GOMME
GOEANI
in 1872, but spent the following year
travelling in the East, and became one of
the first authorities on Mohammedan
theology, His works on Jewish theology
also are of great value (especially his Ration
alistic Hebrew Mythology, 1877). In 1876
he was admitted to the Hungarian Aca
demy, and in 1889 to the Royal Institute
for the Dutch Indies.
GOMME, Sir George Laurence, F.S.A., folklorist. B. 1853. Ed. City of London School. He entered the service of the Fulham District Board of Works, then of the Metropolitan Board of "Works. He was appointed Statistical Officer to the L.C.C. in 1891, and Clerk to the Council in 1900. Sir G. L. Gomme (knighted in 1911) was a high authority on folklore, and his many works (Ethnology in Folklore, 1892 ; Folklore as an Historical Science, 1908, etc.) are regarded as introducing scien tific methods into his subject. He founded the Folklore Society, and at various times edited the Antiquary, the Folklore Journal, and the Archaeological Revieio. At the time of his death he was President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association. D. Feb. 25, 1916.
GOMPERZ, Heinrich, Ph.D., Austrian philosopher. B. Jan. 18, 1873. Ed. Vienna University. He began to teach philosophy at Berne University in 1900, and at Vienna University in 1905. In his philosophical works (Die Welt als geordnete Ereigniss, 1901 ; Weltanschauung skhre, 2 vols., 1905-1908, etc.) he expounds an idealistic Monism, similar to that of Avenarius.
GOMPERZ, Theodor, Austrian philo logist. B. Mar. 29, 1832. Ed. Vienna University. In 1869 he was appointed professor of classical philology at Vienna University, and he became one of the most learned and authoritative writers on Greek literature. His Greek Thinkers (Eng. trans., 4 vols., 1901-12) is a classic history of Greek philosophy, and the. Introduction 297
includes a Rationalistic dissertation on the
j origin of religion. He was a friend of
J. S. Mill, whose works he edited in the
German version (12 vols., 1869-80). D.
Aug. 29, 1912.
GONCOURT, Edmond Louis Antoine
de, French writer. B. May 26, 1822. He began a literary partnership with his brother Jules in 1851 (with the novel j En 18 . . ), and soon became the leader of the more cultivated section of the natur alist school of fiction writers. Besides a - long series of novels, of exquisite art, the , brothers published biographical and his-
- torical works, notably superb studies of
French life in the eighteenth century. I Madame Gervaisais (1869) is the most | pronounced of their novels from the
- Rationalist point of view, but their com
plete disdain of all religion is best seen in I Idees et Sensations (1877), a collection of I aphorisms. They consider religion " part
- of a woman s sex," and think religion
without supernaturalism " wine without grapes." Life they define, on Materialist j principles, as "the usufruct of an aggregation j of molecules." Edmond continued to write after the death of Jules, and it was plain that the joint works had owed most of their art to him. He left the greater part of his fortune to found an Academy | which should give an annual prize for a prose work. D. July 16, 1896.
GONCOURT, Jules Alfred Huot de,
French writer, brother of preceding. B. Dec. 17, 1830. They were the sons of a French general, and lived and worked together in a house at Auteuil, which was full of art treasures (described in La maison d un artiste, by E. de Goncourt, 1881). Edmond was the abler, but he has des cribed their association in terms of intense affection in Les freres Zemganno (1879). He also edited his younger brother s letters (Lettres de Jules de Goncourt, 1885). D. June 20, 1870.
GORANI, Count Giuseppe, Italian
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