Gneist
HEINRICH RUDOLF HERMANN FRIEDRICH VON (nist), a German jurist; born in Berlin, Aug. 13, 1816. He entered official life as assessor in the Superior Court (Kammergericht) in 1841, and was successively assistantjudge of the same court and of the supreme tribunal, till in 1850 he resigned this position in order to devote himself exclusively to teaching; for since 1844 he had held the chair of jurisprudence in Berlin University. From 1858 he sat in the Prussian Lower House as a National Liberal, and was also elected to the Im- GNOME perial Parliament, of which he was a conservative member until 1884. He wrote: "Organization of the German Jury" (1849); "Nobility and Knighthood in England" (1853); "Present English Constitutional and Administrative Law" (3d edition, 1876-1884), his masterpiece; "Government of the City of London" (1867); "History of the English System of Government" (1882); "The English Parliament" (1886); etc. He was ennobled in 1888, and died July 21, 1895. GNESEN (gnā'zen) (Polish Gniezno), a Polish town, in a region of hills and lakes, 31 miles E. N. E. of Posen. It has a Catholic cathedral, dating from 965, and till 1320 was the coronation place of the Polish kings. It passed to Prussia in 1814 and was ceded to Poland in 1920.
GNETACEÆ (nē-tā'se-ē), in botany, joint-firs; an order of gymnogens, with repeatedly-branched jointed stems and simple net-veined leaves, opposite and entire, sometimes very minute and scaleshaped; flowers in catkins, or heads; the males with a one-leaved calyx, transversely slit at the end; a monadelphous filament, with one-celled anthers opening by pores; females, altogether naked or sheltered by a false calyx, consisting of two scales, each surrounding two flowers; ovary, none; ovule with a style-like process.
Known genera, two-viz., GNETUM and EPHEDRA; species, 15, scattered over the world.
GNETUM (nē'-) (Corrupted from gnemon, the name given to the plant in the island of Ternate), in botany, the typical genus of the order Gnetacex (q. v.). The species are found in the hottest parts of India and Guiana. In Amboyna the seeds of G gnemon are eaten boiled, roasted, or fried, and the green leaves, though tasteless, are used as spinach.
GNOME (nom), in mediæval mythology, the name given by cabalistic writers to one of the classes of imaginary beings which are supposed to be the presiding spirits in mysterious operations of nature in the mineral and vegetable world. They have their dwelling within the earth, where they preside specially over its treasures, and are of both sexes, male and female. The former are often represented in the form of misshapen dwarfs, of whom the well-known "Rübezahl," or "Number-nip," of German legend is a familiar example. Pope, in the "Rape of the Lock," and Darwin win, in the "Loves of the Plants," have drawn on the more pleasing associations of this curious branch of mythology. Also a small and ill-favored person; a dwarf; a misshapen being.
GNOSTICISM once GNOSTICISM (nos'-), a system of philosophy professedly Christian, devised to solve the great questions, such as the origin of evil, which have perplexed the ablest minds in every age. Gnosticism accepted beliefs in an eternal God of inwisdom, and goodness. The granting of this postulate at brought the gnostic face to face with the question , Why then did this Great Being allow evil to arise in the universe, when it was in His power to have prevented it?
If He did not prevent it, was He not to a certain extent responsible for its existence? The same difficulty had centuries before created the dualist system of which, denying the omnipotence of the one Supreme Being, assumed the existence of two, a good and a bad one, about equal in power, and in . This view, derived from Persia, was partially adopted by others of the sect, or aggregation of sects, drew on the later Platonism of Alexandria for their in- There were then two classes of them: the Syrian, and the Alexangnostics. In certain tenets both agreed.
Matter was eternal, and from the first essentially evil; there time when the "origin of evil" took place. Nor was the world created by the Supreme Being; it was framed by an exalted spirit, called in consequence the DEMIURGE (q. v.), whom many identified with the God of the Jews. He had shining qualities, but selfish and arrogant. He wished T nn a to worship, not the Supreme Being, but himself. The former was the purest that boundless space which the Greeks called pleroma. He did not remain forever alone, but brought into existence two holy and happy spirits of different sexes, called Æons, from spirits whose marriage came others of the same order, till there was a whole family of chief of these Æons was Jesus Christ, who was sent to the world to win it back from the Demiallegiance. Many gnostics held what were called Docetic views. The germs of gnosticism existed in the 1st century; it did not, however, till the reign of Adrian in the 2d. Of the Syrian gnostics there were Saturninus of Antioch, Cerdo, Mar- Blastes, Bardesanes, Tatian, etc.; of the Egyptian Basilides of Alexandria , Valentinus, etc.
The system had a good deal declined by the 3d century, but was not extinct till has been disputed whether there are allusions to either developed gnosticism in the New Testament.
Some writers pro- GOAL fess to find them in such passages as Col. ii: 8; I Tim. i: 4, vi: 20: II Tim. ii: 16, 17; Titus iii: 9; and there appears to in I John i: 1-3.
GNU (nö), in zoölogy, Catoblepas gnu, a species of antelope. The adult male is species of antelope.
The adult male is about 5 feet 6 inches long, and 3 feet 10 inches high at the shoulder; horns, dark tapering out sideways over the eyes, and broad, upon the summit of the head, turning up into a pointed hook. Legs long. The face is covered with black, GNU bristly hair, with white ones around the eye and on the legs; on the neck is a verthe center and white at the sides; a bushy beard on the under jaw; general color of the fur deep hair on the tail.
Female smaller; calves pure white. A gnu brought to bay or wounded turns on its assailant. chief city of the district of the same GOA (gō'ä), a maritime city of India, Portuguese settlements in India, on an name, and formerly capital of all the island of the same name, at the mouth miles S. S. E. of Bombay. Goa consists of Old Goa and New Goa. The old city contains some splendid churches and other specimens of architecture. New Goa, or Panjin, at the mouth of the river , is the residence of the viceroy and of the principal habitants. It carries on trade with Portugal, China and the coast of Africa, pal inand is principally engaged in the salt industry. Pop. of the district about 515,800. of Tibet.