GODWIN
GOLDZIHER
considerable learning, ability, and elo- j
quence, an advanced Rationalist, and an
enthusiast for reform. Mr. Kegan Paul
published a biography of her in 1879. D.
Sep. 10, 1797.
GODWIN, William, writer. B. Mar. 3, 1756. Ed. private schools and Hoxton Academy. He became a dissenting minis ter, of strict Calvinist views, in 1777, but a study of the French Eationalists destroyed his belief, and he quitted the Church in 1783. He took to letters, and was a friend of Holcroft, Paine, and Home Tooke. Holcroft induced him to adopt Atheism, which he later abandoned for a vague Theism or Pantheism. His chief work, Political Justice, appeared in 1793, and in the following year he issued his powerful novel, Caleb Williams. In his prime Godwin was a strong supporter of Radi calism, but he fell under the influence of Coleridge. See Kegan Paul s W. Godwin : His Friends and Contemporaries (2 vols., 1876). D. Apr. 7, 1836.
GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von,
German poet. B. Aug. 28, 1749. Ed. Frankfort, and Leipzig and Strassburg Uni versities. He was trained in law, but he deserted it for letters, and in 1771 published his Gotz von Berlichingen, which may be said to have opened the Sturm und Drang period in Germany. His next work, Die Leiden des jungen Werther, a sentimental story, definitely opened his great career. Invited to the court of the Grand Duke of Weimar, he discharged his administrative duties with great skill and conscientious ness, and made Weimar the Athens of Germany. Every branch of science was studied by him, and in many branches he made important discoveries ; but it is his poetry that gave him a supreme place in German letters. In 1786-88 he lived in Italy, and he returned a more pronounced Rationalist, and more severe artist, than ever (Bomische Elegien). Schiller joined him at Weimar in 1799, and the Xenien which they wrote together include some
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mordant Rationalistic aphorisms. In his
later years he was more religious in feeling,
but never went beyond the Pantheism of
Spinoza, and had only vague ideas about
the future. " The sensible man leaves the
future world out of consideration," he said.
Faust gives constant expression to his
Pantheism. A year before he died he
wrote that he was an eclectic in religion
(McCabe s Goethe, 1912, p. 352). D.
Mar. 22, 1832.
GOLDIE, John, writer. B. 1717. Son of a poor Scottish miller, Goldie educated himself and became a cabinet-maker at Kilmarnock. He was one of the Robert Burns group of rebels, and caused local excitement by his Essay on Various Impor tant Subjects (1779). It is of him that Burns writes :
Goudie, terror of the Whigs,
Dread of black coats and reverend wigs.
In his Gospel Eecovered from its Captive State (6 vols., 1784) he professes a kind of sentimental Christianity, but scourges ecclesiastics. D. 1809.
GOLDSTUECKER, Professor Theodor,
German orientalist. B. Jan. 18, 1821. Ed. Konigsberg Gymnasium, and Bonn and Konigsberg Universities. Refused permission to teach at Konigsberg because he was a Jew, he went to France and England to complete his philological studies. Expelled, for political reasons, from Berlin in 1850, he returned to Eng land and became professor of Sanscrit afc London University College. He assisted Professor Wilson in compiling his Sanscrit- English Dictionary, and was chiefly instru mental in forming the Sanscrit Text Society, for which he did a good deal of translation. He belonged also to the Royal Asiatic Society and the Philological Society. D. Mar. 6, 1872.
GOLDZIHER, Ignaz, Hungarian orien talist. B. June 22, 1850. Ed. Budapest, Berlin, Leipzig, and Leyden Universities. He began to teach at Budapest University 296
