were published by him in 1829-1831, and a collection of eighty-one of these was republished posthumously in 1841, with a biographical introduction by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart.

GEILER(orGeyler)VON KAISERSBERG, JOHANN(1445-1510), “the German Savonarola,” one of the greatest of the popular preachers of the 15th century, was born at Schaffhausen on the 16th of March 1445, but from 1448 passed his childhood and youth at Kaisersberg in Upper Alsace, from which place his current designation is derived. In 1460 he entered the university of Freiburg in Baden, where, after graduation, he lectured for some time on theSententiaeof Peter Lombard, the commentaries of Alexander of Hales, and several of the works of Aristotle. A living interest in theological subjects, awakened by the study of John Gerson, led him in 1471 to the university of Basel, a centre of attraction to some of the most earnest spirits of the time. Made a doctor of theology in 1475, he received a professorship at Freiburg in the following year; but his tastes, no less than the spirit of the age, began to incline him more strongly to the vocation of a preacher, while his fervour and eloquence soon led to his receiving numerous invitations to the larger towns. Ultimately he accepted in 1478 a call to the cathedral of Strassburg, where he continued to work with few interruptions until within a short time of his death on the 10th of March 1510. The beautiful pulpit erected for him in 1481 in the nave of the cathedral, when the chapel of St Lawrence had proved too small, still bears witness to the popularity he enjoyed as a preacher in the immediate sphere of his labours, and the testimonies of Sebastian Brant, Beatus Rhenanus, Johann Reuchlin, Melanchthon and others show how great had been the influence of his personal character. His sermons—bold, incisive, denunciatory, abounding in quaint illustrations and based on texts by no means confined to the Bible,—taken down as he spoke them, and circulated (sometimes without his knowledge or consent) by his friends, told perceptibly on the German thought as well as on the German speech of his time.

Among the many volumes published under his name only two appear to have had the benefit of his revision, namely,Der Seelen Paradies von waren und volkomnen Tugenden, and that entitledDas irrig Schaf. Of the rest, probably the best-known is a series of lectures on his friend Seb. Brant’s work,Das Narrenschiffor theNaviculaorSpeculum fatuorum, of which an edition was published at Strassburg in 1511 under the following title:—Navicula sive speculum fatuorum praestantissimi sacrarum literarum doctoris Joannis Geiler Keysersbergii.See F.W. von Ammon,Geyler’s Leben, Lehren und Predigten(1826); L. Dacheux,Un Réformateur catholique à la fin du XVesiècle, J.G. de K. (Paris, 1876); R. Cruel,Gesch. der deutschen Predigt, pp. 538-576 (1879); P. de Lorenzi,Geiler’s ausgewählte Schriften(4. vols., 1881); T.M. Lindsay,History of the Reformation, i. 118 (1906); and G. Kawerau in Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie, vi. 427.

Among the many volumes published under his name only two appear to have had the benefit of his revision, namely,Der Seelen Paradies von waren und volkomnen Tugenden, and that entitledDas irrig Schaf. Of the rest, probably the best-known is a series of lectures on his friend Seb. Brant’s work,Das Narrenschiffor theNaviculaorSpeculum fatuorum, of which an edition was published at Strassburg in 1511 under the following title:—Navicula sive speculum fatuorum praestantissimi sacrarum literarum doctoris Joannis Geiler Keysersbergii.

See F.W. von Ammon,Geyler’s Leben, Lehren und Predigten(1826); L. Dacheux,Un Réformateur catholique à la fin du XVesiècle, J.G. de K. (Paris, 1876); R. Cruel,Gesch. der deutschen Predigt, pp. 538-576 (1879); P. de Lorenzi,Geiler’s ausgewählte Schriften(4. vols., 1881); T.M. Lindsay,History of the Reformation, i. 118 (1906); and G. Kawerau in Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie, vi. 427.

GEINITZ, HANS BRUNO(1814-1900), German geologist, was born at Altenburg, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, on the 16th of October 1814. He was educated at the universities of Berlin and Jena, and gained the foundations of his geological knowledge under F.A. Quenstedt. In 1837 he took the degree of Ph.D. with a thesis on the Muschelkalk of Thuringia. In 1850 he became professor of geology and mineralogy in the Royal Polytechnic School at Dresden, and in 1857 he was made director of the Royal Mineralogical and Geological Museum; he held these posts until 1894. He was distinguished for his researches on the Carboniferous and Cretaceous rocks and fossils of Saxony, and in particular for those relating to the fauna and flora of the Permian or Dyas formation. He described also the graptolites of the local Silurian strata; and the flora of the Coal-formation of Altai and Nebraska. From 1863 to 1878 he was one of the editors of theNeues Jahrbuch. He was awarded the Murchison medal by the Geological Society of London in 1878. He died at Dresden on the 28th of January 1900. His sonFranz Eugene Geinitz(b. 1854), professor of geology in the university of Rostock, became distinguished for researches on the geology of Saxony, Mecklenburg, &c.

H.B. Geinitz’s publications wereDas Quadersandsteingebirge oder Kreidegebirge in Deutschland(1849-1850);Die Versteinerungen der Steinkohlenformation in Sachsen(1855);Dyas, oder die Zechsteinformation und das Rothliegende(1861-1862);Das Elbthalgebirge in Sachsen(1871-1875).

H.B. Geinitz’s publications wereDas Quadersandsteingebirge oder Kreidegebirge in Deutschland(1849-1850);Die Versteinerungen der Steinkohlenformation in Sachsen(1855);Dyas, oder die Zechsteinformation und das Rothliegende(1861-1862);Das Elbthalgebirge in Sachsen(1871-1875).

GEISHA(a Chino-Japanese word meaning “person of pleasing accomplishments”), strictly the name of the professional dancing and singing girls of Japan. The word is, however, often loosely used for the girls and women inhabiting Shin Yoshiwara, the prostitutes’ quarter of Tokyo. The training of the true Geishaor singing girl, which includes lessons in dancing, begins often as early as her seventh year. Her apprenticeship over, she contracts with her employer for a number of years, and is seldom able to reach independence except by marriage. There is a capitation fee of twoyenper month on the actual singing girls, and of oneyenon the apprentices.

See Jukichi Inouye,Sketches of Tokyo Life.

See Jukichi Inouye,Sketches of Tokyo Life.

GEISLINGEN, a town of Germany in the kingdom of Württemberg, on the Thierbach, 38 m. by rail E.S.E. of Stuttgart. Pop. (1905) 7050. It has shops for the carving and turning of bone, ivory, wood and horn, besides iron-works, machinery factories, glass-works, brewing and bleaching works, &c. The church of St Mary contains wood-carving by Jörg Syrlin the Younger. Above the town lie the ruins of the castle of Helfenstein, which was destroyed in 1552. Having been for a few years in the possession of Bavaria, the town passed to Württemberg in 1810.


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