indifferent success, upon the events of the Revolution. An epigram of Mercier's sets forth that, alone of all the members of the Benedictine order, he was guiltless of Latin.—J. S., G.
GALLAND, Antoine, a celebrated French oriental scholar and numismatist, born at Rollot, near Montdidier, Picardy, in 1646; died at Paris in 1715. Galland was of humble origin, and indebted for his education to the kindness of strangers. He studied ten years at the college of Noyon, and afterwards was admitted into the college of France, where he acquired such a knowledge of oriental languages as soon brought him into notice. In 1670 Colbert appointed Galland to accompany the French embassy to Turkey. In company with the ambassador, De Nointel, Galland visited Palestine, from which he brought back to France, in 1675, copies of many inscriptions, and various other antiquities. Soon after his return, Vaillant, and other collectors of medals, commissioned him to proceed a second time to the East, and in 1679 he was sent a third time to the shores of the Levant in the pay of the French East Indian Company. He was about to sail for France in 1680, when Colbert sent him a royal commission to continue his researches. Narrowly escaping death by an earthquake just as he left Smyrna, he at length returned home, after several years' absence, thoroughly acquainted with the languages and customs of the East, and bringing with him many most valuable relics. He found employment in the royal library and otherwise, till in 1709 he was appointed to the chair of Arabic in the university of France. Before this, his attainments as an antiquarian and as a man of learning had been acknowledged by his being elected, in 1701, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. Galland's works are numerous, but the most celebrated is his version of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, "Les Mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes."—R. V. C.
GALLAS, Mathias, Graf von, Austrian general during the Thirty Years' war, was born in 1589, the descendant of an ancient noble family of the Tyrol. He began his military career in 1616 as the page or attendant of a French knight, taking part with him in the war of the king of Spain against Savoy. He then went over to the army of the emperor, and, rising rapidly, had become colonel at the commencement of the Thirty Years' war. He greatly distinguished himself in the first events of this long and sanguinary struggle; obtained a general's command in 1626, and was elevated at the same time to the rank of reichsgraf, or count of the empire. In 1631 he was nominated commander-in-chief of the eastern wing of the imperial army, then occupying Bohemia; and soon after he had to encounter, on the fields of Nürnberg and of Lützen, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Worsted in these engagements, and signally foiled in his intrigues against Wallenstein, he took an active part in the assassination of the latter, February 25, 1634, receiving as a reward the territory of the murdered general, the duchy of Friedland. He next obtained the command-in-chief of the whole Austrian army, and succeeded in gaining the battle of Nördlingen against Duke Bernhard of Weimar. Moving northward, he then attacked the Swedish generals Banner and Wrangel in Pomerania; but again deserted by fortune, and being slighted by the emperor, he suddenly demitted his command, and retired to his possessions in Bohemia. New offers of honours and dignities made him leave his retreat in 1643, to take the command against the enemy in Holstein; but being again unsuccessful, he offered his demission a second time at the end of the same year, and was allowed to resign his command into the hands of General Hatzfeld. He was not, however, permitted to remain long in inactivity, but had to assume once more, in 1645, the leadership of the imperial army, then totally disorganized by the disastrous battle of Jankowitz. He was on the point of setting out anew at the head of the dispirited troops, when he died at Vienna in 1647. He left a family, which became extinct in the middle of the following century, when the name of Gallas went to a branch of the house, the counts of Clam.—F. M.
GALLATIN, Abraham-Albert-Alphonsus, born in 1761; died in 1849. This able statesman and writer was a native of Geneva, where he received his early training, and imbibed his democratic sentiments. While a young man, he went to America, to aid the devoted colonies in their struggle for independence. When the war was concluded he commenced his political life, which extended from 1789 to 1826, and during which he filled numerous situations both as a legislator and ambassador. As he professed extreme opinions, he was a cordial supporter of Jefferson during his presidency. At a later period he was employed as ambassador to different courts, an office for which he was well fitted by his knowledge of European politics. It is, however, as a man of science that he is best known, and as such he enjoys a European reputation. He was the founder, and, indeed, the most efficient supporter, of the American Ethnological Society. His papers on the Indian tribes, their history and linguistic affinities, are among the best we have on the subject. They contain a great amount of valuable materials, the results of extensive reading, and also derived from sources which his official character laid open to him, and the subject is treated in a profound and philosophic spirit. His paper on the civilization of the Mexicans is the best we have on this interesting question, in which his conclusions are more sound than those of Humboldt.—[J. S.]
GALLAUDET, Rev. Thomas Hopkins, principal of the first American asylum for the deaf and dumb, at Hartford, Connecticut. He was born at Philadelphia in 1787, and educated at Yale college. He entered the theological seminary at Andover in 1814, and on being qualified for the ministry, became pastor of a congregational society at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. While filling this office, the case of a deaf and dumb child, the daughter of his friend Dr. Cogswell of Hartford, engaged his attention. He undertook the task of teaching her, and by great patience and ingenuity, succeeded in developing her latent faculties. This happy result led Dr. Cogswell to wish that the blessings of similar instructions should be extended to other children suffering a like deprivation, and he used his influence for that purpose. At that time the United States possessed no asylum for the deaf and dumb. The persons whose interest in the subject had been awakened, formed an association, and provided means to promote it. Mr. Gallaudet was induced to resign his office—though he was at first unwilling to give up his pastoral work—and to proceed to Europe to collect information on the systems of instruction practised at the different institutions for the deaf and dumb then existing. He arrived in England in the summer of 1815, and applied to the London Deaf and Dumb Asylum for the assistance he needed. After a lengthened correspondence, he was refused the aid he sought, and informed that he could only be admitted as an ordinary assistant, subject to the same rules as the junior teachers. As this proposal would involve a delay of three years, without advantages to justify his accepting it, he proceeded to Edinburgh, where an excellent asylum for the deaf and dumb was in operation. There he met with no better success, for though the committee and master evinced a more liberal spirit, and expressed full sympathy and a desire to assist him, he found that the teacher from whom he was to receive his preliminary lessons had signed an engagement not to impart the system he had learned from Mr. Braidwood, one of the earliest teachers of the deaf and dumb in Great Britain. Thus baffled, Mr. Gallaudet next proceeded to Paris, where the Abbé Sicard, who was at the head of the school there, received him kindly, and gave him his cordial sympathy and every assistance in his power in the requisite studies and inquiries. Mr. Gallaudet made so good a use of the opportunities thus afforded him, that he was ready to return to America at the end of the year 1816. Through the influence of the Abbé Sicard, he was accompanied by Lawrence Le Clerc, a deaf mute, formerly a pupil, and at that time one of the most efficient teachers of the institution in Paris. On their arrival in America, Mr. Gallaudet was appointed principal of the Society for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, and in April, 1817, became the head of the first American asylum, Le Clerc being his chief assistant. He was unwearied in his devotion to the duties of his office, and abundant success rewarded his efforts. With the aid of Mr. Le Clerc, he established a system of instruction, based on that of the Abbé Sicard, but considerably modified and improved. It resembles the method of Pestalozzi, which awakens and calls out the intelligence of the pupils, and leads them to use their powers of investigation and description, instead of making education a matter of mere memory. In 1830, failing health obliged Mr. Gallaudet to resign his post at the Hartford asylum, but his interest in educational matters did not cease. He took an active part in the improvement of the common schools, in the elevation of teachers, in the moral and religious training of prisoners, and in the care of the insane. He became chaplain for the State Retreat for the Insane, and, in spite of his weak health and advancing years, exercised most valuable influence, by proving practically the efficacy of kind treatment in such cases.
