GOB

GOD

a celebrated painter of fruit and landscapes, was born at Cortona in 1580, and learned the principles of defign from his father; but was afterwards the difciple of one Crefcentio at Rome, and perfected himself in the moft effential parts of his profeflion, by ftudying after nature, with judgment and accuracy. His merit foon recommended him to the notice and efteem of the most able judges at Rome; and as he excelled equally in painting fruit and landfcape, he found a generous patron in cardinal Borghefe, who employed him to adorn his palace. The fruit which he painted had fo true and expreffive an imitation of nature, that nothing could poffibly be more exact; and by his thorough knowledge of the chiaro-fcuro, he gave an extraordinary roundness and relief to every object. But his greatest excellence confifted in his colouring; for in defign he was not remarkably superior to others. He died in 1640.

GOBELIN (Giles), a famous French dyer, in the reign of Francis I. difcovered a method of dying a beautiful fcarlet, and his name has been given ever fince to the fineft French fcarlets. His house, in the suburb of St Marcel at Paris, and the river he made ufe of, are ftill called the Gobelins. An academy for drawing, and a manufactory of fine tapeftries, were erected in this quarter in 1666; for which reafon the tapestries are called the Gobelins.

GOBIUS, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of thoracici. They have two holes between the eyes, four rays in the membrane of the gills, and the belly-fins are united in an oval form. There are eight fpecies, principally diftinguished by the number of rays in their fins.

GOBLET, or GOBELET, a kind of drinking cup, or bowl, ordinarily of a round figure, and without either foot or handle. The word is French, gobelet ; which Salmafius, and others, derive from the barba. rous Latin cupa. Budeus deduces it from the Greek XUTIXXOV, a fort of cup.

GOD, one of the many names of the Supreme Being. See CHRISTIANITY, METAPHYSICS, MORAL PHILOSOPHY, and THEOLOGY.

GOD is alfo ufed in fpeaking of the falfe deities of the heathens, many of which were only creatures to which divine honours and worship were fuperftitiously paid.

The Greeks and Latins, it is obfervable, did not mean by the name God, an all-perfect being, whereof eternity, infinity, omniprefence, &c. were effential atVOL. VIII. Part I.

lent and fuperior nature; and accordingly they give the appellation gods to all beings of a rank or clafs higher and more perfect than that of men; and efpecially to thofe who were inferior agents in the divine adminiftration, all fubject to the one Supreme. Thus men themselves, according to their fyftem, might become gods after death; inafmuch as their fouls might attain to a degree of excellence fuperior to what they were capable of in life.

The firft divines, father Boffu obferves, were the poets: the two functions, though now separated, were originally combined; or, rather, were one and the fame thing.

Now the great variety of attributes in God, that is, the number of relations, capacities, and circumstances, wherein they had occafion to confider him, put thefe poets, &c. under a neceffity of making a partition, and. of feparating the divine attributes into feveral perfons; because the weakness of the human mind could not conceive fo much power and action in the fimplicity of one fingle divine nature. Thus the omnipotence of God came to be reprefented under the person and appellation of Jupiter; the wifdom of God, under that of Minerva; the juftice of God, under that of Juno.

The firft idols or falfe gods that are faid to have been adored, were the ftars, fun, moon, &c. on account of the light, heat, and other benefits, which we derive from them. Afterwards the earth came to be deified, for furnishing fruite neceffary for the fubfiftence of men and animals; then fire and water became objects of divine worship, for their usefulness to human life. In procefs of time, and by degrees, gods became multiplied to infinity; and there was fcarce any thing but the weaknefs or caprice of fome devotee or other elevated into the rank of deity; things ufeless or even deftructive not excepted. See MYTHOLOGY.

GODALMING, a town of England, in the county of Surry, on the river Wey, 35 miles from London. It is a corporation; by whofe charter their chief magiftrate is a warden chofen yearly, who has 8 brethren his affiftants. The parish is divided into 9 tithings. Its river abounds with good fifh; and drives a griftmill, two paper-mills, and three corn-mills; over which river a new bridge was begun July 22d 1783. Here is a manufactory of mixed and blue kerfeys, alfo a manufactory of flockings; and the place is alfo famous for liquorice, and ftore of peat that burns better than pit-coal: but a woman of this town (Mary Tofts) in 1726 endeavoured to render it infamous, by a pretendA

ed

GODDARD (Jonathan), an eminent phyfician and chemift, and one of the first promoters of the Royal Society, was born about the year 1617. He was elected a fellow of the college of phyficians in 1646, and appointed reader of the anatomical lecture in that college in 1647. As he took part against Charles I. accepted the wardenship of Merton-college, Oxford, from Oliver Cromwell when chancellor, and fat fole representative of that univerfity in Cromwell's parliament, he was removed from his wardenfhip in a manner difgraceful to him by Charles II. He was however then profeffor of phyfic at Gresham college, to which he retired, and continued to attend thofe meetings that gave birth to the Royal Society; upon the first establishment of which, he was nominated one of the council. Being fully perfuaded that the preparation of medicines was no lefs the physician's duty than the preferibing them, he conftantly prepared his own; and in 1668 published a treatife recommending his example to general practice. He died of an apoplectic fit in 1674; and his memory was preferved by the drops that bore his name, otherwife called Gutte Anglicana, the fecret of which he fold to Charles II. for 5000l. and which Dr Litter affures us was only the volatile spirit of raw filk rectified with oil of cinnamon or some other effential oil. But he claims more

particular regard, if what bifhop Seth Ward fays be true, that he was the firft Englishman who made that noble aftronomical inftrument, the telescope.

GODDESS, a heathen deity of the female fex. The ancients had almoft as many goddeffes as gods: fuch were, Juno the goddess of air, Diana the goddefs of woods, &c. and under this character were reprefented the virtues, graces, and principal advantages of life; truth, juftice, piety, liberty, fortune, victory, &c.

It was the peculiar privilege of the goddeffes to be reprefented naked on medals; for it was fuppofed that the imagination must be awed and reftrained by the confideration of the divine character.

GODEAU (Anthony), bishop of Graffe and Vence in France, was born at Dreux in 1605. He was a very voluminous writer, both in profe and verfe; but his principal works are, 1. An ecclefiaftical history, 3 vols. folio, containing the first eight centuries only, as he never finished more. 2. Tranflation of the Pfalms into French verfe; which was fo well approved, that even thofe of the reformed religion preferred it to that of Marat. He died in 1671.

GODFATHERS and GODMOTHERS, perfons who, at the baptifm of infants, answer for their future conduct, and folemnly promife that they will renounce the devil and all his works, and follow a life of piety and virtue; and by this means lay themselves under an indifpenfable obligation to inftruct them, and watch over their conduct.

This custom is of great antiquity in the Chriftian church; and was probably initituted to prevent children being brought up in idolatry, in cafe their parents died before they arrived at years of difcretion.

The number of godfathers and godmothers is re

duced to two, in the church of Rome; and three, in Godfrey the church of England; but formerly they had as many as they pleafed.

GODFREY (of Bouillon), prince of Lorrain, a moft celebrated crufader, and victorious generat. He was chofen general of the expedition which the Chriftians undertook for the recovery of the Holy Land, and fold his dukedom to prepare for the war. He took Jerufalem from the Turks in 1099; but his piety, as hiftorians relate, would not permit him to wear a diadem of gold in the city where his Saviour had been crowned with thorns. The fultan of Egypt afterwards fent a terrible army against him; which he defeated, with the flaughter of about 100,000 of the enemy. He died in 1160.

GODMANCHESTER, a town of Huntingdonfhire, 16 miles from Cambridge, and 57 from London, It has a bridge on the Oufe, oppofite to Huntingdon; was formerly a Roman city, by the name of Durofiponte, where many Roman coins have been often dug up; and according to old writers, in the time of the Saxons it was the fee of a bishop, and had a caftle built by one Gorman a Danish king, from which the town was called Gormanchester. It is reckoned one of the largest villages in England, and is feated in a fertile. foil, abounding with corn. It is faid that no town in England kept more ploughs at work than this has done. The inhabitants boat they formerly received our kings as they made a progrefs this way, with nine fcore ploughs at a time, finely adorned with their trappings, &c. James I. made it a corporation by the name of two bailiffs, 12 affiitants, and the commonalty of the borough of Godmanchefter. Here is a fchool, called the Free Grammar-School of queen Elizabeth. On the weft fide of the town is a noble though ancient feat of the Earl of Sandwich. Near this place, in the London road between Huntingdon and Caxton, is a tree well known to travellers by the name of Beggar'sBush.

GODOLPHIN (John), an eminent English civilian, was born in the ifland of Scilly in 1617, and educated at Oxford. In 1642-3, he was created doctor of civil law; in 1653, he was appointed one of the judges of the admiralty; and at the Reftoration, he was made one of his majetty's advocates. He was efteemed as great a maller of divinity as of his own. faculty; and published, 1. The holy limbeck. 2. The holy arbour. 3. A view of the admiral's jurifdiction. 4. The orphan's legacy. 5. Repertorium canonicum, &c. He died in 1678.

GODSTOW, a place northweft of Oxford, in a fort of inland formed by the divided ftreams of the Ifis after being joined by the Evenlode. It is noted for catching of fish and dreffing them; but more fo for the ruins of that nunnery which fair Rofamond quit. ted for the embraces of Henry II. The people fhow a great hole in the earth here, where they fay is a fubterraneous paffage, which goes under the river to Woodstock, by which the ufed to país and repafs. Little more remains at prefent than ragged walls, fcattered over a confiderable extent of ground. An arched gateway, and another venerable ruin, part of the tower of the conventual church, are ftill flanding. Near the altar in this church fair Rofamond was buried, but the body was afterwards removed by order of a bishop of

Lincoln,

Godftow.

Godwin Lincoln, the visitor. The only entire part is fmall, formerly a private chapel. Not many years fince a Gog. ftone coffin, faid to have been Rofamond's, who perhaps was removed from the church to this place, was to be feen here. The building has been put to various ufes, and at prefent ferves occafionally for a stable. GODWIN (Francis), fucceffively bifhop of Landaff and Hereford, was born in 1967. He was eminent for his learning and abilities; being a good mathe matician, an excellent philofopher, a pure Latinift, and an accurate hiftorian. He understood the true theory of the moon's motion a century before it was generally known. He first started those hints afterwards purfued by Bishop Wilkins, in his "Secret and fwift meffenger;" and published "A catalogue of the lives of English bishops." He has nevertheless been accufed as a great fimoniac, for omitting no opportunity of difpofing of preferments in order to provide for his children. He died in 1648.

GODWIN (Thomas), a learned English writer born in 1517, was mafter of the free-school at Abington in Berkshire; where he educated a great many youths, who became eminent both in church and ftate. His works fhow him to have been a man of great learning: fuch as, Hiftoria Romana anthologia, Synopfis antiquitatum Hebraicarum, Mofes Aaron, Florilegium Phraficon, Sc. He died in 1642.

GODWIN, or Goodwin Sands, famous fand-banks off the coaft of Kent, lying between the N. and S. Foreland; and as they run parallel with the coaft for three leagues together, at about two leagues and a half diftant from it, they add to the fecurity of that capacious road, the Downs: for while the land fhelters fhips with the wind from fouth-weft to north-west only, thefe fands break all the force of the fea when the wind is at east south-east. The most dangerous wind, when blowing hard on the Downs, is the fouth fouth-weft. Thefe fands occupy the space that was formerly a large tract of low ground belonging to Godwyn earl of Kent, father of King Harold; and which being afterward given to the monaftery of St Augustin at Canterbury, the abbot neglecting to keep in repair the wall that defended it from the fea, the whole tract was drowned, according to Salmon, in the year 1100, leaving thefe fands, upon which fo many hips have fince been wrecked.

GODWIT, in orinthology. See SCOLOPAX. GOG and MAGOG, two names generally joined to gether in fcripture, (Ezek. xxxviii. 2. 3. &c. xxxix. 1, 2, &c. Rev. xx. 8.) Mofes fpeaks of Magog the fon of Japhet, but fays nothing of Gog, (Gen. x. 2. 1. Chr. i. 5.) Gog was prince of Magog, according to Ezekiel Magog fignifies the country or people, and Gog the king of that country. The generality of the ancients made Magog the father of the Scythians and Tartars; and feveral interpreters difcovered many footsteps of their name in the provinces of Great Tar. tary. Others have been of opinion that the Perfians were the defcendants of Magog; and foine have imagined that the Goths were defcended from Gog and Magog; and that the wars deferibed by Ezekiel, and undertaken by Gog against the faints, are no other than thofe which the Goths carried on in the fifth age against the Roman empire.

Bochart has placed Gog in the neighbourhood of Caucafus. He derives the name of this celebrated VOL. VIIL. Part I.

Golconda.

mountain from the Hebrew Gog chafan, "the fortrefs Goggles of Gog." He maintains that Prometheus, faid to be chained to Caucafus by Jupiter, is Gog, and no other. There is a province in Iberia called the Gogarene. Laftly, the generality believe, that Gog and Magog, mentioned in Ezekiel and the Revelations, are to be taken in an allegorical fenfe, for fuch princes as were enemies to the church and faints. Thus many by Gog. in Ezekiel understand Antiochus Epiphanes, the perfecutor of thofe Jews who were firm to their religion; and by the perfon of the fame name in the Revelations, they fuppofe Antichrift to be meant; the great enemy of the church and faithful. Some have endeavoured to prove that Gog, fpoken of in Ezekiel, andCambyfes king of Perfia, were one and the fame perfon; and that Gog and Magog in the Revelations denote all the enemies of the church, who fhould be perfecutors of it to the confummation of ages.

GOGGLES, in furgery, are inftruments used for curing fquinting, or that diftortion of the eyes which occafions this diforder. They are fhort conical tubes, compofed of ivory ftained black, with a thin plate of the fame ivory fixed in the tubes near their anterior extremities. Through the centre of each of these plates is a fmall circular hole, about the fize of the pu pil of the eye, for the tranfmiffion of the rays of light. Thefe goggles must be continually worn in the daytime, till the mufcles of the eye are brought to act regularly and uniformly, fo as to direct the pupil ftraights forwards; and by thefe means the cure will be fooner. or later effected.

GOGMAGOG-HILLS, are hills fo called, three. miles from Cambridge, remarkable for the intrenchments and other works caft up there: whence fome fuppofe it was a Roman camp; and others, that it wasthe work of the Danes.

GOGUET (Antony-Yves), a French writer, and author of a celebrated work, intitled, L'Origine des Loix, des Arts, des Sciences, & de leur Progres cher les anciens Peuples, 1758, 3 vols. 4to. His father was an advocate, and he was born at Paris in 176. He was very unpromifing as to abilities, and reckoned. even dull in his early years; but his understanding de-veloping itfelf, he applied to letters, and at length produced the above work. The reputation he gained by it was great but he enjoyed it a very fhort time, dy-ing the fame year of the fmall pox ;.which diforder, it feems, he always dreaded. It is remarkable, that Conrad Fugere, to whom he left his library and his MSS,, was fo deeply affected with the death of his friend, as to die himself three days after him. The above work has been tranflated into English, and published in 3 vols. 8vo.

GOLCONDA, a kingdom of Afia, in the peninfula on this fide the Ganges. It is bounded on the north by that of Orixa, on the weft by that of Ba lagate, on the fouth by Bifnagar, and on the caft by the gulph of Bengal. It abounds in corn, rice, and cattle; but that which renders it most remarkable are the diamond-mines, they being the most confiderable in the world: they are ufually purchased of the black merchants, who buy parcels of ground to fearch for thefe precious ftones in. They fometimes fail in meeting with any, and in others they find immenfe riches. They have alfo mines of falt, fine iron for fword-blades, and curious callicoes and chintzes. It A 2.

is