Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/138

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128
GEE—GEI

 


Besides pamphlets on the Catholic and slavery questions, as well as several fugitive jcux d’ewril, and a number of unsigned articles in the Analytical Review, Ueddes also published a metrical translation and adaptation of Sclccl Salircs of Horace (1779), and a verbal rendering of the First Book of the Iliad of Homer (1792). The chmoirs of his life and writings by his friend Dr Mason Good appeared in 1803, and his lmfinished work on the Psalms in 1807.

GEELONG, one of the leading towns in Victoria, coeval with Melbourne in the history of Australian settlement, is pleasantly situated on Corio Bay, an extensive western arm of Port Phillip, 45 miles SW. of Melbourne, in 39° 8' S. lat. and 144° 21’ E. long. The town slopes to the bay on the north side and to the Barwon river on the south, and its position in this respect, as well as the shelter it obtains from the Bellarine range of hills, renders it the healthiest town in the colony. Its streets are wide and laid out at right angles, and there are many handsome public and private buildings. It has a botanical garden, and two parks maintained by the municipality. The public buildings comprise a mechanics’ institute (with a library containing nearly 12,000 volumes), a public library, a town hall, a fire- brigade establishment, a handsome and conimodious hospital, a supreme court, and orphan and benevolent asylums. The town is supplied with water from large state- constructed reservoirs in the Brisbane ranges, some 25 miles distant. As a manufacturing centre Geelong is of con- siderable importance. It contains extensive woollen mills and tanneries on the Barwon river, and paper of good quality is largely made in the neighbourhood. Geelong harbour has area and depth enough to hold all the navies of the world. The bar at the entrance has been cut (at an expense of £6000) to admit vessels of heavy draught, and some of the largest wool ships are able to load at the wharves, which are connected by railway with all parts of the colony. The population of the city proper is a little over 12,000, but with the adjacent boroughs of Geelong West, Chilwell, and ewtown the total is increased to 24,000.

GEESTEMÜNDE, a seaport in the Prussian pro- vince of Hanover, in the district or Landclrostei of Stade, situated, as the name indicates, at the mouth of the Geeste, a right-hand affluent of the estuary of the Weser. It lies about 32 miles N. of Bremen, and is the terminus of a railway from that city. The interest of the place is purely naval and commercial, its origin dating no further back than 1857, when the construction of the harbour was commenced. The great basin opened in 1863 has a length of 1785 English feet, a breadth of 410, and a depth of nearly 23, and can accommodate 24 or 25 of the largest ships of the line ; and the petroleum basin opened in 1874 has a length of 820 feet and a breadth of 147. To the left of the great basin lies a canal, which has a length of 13,380 feet and a breadth of 155 g and from this canal there strikes off another of similar proportions. The whole port is protected by powerful fortifications, and it lies outside of the limit of the German customs. Since 1864 the trade has been almost trebled, the number of vessels being 617 sea-going ships entering in 1875 and upwards of 2000 river craft. Among the industrial establishments of the town are ship- building yards, foundries, engineering works, and steam mills. The population, exclusive of the garrison, was 3218 in 1871, and 3436 in 1875 ; and if the neighbouring commune of Geestendorf be included, the total for 1871 was 9148, and for 1875 10,425.

GEFLE, Latinized as Gevalia, a seaport town of Sweden, at the head of the Gefleborglfin, about a mile from the shore of the gulf of Bothnia, near the mouth of the Gefle—A, 50 miles E. of Fahlun, and about the same distance N. of Upsala. With the former city it has been connected by railway since 1859, and with the latter and Stockholm since 1874. As the river at that place is divided into three channels, the town consists of four portions, communicating with each other by wooden bridges. In 1869 it was almost destroyed by fire, but it has been rebuilt, and may still be reckoned one of the prettiest, as it is certainly one of the busiest, of Swedish towns. The principal buildings are the castle, originally founded in the 16th century by King John III., but rebuilt since its destruction by fire in 1727; a beautiful council-house erected by Gustavus 111., who held a diet in the town in 1792 ; a hospital, an exchange, and a freemason’s lodge in the Gothic style. An orphan asylum, a gymnasium, removed to Gefle from Stockholm in 1668, and a public library may also be mentioned. Pos- sessing an excellent harbour, and recently restored wharves to which large vessels have easy access, Gefle is the great port for the Dalecarlian district, and thus ranks in Sweden next to Stockholm and Gottenburg. It has about 100 ships of its own, and carries on a good trade in the export of timber, tar, flax, and linen, and in the import of grain, salt, coal, &c. The manufactures of the town include sailcloth and linen, tobacco, leather, iron wares, and machinery. In 1873 the population was 16,265.

GEIGER, Abraham (1810–1874), one of the ablest leaders of the modern Jewish schoal of theology and criticism, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, May 24, 1810. After receiving from his father and uncle the elements of an ordinary rabbinical education, he was in his eleventh year sent to the gymnasium, whence in 1829 he passed to the university of Heidelberg, which he soon afterwards exchanged for that of Bonn. As a student be greatly distinguished himself both in philosophy and in philology, and at the close of his course wrote on the relations of Judaism and Mahometanism a prize-essay which was afterwards published, in 1833, under the title Was hat xlfollammed aus dem Judentlm-m azgfgenommen? In November 1832 he went to Wiesbaden as rabbi of the synagogue there, and, still pursuing the line of scientific study upon which he had entered during his undergraduate course, became in 1835 one of the most active promoters of the Zeitscltr-zft fair Jfi-dz'scke Theologie, which appeared from 1835 to 1839, and again from 1842 to 1847. In 1838 he removed to Breslau, where he continued to reside for the next twenty-five years, and where he wrote some of his most important works, including his Lelzr- and Lesebuclt 2m- Spracke der flflsc/ma (1845), his Stadien from Maimonides (1850), his translation into German of the poems of J uda ha-Levi (Abu’l Hassan) in 1851, and the Urscln'zj't 21ml Uebersetzungen der Bibel in ilzrer Ablu'iug/ir/lceit eon (lc-r inner-n Entwickelu-ng des Judentlmms (1857). The last-named work especially attracted much attention at the time of its appearance, and may be said to have marked a new departure in the methods of studying the records of Judaism. In 1863 Geiger became head of the synagogue of his native town, whence he removed in 1870 to Berlin, where, in addition to his duties as chief rabbi, he took the principal charge of the newly established seminary for Jewish science. The Urscltr-ft was followed by a more exhaustive handling of one of its topics in Die Sculducder and I’lzarlsr'ier (1863), and by a more thoroughgoing application of its leading principles in an elaborate history of Judaism (Dds J mientlmm u. seine Gesclric/ale) in 1865—71. Geiger also contri- buted frequently on Hebrew, Samaritan, and Syriac subjects to the 'Zeitsch'zft (ler cleatsclten morgen Mndisrficn Gesellsckaft, and from 1862 until his death (which occurred on the 23d of October 1874) he was editor of a periodical entitled Jfidz'sclte Zeilschrifl ii'issensclzaft and Leben. He also published a Jewish prayer-book (Israelitisclws Gebelbucll) which is well known in Germany, besides a variety of minor monographs on historical and literary subjects connected with the fortunes of his people. An Allgemez'ne Einlell-ung and five volumes of Nachgelassene Schrlflen were edited by his son L. Geiger in 1875.